The Golden State Warriors may need Moses Moody from the start

With Klay Thompson expected to return at some point in the coming season, the Golden State Warriors are supposed to be title contenders once again. Where they finish the season could, however, largely be impacted by how they start it.

How they start it could largely be impacted by how much production they can get from the player tasked with taking over Thompson’s shooting guard spot until he returns. The Warriors have a plethora of options to choose from.

The Golden State Warriors won’t be getting Klay Thompson back for the first few months of the season, giving rookie Moses Moody an open path to start.

Moody will be one of them, and there’s reason to believe he may make the most sense. Moody’s size and defensive aptitude are a couple of reasons why he may be given a chance from the season’s commencement.

With shoes, Moody stands 6-foot-6 and has a 7-foot-1 wingspan. While his scoring may not be there quite yet, his defense and rebounding would be nicely served with the starting unit.

With Stephen Curry being the league’s scoring champion, adding a player like Damion Lee or Mychal Mulder, which sacrifices size, could be brutal for the team on the other end of the court. That’s mainly why Moody makes sense.

At the collegiate level, he proved to be a good scorer, averaging over 16 points per game as a freshman at Arkansas. But, as we’ve seen over the years, being a solid scorer in collegiate doesn’t always translate to the NBA and certainly is has no guarantee to immediately convert.

In the summer league, which has to be taken with a grain of salt, Moody scored 15 points and had two threes in his Las Vegas debut. His pace and poise with the ball in his hands was impressive, especially for a 19-year-old.

If he can continue to show that and prove to be able to handle the pace of the NBA, he may get a shot. While Lee and Mulder may be more reasonable considering they have NBA experience, both lack size and could be picked on defensively.

Moody provides some size and could be a better fit. It’s a long shot for now, but we’ll see who appears to be the favorite to take over for Thompson to kick off the season.