The Golden State Warriors picked up a 112-102 win over the San Antonio Spurs in a close game. During the win, Andrew Wiggins went up for a contested layup on a fastbreak instead of spotting an open pass to Brandin Podziemski. After Podz seemed to object audibly, Wiggins looked back at the rookie and shot an angry message.
Calling out experienced players on the team usually doesn’t work out well, and it appears that this instance is no different. Even though Podz has received a ton of acclaim and a rotational role on the Warriors while Wiggins appears to be regressing, that still doesn’t give Podz the right to publicly criticize Wiggins’ decision-making.
Basketball-wise, Podz had every right to bring out the absence of an additional pass. Wiggins may have scored a layup or possibly a and-one, but Podz was fouled and forced to foul and foul out. The pass was the correct play, but Wiggins most likely wasn’t pleased with the response because he was comfortable enough to attack the rim on that particular play.
Podziemski scored 14 points and pulled down 8 rebounds in his bench game, whereas Wiggins scored 16 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in his starting role, therefore it had no bearing on the outcome.
Podziemski is an incredibly confident rookie who is focused on winning. The Warriors selected him with the 19th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and he’s been a useful win-now piece for the franchise. Even if he is a rookie who was drafted in the middle of the first round, Podz doesn’t let his teammates off the hook for bad decisions, no matter how experienced.
Leave a Reply