Warriors remember Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski after Draymond’s plea – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

The Draymond Green effect?

After the Warriors veteran stressed the importance of rookie energy on the road following Friday night’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State recalled forward Trayce Jackson-Davis and guard Brandin Podziemski from its G League affiliate in Santa on Saturday Cruz returned just a day after they were reassigned there.

Jackson-Davis was officially recalled Saturday afternoon, and Podziemski joined him in a separate roster move announced a few hours later.

“I also think our young people are not here, Trayce and [Brandin Podziemski] and Lester [Quinones], the energy that they bring to this team – we missed that,” Green told reporters in Oklahoma City. “Next time we have an in-season tournament game, we need these guys here because they bring a lot of juice for us.

“People always talk about young people bringing energy. That is their job. But we don’t have to tell these guys to bring energy. They do that every day. I wasn’t particularly shocked that our energy wasn’t there because they’re the guys that raise our energy levels and they weren’t here.”

After Jackson-Davis and Podziemski were transferred to Santa Cruz on Friday, Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters before the game that both youngsters would benefit from more practice work and scrimmage time in G League training camp. Beyond the impact of Green’s words, however, Friday night’s win showed that the Warriors could use both rookies.

While neither has developed into a mainstay on Kerr’s roster yet, Jackson-Davis and Podziemski both showed flashes early in the season – and clearly provided an elusive spark off the bench. The Warriors will get some of that back, along with size off the bench while the rookies are back in contention.

The Warriors are coming off a last-second win over the much younger Thunder, and they’ll need some of that youthful energy as they face two more teams younger than them in the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons. The Warriors’ average age for the 2023-24 NBA season is 28.03, third oldest in the league, while the Cavs and Pistons have an average age of 26.51 and 24.87, respectively.

Factor in that gap with a matchup on Sunday and Monday, and bench depth becomes even more important as the Warriors’ 30-plus year club looks to maintain the team’s winning streak.

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