Warriors vs. Bulls player grades: Brandin Podziemski plays the star

Well, Sunday night sure was fun. The Golden State Warriors, despite playing without Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Al Horford, and despite being on the back end of a road back-to-back, took it to the Chicago

Bulls, winning 123-91 in a game where they never trailed.

It was the third straight game that the Dubs held their opponent under 100 points, and it gave most of us a lot more optimism about the team going forward. But before we revel in that optimism, let’s grade the players who got the job done. As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” grade representing the average performance for that player.

Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. After Sunday’s games, league-average TS is 58.3%.

Will Richard

24 minutes, 9 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 fouls, 3-for-5 shooting, 3-for-5 threes, 90.0% TS, +36

I have no idea how good Richard can eventually be, but I do know this: for now, he’s a rock star of a role player. He makes his open shots. He’s one of the best cutters on the team. He fights hard for every rebound, loose ball, and possession. He doesn’t turn the ball over. He plays strong, mistake-free defense.

He wasn’t the star of this game, but no one player their role better.

Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Best plus/minus on the team.

Jimmy Butler III

29 minutes, 19 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 5-for-10 shooting, 2-for-2 threes, 7-for-10 free throws, 66.0% TS, +29

As much as I love watching Butler be the Robin to Curry’s Batman, it’s almost as fun watching him be the veteran star surrounded by up-and-coming youngsters. Regardless of which of those roles he’s playing, he has impeccable control over the game, knowing exactly when to defer and when to take over. He mostly let the youths run with this game, content to do the little things: rebound, patiently bring everyone back to the right level, and lock down on defense. But when the team needed it, he stepped in, such as after the Bulls rattled off 14 consecutive points late in the third quarter, turning a blowout into a close game. Butler tucked in his jersey, bit down on his mouth piece, and took over, and a few minutes later, the game was all but over.

Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Tied for the team lead in rebounds.

Quinten Post

26 minutes, 19 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 fouls, 7-for-14 shooting, 5-for-10 threes, 67.9% TS, +25

Post had a dynamic offensive game. He made threes on the team’s second and third possessions of the game, ensuring that it wouldn’t be another mild-mannered first quarter for the Dubs. He was an offensive force all game long, driving to the hoop, draining jumpers from deep, setting massive screens, and even showing off his development and swagger with an Andrew Bogut through-the-legs pass while setting a screen. He gets a good grade for the offense alone.

But … I think the defense was even better. Post’s defensive leap has been one of the biggest stories for the Warriors this year, and Sunday might have been his best game yet. With Horford and Green sidelined, Post took on a bigger challenge and was up to it. He held Nikola Vučević to nine points on 13 shots, but more impressive was his help defense all over the paint.

What a player he’s growing into.

Grade: A+

Buddy Hield

22 minutes, 9 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 4-for-10 shooting, 1-for-5 threes, 45.0% TS, +14

Hield’s growth lately has been huge. He sure hasn’t been the shooter that the team would like — he’s made just 30.5% of his threes — but his overall game has really been developing. His defense lately has been impressive, and the seven rebounds he collected on Sunday night are very reflective of how hard he was crashing the glass. Most importantly, though, he’s bringing energy that is infectious. Steve Kerr has said that what he wants out of Jonathan Kuminga is for him to be the first player down the court, not the last one, and that is, emphatically, instruction that Hield does not need.

Grade: A-

Pat Spencer

27 minutes, 12 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 4 turnovers, 1 foul, 6-for-10 shooting, 60.0% TS, +30

It’s pretty clear that Spencer is a huge part of the rotation for now, even when Curry returns. He started over Moses Moody and Brandin Podziemski, while Seth Curry was a DNP-CD and Gary Payton II basically was, too. Kerr isn’t just riding the hot hand with Spencer: the former lacrosse star has earned the trust and the playing time by simply playing phenomenal basketball.

The offense just runs so incredibly well when Spencer is on the court, which the plus/minus keeps being a testament to. Even his turnovers weren’t of the sloppy kind that draw Kerr’s ilk: two were times where he was stripped while attacking, and one was a lob that very well could have been scored as a pass and a missed basket by Trayce Jackson-Davis.

He can play, and it doesn’t particularly feel like a flash in the pan, either.

Grade: A-

Gui Santos

20 minutes, 6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 3-for-8 shooting, 0-for-3 threes, 37.5% TS, +1

Everyone loves Gui. That’s always been apparent by the reaction from the bench when he plays well, and it was particularly apparent in the postgame locker room, where Kuminga redirected questions about his own benching to discuss how much he loves Santos and is happy for him. At some point, these minutes will likely go back to Kuminga, but as long as Santos is gobbling up rebounds while flying all over the court, that time won’t come anytime soon.

Grade: B+

Moses Moody

19 minutes, 11 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 3-for-6 shooting, 3-for-5 threes, 2-for-3 free throws, 75.1% TS, +1

Here’s what my first note about Moody is, in my game notes for this article: “f****** locked in.” And I stand by that as the best way to describe how he played. He was just completely locked in. He looked like he was taking every defensive matchup personally, on every possession. He was obsessed chasing rebounds, a weapon on offense, and made perhaps the highlight of the night, with a gorgeous behind-the-back pass to Santos for a layup.

Just the total package in this game.

Grade: A

De’Anthony Melton

17 minutes, 13 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 steals, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls, 4-for-9 shooting, 3-for-7 threes, 2-for-4 free throws, 60.4% TS, -3

There won’t be many games where Melton has three times as many turnovers as assists. But other than that, it was a solid game for him. He did some great stuff and some not-great stuff, and most of the latter players you can kind of chalk it up to it being just his second game since returning from a 13-month layoff. Better days are ahead, but even days like this are absolutely huge for a Warriors team in need of more talent on the bench.

Grade: B
Post-game bonus: Worst plus/minus on the team.

Trayce Jackson-Davis

22 minutes, 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 foul, 2-for-2 shooting, 100.0% TS, +7

TJD is in a funny place, where he’s notably behind Post, Horford, and Green on the team’s center depth chart, but good enough and trusted enough to play big minutes when some of the names ahead of him are out. Which is exactly what happened in this game. He played big minutes and he played them very well. He was all over the place, impacting far more rebounds than the stat sheet shows, playing some of his best defense, and making big plays on offense. A great performance for someone getting sporadic playing time.

Grade: A

Brandin Podziemski

29 minutes, 21 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 3 turnovers, 3 fouls, 7-for-13 shooting, 5-for-9 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 75.6% TS, +20

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.

His best game of the year, and a reminder as to why the Dubs have remained so high on him.

Grade: A+
Post-game bonus: Led the team in points and assists, tied for the team lead in rebounds.