The relationship between a fanbase and its young stars is often marked by a volatile mix of obsession and impatience. In today’s world of instant analysis and high expectations for immediate success, the boundary between support and pressure is increasingly blurred.
Young athletes face unprecedented pressure to perform when they are drafted, either as a key piece to complete a team or to carry the weight of leading a franchise. This intense scrutiny can shape their development and the overall dynamics within the sport.
Rob Dillingham, the 2023-24 SEC Sixth Man of the Year, was drafted in 2024 with the eighth overall pick. The San Antonio Spurs traded Dillingham to the Minnesota Timberwolves on draft night, and his draft stock was measurable, as he averaged 15.2 points off the bench and 44.4% from the three-point line.
He was traded this past deadline to the Chicago Bulls primarily because he had struggled to secure minutes for the Timberwolves. After the team made it to the Western Conference Finals twice in a row, the team had prioritized reliable players over developing rookies.
A core problem of the Timberwolves was that they did not have a sustainable player at the point guard position other than veteran Mike Conley, who had been winding down in production. Dillingham could not establish himself as the intended long-term successor to Conley, as others in the rotation surpassed him.
Since being traded to Chicago, he was given more breathing room to develop under head coach Billy Donovan’s offensive style. Over his last five games, he’s been averaging 14.2 points and four assists a game while shooting 50.8% from the field and 40% from three.
In the grand scheme of things, being on a team that has been retooling and rebuilding in the Eastern Conference for a couple of years can help alleviate the pressure of having to perform for a playoff-hunting team.
The Warriors didn’t give the next two young players the freedom to do that; they were expected to perform right away.
Playing next to Steph Curry, someone who had changed the game despite the hardships he had to overcome, can be daunting. The center piece of a dynasty, expectations were high when the front office drafted both Brandon Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga.
Podziemski was drafted 19th overall in 2023 out of Santa Clara, where he was named the WCC Co-Player of the Year. The conversations about him as a player are often highly critical ones.
The Warriors are shorthanded, with their best player, Curry, being unavailable. At the trade deadline last year, they had acquired Jimmy Butler, who is out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL. This year’s trade deadline brought in Kristaps Porzingis, who was dealing with unconfirmed health issues.
Podziemski averages about 13 points on 44% shooting from the field but has also received a lot of criticism for his attitude, in which Steve Kerr has come to his defense.
Warriors’ fans are critical of Kerr, especially after the recent performances of former Warrior Kuminga.
Kuminga was drafted seventh overall in the 2021 draft after playing for the league. His tenure was defined with flashes of potential that actively clashed with the team’s veteran-heavy timeline. In a similar fashion to Dillingham on the Timberwolves, Kuminga did not have the chance to show his vertical athleticism and rim pressure.
Over the course of his tenure, Kuminga’s relationship with Kerr deteriorated.
In a feature by ESPN’s Anthony Slater, many details about the fraying relationship came to light.
In those final bits of his Warriors tenure, he had only played 117 minutes. That stretch included 16 games in which Kerr had decided not to play him.
Kuminga said that the team had already given up on him and that being asked to come off the bench cold to play on national TV against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder was part of a recipe to shame him.
Since the trade to the Atlanta Hawks, Kuminga has been what the Warriors said they needed at the trade deadline, a big scoring wing who uses his athleticism in a lot of ways. In his first Hawks game, he became the first player in franchise history to score 25 or more points in under 30 minutes during a debut game.
Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 overall pick from Duke in 2022, led the team to the Final Four as a freshman. Expectations were high, even for a team like the Orlando Magic. Standing at 6-foot-10, he was deemed the most NBA-ready prospect in his draft class.
Banchero’s offense has been characterized by elite volume with below-average efficiency. He’s functioned as the primary point of the Magic’s offense, averaging a little over 20 points and around 50% in true shooting so far in his career.
He, historically, takes a high volume of contested pull-up jumpers and mid-range shots, which has kept his effective field goal percentage on those shots near the bottom of the league at 33%. His co-star, Franz Wagner, who he is often compared to, does not average as much as Banchero in numbers but has cleaner shooting splits across the board.
Outside of the restricted area of the court, Banchero shoots no higher than 37% on the field goals made from those distances. The other player, a high-volume pull-up jump shooter who makes under 40% of his shots, is teenage phenom Cooper Flagg, who has been performing as expected in Dallas.
In the end, the harshness aimed at players like Dillingham, Podziemski, Kuminga, and Banchero is a backhanded compliment. It’s the tax that comes with having high hopes. We only criticize players who are important to our team, not those we don’t care about.
We might realize that these phenoms aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet if we can learn to trade some of that cynicism for patience. They’re young athletes dealing with the highest stakes possible in real time. The talent is there; all it needs is some time to grow.