SAN FRANCISCO – March only sprinkled more salt on the Warriors’ many wounds as the clouds opened and the sun began to shine in the Bay Area.
Steph Curry missed a second straight month to runner’s knee, and Moses Moody sustained a devastating torn patellar tendon in his first game back after missing the previous 10 from a sprained wrist. A great win against Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets was followed by a four-game losing streak that included back-to-back, gut-wrenching losses to the lowly Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls. The month included a three-game losing streak, a four-game losing streak and twice as many losses (10) as wins (five).
So, where’s the good news aside from beating the Dallas Mavericks, Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards? We can promise it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
The biggest positive, by far, was Brandin Podziemski. From the outside, Podziemski has become a polarizing figure among Dub Nation. Between the lines, Podziemski enjoyed the best month of his young NBA career.
“You always look for silver linings when guys are out and other guys step up,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday after practice. “Whether it’s the minutes for Gui [Santos], for example, allowing him to take another step in his game, or BP having more responsibility handling the ball and seeing more reps, it’s like anything else: You just need to do something over and over and over again to learn the little nuances, to learn what you can and can’t do.
“The more reps, the better. And these reps this last month have been great for BP.”
Podziemski played all 15 of the Warriors’ games and averaged 33.5 minutes per game, the most for a month in his three-year NBA career. The month was full of career bests for Podziemski. He averaged his most points per game for a month (17.7) and made his most threes for a month (38), while his 21.3 usage percentage also was his highest ever for a month.
In a month where he scored at least 20 points in eight of the 15 games he played, other facets outside of scoring also stood out. Podziemski grabbed 10 rebounds in three games and averaged 6.3 rebounds per game, as well as 4.1 assists per game with twice as many assists (61) than turnovers (30).
“Well, No. 1, he’s a competitor,” Kerr says. “He’s there. He’s played every single game, knock on wood. That’s a really hard thing to do, to be there for your team every single game, every practice. He’s a competitor, he loves this. He just wants to be great.”
Podziemski’s final game in March, a frustrating blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets, was his fourth straight 20-point game, dropping 23 on 8-of-14 shooting and 5 of 8 from deep, on top of having five rebounds, two assists, two steals and one blocked shot. He says his scoring surge isn’t top of mind, but instead the result of letting the game come to him.
“Not really thinking about that, honestly,” Podziemski told reporters Sunday night in Denver. “Just playing my game, taking opportunities when they’re there and letting the results fall where they may. Fortunately, the result has been looking pretty good as of late for me.”
Growing pains still have been visible, including last game when Kerr outwardly was upset Podziemski tried to dribble past Christian Braun and forced a runner with an open Kristaps Porziņģis calling for the ball at the right wing. Porziņģis was 5 of 5 on threes, and the mistake flipped the game in the Nuggets’ favor. Podziemski missed four fourth-quarter free throws in that ugly loss to the Utah Jazz three weeks ago, but then shot 84.2 percent on free throws the rest of the month.
Podziemski recently addressing comments he made at the start of the 2025-26 NBA season, when he said he would be the white Shohei Ohtani if he still played baseball, and that he wants to be even better than Steph Curry, was another sign of growth, development and maturity. Podziemski knows confidence is a strength of his, and he knows he should have chosen his words more wisely for the betterment of the team.
“I think the growth, you saw it the other day where he admitted, ‘Hey, I shouldn’t have said what I said at the beginning of the year.’ I thought that was great to have the self awareness that, OK, I made a mistake, I got to learn from that,” Kerr said.
“It’s all encompassing really when you think about a young player developing. It’s on the floor, it’s off the floor. It’s recognizing patterns and nuances within the game itself, and then it’s recognizing the emotional side of the team and what the team needs from you. The best teams click in a certain way, and every player has to play a role within that to help the team click. I think he’s really learning that.”
Whenever Curry inevitably returns in the near future, he’ll go back to being the sun that the Warriors orbit in their solar system. And Podziemski, like the rest of the Warriors, will benefit the second Curry steps on the court. He has shown that he can play with Curry, and now is when Podziemski needed to prove he can be relied on to produce without him.
Podziemski is one of only four players under contract who will enter next season healthy. He’s rookie contract extension eligible, though that’s on the Warriors’ back-burner for now. Maybe he can be a solid trade chip, too.
That’s all speculation. Sticking to reality, the Warriors will be without Jimmy Butler the majority of next season. Who knows if Moody will be able to play at all. Asking Curry to play 70 games next season like he did last season seems like an impossible request.
Even as Podziemski has learned to slow his roll and trust the process, the best month of his career confirmed tossing him the keys can keep the Warriors from spiraling out of control and stay on the right track in conjunction to his personal and professional growth, development and maturity as he remains Golden State’s youngest player.
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