Welcome back beautiful people. We’re out here counting down until the new year, bringing back some of the most gold-blooded individual performances of the calendar year. Remember that this isn’t about the most points scored or the biggest IG highlight; this is about making them haters put respeck on your name.
Speaking of respeck, I gotta show Podz love. When you’re watching the games night in and night out, really watching Brandin Podziemski work, you can’t help but feel something that the box score
can’t fully capture: this young man can ball like a starter whether he’s coming off the bench or not.
And on December 7th against the Chicago Bulls, Podz put on an absolute clinic that showed exactly what he’s capable of when everything clicks. Twenty-one points, eight rebounds, seven assists, five threes, two steals in 29 minutes with a team-best +20 plus/minus. The Warriors demolished the Bulls 123-91, and Podziemski was the orchestrator of the destruction.
This is the kind of game you look at and say, “Wait I thought he was only 6’4, how is he snatching rebounds like he’s prime Erick Dampier in a contract year?” This wasn’t just scoring. This was a complete basketball performance from a second-year player coming into his own in the wild, wild West. What I’m loving about Podz’s game is the effort never wavers. Any moment, he can get into that flow state — knocking down threes, dribble-penetrating and kicking to the right man. Jumping passing lanes, taking charges, grabbing big boards, getting putbacks…you know, doing a little bit of everything you need from a real glue guy.
Against Chicago, we saw all of it.
He shot 7-of-13 from the field with five triples connecting. The efficiency was absurd. But here’s what separates Podz from just being a shooter having a hot night: he wasn’t hunting his shot. He was playing winning basketball, making the right reads, and the baskets came as a byproduct of playing the game the right way.
Seven assists off the bench though? Sheesh, ballin’. Eight rebounds from a 6’4″ guard tells you about his effort and positioning. The +20 plus/minus in just 29 minutes? That tells you the Warriors were a completely different team when he was on the floor.There’s this thing that happens when Podz gets into his rhythm. The game slows down for him. He’s not forcing anything, he’s not trying to do too much. The man is just reading the defense and making the play that’s there.
I’m gonna quote my fellow GSOM scribe Brady here to explain why games like these are pretty thrilling to see:
Podziemski didn’t start, but he played more minutes than any of his teammates. And there’s a reason for that: he was better than any of his teammates, potentially save for Butler. This was a reminder that, for all his at-times maddening inconsistency, Podz does have star potential. He did it all: he scored in every manner of way, with both the urgency and the patience that Kerr has asked for. He set up his teammates in both basic, game-managing ways, and with fantastic passes and creativity. He was all over the court on defense, chasing loose balls, and securing rebounds.
This is what the Warriors envisioned when they drafted him 19th overall in 2023. Not just a shooter or a playmaker, but a complete basketball player who impacts winning in multiple ways every single night. That’s the dream, baby. And what’s the point of going into 2026 without some big dreams? Happy New Year, Dub Nation!
