GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 30, 2024

Brandin Podziemski

Media Conference

Q. Steve Kerr last week said that this is really going to be a competitive camp. There are starting spots open, there are rotation spots open. I'm sure you've been in some of the pickup games. How competitive is this game? Can you feel that? How can the team build from that?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: It's really competitive. I think, as a coach, the best thing you can have is going into training camp to compete for starting spots.

I think the thing I like about our new guys the most, they all just want to win. None of them ever talk about starting coming off the bench. They just want to win and are competitive in that way, and I think I'm similar in that way. So whatever it shakes out to be, I think we'll all be fine with it and we'll all just do our part to win.

Q. Brandin, for you what's the biggest difference heading into the season last year as a rookie versus now having a full season and a full off-season under your belt?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: I think my feet are already wet. I think I know what's expected of me. I think I know what the league is. I think I know just what my teammates expect of me and think of me. So just going in there with that mindset of I know what I'm supposed to do, I'm not trying to just find my way around like last year.

So it gives me more clarity of what I should be doing, and that's kind of how I approach the off-season, knowing what my expectations would be coming into year 2.

Q. What do your teammates expect and think of you?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: They expect me to be a leader. I think I naturally have those qualities of being a leader. So being more of a vocal leader, but also showing guys in a positive light leadership things, especially our new guys.

I think just on the court being a connector, as Steve likes to call it, and doing all the right things to help our team win.

Q. Brandin, I know there's more to life than just basketball. Tell me about the off-season. I believe up the road you had a little bit of batting practice with the Giants and hit a home run. Tell me about the experience of what that was like.

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: That was definitely a dream come true for me. Obviously you guys know I'm a baseball player at heart, so I love baseball. Being able to do that and hit a home run was super special for me, but especially my dad. It was a great experience.

I got to do it at the Brewers stadium as well a couple weeks back before that. So any time that you can do something that's fun for you that takes you away from your job is something that I enjoy to do.

Q. Did you play baseball growing up, high school?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: Yeah, I did. Played all through high school, stopped my junior year of high school, and then I've just been playing basketball since my senior year of high school.

Q. What position did you play?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: I played anything a lefty could play, so pitcher, first base, outfield.

Q. When you went through your rookie season, I mean, you got, I think, more minutes than maybe some people thought you would get because you were on the court a lot. What do you take away from that season? What did you learn about playing in this league during your rookie year?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: Individually, I think I learned that I could do a lot more. I think towards the back half of the season, end of March, early April, things started to slow down for me, just on the court. I felt more at ease of what I was doing out there, and it was an exciting piece. But at the same time, we lost in April. It's October almost now, so five whole months of working, which I think is, good or bad, however you want to look at it.

I think for me, and especially our young guys, we've made significant strides in what we want to accomplish.

Q. And how much attention did you pay to the playoffs once the playoffs got here, NBA Playoffs, and did you watch it just to get a feel for what it's like?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: I sure did. I went to a couple playoff games myself. I went to three Milwaukee games when they played the Pacers. So I got to do that, got to be a media correspondent in The Finals for Game 4. That was fun.

So I just kind of got to see what it's like from your guys' perspective as media members, and then as players what kind of they go through and how much more it is to just basketball. It's a lot of other stuff.

So I had a good off-season. Obviously all that combined with the work I put in, I'm ready to go for training camp.

Q. Were you able to see -- because guys always say it's a different game. Were you able to see that, when you watched the playoffs, that it's a different game than the regular season?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: Yes, I think just tendencies are more well-known by the opposition. The refs call it a little bit differently. It's more physical. I think the team that brings that feistiness and that energy usually comes out on top.

Q. You talked about shooting more threes. How's that coming along? How have you sort of learned, not so much making them, but how to get them, and sort of separately from that, what did you learn, what did you pick up from the USA experience, Team USA experience?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: I think the first part of your question, watching back all the opportunities I didn't shoot last year, which were two to three a game, I think, just watching what kind of threes Klay and Steph get up, even more so Steph, so just kind of watching that, understanding that making a three impacts the game at such a high level, that if teams have to run me off the 3-point line, now I become a playmaker, which I'm just kind of naturally good at.

Knowing that and knowing that the 3-point line is such a weapon in today's game, I knew that it was something that I needed to really focus on in the off-season, and that's what Steve and Mike said.

The USA stuff was great. I think being able to play against the gold medal team and play against their guys for three days was an amazing experience for me and Trayce, definitely a confidence booster for sure, just feeling like you belong up there and you can compete with anybody you step in between the four lines with.

Q. Two questions. One, having been a media member now, what's your takeaway and insight into the job?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: Yeah, I would never want to do it. It's hard. It's a lot of stuff. You've got players that don't really want to do the media, so you've got to be friendly. So I could never do it.

Q. Second part, you said you had a better sense now of what it is you needed to work on over the summer. Can you be specific, like what did you hone in on? What do you now understand about how to prep that you didn't before?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: Aside from the skills perspective, I think having a lot of conversations with Anthony Vereen, our Summer League coach and now our assistant coach, just how to be a more impactful leader and how to bring guys along with you. I think that's something that Steph does really well. Everybody that's ever played with Steph, you ask them who's the best person you've ever played with, and they always will say Steph.

I asked him why that is, and it's because he allows people to be themselves, but also when he has success, he brings them along with him. I think for me learning that, not really seeing that right away and A.V. kind of helping me out with that, is something I've strived to do with the rookies we have, the three, four new guys we have.

Just making strides in that area, and then from a skill perspective, just knowing that I can score the ball much more effectively than I did and in a lot of different ways than I did. Just honing in on the most efficient shots that I'm going to get during the year and just getting better in that area.

Q. How much have you been scrimmaging here with everybody?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: Yeah, we've been scrimmaging quite a bit over the last couple weeks or so. We've been doing scrimmages maybe three days a week, something like that, three or four days a week.

But it's been fun just to play with different guys. It's never the same teams every day. So just to feel what kind of combinations work, who plays good with each other. I think you'll probably see a lot of that during camp as well.

Q. What do you think you've learned in those scrimmages, maybe about some of the new free agent additions or maybe one of your returning guys?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: We can shoot. We can shoot.

Q. Who in particular?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: I think you guys would be surprised, but Kyle Anderson. Jump shot looks a little different, looks pretty good. Obviously you know Buddy shoots a lot of threes. De'Anthony can shoot a lot of threes. Lindy Waters shoots a lot of threes. So I think, from that standpoint, we're filled out with guys who can shoot.

Then on the defensive part, I think we picked up in that area. Whether that be me, De'Anthony, Kyle, we all kind of took strides in that area.

Q. You talked a little bit about what Steph has brought to you leadership-wise on the court, in the clubhouse. How is that expended off the court, and has he given you any business tips since he's so involved in investments?

BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: I think it definitely translates from the locker room off the court. As a professional, you want to mimic what Steph does. As a husband, as a father, as a businessman, everything he does, he does it the right way. So any time I have questions about anything non-basketball related, he's kind of the first teammate I go to and I ask.

He's done a great job of sharing those little things that can help me down the road.