Moore Is Less

Zach Lowe considers the Joe Smith vs. Mikki Moore debate and is not a big fan of Moore.

I’ve sort of buried the lead here, but there are two other huge red flags sticking out of Mikki Moore. First, he’s a turnover machine, and the Celtics are already at the bottom of the league in turnover rate. Moore coughs the ball up about 16 percent of the time he tries to do something with it. Smith, on the other hand, takes care of the ball (5.8 percent turnover rate this year), and he’s taking better care of it as he gets older.

That leads to my second concern about Moore: He’s getting worse really, really fast. Moore was a productive player just two seasons ago with the Nets. He shot 60 percent from the floor (including 55 percent on jumpers!), had a PER (14.8) around the league average and did a passable job guarding centers. 

He’s fallen apart over the last two seasons in Sacto. Opposing power forwards put up a 15.9 PER against him last year, and they are torching him (18.1 PER) this season. He’s spent more time guarding centers this year, and the bigs are putting up a PER over 21 right in his face.