Golden State general manager Mike Dunleavy has no problem with Brandin Podziemski’s ambition. In fact, he loves it.
The 22-year-old guard wants to earn the trust of Steph Curry and Draymond Green as the next face of the Warriors once the dynasty’s core moves on, he recently told The Athletic’s Nick Friedell.
“When they leave this thing, they got to leave it with somebody,” Podziemski said. “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 the 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.”
It’s a bold statement from a young player entering just his third NBA season, but Dunleavy believes that mindset is part of what sets Podziemski apart.
“I think we like his ambition overall. That’s part of the reason that makes him good,” Dunleavy told Matt Steinmetz and Daryl Johnson on 95.7 The Game’s Steiny & Guru. “He believes in himself, he goes out there and shows it every night. So, on the whole, I like to see that. As far as the future goes, it’s so hard to predict. We love having BP. He has been an integral part of our team the last couple years… but who knows five years from now what any of this is going to look like. So, we just want to focus on this year.”
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