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2007-08 Per 36 Minute Averages: 11.0 PTS, 8.0 REB, 1.5 AST, 1.8 BLK, 1.3 STL, 0.8 TO 2007-08 Advanced Stats: .540 TS%, 13.2 TRB%, 15.0 PER These profiles will feature nine players on the Raptors' roster that I have been able to evaluate from previous performance. For explanation of the stat lines, check out my primers on Per 36 Minutes Averages, TS%, TRB% and PER. It's kinda weird how people turned on Jamario Moon after his Cinderella story charmed Raptors fans early last season. He came out of nowhere, with zero expectations of making an impact on this team. And yet, on November 10, 2007, on the Raptors' seventh game of the season, Moon took Jason Kapono's spot as the starting small forward and never gave it back. Sam Mitchell has joked that Jamario might be the reason he won't be able to give up cursing, but he surely knows what a gem he has in Moon. He hustles, plays within his role, is a great disruptor of passing lanes on defense, and typically throws down a jaw-dropping dunk every game. We'd love it if he had a better handle and a better shot — but if he had those things along with his freakish athleticism, the Raptors wouldn't have been able to snatch him off the scrap heap last year. Anyway, Moon's a better shooter than a lot of his detractors give him credit for. Once he figured out that opponents were going to leave him open beyond the arc, he started punishing them in the second half of last season. After making just 27.8 percent of his three-pointers through January, Moon made 25 of his last 68 treys to for a 36.7 percent success rate. That's not lights-out — but the league average for three-pointers was 36.2 percent last season so it's not bad, either. At this point, you might suspect that I'm coming to Moon's defense in the face of people who want to give the starting small forward job back to Kapono — and you would be right to suspect that. Even with his limitations, Moon brings more to the table than he takes off it — and you can see this when you look at the Roland Ratings for last season's Raptors. 82games.com describes Roland Ratings as "a production measure for a player's own stats versus the counterpart player on the other team while he is on the court, as well as a simple on court/off court plus minus." Among the nine players who played for at least 30 percent of the Raptors' available minutes last season, Moon's Roland Rating was second on the team (way behind Bosh, of course, and just ahead of Calderon). Guess who had the worst rating of those nine players? Jason Kapono. If Jamario Moon can maintain or improve the shooting stroke he showed in the second half of last season, he'll be just fine as the Raptors' starting three. You can't have a star at every position, and Moon should continue to be useful at helping to set a strong defensive tone early in the game. If you're still not convinced he should start, look at it this way: Moon may grade out as a "D" on offense but he's a solid "B" on defense, while Kapono is a "C" on offense (I can't give him higher when all he can do is shoot) and a "D-minus" on defense. Advantage: Moon. |
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