{"id":124031,"date":"2025-02-16T15:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T20:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=124031"},"modified":"2025-02-16T15:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T20:45:12","slug":"wendell-moore-jr-golden-opportunity-final-chance-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/16\/wendell-moore-jr-golden-opportunity-final-chance-nba\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 First Round Pick Gets Golden Opportunity In Perhaps His Final Chance In NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wendell Moore Jr.<\/a> once again has found himself with an NBA team<\/a>. Moore, the No. 26 pick in the 2022 NBA draft<\/a>, is now on a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2022 NBA First Round Pick Keeps Getting NBA Chances<\/h2>\n

Charlotte is Moore’s third team in three seasons and second this season. The 23-year-old was traded by Minnesota<\/a> to Detroit<\/a> this summer. The Pistons waived the 23-year-old guard at the trade deadline after acquiring Dennis Schroder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moore appeared in 20 games for the Pistons before getting waived at the trade deadline. He averaged 3.2 points, 2.2 assists, and 1.2 rebounds in 11 minutes a contest. He scored in double-figures once while producing shooting splits of 46\/28.6\/92.9.<\/p>\n

So why does Moore keep getting chances?<\/p>\n

It has a lot to do with his physical attributes and potential. Moore is an athletic wing with good size at 6 feet 5 inches, known for his versatility. He can do many little things, with rebounding and defense being his specialty. He is also a good ball-handler who doesn’t turn the ball over. More importantly, he can guard four positions\u2014everything but the five.<\/p>\n

Moore likes to get out in transition and into the lane and is a good finisher around the rim. However, he isn’t a shot-creator and still has some work on his jumper. He averages 1.7 points in 74 career NBA games and has shooting splits of 45\/16.2\/92.7.<\/p>\n

Moore has shown the ability to knock down the 3-ball in the G-League and his junior year of college at Duke. A late bloomer, Moore was named the nation’s best small forward and earned first-team all-ACC Defensive team honors in 2022.<\/p>\n

Why Charlotte?<\/h3>\n

So why did the Hornets<\/a> sign Moore? Charlotte is looking to find diamonds in the rough, and Moore is a hometown kid.<\/p>\n

Charlotte is tied for the second-worst record in the NBA with Utah<\/a> and New Orleans<\/a> at 13-39. The Hornets are just 5-13 over their last 18, losing 11 of 13 before the all-star break.<\/p>\n

Moore should get a very long look. The Hornets are shorthanded, with three players out for the remainder of the season. LaMelo Ball<\/a> has missed 19 games, and Josh Okogie<\/a> is also currently out, though it is possible that he could return shortly after the all-star break.<\/p>\n

Moore joins Damion Baugh<\/a> and KJ Simpson<\/a> as players on two-way contracts. Overall, the Hornets have 19 players, with 16 on standard deals. Elfrid Payton<\/a> is on a 10-day contract as the Hornets were given a hardship waiver for their injuries, which expires tomorrow. However, the league could extend it, given Charlotte’s extensive injuries.<\/p>\n

Charlotte had an open two-way roster spot after waiving Isaiah Wong<\/a> on February 13. Wong, the No. 55 pick in 2023, averaged a career-high six points a game, though he shot just 39% from the field and hasn’t demonstrated much of a three-point threat as he remains more of a slasher. The 24-year-old grabbed 1.6 rebounds and doled out 1.4 assists in 14 minutes over 20 appearances. He scored in double figures three times.<\/p>\n

Wong is a scorer and should get at least another shot at another two-way spot next season, if not after this year. A 2024 Next Up participant, Wong played well in the G-League this year, putting up 20 points a game while hitting 1.9 treys at a 41% clip.<\/p>\n

Projecting The Hornets Rotation For the Remainder of the Season<\/h3>\n

Starters<\/h4>\n

Point Guard: LaMelo Ball<\/p>\n

Shooting Guard: Nick Smith Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shooting Guard: Josh Green<\/a><\/p>\n

Power Forward: Miles Bridges<\/a><\/p>\n

Center: Mark Williams<\/a><\/p>\n

Second Unit<\/h4>\n

Sixth Man: Josh Okogie<\/a><\/p>\n

Third Guard\/ Fourth Guard: KJ Simpson<\/a>\/ Seth Curry<\/a><\/p>\n

First Big: Moussa Diabate<\/a><\/p>\n

Rest of Second Unit: Wendell Moore Jr.,\u00a0 Tidjane Salaun<\/a><\/p>\n

Extras<\/h4>\n

DaQuan Jeffries<\/a>, Damion Baugh<\/a>, Taj Gibson<\/a>, Elfrid Payton<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: \u00a9 Mike Watters Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wendell Moore Jr. once again has found himself with an NBA team. Moore, the No. 26 pick in the 2022 NBA draft, is now on a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets. 2022 NBA First Round Pick Keeps Getting NBA Chances Charlotte is Moore’s third team in three seasons and second this season. The 23-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":124093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,7,10,2,21,62],"tags":[823,4044,4757,4690],"class_list":["post-124031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hornets","category-pistons","category-featured","category-timberwolves","category-nba","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-mark-williams","tag-nick-smith-jr","tag-wendell-moore-jr"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124031"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124094,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124031\/revisions\/124094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}