The regular season is over for the Golden State Warriors and Draymond Green’s latest comments about how he would rather have a ’16-game player’ over an ’82-game player’ were not directly aimed at Brandin Podziemski, but they almost certainly can serve as a challenge to the young player.

Green has talked about this concept for years, but recently expanded on the idea that there are 82-game players who play fine in the regular season, yet struggle to translate their game to the intensity of the playoffs.

Podziemski just played in all 82 games for the Warriors in the regular season. While that’s undoubtedly a very impressive feat, it remains to be seen whether he is the kind of player who can be relied upon when the pressure is amped up in the playoffs.

Brandin Podziemski needs to prove he can be trusted in the playoffs

The Warriors are set to face the Los Angeles Clippers in the Play-In on Wednesday night. While it’s technically not a playoff game, it is win or go home for both teams so the intensity should be pretty high.

Podziemski hasn’t done very much in each of the team’s Play-In games the last two seasons. As a rookie two years ago, he scored five points and made two of the three shots he took in 24 minutes on the floor. Last year against the Memphis Grizzlies, he started the game and scored just three points in 28 minutes.

He played well at times in the playoffs last season, putting up 14 points in a Game 1 victory over the Houston Rockets in the first-round and scoring 26 points in Game 4. He also put up 28 points in Game 5 of the second-round against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Podziemski has proven he can play well in the postseason, now he needs to prove that he can do it consistently if he wants to be considered one of those ’16-game players’ Green has talked about.

Not many know what it takes to get things done in the playoffs better than Green. He has played so much intense playoff basketball in his career, and no one knows how to use intensity to their advantage more than Green.

The good thing for Podziemski is that he’s had a lot of practice the last few months. With Stephen Curry out for 27 games, Podziemski had the chance to prove himself and hold down the fort. He’s played well in recent weeks and enters the Play-In contest with some momentum.

If the Warriors are going to beat the Clippers, it may very well take some big shots and clutch moments from Podziemski. We know how great Podziemski wants to be, and if he wants to sniff those lofty goals, he needs to prove he’s a 16-game player and not just an 82-game piece.