Lost by 14 points at the end of the game! This is Moody s influence on the Warriors, and the Most Valuable Player has the answer

The Golden State Warriors made a wise decision before the start of the 2024-25 season, which was to renew the contract of Moses Moody, who has entered his fourth season. Although Moody was already a member of the Warriors' rotation at the time, he had yet to truly realize his talent. Therefore, after negotiation with his agent Rich Paul, he accepted a three-year contract extension from the Warriors worth a total of $37.5 million. This contract also included an incentive clause of $1.5 million, up to a maximum of $39 million. Moody is now in the first year of a contract extension, and his performance on the court makes this contract look like one of the best value contracts in the NBA.

It's easy to see that Moody is having a breakout season, and after Monday's game, the outside world's hopes for him will only grow. Moody scored a career-high 32 points in the Warriors' victory over the Pelicans and hit a career-high eight three-pointers, including seven in the first quarter, tying Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to become the third player in Warriors history to hit seven three-pointers in a single quarter.

Moody's increases not only basic statistics, but also advanced statistics. Moody has been an advanced statistics darling to start the season, ranking second in the league in efficiency differential (compared to bench players) at -14.5, according to official NBA statistics. At the same time, when Moody is on the court, the Warriors' defensive rating improves by 14.3 points, which fully demonstrates his contribution to the Warriors' overall defense. In the efficiency indicator of scoring per shot, he surpassed 91% of the league's players, ranking just ahead of Curry.

Moody's contract is definitely not the best contract in the NBA, because there are a few players who became stars during their rookie contracts and cheap second contracts. The contracts of Bunyama (annual salary of $13.8 million), Austin Reeves (annual salary of $13.5 million) and Avdija (annual salary of $13.6 million) are all better.

But it is not fair to compare Moody with these players, because these three players are the second or second offensive options of their teams (the Lakers did not have James at the beginning of this season, and Reeves was definitely the second or even the first offensive option in some games), while Moody is only a role player for the Warriors.

Therefore, in order to correctly discover Moody's gold content among role players across the league, we need to eliminate players who average more than 20 points per game or have been selected to the All-Stars, because they do not meet the definition of role players. In addition, rookie players need to be excluded, because these rookies have only played less than 20 games in the NBA, and it is not scientific to compare them with more mature players now.

In this way, we can easily identify the 4 best role players in the NBA. Center DeAndre Ayton, who first played for the Lakers, made the list with averages of 16.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, but the length of his contract makes him less valuable to his team than Moody. Ayton will definitely decline the player option for next season, so he is basically playing on a one-year temporary contract. In comparison, Moody's contract is obviously more attractive.

Next is Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard. Thanks to more touches on the offensive end, his 16.4 points and 5 assists per game are indeed better than Moody's, but like many other small guards who are 1.85 meters tall, he will sometimes be targeted on the defensive end, which is why a 3-D wing player like Moody is more valuable than a small guard who can score.

Then there’s Atlanta Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker. The Hawks wisely signed him in the free agent market with a four-year contract worth a total of $60.6 million. He is a more influential defensive player than Moody, but his problem is that his shooting is not very reliable, so his contract value is still not as good as Moody.

After excluding these three role players, the last one is Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac. So the question becomes who is the most valuable role player in the NBA, Zubac or Moody. Realistically speaking, Zubac is definitely a better player now, and the 28-year-old center is a borderline All-Star, so it's only fair that he makes $7 million more per season. But one thing Moody has going for him is that he's only 23 and clearly still getting better, and he could easily improve again next season and completely change this debate.

Taking into account his age, three-point shooting percentage and defense, Moody's current value is at least twice his contract. The Warriors gambled on him breaking out a year ago, and they got cheap 3-and-D weapons in return. Now the Warriors just need to give him more playing time. In the three games in which Moody played more than 30 minutes this season, he averaged 28 points, 6.3 three-pointers, 2 steals and 1.7 blocks per game, shooting 61.9% from the field. If his current 24.2 minutes per game doesn't rise significantly over the rest of the season, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr will have some explaining to do.