Brandin Podziemski Issues Clear Thoughts on Warriors' Future
The Golden State Warriors made headlines in February when they pulled off the trade for Jimmy Butler, a move that had fans dreaming of another deep playoff run. But even with Jimmy Buckets in the mix, things didn't quite go as planned, and the Warriors bowed out in the conference semis to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Fast forward to now: the off-season's been pretty quiet, with no major new faces coming in. Still, Brandin Podziemski isn't losing sleep over it. In fact, he's feeling pretty good about where the Warriors stand in the Western Conference.
In a recent clip shared on X, Podziemski spoke about what his team has to do in order to retain a top-four spot in the West.
'Really looking forward to what we can do," Podziemski said during Golden State's Summer League game Friday night. "If we can get a similar record and similar start to when he (Butler) got here, we feel like we can be a top-four seed in the West. And it allows us to down the stretch be able to rest our older guys.'
It's been a bit of a rollercoaster for the Warriors since they won their last championship in 2022. They've just struggled to build out a solid roster and a deep bench, mostly because they don't have a ton of room to spend with the salary cap. Sure, they've won a playoff series here and there, but they haven't really looked like legitimate title contenders for a while.
That started to shift last season, though. They made the tough call to let Klay Thompson walk in free agency, which gave their younger guards more room to shine. And after a rocky start, they pulled off a big move, bringing in Butler, Steph Curry's best running mate since Kevin Durant. Suddenly, they looked a bit more dangerous in the West.
Of course, the roster still isn't perfect. They don't need to blow it all up, just tweak a few things. And a lot of that comes down to what happens with Jonathan Kuminga's restricted free agency, which could be the swing factor in taking this team to the next level.This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Matthew Tkachuk's Injury Could Push Florida Panthers to Make Decision
Matthew Tkachuk's Injury Could Push Florida Panthers to Make Decision originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The work never stops for the Florida Panthers even after they successfully repeated as NHL Stanley Cup champions. Although it's the offseason, Florida's front office has items to deal with. For one, the team's payroll is still above the salary cap by $3.75 million, according to Puck Pedia. That means the Panthers will have to find a way to shed at least that amount to get under the cap. One way the Panthers could do it involves a potentially big decision on star forward Matthew Tkachuk, who carries a cap hit of $9.5 million. "If Tkachuk were to miss the beginning of the season and be out for a while, the Panthers would be able to get under the cap by putting his contract on LTIR," wrote Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos, who floated the idea while discussing Florida's salary cap landscape. A player placed on the long-term injured list will allow the team to go over the salary cap. Tkachuk dealt with injuries in the 2024-25 NHL season, including a groin injury that he sustained during his stint with the United States team in the 4 Nations Face-Off. His health issues continued in the Stanley Cup Playoff, but Tkachuk braved through it all, helping the Panthers hoist the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row. Against the Edmonton Oilers in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, Tkachuk found the back of the net three times and added seven assists through six games. Tkachuk represents the second-biggest cap hit on the Panthers' payroll, with Aleksander Barkov's $10 million annual average value topping all of them. Meanwhile, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett have $8.625 million and $8 million cap hits, story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 22, 2025, where it first appeared.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Moses Moody On Golden State Warriors' Potential For Another Title: ‘We Got A Really Good Opportunity Ahead Of Us'
Moses Moody is optimistic the Golden State Warriors can win a championship with the addition of ... More Jimmy Butler: "We got a really good opportunity ahead of us." (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images) Anadolu via Getty Images It can be sometimes forgotten that Moses Moody is a key member of the Golden State Warriors' rotation. The 23-year-old swingman just completed his fourth season with the Warriors, averaging career highs across the board with 9.8 points and 1.3 assists in 22.3 minutes per game on 37.4% from beyond the arc. Those numbers came shortly after Moody signed a three-year, $39 million contract extension just before the start of the season. Moody is the fourth-highest paid player on the Warriors' roster entering the 2025-26 season. "I've learned a lot, experienced a lot more," says Moody in a one-on-one interview of the biggest difference between him now and his rookie season. "When you're drafted at 19, you've a year removed from high school, there's a lot that you don't know about basketball, and a lot that you don't know about the world -- a lot that you don't know about yourself. through this time, I've been able to really slow down and kind of figure a lot of that stuff out. That's some of the biggest growth years of your life. Being able to experience stuff has been a big difference." Moody spent just one year at the University of Arkansas before emerging as a first-round draft pick for the Warriors in 2021. The 6-foot-5 swingman is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas and helped the Razorbacks to an Elite Eight appearance in his lone season there. Moody was named the SEC Freshman of the Year and an AP Honorable Mention All-American after averaging 16.8 points as the team's leading scorer during the 2020-21 season. He won a championship as one of the team's players in the rotation during his rookie season. It was Golden State's fourth championship during the Steph Curry and Draymond Green era. The Warriors have had difficulty in getting back to that level, advancing to the semifinals twice since and missing the playoffs during the 2023-24 season. Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney — two long-time Warriors staples — have since departed and Jonathan Kuminga could be on the way out. In other words, Curry, Green and Moody could be the only players remaining from that team entering the 2025-26 season. Moody says that he has a greater "appreciation" for winning a championship now that he's a veteran who has been through multiple playoff runs. "When everybody was asking me my rookie year, 'How does it feel to win a championship the first year?' I was saying, 'I really don't know, because I've never lost. I've never tried to win it and didn't get it at that point.' Now I see what that means, what it means to win a championship, how hard it is to win a championship. It definitely raises my appreciation." Moses Moody Speaks Highly Of Jimmy Butler Addition: 'He Plays Ball The Right Way' The Warriors are obviously now reloaded following the addition of Jimmy Butler, a multiple-time All-Star who has previously led the Miami Heat to two NBA Finals runs. Golden State was a significantly better team during the second half of the season after trading for Butler, going 18-2 with him and Curry in the lineup. Golden State defeated the No. 2-seeded Houston Rockets as the No. 7 seed in the first round before falling to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round. However, it's worth noting that Curry suffered an injury in Game 1 and was sidelined for the remainder of the series. Had Curry never been injured, there's a real possibility the Warriors would have defeated the Timberwolves. That would led to Golden State possibly playing a spoiler role against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. "Yeah, it had that feeling," says Moody of the Warriors making a deep run had Curry never been injured. "I don't know what ranking we were in the league at the point at the All-Star break, I don't know what that would have been, but the feeling we had felt real familiar when it comes to that championship run." Moody speaks glowingly of the impact Butler had on the team, with the 35-year-old averaging 17.9 points, 5.9 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game after he was acquired by the Warriors. A full season with Butler and Curry next year should show the Warriors' full potential. It's a year where Moody should continue to see an increased role, especially if Kuminga departs. "Yeah, it's really cool playing with Jimmy Butler just because he plays ball the right way, and he plays to win," says Moody of Butler. "He wants to win. I respect his game, I respect the way he moves. As you can see, I like to win too, and that's what started happening once he got here. He's always looking to find and get people involved. I just think we got a really good opportunity ahead of us." Moses Moody Hosting 3-Day Weekend Event In Hometown Of Little Rock, Arkansas The four-year veteran is keeping busy during the dog days of the NBA offseason. Moody will be hosting a three-day weekend event starting Friday, July 25 in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas alongside his Warriors teammate, Green. The duo will be hosting a youth summit — tailored for boys and girls ages 12-to-15 — and a fireside chat where the two veterans will be sharing their basketball stories. "First, we have Draymond coming to town to do a fireside chat with the city," says Moody of the weekend's events. "We got a lot of people coming out just to provide that access and let them see somebody that they've seen on TV, because it has a distance effect. When you see somebody on TV, it doesn't seem real. But seeing them actually here in your town, being able to talk to them, ask questions, provide that access, is going to be really cool. I just hope everybody has a good time with that one. It can be inspirational in a way as well." Moody says he's been hosting the weekend event over the last three or so years, with Thompson being a guest a couple of years ago and Rich Paul — the agent for Moody — being a guest last year. To top it all off, he's also been named a Board of Director at the NBPA Foundation. "On Saturday morning, we're going to have a camp which is just an experience for kids, for young people to have that same access and touch and see NBA players," says Moody. "It feels a (different) way when you actually are able to look somebody in the eye and see that they're a real person. Because you for me, when I was young, I didn't have that experience with as many NBA players — you're just only able to see them on TV. Just to have that camp and have them walking around, have us walking around, will be really impactful for them."
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Golden State Warriors jersey history - No. 19 - Ike Borsavage (1950-51)
The Golden State Warriors have had over 600 players don the more than 60 jersey numbers used by their players over the more than 75 years of existence the team has enjoyed in its rich and storied history. Founded in 1946 during the Basketball Association of America (BAA -- a precursor league of the NBA) era, the team has called home the cities of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, and even San Diego. To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Warriors Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. For this article, we begin with the fourth of 13 players who wore the No. 19 jersey for the Warriors. That player would be Golden State big man alum Ike Borsavage. After ending his college career at Temple, Borsavage was picked up with the 51st overall selection of the 1950 NBA Draft by the (then) Philadelphia (now, Golden State) Warriors. The Plymouth, Pennsylvania native played his sole season in the league with the Dubs before leaving the NBA as a player in 1951. During his time suiting up for the Warriors, Borsavage wore only jersey No. 19 and put up 2.7 points per game. All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.
