Sunday afternoon against Denver, in a game that the Dubs had no business being competitive in, Moses Moody reminded everyone watching why the Warriors used a lottery pick on him back in 2021. Twenty-three points. Seven rebounds. Five assists. A complete performance on a national stage, against a Nuggets team that isn’t exactly handing those kinds of good vibes out for free.
But here’s what makes that line genuinely special, not just impressive-for-a-young-guy special. According to Basketball Reference,
since the Warriors dynasty era began in 2014-15, only 13 other instances exist of a Golden State player posting at least 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists in a single regular season game. Stephen Curry owns 99 of the appearances on that list. Kevin Durant dropped 50 during his Warriors tenure. Draymond Green has 8. And then there’s Moses Moody, sitting at the bottom of that list with his very first one, right next to names like Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kuminga.
He just joined some serious company. Let that simmer for a second.
The timing matters too. The Warriors have been navigating an obstacle course lately with star wing Jimmy Butler on IR and face of the franchise Steph Curry is wounded. Jonathan Kuminga got traded out of the building in a move that still has the fanbase pondering what it all means.
This team is running thin on the kind of players who can create their own shot when the offense stalls. And February has asked Moody to answer questions he’s never been asked before at this level, consistently, with no veteran safety net to catch the narrative if things went sideways.
His February game log tells the real story. He’s played seven games and topped ouble figures in six of them. That 6-point game against Philly on a reduced 20 minutes was the outlier, not the norm. He went for 25 against the Lakers on 39 minutes of work. He also poured in 17 in San Antonio, then 15 in the Memphis comeback win. The consistency isn’t flashy, but it’s real, and real is exactly what this team needs right now.
What’s changed is his shot creation within structure. Moody came into the league tagged as a catch-and-shoot specialist, which is a polite way of saying the league wasn’t sure he could make decisions fast enough when the ball found him in live-game situations. The 23-7-5 line against Denver shows a player who now rebounds, pushes in transition, finds cutters, and still knocks down the pull-up when the defense gives it to him. That’s not a catch-and-shoot player anymore. That’s a basketball player.
He’s 23 years old. He was taken 14th overall in a draft class that the Warriors will forever be haunted by if they can’t find some way to keep Curry’s twilight years competitive. Both picks in that draft showed real promise. The paths just diverged differently, and right now, Moody is the one wearing a Warriors jersey and producing when the franchise needs him.
Sunday night wasn’t a fluke me thinks; rather it was confirmation. The kind of confirmation that dynasty-era Warriors fans have been trained to recognize, the moment a young player stops auditioning and starts performing.
Moses Moody is performing.
