Rookie report: Brandin Podziemski

Rookie Report is a weekly column by Jack Hallinan focusing on NBA rookies making a name for themselves in the league.

Like the NBA took a break from competitive action over the past week, I too took last week off from column writing, but we’re back with a vengeance.

The one thing the NBA seemed to prove over the All-Star break was that the showcase game itself has no real purpose or competitive drive. Commissioner Adam Silver’s exasperated “well… congratulations” to the winning Eastern Conference proves it.

Who knows if this year’s PR disaster will lead to any real change in the weekend’s format, but if Silver’s office does decide to make any changes, one aspect should remain firmly in place: the Rising Stars challenge, the four-team mini-tournament between three squads of young NBA-ers and one G League crew.

In addition to fun moments like a Jaime Jaquez Jr.-Victor Wembanyama pick and roll, we also saw some actual emotional investment. Bennedict Mathurin told Jaden Ivey, “even in the Rising Stars game, you can’t guard me” multiple times—and it didn’t seem like Ivey found it funny.

Keep in mind, the Detroit Pistons selected Ivey fifth in the 2022 draft, just one spot ahead of Mathurin, who also plays guard. The Pacers player probably sees Ivey as a direct rival and used the Rising Stars games to establish his dominance, bringing home the tournament’s MVP award after scoring 22 of Team Jalen’s 66 points across the semifinal and final. NBA fans probably wish they could see that level of pettiness in the actual All-Star game.

For today’s focus, though, we’re taking a look at another player who featured in the Rising Stars showcase: Brandin Podziemski of the Golden State Warriors.

While Podziemski only knocked down one three-pointer for Team Pau over the weekend, the former Santa Clara Bronco has become a key rotational piece for the Warriors in the middle of a critical stretch for the team.

As James Wiseman and Moses Moody proved, just because you’re a lottery pick does not mean Warriors head coach Steve Kerr will guarantee you minutes. Wiseman played just 12.5 minutes per game in the 2022-23 season before the organization traded him to Detroit and despite being the 14th overall pick in the 2021 draft, Moody has yet to eclipse an average minutes played of 18 per night.

So the fact that Podziemski already plays 26.4 minutes per game in a Warriors uniform is no small feat. It proves that he has the basketball IQ and qualities Kerr requires from a top-tier role player. Podziemski has even started a couple recent games, suggesting he may move into that role permanently if the team decides to move on from Klay Thompson or Andrew Wiggins in the summer.

He’s only averaging 9.9 points per game thus far in 2022-23, but Podziemski spaces the floor with his 38.5% accuracy from beyond the arc on 3.3 attempts per game. He also shares the rock exceptionally well, averaging 3.9 assists per game and even posting an absurd 14-assist game off the bench against the Grizzlies on Feb. 2.

Podziemski’s willingness to move the ball and create for teammates is probably what endeared him to Kerr so quickly, especially in sequences like this:

In this clip from the aforementioned Grizzlies game, Podziemski cuts to the top of the arc to receive the ball in space and drives quickly to the hoop, galloping past the Grizzlies’ Jacob Gilyard. He quickly realizes, though, that Jaren Jackson Jr.—one of the league’s elite shot blockers—is sitting in the lane ahead of him. So as Podziemski leaps up to finish, he contorts his body smoothly to kick the ball out to a wide-open Jonathan Kuminga, who sinks the three.

Kerr surely gave “Podz” a gold star for that one. He’s showered Podziemski with lavish praise, especially in this recent profile of the rookie by The Athletic.

“What this team has lacked, what it lacked last year, he gave us,” Kerr told The Athletic’s Anthony Slater.

“The connection. The connector. The ball-mover. The cutter. There’s a feel and a recognition of what’s happening on the floor that makes him playable in any lineup. He enhances every lineup.”

Sheesh. We’re talking about one of the NBA’s two or three best coaches here, who just described his breakout rookie as basically the solution to every problem.

But it doesn’t seem like Kerr was hyperbolic in his praise; Podziemski really will do whatever it takes to win. In a Dec. 17 game against the Portland Trail Blazers, Podziemski sealed the game by taking a charge from Shaedon Sharpe that gave the Warriors the ball with less than a second remaining:

The gutsy play finished off a well-rounded 10-point, 5-assist, 5-rebound performance. The latter of which—also according to The Athletic’s piece—helped give him a much higher valuation in the Warriors analytics model while he played at Santa Clara, where his 8.8 rebounds per game led the Western Athletic Conference. That trait has popped in the NBA, too, where Podziemski has averaged 5.8 rebounds per game at 6-foot-4, 205 pounds.

So, how soon will we see Podziemski contribute to playoff basketball? Hopefully this season, but it’s hard to know with the Warriors. The franchise occupies a strange place in the NBA landscape.

They’ve become one of the league’s premier teams on the back of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green’s success. Steve Kerr is an offensive mastermind of a coach. The ownership has an extremely high willingness to spend. And yet, they find themselves in 10th in the Western Conference as of Feb. 21, with 29 games left to play in the regular season. They could surge up to 5th or 6th or settle for a play-in place.

But either way, the Warriors are not currently serious title contenders. Despite Curry’s greatness, Thompson looks… shall we say, aged, while Green can’t stay out of his own way when it comes to suspension-worthy incidents.

Even if these stars are shadows of their former selves, the Warriors have the ability to reload quickly due to Podziemski’s immediate fit and potential to become a high-level starter alongside the Warriors’ other studly youngster, Jonathan Kuminga, who’s still just 21 and in his third NBA season.

Whatever happens this season and beyond, Podziemski should give Warriors fans hope the team’s future is bright.