Brandin Podziemski is rising up the rookie ranks and has earnt the respect of his teammates and rivals, but there’s one thing he does that Warriors vets don’t understand.
The 21-year-old has an air of confidence about him that is rarely seen in rookies and Steve Kerr says the veterans can’t wrap their head around it.
“He’s got great feel for the game; he just sees it before it happens and that’s pretty rare,” Kerr said of Podziemski on 95.7 The Game. “My favorite quality of his is his confidence. He just bounces back after tough nights and quickly. And that’s real confidence and self-assurance. I love that and it drives some of the veterans crazy sometimes, because a rookie isn’t supposed to behave that way.
“Draymond [Green] said it to me years ago; he said rookies have to go take it. Young players have to go carve out their spot, and whatever that means, you’ve got to do. And for Brandin, that means doing what he’s doing all year, connecting the game for our guys with the right cut, the right path, leading the league in charges drawn, making a ton of gritty, loose-ball recoveries, offensive rebounds. The guy is a gamer and there’s a reason he plays as much as he does.”
Podziemski is good company at the moment, since he and Victor Wembanyama are the only first years to rank in the top five of both rebounds per game and assists per game.
Learning under Steph Curry is only going to accelerate Podziemski’s skills further.
He has stood up in big moments in 2023-24 and the Warriors’ future in is good hands with rooks like Podz and Trayce Jackson-Davis, who put Wemby on a poster this week.
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