Brandin Podziemski: 2023 NBA Draft Scouting Report
With sensational touch, Podziemski scored efficiently as a sophomore in the WCC. Does he have what it takes to see his game translate to the NBA?
Over the last few years, I’ve learned a few important lessons in draft scouting. One of the more light-hearted takeaways: don’t bet against Draft Twitter favorites.
When there are prospects who get an overwhelming amount of support from the online medium’s premiere scouts, there tends to be a correlation to the success they have in the NBA. I think back to Brandon Clarke and Desmond Bane being highly-touted online with their fair share of supporters. Both have turned into quality rotation players. Last year, a late surge from Jalen Williams through the platform helped buoy him onto mainstream radars; he’s now in the Rookie of the Year running.
This year’s candidate (or early frontrunner) for Draft Twitter Darling is Santa Clara combo guard Brandin Podziemski. A 6’5” sophomore guard who transferred to the Broncos from Illinois, Podziemski exploded this year as a top option for the NIT-qualifying program out of the WCC. Brandin averaged 19.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists while shooting 43.8% from deep on high volume.
While I’m only half-serious about there being a real takeaway with Draft Twitter, my own evaluation does not seem to jive with the rest of the platform. And that’s quite okay with me — I’m hyperaware of groupthink and do not want to adjust my board just because of others.
Herein lies the dilemma with trying to evaluate and slot Podziemski into the greater context of the class. On one hand, he’s a guy with an unreal statistical profile, is only 20 years old, has elite touch and fantastic shooting, and so many other peers who I respect see the value in. On the other, my worries about his athleticism and scalability to the next level were not assuaged on a deep dive. The Podziemski experience really clashes with the other lessons that I’ve learned recently as a scout: to value athletic tools on defense, to value real positional size and length, and to really trust my gut.
What I see when I watch Podziemski is a kid who found the perfect level and system for him at Santa Clara. The one word that keeps coming up around Podziemski is ‘touch’ — and it’s easy to see why. He has delicate, soft placement of the ball from every spot. His shots are high-arcing but accurate, his layups tremendously placed off the glass, and his runners (even from beyond 12 feet) are teardrops of joy.
At Santa Clara, he was given a really long leash to be able to get to those shots and utilize his touch from three levels. The Broncos ran ball screens for him, got him catching the ball on the move in dribble handoffs or chase actions, sent him on the move off-ball, would mismatch post him and clearout sides of the floor for him, and let him dribble the ball for 15 seconds at a time waiting for the right opportunity to occur.
Santa Clara was the perfect place for Podziemski, not because of the playbook and surrounding talent, but because of the leash that Herb Sendek gave him. In the NBA, coaches may find ways to put Podz in similar situations: he’d be great off Chicago actions in dribble handoffs, Chase give-and-gos on the perimeter with a big, or flying off floppy screens and staggers for his shots. But outside of Sendek and the role he played with the Broncos this year, no coach is going to give him all of the catering the way Sendek did.
What I found upon a deep dive is that the leash and attention given to getting Podziemski an on-ball advantage was borne out of a need to help him separate at the point of attack. As a complementary piece in the NBA, Podziemski would likely not be schemed to have such help.
I get the fascination, and I really buy the touch as an ultimately translatable skill. It’s how to get to the touch (the process, if you will) that worries me at the next level. And if he isn’t going to be given the aid he was at Santa Clara so he can utilize it as frequently (or the latitude to live with the possessions where he fails to separate from his man), there are real questions about whether what he provides will make up for what he doesn’t.