Indiana Pacers Prospects: Moses Moody, a defensive bulldog
By Sam Black
What are the NBA-ready skills that Moses Moody would bring to the Indiana Pacers?
Defense: What can’t he do on this end?
What a defensive prospect this kid is. While I salivated over players of last year’s class like Isaac Okoro and Devin Vassell, Moody might have these guys beat from a defensive perspective, and that is scary.
Standing at 6-foot-6 with a 7-foot-0 wingspan, the 206-pound guard/forward has the ideal body type and measurements for a player of this mold. With a low center of gravity and somewhat wide shoulders, this Razorback in fact knows how to use his gifted measurables in a tangible way to be an exponentially disruptive player.
He has great hips and the way he uses his elite lateral quickness is textbook as players have a nightmarish time getting past Moody in drive situations or isolation attempts. This comes to fruition when aided by Moses’s beautiful defensive stance and ability to use his arms and shoulders without fouling.
Moody utilizes his incredible reaction time and predictionary view of the game to routinely and almost robotically be in the right spot at the right time all the time whether it be on quick switches on the perimeter to even backside rotations to pick up blocks with his freakishly quick hands. He is like a free safety with how easily he picks off passes via deflections.
It doesn’t matter if he’s off-ball or clamping down on lead initiators, he seems to have eyes in the back of his head as he always knows what is going on throughout the play, and this makes him very special.
Lastly, the way he uses his length to contest and strong lower body to bang down low paint us a portrait of a prospect that after strength development could easily switch onto NBA bigs in a Marcus Smart-like fashion.
Because of his ability to lock down wings and forwards alike, and being able to wall off bigs down low, I can easily foreshadow that Moses Moody will at some point find himself on an All-Defensive team. His free safety-like ability off the ball, and bear trapping ability on it make him an almost 10/10 defensive prospect.