The Player Who it's a Trend to Hate On
Brandin Podziemski's severely underappreciated game
If you click on a post about Brandin Podziemski on social media, a majority of the replies will most likely be comments slandering him. Since entering the league in 2023, Podziemski has built a reputation centered around almost turning him into a meme, where it has become a trend to criticize him in ways that lack any nuance or rationale.
A perfect example of this is Podziemski’s 30-point game journey, with people using that drought as a means of hating on him and using it as an indicator that he is not really good.
Another example is people suggesting that he has some special relationship with head coach Steve Kerr because of the amount of minutes he plays despite supposed mistakes he makes on the court.
Scenarios like these go on and on, and it’s clear that Brandin Podziemski is one of the most disrespected players in the league. He of course has gripes in his game like every other player, but his game is ridiculously undervalued for a guard that has such an anomalous profile.
In this article, I go over the glows and grows in Podziemski’s game to help bring light to the value he brings on the court in ways that not many guards can replicate, and not enough people appreciate.
Brandin Podziemski is a combo guard, capable of playing as both a secondary and primary ball handler, but it’s important we find a balance in which role he excels most playing in. When looking at his raw on-off metrics, we see that so far through 3 seasons he has had a relatively negative impact on team offense, but a strong positive impact on team defense. Looking into his offensive impact in different roles is where we start to see that so far throughout his career, Podziemski has excelled as a secondary ball handler next to a point guard, while still possessing the ability to be a primary ball handler in said lineups.
When looking at Podz’s minutes next to his few notable PG teammates, we see that Golden State’s offense takes a dip when Podziemski does not share the court with these players and he is placed at the PG. On the other hand, when he is placed at the SG next to these players, not only does Golden State’s offense/defense strongly improve, but they maintain a better offense/defense than in lineups where these Points Guards play without Podziemski on the floor.
Podziemski’s on-ball usage and playmaking numbers are also adjacent to that of other combo guards, having an on-ball percentage (25.7%) and potential assists per 100 possessions (13.4) that’re at a non-PG level but rank in the top %tile amongst SGs. Like other combo guards, his rim assists per 100 possessions are also relatively average, although landing somewhat high for a SG which we’ll go over later in this article.
Overall, Podziemski’s lineup context along with his on-ball and playmaking metrics help us conclude that Podziemski has had the best production offensively as a secondary ball handler, allowing him to find balance as both an impactful offensive and defensive player, while elevating the Point Guards he plays next to.
Brandin Podziemski carries a rare intersection of skills that makes him such a valuable guard in this league. Probably Podziemski’s most anomalous skill is his defensive rebounding. In his career, he has averaged a 15.3 DR% (96th %tile amongst SGs). This would land in the 99th %tile amongst Point Guards and the 81st %tile amongst Small Forwards, making him one of the better non-big defensive rebounders in the league, while being a guard.
On top of his DREB, Brandin Podziemski has been a consistently impactful defender. Through 3 seasons, the Warriors’ DRTG has improved by 4.6 points with Podziemski on the floor. Opposing teams’ TS% has also decreased by 1.7% when he is on the floor, along with their TOV% increasing by 0.6%, indicative of Podziemski’s impact as a defensive playmaker. Opposing teams’ ORB% has also decreased by 0.5% with him on the floor, symbolic of Podziemski’s talent as a defensive rebounder.
With Podz on the floor, opposing teams have shot 1.0% worse in the mid-range and 1.9% worse form 3, while having their 3PAR also decrease by 0.8. Teams do of course shoot more attempts on better efficiency at the rim with Podziemski on the floor given he’s a guard, but the difference is super insignificant, with teams only having an increase of 0.6 in Rim Rate and increase of 0.1 in Rim FG%.
Although not super outlierish, Brandin Podziemski has also maintained a very solid defensive profile.
He has a 3-year DRAPM of 2.0, which lands in 37th amongst all players. He also ranks 13th amongst all players in 2-year DRAPM.
Podziemski is also a diverse defensive playmaker. Through 3 career seasons, he has been one of the best players in the league at drawing offensive fouls, averaging 0.9 per 100 possessions (94th %tile). This is a major contributor to his forced turnovers per 100, which he averages 0.8 of (83rd %tile). He has also averaged a career 2.9 STOP% (75th %tile)
Although his steals (1.8) and deflections per 100 (3.2) are relatively average, along with his field goal attempts defended per 100 (18.0), he has been just good enough of a matchup defender and defensive playmaker to have a strong influence on his team’s defense. He’s also done this by sustaining great foul discipline, only averaging a 6.7 FOUL% over his career (91st %tile).
We’ve already briefed over some of Podziemski’s playmaking metrics earlier, namely his 25.7 ON-BALL% (92nd %tile) and 13.4 potential assists per 100 (94th %tile). This season he’s also averaged 16.4 assist points per 100 (92nd %tile).
In conjunction with his strong playmaking, Brandin Podziemski has good turnover aversion. For his career, he’s only averaged a 10.0 Pass TOV% (86th %tile), and the Warriors’ team TOV% has decreased by 1.3% with him on the floor, having one of the most positive on-off team TOV% influences in the league.
Lastly, another one of Podziemski’s most valuable traits is his versatile scoring profile. This season, he shot roughly league average, with a +0.3 rTS%. He is a capable scorer from all 3 levels, this season averaging 6.4 3PT attempts, 4.4 mid-range attempts, and 2.7 rim attempts per 100. He is an efficient scorer from almost everywhere on the floor, shooting 37% from 3, 69% at the rim, and 45% in the short-mid-range. Like most players, his efficiency was not great from the long-mid-range (40%).
Podziemski this season was also one of the better players at his position at drawing fouls, with a 0.28 FTR & 3.8 FTA per 100 (82nd %tile). He paired this with a 79.7 FT% this season.
He is also an uber-efficient off-ball scorer from the perimeter. On the season, he was in the 75th %tile of efficiency on spot-up shooting possessions, while in the 76th %tile of frequency. On top of this, Podz was a very effective scorer in transition, landing in the 94th %tile of efficiency and 65th %tile of frequency on transition possessions. He also has shown flashes so far in his career as a self creator, landing in the 79th %tile of efficiency this season on isolation possessions, although in the 47th %tile of frequency.
Brandin Podziemski is someone who, by a large portion of the NBA fanbase, is unfairly criticized and one of the most disrespected players in the league. Meanwhile, he has one of the most unique and versatile skillsets in the NBA, as we’ve learned in this article how he brings positive impact in all of the following:
Combo guard play next to other Point Guards
Defensive rebounding
Defensive impact & playmaking
Foul discipline
Ball handling & playmaking
Turnover aversion
3-level scoring efficiency
Foul drawing
Off-ball scoring, transition scoring, and self-creation
Podziemski is coming off the third season of his career, and is only 23 years old, yet he faces an immense amount of pressure by fans that, when analyzing his game, he does not even deserve. It is very clear that the ones who push hate agendas against him do not do so with much of any nuance or rationale, and if you showed them this evaluation on Podziemski it probably would be like talking to a brick wall.
Nonetheless, this won’t be a real concern for as long as he continues to be valued around the league by the real decision-makers, and Brandin Podziemski will continue to be simultaneously one of the most valuable and underappreciated role players in the NBA.
I like your approach in “redefining basketball media”. Let’s touch base some time.