For a moment, Quinten Post was a superstar.
The Warriors’ rookie center challenged Zach Edey at the rim, forcing a missed dunk. Then he trailed the play as his team pushed the ball up the floor, setting his feet at the top of the arc for a 3-pointer.
Post’s first NBA season has been defined by a collection of moments. To make the most of his 16.3 minutes per game, Post has leaned into the skill that separates him: 3-point shooting.
Post has had no issues getting shots off. He’s a capital-s Shooter. A no-hesitation gunner. He knows what he’s on the court to do: let it fly.
Against the Grizzlies, Post drilled three 3-pointers — including one in that sequence — en route to 11 points. He also grabbed five rebounds in 22 minutes. He was a +12 in a five-point win.
The threes are momentum-changing and floor-bending. Post is already one of the best and most prolific 3-point shooting bigs. He shot 40.8% from behind the arc this season, maximizing his limited minutes.
Subscribe to The Dime
News, gossip, and inside-the-locker-room access for Bay Area sports fans, every Friday and Monday.
Post doesn’t play enough to rise up leaderboards on raw numbers, but his per 36 statistics — numbers extrapolated out to simulate a starter’s workload — contextualize his 3-point prowess. Among 7-footers, only Victor Wembanyama, Lauri Markkanen, Jay Huff, and Branden Carlson top Post’s 9.4 3-point attempts per 36. “That’s a lot,” Post said. Only Huff averages more makes per 36, and he couldn’t get off the bench in the play-in game.
“In college I was never a high-volume shooter,” Post, 25, told The Standard. “I always knew that I was a great 3-point shooter, but in college, my role was more like a play initiator…I wasn’t really spotted up like I am here. So I never really got them up. But I always believed that would kind of be my ticket to the NBA — my shooting mixed with my size and basketball I.Q.”
Post has gone from the 52nd overall pick to X-factor as the Warriors enter the playoffs. He’s the sweet-shooting seven-footer they’ve never had, unlocking lineup combinations and opening up driving lanes with his jumper.
“He’s been a game-changer for us,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “We’ve needed a pick-and-pop big, a floor-spacing five man for years. He’s come in in his rookie season and he’s giving us big minutes every single night. Changes the dynamics on the floor, changes the strategy for the defense. What I like about him is he’s smart, he’s tough, competitive, learning. He’s been fantastic. I don’t think we could’ve ever expected this kind of impact in his rookie year.”
No one could have expected this. Not Kerr, not Mike Dunleavy — who maneuvered up and down the late second round to acquire Post on draft night — and maybe not even Post himself.
Post picked up basketball when he was 11 years old in Amsterdam after spending his early years honing his hand-eye coordination by playing goalkeeper on the pitch. Not long after, he discovered his proclivity for long-range precision.
One game in the Dutch Under-14 league, Post recalls, he went 6-for-6 from behind the 3-point arc in a single quarter.
Growing up, Post would study Youtube videos of some of his favorite NBA players, like Dirk Nowitzki. His dad, Arjen Post, would often shoot free throws with his son. He taught Quinten to angle his shooting arm and elbow in a square, a technique he still uses with the Warriors.
Post sprouted up from around 6-foot-6 to 7-feet when he was 18, Arjen said. He was playing for an amateur club in Berlin, where the coaches empowered him to shoot in a five-out system. Coaches there, his trainer back home in Amsterdam — Jard Schuit — and Boston College assistant coach Anthony Goins helped Post hone his jumper through his growth spurt.
It all helped Post make a quick impression as a pro.
Shortly before training camp, most of the Warriors assembled for pickup runs in the Bay. Draymond Green joined after working out for most of the summer in Los Angeles. He’d heard Post could shoot, so he set him up to see what the rookie could do.
Pick-and-pop, cash. Spot-up, splash. Green and Post won seven straight games.
“I started talking crazy to everybody, like, ‘You better stop helping off him,’” Green said. “I remember walking to the side after that and telling them, like yo, this kid can help us. He can shoot, but he’s pretty good defensively. Good verticality, moving his feet well. [Anthony Vereen] in particular, I’m like ‘AV, don’t give me a shooter. You see what we do with Steph Curry, don’t put a shooter on our team.’”
Post was so impressive, Dunleavy texted Kerr about the run.
“That was the first indication that we might actually be able to play him this year,” Kerr said.
His preseason was slowed by a calf injury and he needed seasoning in the G League, but Post’s call-up in January was a mini-boost before the Jimmy Butler explosion. The Warriors needed his 3-point shooting so badly, they inserted him into the starting lineup for seven games. By February, he was hitting “no-dip” threes:
Quinten Post with the mythical No Dip 3 pic.twitter.com/NyGFBrxOCg
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) February 13, 2025
The Warriors desperately needed a player of Post’s archetype. They haven’t had a stretch center to play next to Green since Marreese Speights a decade ago. Post mitigates Green’s lack of consistent outside jumper, opening up more options in the other three positions for Kerr. The Green-Kevon Looney frontcourt tandem, particularly in a post-Klay Thompson world, simply makes finding space too hard from the other three spots.
Post is a member of two lineups (Post-Green-Butler-Podziemski-Hield and Post-Green-Butler-Payton-Moody) that have propped up the Warriors while Steph Curry rests. Those combinations have a 34.2 and a 21.7 net rating.
In the third quarter of a mid-March game in Milwaukee, Post ran the floor to the left wing and caught a kick-out pass. Instead of panicking or looking for a guard like many centers would, he let Taurean Prince’s momentum take him toward the corner, dribbled once to his right, and launched a 3-pointer.
A 7-footer isn’t supposed to be able to do that. But there he was, screaming and chest-bumping Moses Moody after a side-step 3.
“I work on those, for sure,” Post said. “But also just in a game, it just kind of happens naturally. You just kind of adapt. If you think you’re a good shooter, that means you want to get shots off.”
If the shot is as real as it looks, Post will get opportunities in the NBA for a long time. Perimeter shooting is a skill that ages well. His dad, who’s still playing back in Amsterdam at 51, is living proof.
“He has an incredible jump shot and can shoot the ball,” Green said. “But what’s more impressive to me is how quick it is. At seven feet, to have that quick of a trigger, it puts teams at a disadvantage when they’re playing against him.”