SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors’ play-in loss in Sacramento was the story of Moses Moody’s season, and really the story of his career to this point.
Moody was out of Golden State’s rotation heading into the single-elimination Kings game. The 10th man in a nine-man playoff rotation, he’d been just edged out because of the matchup: The Warriors wanted Kevon Looney to play more than usual because of his defense against Domantas Sabonis. Rotations tighten in the postseason as star players ramp up their minutes, and Moody got squeezed out.
He’d been the odd man out all year. At one point this year, the Chase Center crowd had to beg for him to get minutes. Despite contributing whenever called upon, Moody was routinely leap-frogged by other players for minutes. In his third season, despite logging career highs in practically every counting stat, Moody had seven healthy DNPs and 11 more games with under 11 minutes.
When the Warriors fell behind Sacramento, Steve Kerr called Moody’s number. Off the bench, the Arkansas product scored 16 points in 15 minutes.
As he always has, Moody didn’t complain. The Warriors are lucky the 21-year-old is mature, because few players of Moody’s caliber have their opportunities so disconnected from their production. Most in Moody’s situation would gripe and fester.
“I think there’s a crowded field of people in Moses’ realm, where he is on our roster,” Kerr said when asked about Moody’s playing time. “There’s a lot of other guys. He’s a really good player and he’s a young player who still has a lot of room for growth.”
In his exit interview with Moody, Kerr told the young player that he needs to quicken the release of his jumper and his decision-making overall. There are times when Moody passes up open jump shots in favor of drives into a crowded paint, which can muck up a possession. On both ends, Kerr said, his decision-making needs to improve.
Any player, though, needs minutes to improve in such an area. Moody hasn’t been afforded that luxury, for the most part.
“He’s in his third year, he hasn’t played a ton, so you need reps to improve on this stuff,” Kerr said. “Yeah, I think next year’s a big year for Moses. I would love to get him out there more. But when you look at the roster, hey, there’s just a lot of people and we haven’t always been able to get him on the floor.”
Even as a rookie, Moody showed promise. In the Western Conference Finals against Dallas during Golden State’s title run, Moody played every game and defended Luka Doncic at times. The next season, he had two DNPs in the first month.
This year, Moody got a chance to start for four straight games when Andrew Wiggins was away for personal reasons. In that stretch, he averaged 12 points in 24.7 minutes per game, shooting 50% from the floor and 40% from 3. He guarded Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson one game and Golden State went 3-1 with him in the starting lineup.
Ten days later, he was out of Kerr’s rotation again.
“If I get to listening to other people, then you can kind of feel like it’s a cycle to where like, oh, you don’t play, you play good, you don’t play,” Moody said. “That can be frustrating if you look at it like that, but that’s through other people’s lens. I’ve done something myself where I now don’t really look at things through other people’s perspective and understand it for myself and see the growth that I’ve made each year.”
General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said Moody “hasn’t probably played as much as we’d like.”
“So that will be something we’ll look at,” Dunleavy said. “I think it’s really important coming into Year Four for him that there is some reasonable playing time available for him where he can impact our team and be out there and continue to improve and I think that’s a fair thing.”
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One way to clear a path for Moody would just be to start him. The Warriors want to retain Klay Thompson and move him into somewhat of a sixth man role. Kerr mentioned Moody — as well as Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga — as players currently on the roster who could supplant Thompson in the starting group.
As always, combinations are key. But the Warriors, even after three years, need a bigger sample size to see which groups Moody may or may not fit with.
“I will say it again, he’s one of the most high-character young players I’ve ever been around,” Kerr said. “The way he handles adversity, he’s just very practical, he’s been raised so well. He’s a wonderful young guy and I’m always pulling for him and I want him to succeed. Frankly, there needs, he needs more opportunity, for sure.”