Since the off-season is slow as molasses and there isn’t a damn thing Raptor-related going on, I thought it good to pick a player and just break him down until we finally decide what we have in him and whether he’s worth keeping on the team.
The reason Jamario Moon played 28 minutes a game and started 78 of them was because we didn’t have anyone better on the roster. The extended playing time he received goes to show our lack of depth at the small forward position. After a seemingly inconsequential summer signing who would’ve thunk that this man would become our best defender and a staple of our starting lineup? Not many. After trading away Morris Peterson, realizing Kapono can’t play the 3 and finding Joey Graham useless, Moon bubbled his way up past Delfino on account of being a better defender.
Jamario Moon’s defense can be very affective. He’s shown that he can use his athleticism to defend his man well, sometimes his defense is too eager to get the block and it gets him in trouble because he’s very liable to fall for a good pump-fake. After starting the season by shutting out a few swings, he ran into trouble when facing the better ones such as Paul Pierce, Lebron James, Caron Butler and such. It should have occurred to him at that point that athleticism alone does not make a good defender, but Jamario Moon is a bit slow when it comes to learning lessons, after all he’s a rookie.
Continuing on with his defense, the best part of his defensive game has to be the help he provides from both the strong and weak side. His jumping ability and reach surprise a lot of offensive players and he ends up getting a block here and an alter there (1.4 BPG). He does a good job of not fouling (except vs. Portland) and averages only 1.9 fouls a game, a great number considering his defense. When Moon plays the passing lanes and is active off-the-ball, the Raptors actually become an average defensive team, he can get deflections and steals (1.2) for you at the expense of late close-outs, something which is a systematic problem with the Raptors and not confined to Moon.
Overall, Jamario Moon’s defense has been great, he’s fallen prey to some bad games where his judgment in playing a player to shoot or drive hasn’t been there and he’s been taken to school in the clutch on a few occasions, but we should cut him slack given he’s a rookie. The fact that he claimed to not read the scouting reports is a sign that he’s still maturing as a player and needs to study the game more if he hopes to replicate his success this year. The scouts will have caught up with him by next year and the ball’s in Moon’s court to improve.
Finally we get to his offense which can best be described by terms such as unreliable, sporadic and inconsistent. Although Moon does possess the quickness and athleticism to drive by a defender who’s playing him relatively tight, he rarely uses it. The times he does use it and gets to the rim it ends up being a low-percentage shot or a pass that should have been a shot. His jumper is very inconsistent and can’t be counted on but that doesn’t stop him from using it. It is because of his offense that him playing 28 minutes a game for a team that hopes to be competitive beyond the first round is unacceptable and worthy of an upgrade.
It’s no secret that Moon’s jumper is whacky and that’s why teams give him ample space which he’s a sucker for. Fans want him to drive but he wants to shoot, it’s probably because 1) he wants to prove that he can shoot the ball so he can get the defense closer and then drive or 2) he doesn’t want to drive. It’s probably a bit of both because when a man is tempting you to shoot, you have to have great patience to pass the ball off and realize that its not what the team wants, so Jamario tries to prove himself but comes up short. On the other hand he’s been guilty of launching the jumper even when the defense is in his grill, so go figure.
His finishing ability is lacking. Unless he has an open dunk, any drive attempt by Moon is rarely a source of a field goal. He can’t absorb contact and finish nor can he alter his shot once he goes up, something which is critically missing for a guy of his physical ability. His refusal to take it to the rim is very unbecoming of a NBA starting small forward and his weak jumper is stuff made for energy guys coming off the bench.
Any time Moon launches any sort of a jumper you can’t help but cringe. He does make a few but it gives him false confidence because in crunch time he’s left wide open by the defense and instead of either passing it up or making the defense pay with a drive, he always falls for the bait. Some of this can be blamed on Sam Mitchell who’s offense/defense substitutions have often gotten Moon into trouble in crunch time offense, a time when Kapono is a far better option to have on the floor. Moon can never be considered a good option to take the jumper because he’s simply not a good enough shooter at 38%.
Half his offseason should consist of practicing the 15-18 footer to the tune of 600 shots a day. The other half should see him develop a low-post move and some finishing ability around the rim. I believe the drive is in him, its a matter of building the confidence in him that he can finish the play or initiate contact and get to the FT line. The most alarming statistic for Jamario Moon is that he only went to the FT line 85 times in 78 games. That’s 1.08 FTAs per game! Unacceptable.
So what do we do with him? He needs to be reevaluated over the summer and unless he’s significantly improved his jumpshot and shown an obvious tendency to attack the rim, he should be demoted to the bench in favor of a trade/FA acquisition who can do what Moon can’t – score. Moon can’t be blamed for our stagnant and choke-in-the-clutch offense but having him on the floor has never been great for the Raptors offense.
If he comes to training camp with the same skill-set as this year, he deserves a 15 minute role off the bench where he can provide energy, spark the defense and run hard on the break. His defense is good, but not nearly good enough to compensate for what he lacks on offense.
If you got to the end of this post, you deserve a prize or two.
How about them Hawks? The chance of a Game 7 victory is unlikely but the point is made – the Hawks are a legit team and the Celtics are vulnerable. The fourth quarter offense was brutal for both teams but the Hawks continued to drive to the rim and got the calls – 47-25 FT in favor of the Hawks. Boston was all perimeter in the final quarter and Ray Allen missed some big shots down the stretch. Go Hawks!
