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Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody made their debuts today to the media for the first time. LetsGoWarriors was only one of two outlets (Anthony Slater of The Athletic was the only other Golden State Warriors beatwriter there) to cover morning shootaround before the Warriors take on the Sacramento Kings at the California Classic Summer League at Golden 1 Center. Here’s a recap of it.
After a little snafu at the media entrance, I entered the arena and headed down to the event level and passed by Justinian Jessup. I thought I was probably a little late, and it seemed like parts of the team were already done, while other little groups such as Kuminga, Moody, Gary Payton II, Mychal Mulder, Jordan Poole, and Juan Toscano-Anderson were still working on things.
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I did not see Eric Paschall, although he was listed on the roster and there was too much else going on. We could see James Wiseman shooting free throws at the far end:
I went live on Instagram for only a minute and caught Juan teaching the new guys stuff. You can probably hear some of the instruction going on. It was neat to see him in this leadership role and a reminder of just how far he had come since last summer.
If the audio is audible, it might be worth doing another post analyzing what JTA talked about, as the newbies Kuminga and Moody were clearly listening. Also helping out was GP2. Poole was mostly busy shooting, which come to think of it is a lot like Klay Thompson’s mentality at shootarounds.
It had been awhile since seeing anybody live due to the pandemic, but observing such a knock-down shooter as Poole honing his craft, I had to lock in on him, as well as JTA and Mulder.
Kuminga and Moody were in the far court. Slater had already gotten video of them by the time arrived:
Kuminga and Moody then did a drill where Kuminga would set a pick, and Moody would do a catch-and-shoot:
The rap music was blaring, which presented another problem for me: de-monetization by YouTube for copyrighted music. So I alternated five-second chunks on both ends of the court, simultaneously with my two iPhones.
At one point, it seemed like Poole won a shooting contest, but Juan and Mulder, who were both shooting with him, joined in the celebration and Poole rammed himself into Wiseman, who was innocently sitting alone courtside, with a love tap:
I have no idea what the basis of the shooting contest was, as I would’ve made an educated guess that it was JP versus Juan versus Mike, but they all ended up celebrating together, which I honestly think is a true testament to the culture of fun that Stephen Curry has permeated here at Golden State.
Poole and Moody then did their own shooting drills, and the Kings arrived on the scene and Tyrese Haliburton and Damian Jones said hello to their brethren.
My recollection of the order of things that happened is a bit of a blur, but before the Kings arrived, everybody including Wiseman ended up at the center circle to yell, “Just us!” in unison.
Kuminga, Moody and GP2 had a mini-dunk contest at one point, but only one dunk attempt per. As Salom Mawugbe had pointed in the Zoom call from Summer League Media Day yesterday (we’ll have some of the video up on our YouTube channel later), Payton has massive hops. Moody and Kuminga missed their dunks, and my photographer noted in some still shots that Kuminga doesn’t have the best “dunking face”, so we left those pics out of the forthcoming gallery.
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There was also a nice exchange between Moody and JTA about their hometowns of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Oakland, California. Santa Cruz Warriors assistant coach Anthony Mann added his two cents about the South:
All in all, yes, this doesn’t quite compare to Steph, Klay, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant — buried deep in our channel (check the playlists, if you’re serious, or do a search using “letsgowarriors” as a keyword) — of yesteryear, but the culture of the Warriors remains strong and we got our first taste of up-close camaraderie since the pandemic started, so I felt like a kid in a candy store all over again, even though it was “just” morning shootaround with the blue and gold.
As the 2021-22 season rolls along, expect these DubNation Diaries to be behind the eventual subscription paywall. Those who can afford it can show your appreciation for these posts up until then by signing up for our Discord server ($1/mo or $5/mo) via our Patreon site.
Also, more pics, maybe a mini-gallery and maybe a slideshow on the way! #contentoverload (check our Instagram too!) /end