Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe Golden State Warriors held their October training camp in Hawaii. Before it began, coach Steve Kerr made it clear that the two starting spots next to Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins were up for grabs.Brandin Podziemski strode into his second season presuming he’d lock down one of them. As a rookie, he’d temporarily (and memorably) replaced Klay Thompson as the starting shooting guard. Thompson and Chris Paul had departed in the summer. Podziemski was protected in offseason trade talks. He had a terrific performance in Las Vegas as part of Team USA’s Select Team. Controlling owner Joe Lacob went on a summer-league broadcast and called Podziemski a future All-Star.There was reason to puff out the chest and believe the organization had cleared the path for him.“Nobody just comes into this league and gets by without some tough lessons,” Kerr told The Athletic.Here’s the reality: Podziemski was outplayed in training camp. He was not one of the better backcourt players in Hawaii, and Kerr acted accordingly. The Warriors started big initially and then installed De’Anthony Melton as the starting shooting guard — an assignment that would’ve lasted longer had Melton not torn his ACL after six games.“He was pressing early,” Kerr said of Podziemski. “He was trying too hard to be an All-Star instead of just taking the next step. And we had a lot of guys who could all play. He didn’t stand out in camp. He didn’t play well enough to earn what he’s earning now.”Six months is a long time in the NBA, and this Warriors’ season feels like seven seasons packed into one. Melton’s contract was traded for Dennis Schröder. Kerr tried Schröder as the starter next to Curry for 18 games. Buddy Hield was given an opportunity. So was Lindy Waters III.But eventually it wound back to Podziemski, who reversed out of an early-season spiral to again emerge as a rising building block of the Warriors’ present and future, taking what Kerr referred to as a “leap” in this most recent stretch of games.Jimmy Butler’s arrival coincides with the franchise’s turnaround. So does Podziemski’s sophomore change of fortune, which started before the Butler trade.Podziemski scored 22 points in 22 minutes in the Warriors’ 133-95 blowout win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night. It’s the fifth time in the last six games he’s had at least 19 points. He had 28 points and eight made 3s in a huge road win over the Los Angeles Lakers last Thursday and backed it up a day later with 26 more points in a win over the Denver Nuggets.But the hot streak extends further. Podziemski busted out of his deep slump in January and has been pretty steady ever since, zooming into another stratosphere of shooting since the beginning of March: He’s 48 of 101 on 3s over a 15-game stretch. That’s bumped his season 3-point percentage up to a respectable 37.4 percent on 4.8 per game.
That’s one way to start the game by Podz 🤯 pic.twitter.com/k8J7mFfCXs
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 9, 2025There’s so much more to Podziemski’s game than the shot. He’s a physical team defender unafraid to take a charge. He’s one of the better guard rebounders in the league. He’s a sharp passer and decision-maker. He is hitting midrange shots with more regularity and scoring at the rim with more craft.But it’s clear, when listening to Podziemski tell it, that those October and November struggles were all tied back to his 3-point shot. In a recent sitdown with The Athletic, Podziemski said that everything snowballed when he entered his second season expecting to explode as a scorer and shooter and instead went just 14 of 68 on his first 68 3s (20.5 percent) in a nightmarish 19-game start.“It was unexpected just because of the summer I had,” Podziemski said. “Like, hey, I put in all this time and effort in the summer and then for it not to show in the first month, month-and-a-half of the season. It wasn’t concerning to me, but I just had a lot of questions for myself. I think it caused some hesitation to just play freely out there.”Where did Podziemski feel like it most impacted his game?“I think my finishing around the rim was pretty bad,” he said. “The normal shots that I usually make weren’t going in. I just let it kind of compile into other things. Free throws, all that kind of stuff.”Podziemski agonized over his shooting slump so outwardly and let it bleed into the other aspects of his game so profoundly that Draymond Green felt it necessary to publicly call out both Podziemski and the media (and organizational) hype machine that built him up before the season: “What he’s going through is y’all’s fault,” Green said in a five-minute speech about Podziemski.Not long after, Kerr called out Podziemski publicly following a close loss in Denver. He felt Podziemski was hunting the highlight play too often and had gotten away from what made him great. He wanted him to serve others and not attempt to be the star. It was leading to too many mistakes, Kerr said.“He can not be that guy,” Kerr said. “He can’t foul jump shooters. I love Brandin. Hell of a player. Hell of a future. But I hope he watches this clip because he needs to hear it.”Podziemski heard it all.“I always look at people’s messages and not the tone they say it in or the public nature of it,” Podziemski said. “I try to look at the underlying message in it. I understood what he said. I understood what Dray said.”
But Podziemski goes back to the struggling jumper and not the thirst for immediate stardom as the reason for his temporary sophomore spiral.
“It just looked (like I was doing too much) because I wasn’t confident in my 3-point shot,” he said. “Everything I was doing was almost playing in a crowd because my initial guy would play off me. And then me not being confident shooting the 3, I’m kind of driving into my man. Then there’s other guys around. And so it just kind of looks like, ‘Oh, he’s kind of forcing it.’ I don’t think it was like an intention to be like, ‘Oh, I’m trying to get my s— off’ or whatnot. But it was just I didn’t have the confidence to shoot the 3-ball at a high level.”Podziemski also dealt with some physical setbacks. He broke his nose in the preseason, forcing him to wear a mask for a stretch of games. He had a bout of mysterious dizziness that knocked him out of two games. He had an abdominal injury that deactivated him for 10 games, and a back strain that knocked him out for five.“God put me through a humbling experience,” Podziemski said. “Whether it be struggling on the court or via injury. Whatever way you look at it, I think it helps me. It really is hard to make shots in the NBA. I always thought because I was able to do it in high school, do it in college, it would just be an easy translatable skill. It just goes to show like how good guys like Steph, guys like Klay, how good they are shooting the ball.”Podziemski has settled into his specific role with this Warriors team. He’s an energy guard with increasing scoring and playmaking responsibility who will start every night but isn’t guaranteed to close, though his play has forced Kerr’s hand of late. Curry, Butler and Green are above him in the organization’s pecking order.But an acceptance of his current situation doesn’t mean a minimization of his ultimate career ambition. He still has his sights set on stardom down the line.“Our vets are older,” Podziemski said. “Steph —how many more years does he have? We don’t know, but it’s not going to be as long as I’m playing. I know that. I think I have that going towards my favor and I think, just being able as a young guy to be an elite role player and learn from the vets. Then when they’re out and you step into that role, it’s like a seamless transition. And I think that’s what I’ve been trying to do.“Obviously I’m not Steph Curry, nor am I ever going to be. But it’s just, how do I learn his habits and how do I learn the culture that’s been built here? How do I take that, grab that and lead in my own way? If I’m fortunate to be a main focal piece of the future.”Sign up to get The Bounce, the essential NBA newsletter from Zach Harper and The Athletic staff, delivered free to your inbox.(Photo: Eakin Howard / Getty Images)
