SAN FRANCISCO – Brandin Podziemski already had plans for NBA All-Star weekend, specifically to watch his best friend play for Northern Michigan on Senior Day. But when the opportunity presented itself as a late addition to play in his second straight Rising Stars Game, the second-year Warriors guard wasn’t going to turn it down.
Less than two weeks from his 22nd birthday, Podziemski remains the youngest player on the Warriors. He’s a high-powered battery ready to be inserted into a game and hit hyperspeed. But even he knows the power of a little rest.
“It’s a chance to recalibrate, refresh, get everybody back healthy,” Podziemski said Friday night. “Hopefully [Jonathan Kuminga] is ready to go post-All-Star break, and we can just roll with our full squad.
“We got older veterans and I know the break is much needed. And same for me. I’m the youngest and play a lot of minutes. Having a good break is definitely a benefit.”
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An abdomen injury kept Podziemski sidelined for 12 straight games from the end of December through Jan. 22. He’s back and playing his best basketball of his second professional season. The only Warrior who remains on the injury report is Kuminga, who has been out since Jan. 5 because of a severe ankle sprain, but is expected to return shortly after the break.
Podziemski wasn’t the only Rising Star who represented the Warriors at Chase Center. He was joined by Pat Spencer and Trayce Jackson-Davis, whose Team C, coached by Chris Mullin, will partake in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game after winning the Rising Stars.
All three Rising Stars can feel the Warriors’ momentum brewing going into the break and sense a rejuvenated squad coming out of it. And for one reason specifically: The Jimmy Butler trade.
“I think there’s a new life,” Spencer said. “I think we were searching for something the whole first half of the season and ultimately just weren’t able to find it. Jimmy gives us a different weapon. Just poised, composed all the time. We tried to give it away [Thursday night in Houston], but you can just see down the stretch having him offensively and defensively being able to calm us down.
“It takes a lot of pressure off Steph, Draymond and a handful of other guys too. We’re fired up about it.”
The Warriors are 3-1 since Butler’s arrival, pushing their record to 28-27, and they feel like they should be 4-0 because of a frustrating loss Wednesday night in Dallas. But everything about the Warriors feels different. The first 51 games were the pre-Butler era. The last four have been the beginning of the post-Butler era, a new chapter everyone hopes is the exact spark the Warriors needed.
So far, that undoubtedly has been the case.
Butler was suspended three times by the Miami Heat this season. His dramatic endings in Chicago, Minnesota and Philadelphia are all well chronicled. There were understandable questions of how he would fit the Warriors’ culture, something that hasn’t been of concern one bit his first week-plus on the road with the team.
“Just him in the locker room, the vibes that he brings,” Jackson-David said of Butler’s presence. “He’s a great locker room dude. He’s always talking. If you follow him on Instagram he’s posting all his teammates on his story. That’s just the type of dude that he is and we’re lucky to have him.”
Golden State has ground to make up. The Warriors currently are the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference, yet they’re only 2.5 games back of the No. 6 seed to get out of the play-in tournament. The final 27 games of the regular season will be full steam ahead for a group that likes its chances of getting on a roll and being a team nobody wants to see in the playoffs.
“Our goal is 21-6, 20-7, something along those lines,” Podziemski said. “We’re really hunting for that four, five or six seed and I think we can do it.”
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