While Stephen Curry and Yaxel Lendeborg have drawn much of the headlines thus far, Brandin Podziemski's fourth-year leap has played a major role in a strong 8-4 start for the Golden State Warriors.
But with Curry now facing a period on the sidelines with an oblique tear, Podziemski's rise now faces its biggest challenge yet and serious focus will be placed on the 23-year-old to see if his impact can remain at a high level.
Brandin Podziemski's leap faces biggest test after Stephen Curry injury
While Podziemski deserves credit for the way in which he's improved his game on both ends so far this season, it's also stemmed from falling back into being the clear third option behind Curry and Lendeborg.
Podziemski hasn't needed to be a go-to scorer or an offensive creator every night, rather the versatile guard who can do a bit of everything and answer the call on what specific matchups ask of him on any given night. Sometimes it's as a scorer, sometimes as a playmaker, on other occassions it's just doing the small things to impact winning while Curry and Lendeborg dominate.
It's akin to the end of the 2024-25 season when the Warriors traded for Jimmy Butler, allowing Podziemski and Moses Moody to become high level role players as the franchise surged and made the second-round of the playoffs.
But now Golden State enter this next phase with over $150 million sitting on the sidelines. Podziemski will be inevitably tasked with more offensive duties, and we'll be left with an answer on whether his improved skillset is up to the challenge, or whether he still needs stars around him to be truly effective.
Brandin Podziemski's impact will be interesting over next few weeks
Podziemski is now averaging a career-high 17.3 points and 4.2 assists per game, shooting an incredibly efficient 48.1% from the floor and 39.7% from three-point range. Those point and assist numbers are likely to maintain and even improve over the next few weeks with more offensive usage, but it will be fascinating to see if he can sustain the efficiency and overall impact.
The former 19th overall pick sits behind Curry as having the second-best plus-minus on the team, having entered Wednesday's game ranked first before being a -17 as the Rockets broke the Warriors' eight-game winning streak.
Podziemski's numbers at the end of last season without Curry and Butler were good, but the team fell off a cliff and crawled their way into the Play-In Tournament. This is a different equation where the Warriors are 8-4 and will eventually get Curry and Butler back hopefully before mid-season. Has Podziemski's skillset risen enough to help keep them above .500 in the meantime? We're about find out over this next stretch of the season.
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