Whether it’s a day they’re playing or not, and whether they’ll admit it or not, the Warriors are entrenched in scoreboard watching right now.
Enjoying the aftermath of Steph Curry’s heroic 56-point effort Thursday night in Orlando, the Warriors had to have loved what transpired Friday in Los Angeles. The Lakers won their fifth straight game, jumping to the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. The Clippers were on the losing end of the Southern California showdown, dropping their record to 32-27 on the season.
Just like that, the Warriors – also winners in five straight games entering Saturday night – have the same record as the Clippers. But because the Warriors have lost all three of their games against the Clippers, they’re still the No. 7 seed, with LA being the No. 6 seed. As the Warriors look to leap the Clippers in the standings, they also owe them the sincerest of thank you cards in the mail.
The best move in basketball and life alike sometimes is no move at all. In the case of Paul George, the Clippers and Warriors learned that lesson this past summer with the nine-time NBA All-Star leaving the West Coast for a nightmare of a season with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy led the charge in trying to acquire George from the Clippers through a sign-and-trade, believing his former Indiana Pacers teammate was on his way to the Bay. Steph Curry was on board, as were Draymond Green and Steve Kerr. The Clippers, however, were not.
They chose shedding George’s massive salary over gaining anything from the Warriors in return, a decision that felt head-scratching in the least at the time. When the Warriors play George and the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center, two words should be running through Dunleavy’s head: Crisis averted.
However much the Clippers liked Jonathan Kuminga, the probability of the Warriors giving him up, even for someone proven like George who fit Curry’s timeline, was near zero. Brandin Podziemski wasn’t off-limits but close to it. The three Warriors players most linked to a George trade were Andrew Wiggins, Moses Moody, Chris Paul and draft compensation.
Golden State Warriors
There still can be frustrations from how Paul’s expiring contract was used by the Warriors’ front office, or lack thereof, but let’s look at the rest of that picture.
Wiggins has been better than George all season and wound up being the main player in the Warriors bringing in Jimmy Butler at the trade deadline. Butler’s arrival has been huge for Moody, who now finds himself a mainstay in the Warriors’ starting lineup. The Warriors only gave up one first-round pick in the Butler deal, plus the financial flexibility they were awarded in the George sign-and-trade not going through allowed them to add players like Kyle Anderson and Dennis Schroder, who also were part of the five-team deal that put Butler in a Golden State jersey.
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The Warriors already have played George and the 76ers once this season, smacking them 139-105 at Chase Center in their first game of 2025. George scored 19 points in 32 minutes, finishing as a game-low minus-26. He didn’t have any assists and only grabbed two rebounds, but he did have two turnovers and two fouls.
Moody in that same game was a plus-13, went 4 of 5 on 3-pointers – making one more than George – and scored 12 points off the bench in 17 fewer minutes than the 76ers star. Per 36 minutes, George is averaging 18.2 points, not even a full point more than Moody’s 17.3 points. George had been one of the best 3-point shooters of the past decade but is shooting 35.8 percent from long distance this season, a lowly clip for his standards. Meanwhile, Moody’s 38.6 3-point percentage is a career high, ranking behind only Curry on the Warriors this season, not including the 21 games rookie Quinten Post has appeared in.
One player has missed 19 games this season and is making more than $49 million at 34 years old. The other has been inactive for four games, is 12 years younger and is making nearly $38 million less than the Warriors’ main target from the offseason.
While the 76ers are 14-25 when Paul George plays this season, a 35.9 win percentage, the Warriors now are 11-0 when Moody’s in the starting lineup.
“It’s a cool stat to hear,” Moody said to KNBR’s Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher on Friday. “A big part about being an NBA player is how do you impact winning. Being able to come up with something like that isn’t a coincidence or whatever. It must be actual benefits.
“It’s just validation to what you’re doing, and what you’re doing on a daily basis is actually having something to do with the outcome, which is cool to see.”
By luck and a resistance from the Clippers in helping a conference foe, the Warriors escaped a disastrous scenario. George’s season hasn’t been PG-13 but NR. There is no rating for playing so below expectations that podcasters worldwide can rejoice in George putting his mic to the side, still having to fight off boos from the City of Brotherly Love.
The Warriors’ Plan A and Plan B of the offseason both fell short. George and his $211 million contract are far away in Philly, and Lauri Markkanen remained in Utah on a new $238 million deal. Both have underperformed throughout injury-plagued seasons.
The best move often is no move, which led the Warriors to a season-changing decision seven months later. In their pursuit of passing the Clippers for the coveted No. 6 seed, thank yous are well overdue.
