Let me set the scene for you in Sunday’s game against the Denver Nuggets.

The Warriors were down on starpower. Steph Curry was out. Draymond Green got ruled out before tip-off. Kristaps Porzingis? Nope. Jimmy Butler III? Not available. You’re essentially running a nine-man road crew against Nikola Jokic, who just posted his 185th career triple-double like it was a grocery errand.

And third-year Golden State guard Brandin Podziemski? He was 1-for-10 through three quarters, couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a beach ball. The kind of performance that makes trade rumors feel justified. Then the fourth quarter happened.

Podziemski scored 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting to fuel a 20-2 run that buried Denver 128-117. He finished with 18 points, a career-high 15 rebounds, and9 assists. One assist away from a triple-double and a plus-19 in 37 minutes. On National TV!

That’s some damn good clutch play.

The historical context here matters deeply, because a Basketball Reference query shows Podziemski’s 18-15-9 line against Denver makes him just the 28th entry in Warriors franchise history to post at least 18 points, 15 rebounds, and nine assists in a single game. The names above him on that list? Wilt Chamberlain, Nate Thurmond, and Draymond Green. That is the full list of Warriors players who have done something in this neighborhood. Brandin Podziemski is 22 years old and carved his name into that wall Sunday afternoon.

The heavy.com report from December noted the Warriors had shifted from treating him as “untouchable” to being “more open than ever” to moving him before the trade deadline. That’s a real tension that exists around this young man that I see around Podz in the fanbase; and performances like these make believers.

This is the version of Podziemski that had Mike Dunleavy Jr. telling him “you’re ours” when teams were calling with draft picks during the offseason. This is the version Joe Lacob saw when he believed him to be a future All-Star. And 15 rebounds from the guard feels rather Prime Westbrookian, amirite? They say if you can’t score, find other ways to contribute, don’t let your shot drag down your game. Those boards represent effort and will to affect the game in multiple ways.

Here’s what I keep coming back to from what Podziemski said in October that stuck with Dub Nation. He talked about wanting Curry and Green to be able to leave the franchise with him, to go to Joe Lacob and say “he’s the one.” But Sunday against Denver was Brandin answering that challenge without saying a word. Podziemski was ice cold for three quarters and then he willed them to a win against the fourth-best team in the Western Conference.

That’s not just promise; that’s character. As to whether Podziemski is catching his stride, and the answer has to be: he’s catching something. Call it confidence. Call it clutch gene. Call it the beginning of a player materializing the understanding of what he’s capable of when the lights get bright.

The baton metaphor he used in October looked premature when December came around. Sunday it looked like a sneak peek at a very favorable future in the Bay.