Two new rookie extensions on Friday may have quietly shifted the market for Brandin Podziemski, and the Warriors are the team feeling it most.
Golden State still doesn’t have a deal in place with Podziemski, even as other teams around the league move quickly on extensions before training camp. The latest dominoes came with Keyonte George agreeing to a five-year, $157.5 million extension with the Utah Jazz and Pelle Larsson landing a four-year, $60 million deal with the Miami Heat.
Those numbers matter beyond Utah and Miami. For a Warriors team that projects to have cap space next summer, the bigger immediate issue is that Podziemski may have just watched his asking price climb.
George and Larsson now sit on opposite ends of the range, but Podziemski has a case to land somewhere in between. The former 19th overall pick hasn’t matched George’s production or upside, yet he brings more to the table than Larsson, who was the 44th overall pick in the second round. Podziemski is also younger and carries the profile of a former first-round pick.
That puts his value in a tricky spot for Golden State. If George is clearing a little over $30 million per year and Larsson is at $15 million annually, Podziemski can reasonably point to a number in the $20-23 million range.
And that’s the part that should make the Warriors pause.
There had been some thought that Golden State could get Podziemski on a deal around $15 million a year, but Larsson’s contract makes that look far less realistic now. It gives the 23-year-old guard more leverage, and it also creates a situation where the Warriors may be comfortable letting him reach restricted free agency unless he’s willing to accept a very team-friendly number.
Context matters here, and the context is different for each team involved. The Jazz didn’t project to have cap space next summer with Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen on multi-year max contracts, and the Heat also don’t appear headed into that kind of flexibility after their blockbuster move for two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Golden State is in a different lane. The Warriors do project to have significant money to spend in free agency next year, which gives them room to wait. That could leave Podziemski in limbo for a while longer as the team weighs flexibility against locking in a number that Friday’s deals may have pushed upward.
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