SAN FRANCISCO — Almost a yr in the past on the dot, Mike Dunleavy, the Golden State Warriors’ future basic supervisor, and Kent Lacob, an ascending entrance workplace personnel voice, hopped in a automotive and made the fast 50 mile journey south to Santa Clara’s campus.
They had been primarily there to see Maxwell Lewis, the doable lottery select of Pepperdine. Lewis performed nice. He’d finally get chosen fortieth within the 2023 NBA Draft. However he wasn’t the very best participant on the ground. Brandin Podziemski, a 6-foot-4 guard who was solely starting to creep onto the draft radar, made each important play to guide Santa Clara to victory. His 23 factors mattered. But it surely was the 18 rebounds that had Dunleavy’s and Lacob’s antennas up.
“Mike and I walked out of the sport like, ‘Um, that man is perhaps a first-round choose,’” Lacob mentioned.
Podziemski competed within the NBA Rising Stars Problem at All-Star Weekend final Friday. He leads all NBA rookies with 14 video games of no less than 10 factors, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, making him a transparent candidate to complete on the All-Rookie first workforce.
He turns 21 this week, however has already pushed his well beyond Klay Thompson into the Warriors’ beginning and shutting lineups, a significant glue piece of head coach Steve Kerr’s favourite five-man group, which has outscored opponents by 57 factors in 107 minutes.
The connection between Podziemski and the Warriors will be traced to that February night time. That’s after they first started to take Podziemski critically as a prospect. Within the ensuing 12 months — with a bunch of necessary inflection factors alongside the best way — he has received over each degree of the group, most crucially his veteran teammates.
Podziemski’s future surfaced lately within the visiting locker room in Salt Lake Metropolis. He’s a prototype function participant proper now, however has desires of turning into an All-Star. There are roadblocks forward and limitations to beat. However anybody who has doubted Podziemski so far has regularly been confirmed mistaken.
“The ceiling is excessive,” Draymond Inexperienced mentioned. “He’s nonetheless studying. Nonetheless figuring s— out. However while you begin people who find themselves going to succeed him…”
Inexperienced factors three lockers down. Stephen Curry is getting dressed after torching the Jazz. Curry’s prime could prolong till 40. However he turns 36 subsequent month. When Curry is 40, Podziemski shall be 25.
“It received’t look the identical,” Inexperienced mentioned. “Completely totally different. However you’re very comfy when he’s on the market on the courtroom. That claims so much for a rookie on this workforce — that you simply really feel the quantity of consolation you do when he’s on the market working the present.”
The Warriors’ entrance workplace reconnected with Podziemski on the draft mix in Chicago in Might. Most prime prospects don’t do a lot courtroom work. He examined out higher than anticipated athletically and was already rising on boards, getting first-round buzz. Some in his place could have skipped the scrimmages. Podziemski didn’t.
“I acquired nothing to cover,” he instructed the Warriors brass, led by scouting director Larry Harris.
Podziemski then went out and crushed the scrimmage portion. His inventory spiked once more. In-person exercises cranked up. Podziemski traveled the nation, intent on impressing. He went to Houston. Chuck Hayes, at present within the Warriors entrance workplace, was working for the Rockets on the time. He remembers Podziemski killing the exercise whereas letting the gymnasium find out about it.
“BP,” Hayes referred to as out earlier than a latest recreation. “You keep in mind speaking trash to John Lucas within the Rockets exercise?”
“Oh, yeah,” Podziemski replied.
Podziemski and Lucas, the previous NBA level guard and legendary growth coach, had been arguing about who was the best lefty guard within the constructing. It was an early peek into the mindset that has earned Podziemski a lot respect.
“He speak s— all day,” Inexperienced mentioned. “That’s all he do.”
Podziemski thought he crushed his exercise in Miami. He figured the Warmth may draft him 18th. They went with Jaime Jaquez Jr., additionally a Warriors’ favourite. Golden State was up at No. 19. Podziemski thought he match, however didn’t really feel fairly as optimistic about how he carried out at his group exercise in San Francisco. The Warriors had been positive.
“He was nice on the courtroom,” Lacob mentioned. “Like, actually good. Clearly the very best participant within the exercise.”
The Warriors then introduced him into the movie room and had him break down two video games of tape. They don’t typically study a lot in these classes. Podziemski was totally different. They slowed down a few of his pick-and-roll decision-making towards Gonzaga and defensive possessions.
“He might reference personnel on the opposite workforce,” Lacob mentioned. “Names, tendencies, opponent actions. His reminiscence recall was tremendous spectacular.”
Podziemski popped within the Warriors’ analytics mannequin, put collectively by their vp of analytics Pabail Sidhu. They worth it with elevated frequency. Podziemski’s 8.8 rebounds per recreation led his convention. That juiced the analytics mannequin. When it was all wrapped collectively, Podziemski completed top-10 on the entrance workplace’s consensus ultimate draft board.
“There was a perception that he was clearly a Steve Kerr system match, but additionally a consensus perception it was greater than that,” Lacob mentioned. “The expertise mixed with the IQ and the character was one thing to guess on.”
Cam Whitmore, thought-about a pre-draft top-five prospect, was nonetheless obtainable at 19. So had been loads of different valued gamers. However the Warriors didn’t flinch. They took Podziemski. It was Dunleavy’s first draft choice as basic supervisor. The room agreed on Podziemski.
Inexperienced sprained his left ankle simply earlier than coaching camp. He missed a few month. In his ramp-up to return, the Warriors arrange a scrimmage in Sacramento the morning of their second recreation. Podziemski was out of the rotation, so that they had him play on Inexperienced’s workforce. They misplaced the primary scrimmage after Inexperienced turned it over.
“We will’t have a turnover for recreation!” Podziemski instructed Inexperienced. “You can not flip the ball over for recreation.”
Inexperienced was surprised. They’ve had rookies who barely say a phrase to him your entire season.
“I used to be like, ‘OK, cool, you bought it. No downside,’” Inexperienced mentioned. “Right here we’re enjoying a pick-up recreation, a recreation to get me prepared and he’s yelling at me. That to me mentioned an entire lot. I used to be like, ‘You understand what? No downside. However be sure you communicate up like that on a regular basis.’”
Inexperienced and Podziemski high-five throughout a recreation towards the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. (Alonzo Adams / USA At this time)
The Warriors had an prolonged keep in Los Angeles throughout the preseason. They’d some exercises on UCLA’s campus. After one observe, the guards arrange a King of the Courtroom model one-on-one. Rating and keep. Podziemski was up towards a bunch that included Curry and Chris Paul.
“We had been at UCLA, proper?” Paul requested Moses Moody. “When BP beat us in ones.”
“Sure,” Moody responded, grinning on the reminiscence. The rookie was giving it to 2 of the best to ever do it on the level guard place and alerting anybody inside earshot of the injury.
“He did the Tiger (Woods) fist-pump,” Paul mentioned, shaking his head.
“‘Let’s f—g go!’” Curry remembers him taunting. “That was hilarious.”
Podziemski’s first NBA style was bitter. He struggled in summer season league, largely together with his jumper and floater. The extra he stewed, the extra it snowballed.
“I had somewhat little bit of doubt after summer season league,” Podziemski admitted. “However the remainder of that July interval and August and September, I simply attacked. I centered on what I wanted to work on to be a job participant on this workforce.”
Podziemski attended each workforce exercise that Curry, Paul and Inexperienced organized throughout the summer season. He was within the workforce facility on Aug. 1 and a mainstay nearly every single day after. He entered camp assured he might make some noise, even when most figured he’d spend nearly all of the season in Santa Cruz with the Warriors G League affiliate.
Kevon Looney remembers the brand new rookie guard bashing into him and clawing over rebounds. He initially instructed Podziemski to give up stealing them away. Then he realized it was a part of his recreation and perspective.
“I keep in mind in these mini-camps, he’d be grumbling after scrimmages like, ‘Oh, I’m bored with dropping,’” Looney mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘It’s best to simply be comfortable you’re on the courtroom.’ He’s like, ‘Nah, we gotta determine a option to win. They should cross me the ball.’ I’m like, ‘Uhh, I don’t find out about that.’”
Looney noticed a quote from Podziemski quickly after the draft that mentioned he needed to be a triple-double man.
“That’s fairly daring,” Looney mentioned and laughed. “However I do know most Wisconsin guards have this loopy confidence to them. (Jordan) Poole. Tyler Herro. He’s acquired a delusion to him that makes him good.”
Podziemski grew up in Milwaukee in what he describes as a “aggressive” household the place his father, John, and his mom, Barbara West, didn’t permit him to win at something. He wanted to earn it.
“From that competitiveness comes confidence,” Podziemski mentioned. “Realizing how a lot you set into the sport, why would you are available in right here nervous or timid?”
Podziemski stays extraordinarily late after video games. He strolls across the locker room and converses with anybody in his orbit. He tried to arrange an NBA-related quiz after a recreation early within the season to get some spending cash off Thompson after which in contrast their salaries when Thompson was hesitant. Thompson instructed him to cease “pocket-watching.”
“It’s simpler to tame a lion than get a sheep to indicate some oomph,” Curry mentioned. “Essentially the most annoying components about him are the best components about him. He’s nonetheless coachable. That’s an enormous a part of it. You may say all that stuff however for those who can’t settle for teaching, that’s the place it turns into being counterproductive.”
Podziemski trails Curry for postgame exercises and research what makes him nice. He is perhaps probably the most lively member of the workforce’s group chat, in line with Inexperienced, and instructed Inexperienced he was coming for him by way of textual content messages.
“I wouldn’t do that if I had been you,” Inexperienced warned. “I don’t play honest.”
Podziemski then despatched a bunch of previous photographs of Inexperienced to the workforce, the funniest he might discover.
“He was like: ‘Wham. Wham. Wham,’” Inexperienced mentioned of the flood of texts after which remembered he hadn’t retaliated. “I nonetheless gotta popcorn his automotive.”
After a low-energy loss to the Warmth in late December, a distraught Podziemski went to the rostrum and blamed himself as the most important purpose for the loss. Anybody who watched the sport would’ve positioned his respectable efficiency far down the checklist. Curry went 3 of 15 capturing. Andrew Wiggins was in a droop. Defensive breakdowns had been in all places. However there he was pinning himself because the night time’s wrongdoer.
“Geez,” Thompson mentioned when he heard about it. “Dramatic, rookie.”
Kerr has been most impressed with Podziemski defensively. In camp, they monitor deflections throughout scrimmages. Podziemski led the workforce. That was an early signal.
His rebounding numbers translated, which was notably necessary for a workforce that leaned small. The Warriors are the third-best rebounding workforce within the NBA and Podziemski’s 5.8 rebounds per recreation in 26 minutes per recreation rank behind solely Inexperienced and Looney. He will get on the glass extra relentlessly than Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga, their larger wings.
“What this workforce has lacked, what it lacked final yr, he gave us,” Kerr mentioned. “The connection. The connector. The ball-mover. The cutter. There’s a really feel and a recognition of what’s occurring on the ground that makes him playable in any lineup. He enhances each lineup.”
The Warriors almost blew an enormous result in the Spurs in late November. They received, however it was a foul total efficiency and Podziemski’s first actual stinker. He missed all 5 of his photographs. Kerr entered the locker room postgame anticipating the workforce to be down and Podziemski to be in hiding.
“I’d have been holed up in my residence for 3 days questioning if I’d ever make a shot once more,” Kerr mentioned of his youthful self. “However I went in there and he was probably the most upbeat man. I liked it. As a result of while you play poorly and nonetheless can deliver workforce vitality and preserve confidence and swagger, that’s an awesome signal.”
One of many extra consequential performs of the Warriors’ season thus far got here in Portland in mid-December. They entered a wobbly 11-14, needing desperately to beat a foul Path Blazers workforce. However Curry struggled and so they had been having a troublesome time placing the win away.
Curry missed a free throw with 4 seconds left. The Blazers, down two, didn’t name timeout. Shaedon Sharpe pushed the ball upcourt in a scramble drill. He had what seemed to be a path to the rim to tie it. However Podziemski stepped in entrance and took a game-winning cost. Right here’s the possession:
Podz saves the day with a heads-up play ‼️ pic.twitter.com/hsBjStzdye
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 18, 2023
That was Podziemski’s eleventh cost drawn. It has grow to be his signature defensive transfer. He has drawn 27 this season, which leads the NBA. He tracks the leaderboard, knew who led the NBA in that class final season (Oklahoma Metropolis’s Jaylin Williams) and even mentions a number of the biggest charge-takers in latest historical past when discussing it.
When discussing Podziemski’s defensive upside, Kerr in contrast him to Austin Reaves of the Lakers.
“Like once I coached Austin this previous summer season, what stood out to me most is simply that there’s zero concern defensively. And he’s robust as s—. That’s what they’ve in frequent. They’re very related (in) dimension. Six-four and actually bodily robust. That’s what you want, I believe, in immediately’s recreation. The blokes who battle defensively are the blokes who aren’t bodily robust. When you’re going to be on the small aspect, you’ve acquired to be robust,” Kerr mentioned.
Podziemski has, in a roundabout approach, in contrast himself to Gary Payton II and Draymond Inexperienced this season, overly bold on its face however Payton and Inexperienced appear to grasp the overall level. He sees the ground and the patterns and has an urge for food for disruption like each of them. However that comes with a draw back. He roams.
“He gambles approach an excessive amount of,” Kerr mentioned. “That’s nice besides we actually solely want one man (Draymond) doing that. When you’ve got two guys doing that, the protection shall be screwed up. However I’ll take that any day over the man who isn’t conscious. The man who isn’t conscious is standing on the weak aspect whereas the man is laying it in. He’s the alternative. He sees each cutter. He’s making an attempt to assist on every little thing. We simply have to assist him streamline and assist him perceive his job isn’t to do everybody else’s job.”
Provides Inexperienced: “He will get misplaced typically. However the actuality is I used to get misplaced on a regular basis. Individuals could not keep in mind, however they couldn’t play me on shooters for a very long time. It’d be like we’re enjoying the Pelicans, I’d guard Anthony Davis. Then they’d change Ryan Anderson or Nikola Mirotić and so they’d be like: ‘We acquired to get Draymond out of the sport.’”
Podziemski strayed too far off Jordan Clarkson throughout a latest recreation towards the Jazz and realized the lesson on the bench from Payton, one other high-risk gambler.
“He sees what Draymond does and tries to imitate it,” Payton mentioned. “However I instructed him while you’re guarding an issue like Clarkson, you possibly can’t roam as a lot as you’d like. As a result of it’s a swing, swing, excessive share catch-and-shoot. It’s all a really feel.”
On the opposite finish of the ground, Podziemski is a low-risk playmaker. In February, he has 52 assists and 9 turnovers. In January, he had 41 assists and 12 turnovers. He had a 27-assist, 0-turnover four-game stretch lately that broke rookie information.
However his final upside shall be decided as a scorer. Podziemski’s shot eating regimen is restricted to 3s, floaters, sweeping hooks and sneaky layups. He stays out of the midrange and doesn’t stay above the rim. He struggled together with his 3 for a number of the season however has made 12 of his final 19 to up his season share to 38.5 p.c. He has scored in double-figures in 28 video games this season, sixth-most amongst rookies, and hit 20 4 occasions. If that may grow to be a daily benchmark as he nears his prime, the ceiling will proceed to rise.
“I need to be an All-Star,” Podziemski mentioned. “You understand, Jonathan has taken that subsequent step of actually being in that dialog. To see his progress simply this yr has been fairly particular. So going into the summer season after this yr elevating my recreation to a different degree, doing the issues that I’m poor in now and making them as environment friendly as doable, I believe I can get there. I’m by no means gonna simply accept being a job participant, particularly after my first yr. I acquired a protracted profession forward of me.“
(Photograph illustration: Rachel Orr / The Athletic; picture: Brian Babineau / NBAE by way of Getty Pictures)