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Player Review 2018: Ben Moore

Age: 23
Years Pro: 1
Status: Signed a two-way contract with the Pacers in January.
Key Stats: Played in two games for the Pacers for a total of nine scoreless minutes. Played in 43 games for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, averaging 11.7 points and 6.4 rebounds.

Ben Moore's best quality as an NBA player is intrigue, but that only goes so far and lasts so long in the NBA. Especially for 23-year-old rookies.

Moore was a four-year player at Southern Methodist University but went undrafted last summer after averaging 11.7 points and 7.8 rebounds as a senior. He showed up as a second-round pick in some mock drafts and impressed in pre-draft workouts, but ultimately lacked the right combination of size and skills to be selected.

He was regarded as a power forward at SMU, but at 6-foot-8 and 200 pounds he was going to have to be a wing player in the NBA. You need a 3-point shot to do that, but Moore didn't even attempt one in college until his senior season. Then he tried five and hit one. That was a problem.

He had and has plenty of positive qualities, though: a high energy level, passing and ballhandling skills, devotion to defense and the athleticism to play it, and a variety of ways to score. He wound up hitting 35 percent of the 54 3-point shots he attempted for the Pacers' G League affiliate in Fort Wayne this past season, so that provided a reasonable answer to one of the biggest questions about him.

Unless you attended one of his G League games, you probably have no memory of him. He appeared in just two games for the Pacers, for a total of nine minutes. He played 2 minutes, 54 seconds against Phoenix on Jan. 24, and 6 minutes, 23 seconds against Washington on Feb. 5. His totals for those two glimpses of opportunity: no points, one rebound, one assist, four fouls.

Judgement could be passed more reasonably on his play for the Mad Ants. Appearing in 43 games, he averaged 11.7 points and 6.4 rebounds and showed off his energy level and offensive diversity on several occasions, such as when he scored 28 points against Wisconsin and when he finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds against Chicago's Windy City affiliate.

If nothing else, his shot selection and efficiency can't be questioned. He hit better than 50 percent of his field goal attempts over four seasons at SMU (54 percent), with the Pacers' Summer League team (58), with the Pacers in two preseason appearances (hitting 2-of-3 shots) and with the Mad Ants (55).

Guys like Moore — undrafted guys who played four seasons of college basketball — don't have it easy trying to find a crack in an NBA roster to slip through. Some teams regard them as over the hill before they even get started, and the drafted players are always going to get longer looks.

Stranger things have happened, though. Moore likely will get another shot in Summer League and will go from there. At the very least, he should be able to carve out a professional career somewhere.

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