No matter where you fall on Brandin Podziemski as a player, the Golden State Warriors' decision to extend him beyond his rookie deal was always going to be a polarizing one.
He simply is not an easy player to project in terms of future value. At the end of last season, with enhanced opportunities in a depleted rotation, he showed flashes of being the consistent and confident scorer the Warriors obviously believed he could be over his first couple of campaigns. He continually seems to be active on the court, attempting to take charges and working his way in for rebounds at a high rate for a guard. But he's also prone to poor shot selection and relatively indefensible play with the ball in his hands.
Unless there's a major leap this season, I would argue that his ceiling is as a solid sixth-man or bench guard. But the Warriors granted him an average salary of $22 million over five years on his rookie extension—and that means he's going to need to be at least a viable starting option in order to justify that payday.
Based on his early-season performance, though, that doesn't feel too far off. He's definitively claimed the starting spot over De'Anthony Melton, and his constant activity is reaping benefits for the rest of Golden State's starting five.
Brandin Podziemski looks like a real starting option for the Warriors—but can he take the next leap in his game?
It's wise not to put too much stock into on/off and advanced metrics this early in the season. There's simply too small a sample size for anything from that realm to be super meaningful.
That being said, the Warriors currently have a 129.3 offensive rating with both Curry and Podziemski on the court. With just Podziemski and no Curry, that number falls to 122.2. With Curry and no Podziemski, that number drops to 96.4.
Now, that's partially due to the weakness of the Warriors' bench and how Steve Kerr has chosen to handle the team's rotations. But when you couple those numbers with Podziemski's true averages, a truth starts to reveal itself—he's actually been good this season, and he's accomplished that while taking the ball into his hands more often.
Podziemski has only played three games as he began the season limited due to lower back soreness. In those outings, he's averaged 14.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists while shooting 44.4% from the field. More impressively, though, he's seen only a slight downtick in his efficiency, especially from the interior, while upping his total volume. He's averaged 12 field goal attempts across his three games this season, while he averaged 9.7 before he entered the starting lineup full-time in 2024-25 after the injuries to Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody.
He needs to hit his 3-point shots more regularly (he's shooting just 31.3% on similar volume to last season), but it feels safe to assume that will come at least at a moderate rate over the remainder of the campaign. When you add in the rest of the value he provides as a rebounder and as an additional offensive battery alongside Curry, it becomes relatively easy to argue for his viability as a starter—at least for now.
Of course, if Golden State ever acquires a star-caliber, two-way guard to pair next to Curry, Podziemski will almost certainly head to the bench. The deficits are too great on the defensive end of the court to argue otherwise with that pairing.
But if Podziemski can take the leap to, say, 16 or 17 points per game while proving himself as a true offensive option behind Curry and Yaxel Lendeborg in the starting lineup, that would go a long way toward justifying the pay raise he'll get this offseason. And it seems like he's already charting that trajectory through his first three games.
Add us as a preferred source on Google