E’Twaun Moore has broken out and is on pace for best three-point shooting month in Pelicans franchise history

E’Twaun Moore is more than halfway to cementing himself in New Orleans Pelicans record books.

Through eight games this month, Moore is averaging 19.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists — all fantastic numbers for a player who has started just 95 games in 409 career games and holds a career average of 7.0 points per game. Yet, it’s his shooting percentages that should make your mouth extend down fully towards the ground.

Prior to this month, E’Twaun Moore’s best three-point percentage was 52.0% in March of 2016. Here in December he’s blistering the nets from long range at a 67.4% clip!! Care to know where this ranks in franchise history among those who have at least 20 three-point attempts in a month?

Moore sits at the top of the list, and even more impressively, he’s accomplished the feat while averaging big minutes against NBA starters — notice Chris Paul is the only other.

Coming into this season, Moore averaged 18.7 minutes over his first six campaigns. This season, Moore is averaging north of 32 minutes. In addition to that, he is averaging career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, field goal percentage, and three-point percentage.

On Monday, Dec. 11 against the Houston Rockets, Moore netted a career-high 36 points on 75 percent shooting, nailing six three pointers and adding 3 assists. Only five players have posted the same line or better over the last five years: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, James Harden, Kyle Lowry and Nikola Vucevic. That’s some rather elite company and latest trends have Moore’s arrow firmly pointing upwards.

During the last three games, Moore is averaging 23.7 points per game on 69 percent shooting from the field. Not to forget, this span included three playoff-caliber opponents who all possess better than average defenses in Philadelphia, Houston and Milwaukee. Also don’t forget the matchups against the 76ers and Rockets came on back to back nights.

If you may recall, Moore didn’t want to rule out the possibility of cracking the future starting lineup at the end of last season.

“I don’t know,” said Moore in his 2016-17 exit interview. “We’ll see. We’ll see over the summer. I’m not sure if it’s going to stay like that or it’s going {to be} a starting role. I don’t know. Whatever works best for the team, honestly. To me, who doesn’t want to start and look cool?”

Moore is currently leading the league in made threes during the month of December with 29, made more than 2/3’s of his attempts from deep overall, and has grabbed the attention of national media which includes our favorite NBA podcaster, Zach Lowe.

“How about E’Twaun Moore by the way,” said Lowe. “E’Twaun Moore has gone berserk.”

As an aside, Moore isn’t the only player showing massive improvement during the Pelicans’ recent offensive success. Darius Miller, Jrue Holiday, Rajon Rondo, Dante Cunningham and DeMarcus Cousins are all shooting better than 40% from three-point range in December.

Sample size or not, Head Coach Alvin Gentry’s formula, assisted by Chris Finch, is beginning to show. Should the Pelicans increase their defensive effort, do a better job in the rebounding department, and eliminate an opponent’s ability to score easily early-on in the paint, a healthy New Orleans team could easily find itself in the middle of the playoff standings mix.

Regardless of what the future may bring, E’Twaun Moore is finding his niche in the New Orleans attack. Suddenly his 4-year, $34 million contract is looking like one of the best bargains ever signed by General Manager Dell Demps. For this franchise, for this season, New Orleans will gladly take it.