Pelicans agree to terms with E’Twaun Moore

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Published: July 2, 2016

The Pelicans are about to sign E’Twaun Moore to a 34-million dollar contract over four years, and many people outside of Chicago have no idea who the Pelicans just committed to.  Offensively, there’s a simple answer, but I hesitate to put it here, knowing all the baggage that come with the name.  Ah well, screw it.

They signed Eric Gordon.

Now take a deep breath.  Wipe the blood oozing from eyes.  Slowly straighten out of that catatonic ball you instinctively curled into.  There’s a couple major differences here.  One, the Pelicans gave an always injured Eric Gordon 18% of the cap.  E’Twaun has missed only a few games due to injury – and he just got paid about 9% of the cap.  Now – that means we still need him to contribute, but if he’s not a star, he’s not a star and it’s not a big deal.  So it’s okay, people.

Now – what did I mean by Moore being Gordon? Here’s a brief set of advanced stats from Basketball Reference on the two players:

As you can see, they really aren’t that different. Gordon rates higher in his TS% because he took more threes and drew more free throws. Moore is a better rebounder.

If you look at more simple shooting percentages – Moore had a better year last year from three – but it was a break out season that kinda screams “fluke” and will probably regress. You know, like Eric Gordon’s three point percentage regressed last year after his previous fluke shooting season.

The other major difference is on the defensive end. We all know what a shitshow Eric Gordon and Norris Cole were on that end. Moore is coming in to a team with a desperate need for another perimeter stopper and he has the potential to do that. You want to feel good? Go read/watch this post from Blogabull about Moore. Seriously. Read it.

Now, there are some warning bells about Moore as well.   Significant warning bells – which is why he only got 8 mil starting instead of 12+ like everyone else this off-season.  So let’s just run down attributes of his game, some good, some not so good, and let you absorb it all:

  • He has one of the worst free throw rates in the league, drawing an abysmal .09 free throws per shot.
  • He’s an average Pick and Roll Ballhandler, generating .8 points per possession out of the PnR.  That’s about average. (and better than EG)
  • He’s 27, and essentially a finished product.  Don’t think he’s going to blossom into a star.
  • His assist rate isn’t fantastic for a guard, meaning he probably isn’t ideal to run an offense. (Hello Tim Frazier and minutes next to Jrue?)
  • His defensive RPM isn’t great, so let’s hoping that’s low minute noise and he’s the guy we see in that Blogabull post.
  • He is strictly catch and shoot, with few of his drives going to the basket.
  • Moore is a pull-up artist, hitting 43% of the jumpers he takes of the dribble – a remarkable number.
  • He is not an amazing catch and shoot guy, hitting an average 43% of those shots.  Still good, just not amazing.
  • He worked the Pick and Pop with Pau very well, with a quarter of his assists finding the big man for jumpers.  Bodes well for working with AD.

Either way, at least he won’t have that whiny face EG had.  If you read any Bulls fansite, you will quickly realize Moore was a favorite, and a high character, likable guy they all rooted for.

As a backup combo guard that sounds good to me.  Sound good to you?

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