Podz eager, ready for a second Warriors season after a summer refresh originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
LAIE, Hawaii – Brandin Podziemski’s first NBA offseason had a little bit of everything. He saw the business side of basketball with Klay Thompson and Chris Paul is moving on to other teams. He went against the best competition as a member of the USA Basketball Men’s Select Team and it showed in the few summer league games he played for the Warriors.
With the most free time he’s ever had in his young basketball life, the main advice to Podziemski, 21, was to find other things he loved outside of basketball. Podziemski listened and traveled with friends, taking in a few Team USA games at the Paris Summer Olympics. He even went back to his baseball roots, throwing out the first pitch at a Milwaukee Brewers game and took batting practice at Oracle Park before a Giants game where he launched one over the right field wall.
The Summer of Brandin Podziemski (The Summer of Brandin Podziemski) expanded the outstanding rookie of the Warriors going into Year 2, both as a person and a player.
“I’m glad I got to do that, but I also put a lot of time and work into my game, knowing that those two legends have moved on, opportunities are open for somebody,” Podziemski said in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Bay Area. “Why not me?”
Those last three words are how Podziemski views almost everything. No one expected him to be a first-round draft pick after getting little playing time as a freshman at Illinois before transferring to Santa Clara and excelling as a sophomore, bolting up draft boards and landing with the Warriors at No. 19 overall. Then the thought was that he would spend significant time in the G-League with the Santa Cruz Warriors.
Instead, Podziemski became the most reliable rookie ever under coach Steve Kerr, leading to be First Team All-Rookie choice
Following success comes greater expectations, and Podziemski believes he’s up to the task, already taking on more of a leadership role in his second season.
“I’m full of those expectations and want to exceed them any way I can,” Podziemski said.
That’s where Steph Curry comes into play. Not as someone who places higher expectations on Podziemski, but as someone the young guard can continue to lean on — whether it’s blocking offseason trade rumors or being an example of work ethic and how to go about your business.
“Having Steph as a mentor is the greatest thing in sports you can ask for,” Podziemski said. “He is all the success in the world. Now with his Olympic gold medal, he has done everything you could want to do as a basketball player.
“Seeing him and seeing how he takes criticism and seeing how he takes victory and all his accomplishments, you just want to replicate that as much as you can. Even though I’m way behind him, taking baby steps to try and get to that level is something I strive to do.”
Podziemski’s motivation is not shrouded in the dark either. He knows all 18 guys drafted before him. He also takes notes on social media for the whole world to see.
Whether it’s the retweets, quoting tweets or liking negative comments about him and the Warriors on Instagram, fuel is always being added to light his fire.
Since high school, he and his father have maintained a thread of doubters, added to the long list this summer when the Warriors didn’t add a second superstar to pair with Curry, keeping Podziemski as owner Joe Lacob called him a future All-Star. in Las Vegas at summer league.
“It was always a motivation for me to prove those people wrong,” Podziemski says. “I have high goals that people on the outside might look at me crazy that I believe I can be an All-Star, a multi-time All-Star. Why sell yourself short when you’re in this kind of industry?
“For me, we just use it as motivation and he does a great job of reminding me that people say this, this and this. I attack things every day to prove people wrong.”
Guard guys like Curry and Jrue Holiday this summer, and look to Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton as examples going from the Selected Team to winning gold for Team USA served as other motivators during the summer for Podziemski. He credits Warriors assistant Anthony Vereen, who led the summer league squad, for pushing him to be a leader on and off the court.
The Summer of Brandin Podziemski is over. Off the court, he became a journeyman and walked down baseball memory lane. On the court, he’s scaled back his floaters and hook shots in the lane for more 3-pointers as someone who will have the ball in his hands a ton and is pushed to be more of a scoring option. All the little things that made Podziemski stand out in his Warriors debut season won’t go away either.
Charge and dive for loose balls. Having a nose to grab rebounds over bigger players. Whatever it takes to win. And now, an offensive explosion is on the way he believes.
As Podziemski himself says, why not?
“I felt like over the past year I’ve always had more to give,” he says. “And not more to give in the sense of playing harder, but I think I had more I could have done – however you want to look at it. Playing hard is something I’ve always had, no matter the sport. And I will continue to do so whether I am the best player or the worst player on the team.
“You’re still going to see the charges, you’re still going to see the bounces, no matter if I take five shots or 15 shots. With the elevated role, obviously you’d expect that to be the opposite, but that’s just me.”
There’s no one else the Warriors want him to be, and now Podziemski is ready to show everyone what Phase 2 is all about.
