The Golden State Warriors are less than two weeks away from kicking off their 2025-26 season with a road game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Warriors have far and away the oldest roster in the NBA, with four out of their five starters being age 35 or older, including Stephen Curry, who will turn 38 years old this season.
The Warriors have been attempting to establish something of a young core while still competing for championships with their veterans, but thus far, those attempts have failed, with the Jordan Poole experiment crashing and burning and Klay Thompson reportedly feeling alienated by Steve Kerr's usage of younger players over him, resulting in him skipping town last year.
Still, Warriors rising third-year player Brandin Podziemski is confident that he will earn the keys to the franchise one day.
“When they leave this thing, they got to leave it with somebody,” Podziemski said, per Nick Friedell of The Athletic. “How can I have their trust? And they can go to [owner] Joe [Lacob] and [general manager] Mike [Dunleavy] and be like, “Hey, we want to leave it with him. He’s going to continue what we’re leaving.
“So, I think about that all time, and I set myself up in that position to have that. And there’s a lot of other things than just skill that you need to be in that position.”
A bold claim from Brandin Podziemski
Brandin Podziemski has had a solid career so far for the Warriors, turning himself into one of the better rookies of his class despite being a later first round draft pick.
Still, his play so far doesn't necessarily have “future star” written on it, so it will be interesting to see what steps he is able to take with his game this year.
Podziemski is one of the few Warriors young players that has Kerr's trust for rotational minutes, so he'll likely get a big opportunity to show off his game this year.
The Warriors' season is set to begin on October 21 in Los Angeles.
