June 18, 2014

JJ Moore returns from fishing trip with unverifiable claims of success that nevertheless cause Syracuse players to feel envious.

Moore has a good physical profile, but never quite found a niche. He spent a couple of years as an offensive spark plug off the bench at Pittsburgh, showing flashes and certainly putting up scoring numbers, but not doing a whole lot else and taking some bad shots. And then, after a junior year in which Jamie Dixon thought he had finally seen Moore take the defensive strides he needed to be a valuable senior season starer, Moore transferred to Rutgers, a team that needed offense as much as anyone. And yet he did not provide a huge amount of it.

Moore's physical profile is good. Long and strong, large and athletic, Moore's physical profile is what makes him a scorer. You have to score something when you're bigger, stronger, faster, and really want to score. It is not a stand-out physical profile by NBA standards, but it is by those of any other league.

However, never has Moore been an especially good shooter, as indicated by always being in the low 30% shooting range from three point range. And his shot selection is not illustrative of this. Moore likes to cast up shots from outside, often when he should be using those tools to get to the basket. He is not a high level ball handler and mostly drives in a straight line, but it is often effective. He thus should use it more. More importantly, that defensive effort Dixon occasionally got him to put in needs to come back.

Going to Rutgers and getting the green light did not help Moore as much as he may have expected it to. It highlighted his offensive limitations while further highlighting his defensive ones. But with those tools remains potential. To achieve his potential, Moore must temper his offensive enthusiasm, spot up better, pass more, get on the glass and perhaps even sometimes in the post, and compete on every defensive possession. There is very high potential in him if he can do that.

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