RADIO
New Orleans Pelicans forward E'Twaun Moore has put up a pair of 30-point games in the past week for the Pelicans, thanks in large part to an incredibly high number of minutes for the veteran. With Nikola Mirotic and Elfrid Payton missing time -- and Payton likely to miss more time -- the Pelicans ran into the very serious issue of not trying depth. It's hard to win in the NBA without depth.
That's where Moore comes in handy. When the whole team is healthy, you can make an argument that he isn't one of the five best players on this team, but he has a skill set that comes in handy to help provide offense when this team is missing pieces.
Let's take a deep dive on Moore and see what his recent play suggests about his fantasy value moving forward.
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E'Twaun Moore: Deep Dive
Background Information
I've been something of an E'Twaun Moore truther for awhile now, and he's been on most of my fantasy team since early in the year, mainly because of the easiest things to recognize in basketball this year is the fact that the New Orleans Pelicans are not a very deep team. Moore is averaging 31.2 minutes per game this year for them, and that number can swell upwards in the right scenarios.
Part of this is his versatility. Per Basketball Reference, Moore has split his time fairly evenly between playing the two and the three this year, but he's also gotten extensively run at the point in the past, and uncertainty about Elfrid Payton's status in the near term could lead to more time for Moore at that position.
Statistically, Moore is averaging a career-high 15.8 points per game on 56.1 percent shooting and is making 1.7 threes per game on 48.1 percent shooting. I'm actually a little surprised about his volume of threes this year -- his three-point attempt rate has fallen from 36.2 percent down to 31.6 percent as the Pelicans have worked Moore into the offense in other ways.
Advanced stats show us that while Moore's defensive contributions this year aren't great -- the second-worst D-PIPM on the team, plus the team has a defensive rating of 108.7 when he's on the floor -- but he makes up for that with his offensive impact. When Moore is on the court, the Pelicans have an offensive rating of 115.8, which would be the second-highest team offensive rating in the NBA (behind the Warriors) if Moore could somehow play 48 minutes with no drop in production. With him off the floor, that drops substantially, down to 97.4. No full team in the NBA has an offensive rating of under 100 this season. Moore is a vital part of what this team does on that end of the court, and because of this his current amount of playing time feels incredibly secure.
Game Tape
Let's take a look at some footage of E'Twaun Moore on the offensive end from the last few games and see how he's scoring, how he's getting involved, and how sustainable this all seems to be.
First, here's a look at Moore's shot chart from the November 14th meeting with Minnesota, where I'll be pulling these videos from. Notice that of his 23 attempts, 21 came in the paint or behind the arc. If we're looking for a reason for his high efficiency this, there's a good one, and it's also a good indicator that this efficiency is something that Moore can keep up all year.
Let's look at some of these shots now.
Here's Moore's first shot of that game, and one that's indicative of a lot of the plays I've seen from him. This one starts with the ball in Anthony Davis' hands up top. Moore gets the pass out on the wing and gets a screen from Davis, which he's able to glide around and take off towards the basket because of. He ends up taking a jumper from just outside the restricted area. E'Twaun Moore seems to really like these jumpers from the free throw line and in. The shots don't always look pretty, but they give him a higher efficiency shot than if he was settling for something longer out. I mean, look at this:
He's hitting above league average in that range, and considering that he's taking those shots inside of mid-range jumpers, I'd say this is a pretty successful look here for Moore.
Here's a three-pointer.
Here's another three-pointer.
Both of those shots are nearly identical in what happens at the end -- E'Twaun Moore is open for a catch-and-shoot three. How we get there changes, with the first one mainly featuring that openness as the result of an Anthony Davis pick, and the second one more because of a defender leaving Moore to guard against the drive, but in both cases, you get Moore out there on the right wing.
24.6 percent of Moore's total shot attempts are catch-and-shoot threes, and he's hitting on 46.3 percent of them. Technically, he's shooting better on pull-up threes (53.8 percent) but since those account for just 7.8 percent of his total shot attempts, I'm not quite ready to say he's dangerous there too, especially when last year only 3.7 percent of his attempts came via that method and he shot worse than he did on catch-and-shoots.
Meanwhile, 50.3 percent of Moore's attempts come from inside of 10 feet.
Here's a layup by Moore that he makes.
The Pelicans get out on the break, and Moore initially gets the ball on the wing, then he dishes it out to Darius Miller in the corner. But Moore continues on his path to the basket and is able to get past Robert Covington here. Now, Robert Covington is a good defender -- there's another layup from this game where Moore cuts to the basket and Covington manages to get there and block it just a split second late, leading to the goaltending call. Moore getting past RoCo is a good example of how he can be successful -- speed, positioning, and working to get these shots close to the bucket.
And here's a missed one that I think is still worth discussing because #ProcessOverResults.
A good cut to the basket here by Moore here on a well-designed play. Unfortunately for New Orleans, Andrew Wiggins is in a position to come over and help Robert Covington at the basket, and Moore isn't able to complete the play. But it's a good effort and a good attempt, and is indicative of what Moore needs to be doing with the ball.
The Fantasy Impact
Obviously, expecting 30-plus point games to happen on a consistent basis is just some wishful thinking. But the three kinds of shots that Moore seems to take the most -- open threes, layups, and jumpers inside the paint -- are a great recipe for a highly-effective wing player.
Still, there are spots that he struggles with. He hasn't shown himself to be consistent from the free throw line, which is a little odd when you factor in how well he's shooting from everywhere else. He isn't a huge rebounds and assists guy. But what he does give you -- high field goal percentage, consistent three-pointers, and scoring in the high-teens with occasional nights in the 20s -- is enough to make him useful in fantasy lineups.
Baller Move: Are you lacking in the aforementioned categories that I mentioned Moore is useful in? Do you want to increase your field goal percentage? Give him a look if he's still on waivers in your league!
