Of the many reasons the Warriors have struggled in their series against the Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals, you’d have to tick off a number of boxes before you came to one that, in hindsight, has been pretty obvious. Yes, there is Stephen Curry‘s hamstring injury, as well as Draymond Green‘s poor behavior and the Timberwolves’ size and defense.
All those are important reasons the Warriors have struggled and are now down, 3-1, in the series, facing elimination from the playoffs on Wednesday in Minnesota.
But amid all those valid shortcomings has been an epically bad perfromance from Brandin Podziemski, the second-year Warriors guard who averaged 11.7 points on 44.5% shooting and 37.2% 3-point shooting this season. Podziemski had raised hopes as a strong candidate to fill the Warriors’ third-scorer role with his performance after the Dubs made the Jimmy Butler trade–he averaged 15.5 points after the All-Star break, and made 43.8% of his 3s.
But Podziemski struggled in the first round against the Rockets. And he has fallen apart in the conference semis against the Timberwolves: 7.5 points on 22.5% shooting, including 17.6% from the 3-point line (3-for-17).
Thus, the question was put to Warriors coach Steve Kerr: Why keep going back to Podziemski as a starter? Why not look to Gary Payton II (Kerr did so in Game 6 vs. Houston) or gamble on, say, Gui Santos or Jonathan Kuminga?
Kerr was asked that on 95.7 The Game radio in San Francisco. He rushed to Podziemski’s defense:
“He reads the game, he handles the ball, he passes, he’s a great rebounder,” Kerr said on the “Willard & Dibs” show. “He sees things defensively, so he’s always in the right spot. The game just connects when he’s out there. It just makes a lot of sense for the rest of the group. That doesn’t mean he’s perfect, but he does a lot of things that just makes the game make sense. Not every player does that frankly.
"[Brandin Podziemski] reads the game, he handles the ball, he passes, he's a great rebounder. He sees things defensively, so he's always in the right spot. The game just connects when he's out there. It just makes a lot of sense for the rest of the group.
That doesn't mean he's… pic.twitter.com/qRy44tiIsQ
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) May 14, 2025
“Brandin, despite his shooting struggles, continues to connect lineups and make good basketball plays and those are the things that help you win.”
Except Podziemski has not been helping the Warriors win. He has been a minus-11 in the box score in this series and a minus-24 in his last 10 games. Kerr is not eager to make a change on Podziemski, but with no margin for error, he may want to reconsider that.
