NBA has surprising early leader in plus/minus

The Golden State Warriors second-year guard tops all players in the NBA in plus/minus, a stat that measures how many points a team is better than their opponents while a player is on the floor. Podziemski is +87 for the 4-1 Warriors, seven points better than second-place Evan Mobley.

Podziemski’s other modest statistics belie the impact he has on the court. He’s averaging 10.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists for the Warriors, while shooting just 36.7 percent from the field. But he’s a very good rebounder for a guard, moves the ball well, doesn’t commit many turnovers and gets a ton of deflections on defense (three per game this season). Last season, he led the NBA in charges drawn.

In the Warriors opener, a 140-104 win over the Portland Trail Blazers, Podziemski had a plus/minus of +35, despite not scoring a point. 

Sure, the Warriors have had an easy schedule, with games against the Blazers, Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans twice, but none of his teammates are among the league leaders. He also did this without Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins for two of the team’s five games.

It’s not just this season, either, Podziemski led the Warriors last season with a plus/minus of +264 last season That’s a big reason he replaced Klay Thompson in the starting lineup, and also why the Warriors let Thompson go to the Dallas Mavericks this summer.

Podziemski isn’t physically imposing. He’s not all that tall or all that fast. His floppy red hair under his headband doesn’t look like a usual NBA player, but he simply plays winning basketball. Just like the ball, numbers don’t lie.