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Brandin Podziemski has always insisted he's most comfortable playing point guard, and the Golden State Warriors finally gave him the chance to prove it in mid-November after a season-ending injury to De'Anthony Melton. Barely more than a month later, the acquisition of Dennis Schroder pushed Golden State's sophomore guard back to the off-ball role he played while sharing the backcourt with Stephen Curry and Chris Paul.
“I think this is going to be a good thing for Brandin, ultimately,” Steve Kerr said on December 17th, in wake of the Warriors' sudden trade for Schroder. “When you look at last year, we looked at it today, I think he played 90 percent of his minutes with either Steph or Chris last year. He's really ideally suited to be a secondary playmaker, not the primary shot-creator. I think we've put him in a tough spot this year based on our roster and based on the combinations, he's been put in a spot where he's had to create a lot.
“[Podziemski's] best when he's on the weak side, somebody else creates, the ball starts to move, now he's cutting and putting it on the floor and making a play for someone else,” the Warriors' future Hall-of-Fame coach continued. “I think we'll see more of that now that Denis is here.”
Schroder's time in the Bay Area didn't last long, but hardly because the presence of another lead ball-handler and experienced decision-maker failed to make the Dubs' hoped impact on Podziemski. His troubling offensive struggles to start 2024-25 ended basically the moment Schroder arrived.
As the playoffs dawn, Podziemski is playing the best basketball of his young career for the revamped, surging Warriors—no surprise considering the souped-up supporting role he's occupied with Jimmy Butler wearing blue and gold.
The Jimmy Butler effect on Brandin Podziemski
Podziemski scored 20 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished three assists on 7-of-12 shooting overall and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc in Tuesday's blowout win over the listless Phoenix Suns. It was the fifth time in the last seven games he'd managed at least 19 points, a stretch in which the southpaw has hit a scorching 54.9% of his triples on high volume.
Curry is the Warriors' undisputed alpha dog, obviously, and Butler is ensconced as their second offensive option even before flipping the switch for the playoffs. Podziemski, meanwhile, has emerged as Golden State's most productive, dynamic and reliable ancillary scorer and playmaker since Butler debuted on February 8th. He's averaging 15.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists over that timeframe, blazing to 41.8% accuracy on 6.1 three-point attempts per game—over two more than he was launching prior to the trade deadline.
“He's definitely taken a leap the last month,” Kerr said of Podziemski after Tuesday's win. “It's really coincided with Jimmy's arrival. The two of them have this great connection. Brandin solidified his spot as a starter, and I've always felt when you can stack together a lot of high-IQ players, the game becomes easier for everyone. That's what I'm seeing right now between Jimmy, BP, Draymond [Green], Steph—it's really fun to watch them all play.”
The Warriors never actually replaced the spot in the backcourt vacated by Melton and Schroder at the trade deadline or on the buyout market. Podziemski is the only full-time guard in the top-seven of Kerr's rotation beyond Curry, yielding the type of lineup configurations that wouldn't be possible without the innate table-setting chops of Butler and Green.
Podziemski boasts a semblance of that elite processing speed and overall court sense, too. He lags far behind Butler and Green in both size and experience, though, a contextual dynamic that's slotted the 22-year-old into firm place as a more dependent offensive threat leading up to the postseason. Butler's fingerprints, in particular, are all over his recent success.
Podziemski's usage rate spikes to 21.7 when sharing the floor with Butler, per pbpstats.com, a nearly five-point increase compared to his pre-deadline mark that also stands as a team-high. His true shooting percentage in those circumstances is a stellar 61.6%, almost 10 points better than when playing without the Warriors' new spiritual leader. The 27.2 points per 100 possessions he scores next to Butler accounts for just as dramatic a discrepancy.
Maybe the surest indicator that Podziemski is at his best to next to superior playmakers, regardless of their positions or dimensions? All that extra usage, efficiency and point production since early February has come as his share of assisted baskets has spiked from 63.4% to 71%, per NBA.com/stats.
Brandin Podziemski is thriving off advantages
The Dubs aren't naive enough to believe Podziemski really is the absolute deadeye long-range shooter he's been since returning from a back injury on March 18th. He's at exactly 50% on triples over the last 12 games despite Wednesday's clunker against the San Antonio Spurs, a sign of Podziemski's clear strides as an overall shot-maker this season more than any possibility he's suddenly become one of the greatest shooters in the world.
These contested, off-dribble splashes remain the exception for Podziemski, not the norm.
Merely serving as a consistent threat from the outside can be just as valuable as actually making three-pointers, especially under the postseason microscope. Rest assured that defenses will treat Podziemski like a proven shooter come playoff time, paying him real respect outside the arc no matter where he's letting fly from deep.
Even if the jumper betrays him, just the specter of Podziemski splashing threes should be enough for him to goad aggressive close-outs from defenses—exactly the kind of advantage situation he's found himself in far more often with Butler in the fold to play off Curry and Green.
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“It's changed everything,” Kerr said Tuesday of Podziemski's recent three-point barrage. “Just the last month or so, knocking down the threes, feeling so confident back there. But the way he can get to the rim, use his euro-step, the way he runs through the catch against close-outs and breaks the defense down and either scores or finds somebody else for an open shot. Brandin is generating a ton of shots for us.”
Podziemski doesn't need a lightning first step or plus positional size to crease the paint and find teammates when he's making instant decisions off the catch. Butler and Green have been the primary beneficiaries of him increasingly utilizing those “stampede” or “go-and-catch” drives Kerr describes above.
There's a chance that physical limitations keep Podziemski from ever realizing his dream as a full-fledged NBA point guard. Still, it won't be some damning indictment of his career at large or even real-time effectiveness should that prove the case.
The scoring and passing versatility Podziemski offers while attacking scrambling defenses makes him a dangerous supporting shot-creator for the Warriors, particularly when interacting with Curry and Butler. After the last two months, Kerr and the coaching staff can expect him to make the right decision against playoff defenses when presented with advantages for himself and his teammates.
Real test of ‘leap' awaits Warriors guard in playoffs
Podziemski has never lacked for confidence. Putting that proud, palpable self-belief on display over the last two seasons has even rankled some readily disagreeable Warriors fans, irritated by the perception that Podziemski's talk speaks louder than his game. Similar criticisms have been nonexistent amid Golden State's stunning in-season turnaround, and rightfully so.
The addition of Butler is the catalyst behind that development, with Curry and Green staking legitimate claims for First Team All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year honors in the process. Moses Moody, Gary Payton II and Quinten Post have also seamlessly slid into valuable new roles for the Dubs.
And if the Warriors make good on a dominant closing stretch with a deep run into late spring, Podziemski is bound to have picked up in the playoffs right where he left off a trying yet transformational regular season—latent pressure of which he seems fully aware and ready to embrace.
“I'm glad it worked out this way, struggling early and finishing good late instead of vice versa,” Podziemski said Tuesday. “But like I said, the good ones, the All-Stars, they do it consistently. Like Steph, Jimmy, they do it every night, and they do it in the playoffs.”
