Warriors Rookie Brandin Podziemski On His Tough Basketball Journey: '2 Years Ago At This Time I Had 17 DNP And Only Played Garbage Time'

Podziemski's story is certainly one that should give hope to all those who are close to losing it entirely. The 20-year-old was a four-star recruit out of  St. John's Northwestern Military Academy and committed to playing college basketball at Illinois. 

He did not start a single game in his freshman season with them and only averaged 4.3 minutes per game in his 16 outings. He obviously wouldn't have been on any draft board at that point and Podziemski then made the decision to transfer to Santa Clara.

In his sophomore season, he averaged 19.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game, and was named WCC co-Player of the Year. There were still many who were quite skeptical about how Podziemski would fare in the NBA and some eyebrows were raised when the Warriors selected him with the 19th pick of the 2023 Draft.

Then in the first 11 games of this 2023-24 season, the rookie only featured six times. Podziemski played more than 10 minutes in just two of those six outings and was firmly on the fringes.

But when Draymond Green and Klay Thompson were ejected in the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on November 14, Podziemski got his chance to shine. He had 23 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal on the night, in what was his breakout game.

He earned a fair bit of trust after that showing and head coach Steve Kerr rewarded him with extended minutes from then on out. As he saw his starters continue to struggle, Kerr then made the decision earlier this month to insert Podziemski into the starting lineup. 

In his six outings as a starter, the rookie has averaged 10.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. Those are pretty solid numbers for someone in their first season and while Podziemski doesn't seem to be a superstar in the making, he has what it takes to be a good player in the NBA for a long time.

Steve Kerr Had High Praise For Brandin Podziemski After The Draft

Kerr is somewhat notorious for always sticking with his veterans and not having a lot of belief in young players. This rookie has certainly made quite an impression for him to change his ways and Kerr also had high praise for Podziemski after the Warriors drafted him.

He pointed to the high rebounding numbers for a guard that the youngster had at Santa Clara and felt that would translate well. Those numbers showed Kerr that Podziemski had a real knack for getting to the ball and anticipating plays. The rebounding has certainly translated well, as Kerr had predicted, but I'm not sure even he thought the rookie would turn out to be this good this soon.