On July 3, the Golden State Warriors opened their Summer League season with a defeat at the hands of the Sacramento Kings in the California Classic. During the game, Golden State rookie Brandin Podziemski made his highly-anticipated debut.
The rookie guard impressed during his 30 minutes of playing time, ending the contest with 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists, shooting 44.4% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range. Following the game, Podziemski noted how ‘it obviously sucks we didn’t win.’
Offseason competition is never about the results, though. Instead, it’s about player development, acclimating younger talents to the feel of the NBA game, and giving undrafted or unattached players a chance to earn themselves a training camp invite.
Second-year Warriors guard Lester Quinones – who played in four regular-season games last season – appears to understand the growth mindset behind Summer League competition. Following the game, Quinones explained how he would be sitting down with Podziemski to ‘teach him a few things.’
Santa Clara's Brandin Podziemski made his Summer League debut with the Warriors Monday night in Sacramento.
Here's what we learned about his game.https://t.co/6PjDbJI0iG pic.twitter.com/8soZPqZufl
— C.J. Holmes 🚀 (@CjHolmes22) July 4, 2023
“I can teach (Brandin) a few things as far as just being more poised and letting the game come to him,” Quinones said, as reported by C.J. Holmes of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I feel like either tonight or tomorrow, I’m going to sit down with him and tell him about not letting people take you out of your offense and pressure you — just being more poised, be a control point guard and just kind of get us into our offense. So I feel like once he gets that down, he’s going to be really solid. He has a high IQ. He makes the right plays. He’s not selfish. And like I said, he’s a hooper.”
Despite what many would deem to be a solid debut, it took Podzeimski until the third quarter to register his second bucket of the game. Only then did we start to see the scoring ability of Golden State’s latest recruit. Hopefully, now Podziemski has an idea for what Summer League competition is going to be like, we can start to see a more aggressive version of him moving forward.
