The Golden State Warriors must start seriously thinking about what life looks like after the end of Stephen Curry's career. It's an inevitable reality.
The end of this season, therefore, takes on an elevated importance even with their championship hopes dashed by Jimmy Butler's injury. Golden State must use this time to evaluate their young pieces, deciding not only who is a vital part of their rotation for next season but who can be a part of their core beyond that.
Brandin Podziemski, as expected, has given the Warriors a mixed bag of results. His play over this last stretch of games, including his monstrous fourth-quarter against the Denver Nuggets, is representative of the promise he shows as a scoring and rebounding guard with starting-caliber upside. But there's been too much inconsistency in his game to truly trust that.
Podziemski's ongoing development is a curious case, and it leaves the Warriors with an impossible question to answer regarding his long-term role with the team.
Brandin Podziemski can be a part of the future with the Warriors. But is he the future?
Anyone familiar with Golden State knows the hyperboles that have surrounded Podziemski since his rookie season. At times, he's been seen as the aggressive scoring guard the team needs to pair with Curry in the backcourt. At other times, he's been seen as a complete waste of rotational space.
The reality falls somewhere in between those poles. Podziemski, when he's confident and taking his shots, can certainly be a scoring threat. Over his past seven games, he's averaged 15.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, and five assists. Although he's been inefficient from the field, he's been one of the team's premier offensive performers.
But there's times where he is a non-factor on the offensive end, either declining to take his shots or failing to work himself into the flow of the offense. He had five single-digit scoring performances in the month of January alone.
As it stands, Podziemski projects to be a valuable rotation piece with starting-caliber upside. To expect more of him is to overestimate his skill-set.
With a team as starved for young talent as the Warriors, however, it's easy to cling onto hope that he can be more than that. With some refinement of his perimeter shot and overall shot selection, perhaps he can be.
But it just seems truly impossible to nail Podziemski down as his development remains inconsistent. Golden State, therefore, has an impossible question to answer over the coming months. Is Podziemski a long-term solution for them in the backcourt? If he's not, there will come a point where they need to seek out other options.