Raptors have the perfect trade target thanks to Warriors' mistake

The Warriors' mistake

The Golden State Warriors currently have a roster that goes 13 players deep in rotation players, which means some talented players will be left completely outside of the rotation. They had a similar problem last season, and the player who was often on the outside looking in was young wing Moses Moody.

That reality seems inexplicable given how well he and the Warriors play when he is on the court, but it's how head coach Steve Kerr and the team have chosen to prioritize him -- that is, not at all. Last season Lester Quinones or Gary Payton II often received minutes before Moody, and this preseason it appears that the Warriors are poised to make the same mistake.

In their first preseason game against the LA Clippers, the Warriors played a whopping 10 players before they put Moses Moody into the game. That included starting Jonathan Kuminga at small forward, nominally Moody's position, and bringing Payton off the bench as the backup 3. Moody was the 11th player off the bench, which means during the regular season he wouldn't be playing at all.

In the Warriors' second game on Wednesday night Moody and Payton swapped places and he came in as the 10th player off the bench. Even that is an overly optimistic development, however, because in both games starting small forward Andrew Wiggins didn't play due to an illness. That means Moody's chances of seeing the court during the regular season are even lower, to the point of being nonexistent if the Warriors are fully healthy.

It seems impossible that the Warriors have a young player who can shoot, score, defend and rebound and they simply don't want to play him. They are prioritizing veterans over Moody, and in the process, squandering an opportunity to develop a difference-maker with a long career ahead of him. Despite the chemistry Moody has shown with Stephen Curry, despite his modern skillset, he's being ignored in Golden State.

That means he's the perfect buy-low candidate for the Raptors on the trade market.