The Golden State Warriors selected Moses Moody with the 14th pick in the 2021 draft, with hopes that he could become a piece for the future. Since then, the 20-year-old has failed to consistently crack Steve Kerr’s rotation, playing only about 12.4 minutes per game in 115 appearances for the Dubs.
Golden State already moved on from one young prospect with promise, when they dealt James Wiseman ahead of this season’s trade deadline. Many have begun to wonder if the same could happen to Moody over the summer.
Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveney recently spoke with an anonymous Western Conference general manager, who told him that there is “frustration on all sides” with the situation.
“Moody, that is a frustrating situation,” the source said. “He makes a lot of mistakes. He makes turnovers, a lot of careless turnovers, plays you can chalk up to inexperience. Dribbling out of bounds, driving into pressure without a real plan, classic young player stuff. He can’t learn to be better with those mistakes if he does not play, but they’re not playing him because he makes too many mistakes. He is stuck. They went out and brought back Payton and they have DiVincenzo and Poole—there is not much room for him to get playing time on that bench. They’re giving minutes to Anthony Lamb, which is odd, too. He is a much bigger guy than Moody, so you can play him at the 4 or even 5, but he is not a better player. Behind the scenes, there are some things he has done to get better, but I think there is frustration on all sides with him, from his point of view and from the team’s, because he has sort of had a wasted year here.”
Stephen Curry Happy to See Moses Moody Get Extra Time with Warriors
Moody actually saw a good amount of playing time in Golden State’s regular season finale against the Portland Trail Blazers. The second-year wing logged 29 minutes off the bench for the Dubs in the 157-101 win, and had a strong performance. He poured in 25 points, while shooting 10-of-14 from the floor.
Following the final buzzer, star guard Stephen Curry said he was happy to see Moody, along with some other young guys, get some extra run on Sunday.
“I think these last two games, knowing everybody’s getting reps and there’s a feel-good vibe, that helps,” Curry said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “ You don’t want to grind it out down the stretch against the lineup that they had out there. Nobody wanted to be in that kind of situation. But yeah, for Moses to play 30 minutes, JK played 24, Gary 20, getting their legs underneath them before this week off. Going into our practices so that everybody feels in a nice flow and gets some game experience so that whatever the expectations are, what you’re asked to do, going into a series, everybody’s ready. That definitely helps. We want to have the least stressful path to the start of the playoffs as possible. So, we accomplished that.”
Mike Brown Looks Ahead to Kings-Warriors Playoff Matchup
Moody likely won’t see nearly as much playing time when the Warriors open their playoff run against the Sacramento Kings, who are led by former Dubs assistant coach Mike Brown.
After the Kings’ regular-season finale, Brown was asked if facing his old squad added anything to the first-round matchup.
“Nothing. I mean it’s a short commute, that’s about it,” Brown said via the Kings’ YouTube channel when asked if facing off against the Warriors meant anything extra. “I’ve still got my place down there, so I may swing down and check on that, that’s about it. It doesn’t matter who we play. Just like I’m sure with the rest of the teams, it doesn’t really matter who they play.”