Brandin Podziemski wants to compete for the Most Improved Player award next season. He will be entering his sophomore year with the Golden State Warriors. During his debut campaign, Podziemski played in 74 regular season games, averaging 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 45.4% from the field and 38.5% from 3-point range.
Due to his impressive performances, Podziemski was named to the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team. During a recent interview with Sportskeeda’s Mark Medina, Podziemski shared that he hopes to challenge for the Most Improved Player award in the upcoming season. As such, the young guard is likely hoping to carve out a bigger role for himself within the Warriors rotation.
“Individually, I want to be able to be in the conversation and win Most Improved Player of the Year,” Podziemski said. “I want to partake in the Rising Stars game again because it’s in San Francisco next season. I want to participate in the Skills Challenge. That would be fun. Then I want to put my name up there as an up-and-coming star of the league. I’m ready to make the year two jump. As far as team goals, obviously you want to win a title. We have some older guys. But even just to make the playoffs, honestly. That feeling of being done in mid-April and you have to watch everybody else in the playoffs, that hurts.”
Due to Klay Thompson’s departure, Podziemski could earn some additional playing time next season. The sophomore guard has spent the opening weeks of the summer with the Team USA select team and will undoubtedly want to prove he’s capable of competing with the main roster in the future.
Podziemski has set himself a lofty goal. It will be interesting to see how close he gets to making it a reality.
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