Unsung Warriors rookie Brandin Podziemski is the Steph Curry of getting run over

Brandin Podziemski came to the Warriors this season as a little-known rookie. He was drafted late in the first round and looked like a useful role player — until it emerged that Podziemski, like Curry, has a superpower: Nobody in the NBA is better at getting knocked over.

The rate at which Podziemski draws offensive fouls is almost as outrageous as Curry’s 3-point stats. Podziemski has taken 32 charges this season. That’s not only the most of any player in the NBA. It means Podziemski has drawn more charges than 20 entire teams.

Although the Warriors have endured a slog of a season, they’ve heated up lately, winning six of their last eight games — a run that coincided with coach Steve Kerr putting Podziemski in the starting line-up over legendary shooter Klay Thompson.

Taking the spot of a future Hall of Famer is only the latest twist in a basketball life defined by unlikely opportunities.

Podziemski started playing basketball in earnest in a Wisconsin church league when he was in middle school. He realised that he could provide value to his team by getting trampled. “I was on a team with a bunch of football guys — big, strong dudes,” Podziemski said. “I was a skinny, frail kid, so I just tried to find ways that I could make an impact defensively.”

Most adolescents might have idolised LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. Podziemski, a fan of the Milwaukee Bucks, had another hero: Ersan Ilyasova.

That’s because there’s one thing that Ilyasova did better than LeBron, Kobe, or anyone else in the NBA back then: He led the NBA in offensive fouls drawn in three separate seasons.

Podziemski spent most of his high school career at St. John’s Northwest Military Academy, a school outside Milwaukee that honed his willingness to sacrifice his body. When his star rose when he was a sophomore at Santa Clara University, he still played like a guy looking for ways to stay on the court. Herb Sendek, Santa Clara’s coach, remembers a player willing to crash to the floor — to bang his chest and bruise his tailbone — even in scrimmages.

“The ones that stand out to me are the ones on a Saturday in October,” Sendek said. “It didn’t matter if it was that or Game 7 of the NBA Finals.”

So how exactly does he do it? Podziemski says taking a charge is as much about art as heart. It begins with surveying an offence’s play and predicting where the ball is going.

Then there’s the task of convincing the official to blow the whistle his way. Podziemski puffs his chest out and raises his hands high as he braces for impact. Any shrinking back diminishes the effect, he said.

“Then once I feel that contact, I cave my chest and fall backwards, really land on my butt,” Podziemski said. “I try to look as graceful as I can.”

All of that is easier said than done when someone like reigning MVP Joel Embiid is barrelling down on you, but Podziemski took two charges from the 7-footer in the same game. It was an encounter he won’t forget in a hurry. “A 270-pound man falling on you,” Poziemiski said, “is not the most pleasant feeling.”

That hustle has made the player known as “Podz” a fan favourite. But as the Warriors look to mount a playoff charge, he’s become something more meaningful. With him on the floor, the Warriors outscore their opponents by 6.4 points per 100 possessions; when he sits they get outscored by 4.2. That difference of 10.6 points is bigger than anyone else on the team — including Curry.

One of the highlights of the Warriors’ season — and one of the clearest examples of Podziemski’s value — came in December, when they held a two-point lead over the Portland Trail Blazers. A Blazers player had the ball in the closing seconds and drove the length of the floor, sprinting toward what looked like a game-tying bucket. Then Podziemski stopped in his tracks and stood up tall in front of the rim: offensive foul, Warriors ball.

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Only one thing has changed since Podziemski’s days in the Wisconsin church league. Veterans like Curry and Thompson wouldn’t take kindly to his drawing charges in practice, he figures, given the injury risk of crashing to the hardwood. So Podziemski has modified his tactics.

“I just kind of catch them in the air,” he said, “and let them know: ‘That’s a charge in a real game.’”

– The Wall Street Journal