How offseason surgery, Klay’s mantra, led to Moses Moody’s slight shooting tweak

DENVER – Klay Thompson calls his idea of shooting a basketball an upside-down wave, like water flowing through your body. His former Warriors teammate, Moses Moody, understood the concept when he least expected to.Moody, in late May, underwent right thumb surgery to repair a torn UCL that severely hampered him in the NBA playoffs. He could have focused solely on his legs in the weight room and stayed in shape running and lifting. The work couldn’t stop there, especially after shooting a career-high 37.4 percent from 3-point range. Somehow, someway, Moody was going to improve his jump shot. Even without his shooting hand readily available to him. The slight change he made to his shot in the offseason began by accident, learning to shoot left-handed. “Shooting with my left is actually what made the tweak, what really made me realize it, because I had to teach myself how to shoot with my left hand,” Moody said Friday after Warriors shootaround at Ball Arena before their game against the Denver Nuggets. “Therefore, I had to really go step by step on what I do with my right hand. A lot of times you don’t even realize — it’s muscle memory. “But having to break it down like that made me really realize when I shoot it flat, it hits the back of the rim. When I do a little certain thing, it adds a little pop to it. So I just transferred that over to what I do now.” That certain little thing isn’t a drastic move. Moody’s footwork remains the same. His focus is just a bit different on what he wants to feel in practice so he doesn’t even need to think about the fix in games. The goal is more power and more control, and the results have shown up with Moody scoring a season high in points and 3-pointers in back-to-back games. “Mainly, really just getting under the ball,” Moody said. “I added a little pop to it. It’s a whole breakdown I could give, but I don’t want to get too much into it. But really just getting under the ball. “When I was shooting with my left, there would be times where it was just a terrible shot. But then realizing that the rhythm of your body — Klay used to talk about that. An upside-down wave and shooting at the end. But really just the pop at the end. And I was able to figure out some things to make it consistent.” Moody first hurt his thumb on March 18 in a win against the Milwaukee Bucks. He didn’t find out until later that he had torn a ligament, gutting past the pain to try and help his team. However, his shooting numbers took a massive dip. From the game he initially sustained the injury to the end of the regular season, Moody shot 30.3 percent on 3-pointers, going 20 of 66 overall. He looked hesitant shooting the ball in the playoffs, while the outside didn’t know about his injury. Moody, in a three-game span, took eight threes and missed all eight, finishing the playoffs shooting just 35 percent from the field and 33.3 percent on threes. Going under the knife forced him to put the ball in his left hand and feel every aspect of his shot. A refinement was created that might have never happened if it weren’t for an unfortunate injury. The dividends were immediate money in the bank. Moody in the Warriors’ preseason opener dropped 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 5 of 7 on threes. A calf strain then kept him out for the Warriors’ final three preseason games and the first two regular-season games. He started off slow in his return, but now that his sea legs are back, so is the rhythm he found in his left hand, reminding him what to do with his right. Between the Warriors’ last two games, Moody has averaged 26 points, scoring 24 and 28 points, making five threes and then six on a 57.9 percent clip (11 of 19), bringing his 3-point percentage to 51.2 in his first seven games of the season. “There’s stuff through a whole season. There will be times where your shot’s falling and something feels good about it but you’re not sure what it is,” Moody says. “Or maybe you are sure what it is, but you forget about it and stop doing it. Part of it was me recognizing what feels good about my shot when it’s feeling its best and doing that every time.” He didn’t need to start from square one again. Being in tune with his body like Klay is whenever he’s on the water has Moody at peace more than ever with his shot after a time when he could have lost the ability to do so altogether.Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

How offseason surgery, Klay’s mantra, led to Moses Moody’s slight shooting tweak

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