Moses Moody's patience has paid off. The 19-year-old rookie, who received limited playing time early this season, has continued to grind and now finds himself an important member of the Warriors' rotation as the playoffs near.
Moody has often discussed how unique a situation he landed in with the Warriors. Drafted with the No. 14 overall pick, Moody joined a team filled with champions, future Hall of Famers, and accomplished veterans who are willing to help him find his way early on in his NBA career.
After scoring a career-high 30 points Monday night in the Warriors' loss to the Denver Nuggets, Moody mentioned some critical advice he received from Steph Curry on dealing with the up-and-down nature of a rookie season.
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"I had a conversation with Steph," Moody said Monday when asked how he has stayed patient this season. "The gist of the conversation was having that poise throughout the season with a lot of highs and lows, staying even-keeled. That's something I have kind of been living on for a while now. Talking to him, it just keeps coming back up. That's the point that he made and that's what he said about that even-keeled mentality. That's not something that'll just happen if you don't think about it and diligently push those feelings to the side, and know you've got to diligently focus on staying even-keeled through the highs and lows, and come up with strategies and tactics to be able to keep that mentality through a long NBA season."
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Moody spent much of the early part of the season either on the bench or finetuning his game in the G League.
But the Arkansas product has come on over the last month and head coach Steve Kerr noted after last Thursday's loss to the Dallas Mavericks that he would give Moody more big opportunities down the stretch.
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It was after that loss in Dallas that Moody mentioned how paying attention to and studying the Warriors' veterans has helped him grow even if he didn't see the floor a lot.
“The biggest thing that’s been beneficial to me through this period of adjustment of learning is paying attention to other guys on the team,” Moody said after the loss to the Mavericks. “I mean, if you just look at the situation, I’m around a lot of NBA guys who have been NBA guys for a long time for a reason.
“So there’s plenty of things from each guy that I have been able to take and add on to my game whether if it’s Klay [Thompson], Steph [Curry], Otto [Porter Jr.], [Damion Lee], [Gary Payton II], [Nemanja Bjelica], everybody does a lot of different things that I can really apply to my game, and I’ve been focusing and watching those things and implementing them.”
Moody has spent his rookie season soaking up the wealth of NBA knowledge available to him in Golden State, and it's starting to pay off for both him and the Warriors.