The Golden State Warriors have been hit by a number of injury issues over recent games, particularly on Friday against the Indiana Pacers where they were without their four best players and arguably six of the top 10 in Steve Kerr's rotation.
The good news is that they should get some major reinforcements for Monday's meeting with the Raptors in Toronto, with stars Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins all expected to return for the Warriors.
Brandin Podziemski's injury is an underrated concern for the Warriors
Of Golden State's recent injury crisis, most of the focus has been on Jonathan Kuminga who suffered a nasty sprained ankle against the Memphis Grizzlies on January 4. The 22-year-old is still expected to be sidelined for the remainder of the month, leaving the Warriors with problems for an already troublesome offense.
Kuminga was once again emerging as Golden State's second go-to scoring option, averaging nearly 25 points and eight rebounds on excellent efficiency in the six games leading up to his untimely injury.
But while Kuminga's injury has taken much of the attention, an injury to another of the Warriors' talented young players is going quietly under the radar. Brandin Podziemski has now missed the last seven games with an abdominal strain, having initially injured himself against the L.A. Clippers on December 27.
There was hope that Podziemski would return on Golden State's current four-game road-trip, but that no longer appears the case after the young guard provided a somewhat concerning update on his status on Sunday.
Podziemski told Danny Emerman of Bay Area News Group that he's running at full speed but is not yet nearing a return, with this the first real medium-term injury that the 21-year-old has suffered in his short NBA career to date.
Podziemski's injury was also untimely given he'd just started shooting the ball at a much higher clip after a woeful start to the season. The former 19th overall pick had shot 58.3% from 3-point range in his previous five games, with the idea that the addition of veteran guard Dennis Schroder would take Podziemski off the ball more and allow him to have the versatile impact that he showed so brilliantly during his rookie year.
Podziemski hasn't taken the leap many expected during his sophomore year, and the hope is now that this lingering and frustrating abdominal injury doesn't stunt his progress further ahead of an important second half of the season.