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SAN FRANCISCO — Practically a yr in the past on the dot, Mike Dunleavy, the Golden State Warriors’ future common supervisor, and Kent Lacob, an ascending entrance workplace personnel voice, hopped in a automobile and made the short 50 mile journey south to Santa Clara’s campus.
They have been primarily there to see Maxwell Lewis, the potential lottery select of Pepperdine. Lewis performed fantastic. 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 steer 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 could be 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 not less than 10 factors, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, making him a transparent candidate to complete on the All-Rookie first crew.
He turns 21 this week, however has already pushed his well past Klay Thompson into the Warriors’ beginning and shutting lineups, an important 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 may be traced to that February evening. That’s after they first started to take Podziemski significantly as a prospect. Within the ensuing 12 months — with a bunch of essential inflection factors alongside the way in which — he has received over each stage of the group, most crucially his veteran teammates.
Podziemski’s future surfaced not too long ago within the visiting locker room in Salt Lake Metropolis. He’s a prototype position participant proper now, however has goals of turning into an All-Star. There are roadblocks forward and limitations to beat. However anybody who has doubted Podziemski so far has frequently been confirmed mistaken.
“The ceiling is excessive,” Draymond Inexperienced mentioned. “He’s nonetheless studying. Nonetheless figuring s— out. However while you begin taking a look at 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 lengthen till 40. However he turns 36 subsequent month. When Curry is 40, Podziemski will probably be 25.
“It received’t look the identical,” Inexperienced mentioned. “Completely completely different. However you’re very comfy when he’s on the market on the courtroom. That claims quite a bit for a rookie on this crew — 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 bought 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, presently within the Warriors entrance workplace, was working for the Rockets on the time. He remembers Podziemski killing the exercise whereas letting the gymnasium learn about it.
“BP,” Hayes referred to as out earlier than a current sport. “You bear 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 improvement coach, have 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 discuss 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 have been certain.
“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 be taught a lot in these periods. Podziemski was completely 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 crew,” Lacob mentioned. “Names, tendencies, opponent actions. His reminiscence recall was tremendous spectacular.”
Podziemski popped within the Warriors’ analytics mannequin, put collectively by their vice chairman of analytics Pabail Sidhu. They worth it with elevated frequency. Podziemski’s 8.8 rebounds per sport led his convention. That juiced the analytics mannequin. When it was all wrapped collectively, Podziemski completed top-10 on the entrance workplace’s consensus remaining draft board.
“There was a perception that he was clearly a Steve Kerr system match, but in addition a consensus perception it was greater than that,” Lacob mentioned. “The expertise mixed with the IQ and the character was one thing to wager on.”
Cam Whitmore, thought of a pre-draft top-five prospect, was nonetheless accessible at 19. So have been loads of different valued gamers. However the Warriors didn’t flinch. They took Podziemski. It was Dunleavy’s first draft choice as common supervisor. The room agreed on Podziemski.
Inexperienced sprained his left ankle simply earlier than coaching camp. He missed a couple of month. In his ramp-up to return, the Warriors arrange a scrimmage in Sacramento the morning of their second sport. Podziemski was out of the rotation, so that they had him play on Inexperienced’s crew. They misplaced the primary scrimmage after Inexperienced turned it over.
“We are able to’t have a turnover for sport!” Podziemski instructed Inexperienced. “You can not flip the ball over for sport.”
Inexperienced was shocked. 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 drawback,’” Inexperienced mentioned. “Right here we’re taking part in a pick-up sport, a sport to get me prepared and he’s yelling at me. That to me mentioned an entire lot. I used to be like, ‘You already know what? No drawback. However be sure to converse up like that on a regular basis.’”
Inexperienced and Podziemski high-five throughout a sport towards the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. (Alonzo Adams / USA Right now)
The Warriors had an prolonged keep in Los Angeles through the preseason. They’d some exercises on UCLA’s campus. After one follow, the guards arrange a King of the Courtroom fashion one-on-one. Rating and keep. Podziemski was up towards a bunch that included Curry and Chris Paul.
“We have 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, principally along with his jumper and floater. The extra he stewed, the extra it snowballed.
“I had slightly 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 task participant on this crew.”
Podziemski attended each crew exercise that Curry, Paul and Inexperienced organized throughout the summer season. He was within the crew facility on Aug. 1 and a mainstay virtually 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 stop stealing them away. Then he realized it was a part of his sport and perspective.
“I bear in mind in these mini-camps, he’d be grumbling after scrimmages like, ‘Oh, I’m uninterested in shedding,’” Looney mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘It’s best to simply be completely satisfied you’re on the courtroom.’ He’s like, ‘Nah, we gotta determine a approach to win. They should move me the ball.’ I’m like, ‘Uhh, I don’t learn about that.’”
Looney noticed a quote from Podziemski quickly after the draft that mentioned he wished 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 bought 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. “Understanding 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 sport 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 point out some oomph,” Curry mentioned. “Essentially the most annoying elements about him are the best elements about him. He’s nonetheless coachable. That’s an enormous a part of it. You possibly can 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 could be essentially the most energetic member of the crew’s group chat, based on Inexperienced, and instructed Inexperienced he was coming for him through textual content messages.
“I wouldn’t do that if I have been you,” Inexperienced warned. “I don’t play truthful.”
Podziemski then despatched a bunch of previous photographs of Inexperienced to the crew, 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 automobile.”
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 listing. Curry went 3 of 15 capturing. Andrew Wiggins was in a stoop. Defensive breakdowns have been in every single place. However there he was pinning himself because the evening’s wrongdoer.
“Geez,” Thompson mentioned when he heard about it. “Dramatic, rookie.”
Kerr has been most impressed with Podziemski defensively. In camp, they observe deflections throughout scrimmages. Podziemski led the crew. That was an early signal.
His rebounding numbers translated, which was significantly essential for a crew that leaned small. The Warriors are the third-best rebounding crew within the NBA and Podziemski’s 5.8 rebounds per sport in 26 minutes per sport rank behind solely Inexperienced and Looney. He will get on the glass extra relentlessly than Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga, their larger wings.
“What this crew 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 practically blew an enormous result in the Spurs in late November. They received, but it surely was a nasty total efficiency and Podziemski’s first actual stinker. He missed all 5 of his photographs. Kerr entered the locker room postgame anticipating the crew 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 essentially the most upbeat man. I cherished it. As a result of while you play poorly and nonetheless can deliver crew power and preserve confidence and swagger, that’s an amazing signal.”
One of many extra consequential performs of the Warriors’ season up to now got here in Portland in mid-December. They entered a wobbly 11-14, needing desperately to beat a nasty Path Blazers crew. However Curry struggled and so they have 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 gave the impression 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 among the best charge-takers in current historical past when discussing it.
When discussing Podziemski’s defensive upside, Kerr in contrast him to Austin Reaves of the Lakers.
“Like after I coached Austin this previous summer season, what stood out to me most is simply that there’s zero worry defensively. And he’s sturdy as s—. That’s what they’ve in frequent. They’re very related (in) measurement. Six-four and actually bodily sturdy. That’s what you want, I believe, in right now’s sport. The blokes who battle defensively are the blokes who aren’t bodily sturdy. For those who’re going to be on the small facet, you’ve bought to be sturdy,” Kerr mentioned.
Podziemski has, in a roundabout means, in contrast himself to Gary Payton II and Draymond Inexperienced this season, overly formidable 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 means an excessive amount of,” Kerr mentioned. “That’s nice besides we actually solely want one man (Draymond) doing that. In case you have two guys doing that, the protection will probably 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 facet whereas the man is laying it in. He’s the alternative. He sees each cutter. He’s attempting to assist on every 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 generally. However the actuality is I used to get misplaced on a regular basis. Individuals could not bear in mind, however they couldn’t play me on shooters for a very long time. It’d be like we’re taking part in the Pelicans, I’d guard Anthony Davis. Then they’d swap Ryan Anderson or Nikola Mirotić and so they’d be like: ‘We bought to get Draymond out of the sport.’”
Podziemski strayed too far off Jordan Clarkson throughout a current sport 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’ll be able to’t roam as a lot as you’d like. As a result of it’s a swing, swing, excessive proportion 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 not too long ago that broke rookie information.
However his final upside will probably 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 reside above the rim. He struggled along with his 3 for among the season however has made 12 of his final 19 to up his season proportion 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 instances. If that may grow to be an everyday benchmark as he nears his prime, the ceiling will proceed to rise.
“I need to be an All-Star,” Podziemski mentioned. “You already know, Jonathan has taken that subsequent step of actually being in that dialog. To see his development simply this yr has been fairly particular. So going into the summer season after this yr elevating my sport to a different stage, doing the issues that I’m poor in now and making them as environment friendly as potential, I believe I can get there. I’m by no means gonna simply accept being a task participant, particularly after my first yr. I bought an extended profession forward of me.“
(Photograph illustration: Rachel Orr / The Athletic; picture: Brian Babineau / NBAE through Getty Photographs)
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