To all the haters who said that Moses Moody wouldn’t see the court in the playoffs this year, you’re wrong! The Golden State Warriors optioned their 19-year-old rookie to the G League, where he’ll join the Santa Cruz Warriors for Tuesday night’s playoff game against the South Bay Lakers.
The Warriors assigned Moses Moody to Santa Cruz. He will play in their playoff game tomorrow night. Moody has been out of the Warriors’ rotation recently.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 4, 2022
It’s no-brainer to send down Moody this week to get some playing time, with the team off for three days before facing the actual Downtown Los Angeles Lakers Thursday night. Those Lakers could be eliminated from the play-in by Tuesday night, if they lose in Phoenix and San Antonio beats Denver, so this is the Lakers organization’s best chance at having any postseason success in 2022. Moody should be back with the big team and available for the rest of their regular season games.
The Sea Dubs made an improbable run to the G League playoffs after winning their last five games to steal the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. (Shouldn’t these geographical divisions also have Gatorade-themed names? Call the West Lemon-Lime and the East can be Fruit Punch.) Quinndary Weatherspoon had a monster 36-point game over the Austin Spurs Friday night to punch their ticket to El Segundo for a matchup with the and former Dubs’ first-round pick Jacob Evans had five steals, the greatest contribution to a playoff push that Evans has ever made for a Warriors team.
In his four games for Santa Cruz, Moody is averaging 31.8 points on 52% shooting, 41% from three-point range. He has played 50 games for the big team this season, but he’s fallen out of the rotation recently, since the return of Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, and Gary Payton II has given Steve Kerr more wing options, especially with Andrew Wiggins no longer forced to play minutes at power forward. Since dislocating his shoulder against Boston March 16, Moody has played in just five of the team’s previous nine games, and one of them was for just 40 seconds.
As for the South Bay Lakers, they finished 3rd in the Lemon-Lime with a record of 21-11, led by Mason Jones, who like Moody is a University of Arkansas alum. They also have rookie Mac McClung, who played three minutes for the Chicago Bulls earlier this season, and is famous for being the first cousin of the rapper Riff Raff. He also scored 37 points against Santa Cruz earlier this year, and he was a legendary high school dunker.
South Bay’s roster also includes 36-year-old Andre Ingram and 34-year-old Darren Collison. Even the Lakers’ G League team is old as hell!
Good luck to Moody and all of the Santa Cruz Warriors in their championship push. After all, the first title of the Joe Lacob ownership era actually happened in April of 2015, when the Santa Cruz Warriors swept the Fort Wayne Mad Ants to win the D League championship. That’s still the only time a franchise has claimed an NBA and a G League title in the same season, although Daryl Morey will show you a spreadsheet that says the Houston Rockets and Rio Grande Valley Vipers were robbed off a double by the officials.
It’s also important to remember that Santa Cruz’s triumph means that James Michael McAdoo actually has three championship rings, though the D League ring is made of plastic and has delicious cherry candy attached to it.
Moody’s probably not looking at much playing time in the NBA playoffs, but with the general fragility of the team and Steve Kerr’s wild rotations - he’ll routinely play 11 guys in a big playoff game - he may still see the court. After all, the Warriors may need a guy with playoff experience, even if it’s from a 750-person arena in El Segundo.
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