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The Golden State Warriors will be without one of their key guards in their preseason matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Brandin Podziemski is not playing tonight in Las Vegas against the Lakers. He broke his nose on Sunday, and he’s still waiting on a mask,” Warriors reporter Kendra Andrews tweeted on X, formerly Twitter.
Podziemski has noted that he's broken his nose before while he was at Santa Clara, and that situation was worse because he got a concussion as well. Luckily for the Warriors, he shouldn't miss any time in the regular, as he's set to play a bigger role this year as the potential backup guard.
For Podziemski, whatever role he plays for the Warriors, he wants to be able to do it to his fullest, without any restrictions to his minutes.
“I’m not a big fan of a minutes restriction,” Podziemski said. “If I’m healthy to play, I want to play as much as I can. I just always want to be available, so not being able to play tomorrow kind of sucks. Even though it’s preseason. But yeah, I definitely take pride — I want to always lead the team in minutes, games played, stuff like that.”
Warriors looking forward to Brandin Podziemski's increased role
Last season, Brandin Podziemski averaged 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, which earned him a First-Team All-Rookie selection.
Draymond Green was asked about Podziemski and what his role will look like this year with Klay Thompson gone.
“I think he had a pretty big role last year,” Green said. “I’ll warn him to be Brandin,” Green continued. “You can fall into the trap of so many people saying Klay leaving, you gotta be this, gotta do this. No. Be you. (Podziemski) will have a lot better opportunity to succeed by being himself than trying to fill somebody else role.”
“I can speak to that. When I started the last thing I wanted to do was try and be David Lee,” Green continued. “Because I couldn't, number one. Number two, it's not my skill set. That's not how I'm going to best impact the game. So I'll warn (Podziemski) that if you do great things on the court, if there is something that you do great, do that. If you do it great, the team, offense, and organization will adjust to (your greatness) because it calls for an adjustment.”
There's a good chance that Podziemski will thrive in his expanded role, and it looks like he has the support of his teammates.
