Shooting Guard: Moses Moody, Golden State Warriors
Following their championship run last season, the Golden State Warriors have made no effort to hide their pursuit of a defensive specialist on the perimeter that could fill the void left by Gary Payton Jr.’s free agency departure. If they’re looking for a replacement, they could do no worse than the Bulls’ own Alex Caruso.
The core of this trade was actually floated by Bill Simmons back in December, and it still makes just as much sense as it did then. There would definitely need to be a few tweaks, the most likely of which would be excluding Donte DiVincenzo from the deal. He’s been a revelation for the Warriors for the past month, and I doubt they want to give him up at this point.
Fortunately, Donte would have been little more than salary filler for the Bulls. The real prize here is Moses Moody.
Trading for Moses Moody would help the Chicago Bulls readjust and build toward a better core in the future.
Drafted 14th overall in 2021, many had Moody projected going as high as 9th overall, but he ultimately slipped after the Sacramento Kings went a different direction with Davion Mitchell. Standing at 6’6″ and 205 pounds with a 7-foot wingspan, Moody has the size necessary to play a two-guard the ability to switch 1-3 and not get killed on the perimeter. That being said, his calling card is definitely his scoring.
Unfortunately, he joins fellow prospects Jonathan Kuminga and James Wiseman in that he hasn’t had the opportunity to fully display his skillset while stuck in Golden State’s logjam. If he were a team that wasn’t actively competing for a championship, I think we’d have seen flashes of the player that made Moody so highly sought after in the first place.
In four games in the G League as a rookie, Moody averaged a phenomenal 31.8 points and 6.3 rebounds with 51.7% shooting from the field and 41.3% from beyond the arc (on a ridiculous 11.5 long-range attempts per game). If the Bulls were able to get a first-round pick added to this deal in addition to Moody, it would just be icing on the cake.
Even if Golden State opts to not push all the chips by trading for Caruso following DiVincenzo’s rapid rise, Chicago still has several other interesting options out there on the market right now.
Worth Watching: Gary Trent Jr., Josh Hart, RJ Hampton