A Statistical Breakdown on Doral Moore’s Offense

There have been a lot of comments recently about the best way to utilize Doral Moore given his absurd efficiency, particularly around the rim. Primarily the comments have focused on why Wake continues to use Moore outside of the paint, and especially in the high pick-and-roll offense with screens to free up the guards.

I am pretty sure we all agree that Moore should be the focal point of the offense and we should get him the ball as much as possible. He's shooting 73% on the season (11th nationally in 2-pt %), and just went 9-9 against two of the best big men in the country. Straight up the dude can ball.

Most of us agree that he isn’t getting the ball enough, but we have already written that article and are on the same page there.

This article is to point out that, based on the stats, Doral Moore is actually being utilized relatively well within the offense to come out and engage in the pick-and-roll offense. This is due to his ability to rim run, basket cut, and jump over defenders at the rim who have to backtrack to cover him.

Synergy breaks down a ton of stats, but one of the best things it does is categorizes the type of offensive sets that a team and individuals run. Through this we can determine how Wake is utilizing Moore and where he is most efficient and effective.

It ranks Moore as “excellent” overall in offense, and he has been, accruing 203 points on 173 possessions (1.173 PPP). This ranks him 53rd in the nation in points per possession individually for players with at least 100 overall possessions.

He scores on 59% of his possessions, while turning it over on 14.5%, and also gets a shooting foul called on nearly 12% of all possessions.

There are 6 different offensive categories that Doral Moore has been involved in, which you can see below in the chart:

From this we can discern that while most people are clamoring for more true “post-up” plays for Moore, the stats indicate that he may actually be better when he is not operating solely out of post-up positioning.

He is at his best statistically when a possession ends with him as the roll man out of the pick-and-roll set. He scores on 84% of these possessions, and is probably a good indicator of why Wake Forest continues to run him out to the line.

From the high post screen he is 9/10 on the season and averaging 1.81 points per possession. He is also 13/15 when “rolling to the basket” as opposed to the “pick and pop”.

In these sets he is 14/16 from the field, has not turned the ball over and gets fouled on 21% of his possessions. These are likely all lobs for alley-oops, or the “Dorally-Oop” as it has been coined, which is why he is so efficient.

I do understand why folks feel like he is being misused when he is out on the perimeter though. He is not the best at setting screens and waiting for the guard to use it, or often times the guard doesn’t use the screen correctly and this results one way or the other in a foul on Moore.

When he is out at the three-point line and a shot goes up it also mostly eliminates the chance for him to get an offensive rebound. This is obviously not ideal when Moore is 22nd in the nation with a 14.8% offensive rebounding rate. In conference play he is the 6th best offensive rebounder in the ACC.

However you have to take the good with the bad, and those are things that come with him being out there.

Aside from the pick-and-roll, he is also extremely good when getting the ball as a cutter. This also stems from being out at the perimeter and diving/cutting into the paint. A lot of times these are alley-oops from a guard, and he is 25/32 on the year from these sets.

Interestingly enough he is 0/5 from the field on the season on flash cuts, which means he is an amazing 24/26 on basket cuts (also 1/1 on screen cuts). Basket cuts and rim runs are where he excels, as that’s where the lob can come in for him to go get and dunk over opponents.

He has worked tirelessly this year on getting in the right places so guards can get him the ball, and a lot of times that just doesn’t happen. Opposing defenses know to not let him get deep in the paint off the ball, and Moore can continue to work on learning the art of getting set down low and keeping the opponent at his back.

An interesting stat in post-ups is that Moore excels from the left block (10/15 on the season. 66%), but “struggles” from the right block (8/18 on the season, 44%). When he gets the ball on the left block he averages 1.176 PPP, but just .667 from the right block.

This indicates that he is pretty heavily reliant on a right handed shot, whether that be a hook shot, or turning the right shoulder. This is something that I am sure the staff is continuing to work on since opponents have likely picked up on the fact that Moore needs to be forced to the left block in post-up situations.

As he continues to develop the rest of this year and in the off-season there is a really good chance that (should he come back to Wake) he is absolutely dominant next year in all facets of the game. If he can add a relatively consistent mid-range jumper like we saw against Duke then he could be a terror for the ACC to have to think about guarding.

Overall Doral Moore has already been a fantastic low threat presence on the year, and a lot of it, at least from a statistical standpoint, is due to him being able to perform outside of the paint and not just on post-ups.

This may be a bit surprising to a lot of folks who have seen him play, but his ability to be mobile and make good decisions on cutting to the rim is the most efficient part of his game. It would be limiting him and detrimental overall for him to JUST stay in the paint and try to get post touches.