![\"Why](\"https:\/\/media.nbcsportsbayarea.com\/2024\/04\/Warriors-Youngsters-Getty-1734324518-e1713507380809.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=1200%2C675\")
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For a handful of years now, the Warriors have been straddling two different timelines. Since drafting James Wiseman<\/a> second overall in the 2020 draft, and Jonathan Kuminga<\/a> and Moses Moody<\/a> with the seventh and 14th overall picks in the 2021 draft, the Warriors have been trying to bring the young guys along while remaining competitive. Even with the Warriors continuing to acquire young talent through the draft, with players like Brandin Podziemski<\/a> and Trayce Jackson-Davis<\/a> in 2023, the results have mostly been mixed.<\/span><\/p>\n In theory, the two timeline strategy made sense. As the dynastic core of Stephen Curry<\/a>, Klay Thompson<\/a>, and Draymond Green<\/a> began to age out, there would be young rising stars to replace them. Or at the very least, offer them support and provide the franchise with a sense of optimism about what the next era of the franchise could look like.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The only problem is, none of the Warriors\u2019 young players have truly separated themselves or shown themselves to be long-term difference makers. In fairness, the Warriors\u2019 young players haven\u2019t really been able to grow and mature the way most young players are able to. For the most part, head coach \u00a0Steve Kerr has remained pretty conservative about how he deploys the likes of Kuminga, Moody, and the others. Generally speaking, the Warriors have simply remained too competitive when Curry has been healthy, to truly allow most of their recent draft picks to go through their necessary growing pains. And despite nearly every year seeming like the year in which coach Kerr is going to lean more heavily on his young players, not much has changed to start the 2024-2025 season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The development of Kuminga has long been a popular talking point in NBA circles. But the reality is he remains tantalizing, but not all that substantive. It may be a stretch to say that Kuminga has regressed, but he has certainly stagnated. There is a reason coach Kerr chose to pull Kuminga from the starting lineup so early on in the season. <\/span> Since entering the league, Moody has consistently shown himself to be a solid player. When given the opportunity, Moody has shown the ability to be a productive contributor. Moody is the type of player that Kerr can deploy with confidence because, more often than not, he knows what he\u2019s going to get. Now, because you know what to expect from Moody, that makes him a bit less exciting than a prospect like Kuminga of course. But because Moody is reliable, and rarely tries to play outside of himself, he always looks like a \u2018fit\u2019 whenever he gets an opportunity. Moody shoots when he\u2019s open, uses his impressive length to at least be disruptive on defense, and generally plays hard. He may not have star-player upside, but there’s nothing abhorrently wrong with being useful.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite Moody being \u2018solid\u2019 and \u2018useful\u2019, and the Warriors investing a lottery pick on him, they\u2019ve rarely leaned heavily on him. Kerr has repeatedly throughout Moody\u2019s short career, displayed a lack of willingness to consistently shelf Moody with a big workload. Whether it be Donte DiVincenzo<\/a> early on, or De\u2019Anthony Melton or Buddy Hield<\/a> this year, coach Kerr has seemingly always preferred to give veteran guards and wings extended run over Moody.\u00a0 Whether because of some sort of lack of trust, or whether coach Kerr simply feels Moody doesn\u2019t carry the same upside as some of the aforementioned veterans, Moody is once again only seeing 15.9 minutes per game so far this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Podziemski, who had a great rookie campaign, has so far been unable to carry that success over into year two. Despite earning the trust of coach Kerr enough to be thrust into the starting lineup for 28 of his 74 appearances as a rookie, Podziemski has been used more sparingly in year two. Podziemski\u2019s minutes are down and as a result so too are just about all of his numbers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After securing a spot on the All-Rookie first team<\/a>, Podziemski appeared to be headed for a big role during his sophomore season. Considering the numerous reports<\/a> that claimed Podziemski was viewed as \u2018untouchable\u2019 by the Warriors in potential trade talks, it felt like a shoo-in that he would slot in next to Curry in the starting lineup. Instead, Podziemski has regressed substantially.<\/span><\/p>\n It’s been a surprising development to see coach Kerr opt against expanding Podziemski\u2019s role in any meaningful way. The former Santa Clara standout hasn’t done much to help his case, but at some point, the Warriors will need to lean on him more. Podziemski is shooting an ugly and unsustainable 21.5% from deep this year, which is significantly cutting into his on-court value. If he can slowly inch that conversion rate closer to that of last year\u2019s\u201438.5%\u2014there’s no reason he can\u2019t start to more closely mirror the player he was during his rookie season. Podziemski may be in the midst of a brutal sophomore slump, but the Warriors cannot afford to continue utilizing him in such a reduced role given how important he is to both their present and future.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For a handful of years now, the Warriors have been straddling two different timelines. Since drafting James Wiseman second overall in the 2020 draft, and Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody with the seventh and 14th overall picks in the 2021 draft, the Warriors have been trying to bring the young guys along while remaining competitive. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,25,62,3],"tags":[256,1530,409,2107,4297,2624,70,4176,1082,48,528,4808],"class_list":["post-110174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball","category-warriors","category-nba","category-news","tag-buddy-hield","tag-donte-divencenzo","tag-draymond-green","tag-james-wiseman","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-kelly-oubre","tag-klay-thompson","tag-moses-moody","tag-og-anunoby","tag-stephen-curry","tag-steve-kerr","tag-trayce-jackson-davis"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110233,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110174\/revisions\/110233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Steve Kerr Continues to Delay Youth Movement<\/b><\/h2>\n
Jonathan Kuminga\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n<\/span> Kuminga has all the necessary tools and physical traits to be a star in the league, but time and time again, he struggles to put it all together. Playing on a team that excels with its offensive pace and space tendencies, Kuminga often sticks out with ball-stopping possessions and forced mid-range looks. If Kuminga could up his career-worst three-point conversion rate\u201429.0%\u2014and focus more on being a defensive disruptor, as well as a transition finisher, he could still be a high-end starter<\/a> in this league. For Kuminga to fit in with the Warriors, specifically in the starting lineup, he needs to try to mold his game closer to a player like OG Anunoby<\/a> or Kelly Oubre<\/a> Jr, as opposed to some of the high-volume isolation scorers he seems determined to emulate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMoses Moody<\/b><\/h3>\n
Brandon Podziemski<\/b><\/h3>\n