Former first-round pick Moses Moody is making a strong case this month for a more consistent regular season role than the one he has played in his first three NBA seasons, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Moody has racked up 58 points in just 69 minutes of action across his last three preseason outings and knocked down five three-pointers in Tuesday’s victory over the Lakers.
“He’s playing great,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s gotten so much better in so many ways. We’ve always loved his character, his work ethic. This is the most confidence he’s played with. … There’s a reason we drafted him. Size, strength and ability to shoot the ball. I think he’s grown into his body. He looks stronger to me. When he’s putting the ball on the floor, people are bouncing off of him. He’s shooting much better off pindowns on the move. He’s put all the work in and he’s earned this.”
Although Kerr stated that he expects Moody to “play a big role for us,” he quickly added that there are many players on the roster who have shown they deserve regular minutes, suggesting that the Warriors still haven’t determined who will be the odd men out of the regular season rotation.
“We’re sitting in that coaches room every day saying: ‘How are we going to play all these guys?'” Kerr said. “Because they all deserve to play. I’ve asked all of them to play their hardest, make it difficult for us.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Moody’s representatives and the Warriors have discussed the framework of a possible multiyear rookie scale extension that would be near the “mid-level range,” sources tell Slater. As Slater observes, a deal in that neighborhood could look like a steal or an overpay a year from now, depending on whether or not Moody finds a firm foothold in Kerr’s rotation in 2024/25.
- Here’s what Kerr had to say about the extension talks the team is having with Moody and Jonathan Kuminga, according to Slater: “Both Moses and (Kuminga) are handling that stuff really well.They’re focused on playing. I’ve talked to them both about the extension stuff. They know that I understand their situations, having been there as a player. Every guy is facing a unique set of circumstances.” The rookie scale extension deadline is Monday. A player without a new deal in place by that evening will be on track for restricted free agency in 2025.
- Andrew Wiggins made his preseason debut on Tuesday and started at shooting guard, with Kuminga at the three. According to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, a Wiggins/Stephen Curry backcourt is a possibility Kerr has considered for quite some time, and he liked the way Wiggins and Kuminga looked alongside one another on the wing against the Lakers. “The key is JK and Wiggs running the floor,” Kerr said. “It puts a lot of pressure on teams. And they set a good tone tonight, the way they just got downhill, with or without the ball, they were gone. I really like the way both of those guys played and the impact that they can make with their athleticism and force.”
- De’Anthony Melton and Brandin Podziemski are among the other candidates to start at the two alongside Curry, but neither player was active on Tuesday, with Melton battling some mid-back tightness and Podziemski waiting for a mask to arrive after breaking his nose on Sunday, Slater writes. However, neither issue is considered serious, according to Slater, who confirms that Podziemski plans to play through his broken nose once he gets his mask.
Warriors minutes is going to make some players mad. Too deep of a bench for everyone to get minutes on the court.
Somebody will be hurt, and if you wanna go far in the playoffs Steph/Dray need rest from time to time.
It’s a good problem to have. And they’re still big game hunting. Three of these guys plus a first rounder or two could bring home a major contributor if one becomes available.
Honestly I do not care about minutes breakdowns, I care about winning.
The whole reason why I am somewhat anti-Podz is because giving him all that playing time turned us into a bad team. Moody never got that chance that he should have gotten last year, but Podz happened instead, and we lost the play-in when if Moody was developed instead, we would have won more games and finished top 6.
Davey has been saying this for a year now at least
I think JK has improved in a lot of areas. He can be a reliable scorer for the Warriors on the wing. You can throw him the ball and he will get you a bucket. That’s huge for them. If his Camp is reasonable the Warriors will sign an extension with him by the deadline Monday.
Well it looks like somebody got in Moody’s ear. Could have been my voice screaming at the TV for him to DO SOMETHING when he gets the ball. These last couple of games have been quite a bit different than the first game I saw him play this preseason.
Moody actually does do something now. He’ll catch and shoot more often, he’ll drive to the hole more frequently, and he’s been overall aggressive offensively.
Good for him. And thank goodness he can hear me on the other side of the TV LOL
Or Moody has always been this guy, but Kerr played Podz over him when Podz is a much worse player than Moody, because Kerr stinks at his job and is carried by Steph 100%.
Moody was listed on some drafts as top 5-10, he’s always had that star ceiling. You took Podzi playing with his hair on fire as “good” and Moody calmly scoring bucket after bucket as “slow” – but Podz playing style just leads to turnovers, and Moodys play leads to buckets an wins.
Wiggs and Podz for Bron and Bronny – its gunna happen…
“Wiggs and Podz for Bron and Bronny” lmao
What a and don’t be foolish take!
NO! No! no! no!
Bronny doesn’t even belong in the NBA yet. He was drafted and is on a roster because of his name period!
Btw, Kerr is not the problem as you continue to insist.
I love Moody, I love the Warriors, I love this roster and this is a top 4 team if Moody, JK and Lindy are all going to be better than expected, and Slomo, Buddy and Melton are all perfect fits as system players.
My official take is now: Steph + 13 guys who can start > whatever Phoenix’s roster is. Only the Thunder, Wolves and maybe Nuggets for sure clear this GSW roster in the West. GSW does not need to make a big trade for a star, they can run this roster all year and make the top 6 playoffs even if injuries happen, but that being said, if the right player becomes available, we have Wiggins, Looney, GP2 and Podz to offer, along with picks and money….that can bring in a LOT of great fits. Or, if you put Kuminga and Moody on the table as well, you can bring Giannis here. What a fantastic spot GSW is in right now. MDJ needs a medal, what an instant-classic of a GM that the Warriors got here. He took the noise of “you HAVE to get PG13/Lauri etc” and said “what about having 13 starters, so no bad rotations exist at all, ever?” He traded Klay and a 2nd rounder for Buddy and Slomo. Genius.
Oddly enough, I believe GSWs newfounded depth is really helping Moody. Before, he’d play with all of the faaarrr back end of the roster and they weren’t very good. Think last year. Now with this great depth, the back end is pretty damn good. And Moody is leading them which is what we’ve all been waiting for. Playing with Quinones and that back end wasn’t giving Moody a good chance to excel. Yes, he could have just led them but it wasn’t a great “group” to lead. NOW, he’s on the floor with a much better “group”. Anderson, Looney, Waters, sometimes TJD and Podz. And he’s now giving Kerr no choice because it’s a different, better, more engaged, more energetic Moody. Kerr can’t not play him anymore as Moody is not the same guy. I’m not sure I’m making sense, but as I initially stated, this 2024-2025 depth is showcasing Moody.
I agree with every word of this, Moody always got run with the 2W players and guys who werent long for the team. Kerr buried him too deep when Moody was always better than Podz, who got all the minutes that Moody had deserved last year, but looks like he finally might get now.
GSW should have put Podz on the trade table the day he made all-rookie first team, not Moody. The fact that Moody is playing like the best SG on the team on a team with Hield and Melton on it speaks volumes. Moody is playing well with any combo where Moody is the #2. Moody has always been a bucket and a solid defender with a high iq who will get better as long as you play him…but Kerr didnt do that.
You’re going a tad bit too far here Davey.
Moody has NOT “always been a bucket.” What he’s “always” done is sucked. He’s been crappy in games and he’s been crappy in practice which is why he hasn’t received minutes.
You don’t deserve minutes “just because.” You earn minutes in practice. Every basketball player on the face of the planet knows this.
He had two real nice preseason games. Kerr threw him out there with the starters because they need to decide on a contract extension or not. And they need to decide this in the next 5 days. We’re talking millions and millions of dollars.
He’s responded by being aggressive on offense but he’s still sucks on defense. He gets picked off and trails the play and needs help every time. You’re tantalized by his body, long arms, strength, size Etc but he’s too damn slow to guard a two. He’s a small forward.
Moody’s too slow to get by a two on offense as well. He’s able to dribble past a 3 who’s bigger and slower.
Again, don’t get carried away with two PRESEASON games. We’ve made concessions for your infatuation with Moody but don’t take it too far. Moses Moody still has a loooong way to go.
Maybe you guys don’t see that Kerr is asking him to teach and therefore become a better learner. Maybe he is better but hasn’t implemented what they have asked him to do at a regular basis. We don’t know. In Kerr I trust. Much love Davey J but you don’t coach a Gold Medal Olympic team and get 4 rings and earn your insults. By the way he has 10 rings
My bad 9
pogo said:
> In Kerr we trust.
No doubt that he’s on the short-list of best coaches in the modern NBA, and he’s excellent at managing great players. But, outside of the superstars that were drafted before he arrived (and Kevin Durant), Kerr (and the Warriors as an organization) have done a poor job at managing the roster.
1. Over 2015-2022, we ranked 2nd to last among NBA for offensive contributions from non-starting players.
2. Statistically, the Warriors have done the worst job in the NBA over the last 9 years at developing drafted players. Hopefully that changes with JK, Podz, Moody, and TJD, but, excluding these guys, Kerr has been able to develop only 1 draft pick, Kevon Looney.
3. We’ve had the 3rd highest rate of turnover for non-starting players of any NBA team since 2015. We do not benefit from season-to-season continuity with our bench. Either players don’t want to come back or we don’t invite them back, but neither reflects well on the coach or organization.
4. Kerr’s insistence on not carrying a true big(s) in the bottom half of the roster has cost us several games over the years when our already limited number of “bigs” were unavailable. For example, In the last few years, we’ve played Otto Porter, Andre Iguodala, Jonathan Kuminga as centers against Joel Embiid. No other team in the NBA that I know of refuses to carry a reserve big, if only of the safety of its players.
Yes, many of the above points can be countered with “the Warriors situation is unique”, but not enough of them to make me confident in the way we manage our roster.
What is Davey’s issue with Podz? He calls himself a super Warrior fan, but doesn’t seem to know anything about the team. Podz and Moody play different positions. Podz never blocked Moody. Moody is starting his 4th season; Podz is starting his 2nd. Why would you want to trade a player who had an impressive 1st season? They did that with Parish, costing them 3 future HoFers. And if not for a Milwaukee doctor saying he wasn’t worth it, Curry would be playing with Giannis. Why make the same mistake?
I think some believe Podski is taking minutes away from Moody. But that isn’t the case. Podski was out there because he’s another ball handler on the floor.
When the warriors were down Wiggins and Klay was playing a lot of minutes, you needed another guy who could dribble drive. Moody is not that guy as much as some folks would like to believe it.
He’s a shooting guard by ZERO STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION. He’s a 3 because of the lack of handles.
When’s the last time you saw Moody push the ball up the floor at full speed? I’ll answer the question myself.
NEVER.
He’s incapable of that. He can’t do it. Heck, even Heild does it. Melton does it, Wiggins does it.
So Podski is not taking minutes from Moody. He has a specific skill set that the Warriors utilized when necessary.
my post insisted that Moody ONE had not shown any inclination to be a factor last year. In no way did I believe he out played Podz and TWO the improvement of the back end of the roster was having a huge impact on Moodys play so far (yes, only preseason) and THREE Moody is not as passive and lackluster as he had previously played. Davey reads what he wants to read and by no means have I indicated Moody is this star in waiting BUT I am somewhat inspires that maybe, just maybe, he is greatly improved.
Claude you and I are on the same page. I’ve known you a long time and I wouldn’t go behind your back to disparage anything you wrote. Hope you didn’t take anything I wrote the wrong way.
At times we may disagree on something but we’re cool about it. We have our opinions and that’s what this message board is about. I always enjoy reading what you have to say. Thanks buddy !!
So when I wrote that “some” people this or “some” that in the post above, I meant Davey. But I don’t want a single him out either. I enjoy reading his takes and I hope he enjoys reading mine.
We get at each other but it’s all in good fun and we’re all Warriors fans. I try to treat him as I would like to be treated and that’s without name calling or going past the line of respect.
Oh and by the way I do look forward to watching Friday night’s final preseason game.
I think what I said last week applies again. If they play Moody pretty big minutes they’re still undecided and looking for him to prove himself.
They’re looking to see what he really has against NBA rotation guys. He’ll play some minutes with the starters and the first guys off the bench. Then he’ll also play with the scrubs. Maybe 25 minutes or so like the last couple of games.
But if he plays very few minutes I think they’ve already decided what to do. What that is I don’t know.
It Could be letting the deadline pass and allowing the market to prove itself next summer, or it could be offering a decent payday because they like what they’ve seen and want to keep him around.
Whether he accepts that decent payday or not is another thing. But if he plays only a few minutes maybe 15 or less then they’ve already decided what they want to do.
Just my opinion but something to look out for as we watch Friday’s game.
Gary, ditto to you on your kind words. I wasn’t referring to anything you said, just to what our “friend” said. And I am not as appreciative of his input as you are. In fact, his name calling, labeling, and condescension are NOT appreciated. Now, back to hoops, I have stated that I didn’t anticipate extensions to be forthcoming. I now believe Moody will be extended.
Great posts on this thread, but here’s a contrary one to those saying it’s great to have a 12-13 man rotation and that “nobody should care about minutes”: IT DOESNT WORK. NBA coaches and players don’t believe in the idea.
Players, especially scorers, need consistent and predictable minutes, at least 16-20 per game, to perform well. (For most starters, it’s more than 30 mpg.) Moody is thriving because he’s playing, and he’s playing 20+ mpg because Steph, Wiggins, and other players normally ahead of him are playing less.
NBA teams average playing only 9 players more than 5 mpg in a given game. Go higher than 9, players complain and believe they underperform.
Good post Aristotle. There may be some grumbling ahead. 5 x 48 is 240. 240 divided by 10 is 24. Is 24 minutes/game/player for 10 players acceptable or more importantly, doable. I’m not so sure.We’ll see
clauderaymond said:
> Is 24 minutes/game/player for 10 players acceptable or more
> importantly, doable?
Claude, thank you sincerely for the real math! I’ll try to stick to math to explain why it’s not so simple. Read no further if you don’t want to know that the numbers say it cannot work, and why the minutes available to the bottom 5 in the rotation in a given game is about 12 mpg. (BTW, this is not a novel analysis. If you use any NBA analytics or play fantasy basketball, you’ll know.)
First, consider that it’s not 24 mpg available to each player because your top players must get considerably more than the average, otherwise you’re hurting the team.
History suggests that Steph get 34 mpg, Wiggins gets 32 mpg (Kerr recently said that he expects Wiggins to return to the mpg he played in 2022-23), Draymond gets 28 mpg, and, I propose, Kuminga gets 30 and TJD gets 26.
That means the remaining 5 guys have an average of 17 mpg, not 24 mpg, each. And this doesn’t assume the minutes that always go to players 11-15 (who would include GP2, Looney, Waters, etc), to whom will always go some minutes (garbage time in a winning or losing game, mid-game injuries, etc). That brings the available ~17 mpg down to ~12 mpg.
It gets worse. The above doesn’t take into account the logjam at SG, where, after Wiggins, we have at least 4 players competing for minutes there
– Melton (who’s averaged 27 mpg on a better team for the past 2 years),
– Hield (our semi-announced 6th man, who’s averaged 25 mpg lately)
– Moody (who deserves a rotation spot)
– Podz (who averaged 34 mpg in 2nd half 2023-24 and deserves more mpg than what he’ll get at backup PG).
I’d love to see another numbers-based analysis that would make us all more optimistic. This picture suggests there will be roster reduction sooner than later.
Yes that’s all true. Then once every week a half or 2 weeks you play one of your bench guys 25 minutes to get them a little burn. These are Guys you may need if someone goes down. Your 9th guy, your 10th guy, maybe even your 11th guy. But yeah 12 through 15 rarely get minutes aside from blowouts.
Gary , if I wasn’t so long-winded, you might have gotten my main point: this idea of a 10 man rotation, especially with 4 shooting guards, isn’t gonna last long.
But it’s good to know somebody’s paying attention to me :–)
Yes I think you’re right but my inclination is to think that during the regular season it’s sort of a 10 or 11 man rotation. Not every game of course but that’s sort of how it goes and it tightens up for the playoffs.
You can see especially Denver runs a strict eight-man rotation throughout the entire postseason. Unless there was a blowout, in their Championship season, it was Jeff Green, the guard that went to Toronto, Brown?, and Christian Braun. That’s it. I think most teams have a similar plan for the postseason.
So to look at the Warriors as an example, you have the starting five say it’s Curry Wiggins JK green and Jackson davis.
6. Looney needs to back up Center spot and will play minutes,
7, 8, 9. Milton, Heild and slow-mo are going to play minutes, so that’s nine right there.
10. Podski will play minutes and might even start.
11-13. Glued to the bench will be Gary Payton, Moses Moody, Lindy Waters and whoever the 14th man is.
So I think the Warriors will have a 10-man rotation of guys playing at least 15 minutes.
As a side note, what this tells me is that a trade is coming. Some sort of three for one to improve somewhere. Not sure who that’s going to be but there has to be a guy who comes available and it’s not working out somewhere.
I know you guys realize I only cited 24/player to be an average. Curry Green Wiggins will get 33-35. Hopefully Melton same. He looks good. Jk podz tjd 27-30. Maybe Moody close to that. But those numbers add to 200-220. The dilemma
Claude , I love the your lineup, but that’s only 8 guys and, by your numbers, needing 245 mins. And you don’t mention Buddy Hield, our 6th man, and Kyle Anderson, our third big, to get to 10 guys. That gets us to, say, 290 minutes, by your model.
My spreadsheet gives the 5 starters, (Steph, Dary, Wiggs, JK, and TJD) and Kyle Anderson (our third big) the expected minutes.
But Moody, Melton, Podz and Hield have 48 mins (12 mins each) between them. And that assumes 0 mins per game for Looney, GP2, Waters, et al.
Doesn’t work.
Ari, it was intended to kinda mock the idea of depth. I intended to somewhat agree with you on the problem with the depth. So to be more believable help me out. Curry 32, Green 33, Wiggins 28, Melton 26, Hield 25, Anderson 25 equal 169. That’s 71 for jk, podz, Moody, tjd, gp2, Waters, Yada Yada. As you say not doable. So ari, give me doable please. Cuz as they say, too many cooks can spoil the broth. is it broth? I’ll Google.
Claude , I got your humor, and I apologize if I came across as critical. So you know, I always enjoy your posts, and I’m assuming you’ll indulge me!
“Doable” for me this year is to avoid not giving adequate PT to our future: JK, TJD, Podz, and Moody. JK has to play 32 mins, and start. If Podz isn’t starting, you still have to give him 24 mins. And Moody has to get at least 20 minutes, with no DNP’s.
Here’s a possibility.
POSITION/ Player min, Player min
PG: Steph 32, Podz 16
SG: Wiggs 16, Podz 10, Moody 10, Hield/Melton 14
SF: JK 20, Wiggs 16, Moody 10
PF: Dray 22, JK 12, Slomo 14
C: TJD 26, Dray 6, Looney 10, Slomo 6
My “doable” means far too few available minutes for Hield and Melton, but I favor that over shorting our young core.