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Happy birthday to Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski aka Young Podz. And honestly, just the fact that we’re celebrating his birthday as a current Warrior is worth acknowledging. Think about that for a second.
The Warriors have been one of the most difficult environments for young players in modern NBA history, not because the organization is cruel, but because winning now has always taken priority over developing later. Jordan Poole is in New Orleans (we just saw him last night). Trayce Jackson-Davis was sent packing at the trade deadline. Jonathan Kuminga is apparently the greatest player in Atlanta Hawk history after one game off the bench.
Eric Paschall, Patrick Baldwin, Jacob Evans, Nico Mannion. The list of youngsters who cycled through this organization and ended up elsewhere reads like a roster for a “What Could Have Been” exhibition game.
And yes, winning hella recent championships meant that the Warriors had to draft late. That’s the tax you pay for sustained excellence. When you’re perennially picking in the 20s, you’re not getting lottery talent, you’re hoping to find someone who fits the culture and earns their minutes against veterans who have championship rings on their fingers. That’s a brutal audition process.
But here’s where I’m sure someone who has high speed internet and notices things will crash through my wall like the Kool-Aid Man to breathlessly shout at me that the Warriors have had three recent LOTTERY picks. James Wiseman, Moses Moody, and Kuminga. Three real shots at securing young foundational talent and two of them are already gone. So this isn’t purely a “late draft position” problem. Building through the draft while contending is genuinely hard, and even when the ping pong balls cooperate, there’s no guarantee.
Which brings us back to Podz, who was not a lottery pick, who was not handed anything, and who has spent three seasons quietly making himself indispensable.
His 2025-26 numbers tell a story of young guard finding his way in a league that is quite unmerciful: 12.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists per game across 58 appearances. His 44.9% field goal percentage matches his career mark exactly. The three-point shooting has actually dipped slightly from his career 37.4% to 36.6% this season, so there’s room to grow there. The free throw improvement, from 72.9% career to 76.5% this season, is a quieter indicator of a player who is learning to maximize those times when he gets beat up around the paint.
But the last two games? That’s the storyline that deserves the birthday spotlight.
Thirty rebounds in two games. Thirty!!!! He’s 6-foot-4 rebounding like a power forward! For context, that’s the kind of output that makes coaches involuntarily nod their heads and scouts pull up a player’s contract details. Podziemski has had some genuinely rough shooting nights this season, games where the ball just wasn’t going in, where another younger player might have sulked or disappeared. Instead, he went and grabbed every missed shot he could find like the basketball owed him money.
That’s the Podz thing. That’s what separates him from the guys who came before and didn’t last. He finds another way to matter when his primary tool isn’t working. The Warriors have had talented youngsters who didn’t or couldn’t do that.
He came into the league with grit that looked almost naive, this kid from who did his college hooping in Silicon Valley at Santa Clara. But he’s made sure to find some staying power on this roster this season. Happy birthday, Brandin. The fact that you’re still here, still grinding, still ripping down 30 boards in a two-game stretch when your shot is cold, is the whole story. Keep writing it.