No question practice time has been an issue which is why they instituted the 'pool' concept and mini-training camps every few months. But it also points to another issue - playing internationally for young pros exposed them to multiple coaching situations and systems each year. They became 'fast learners' and adept at adjusting to a variety of very different teammates which helps when being thrown together onto the national team.
While I certainly think it helps playing with WNBA teammates, I think that is a double edged sword - if three of the players on the floor are playing together, what are the other two players doing? Are they trying to run Aces plays? Are they all trying to run Lynx plays? What are they actually doing?
I think DT and Sue were special because they were chameleons - they wanted to and were adept at adjusting their game play to the skills of whoever they were playing with and being coached by. You want the ball passed to your left hand four feet behind the line at 38 degrees off the baseline - got it; You want the entry pass high on your right hand as you cut into the restricted area - perfect. They made everything easy for the coaches and the administrators choosing the team. And by the time they owned the team (2008), they had played 3/5 years overseas on 'all star' teams under international rules. In the last few cycles they were also the only members of the team that remembered failure - the Bronze at the 2006 WC.
The current guards (and the ones who have come and gone over the last two cycles) appear to want to play 'their game' and not to adapt to whatever the national team wants/needs. It is the situation the men's national team has had to deal with over the years, and what they seem to have solved in recent years by selecting a few guards that aren't superstars, but are the ones who can adapt their games to support what the coaches/teams need.
Thoughtful and thorough: as per usual and always appreciated (by this long-time BY reader & participant).
I can't quite decide whether to chalk up that (very) close game to some combination of: heck of a time to lay an egg; worse possible match-up (for both teams), resulting in a defensive smasher; and/or a lot of the points you brought up. The talent on the U.S.A. team allowed it to keep on chooglin' but a number of your points did register (not as well) with me at some point. Using your post, let me add an "and" or "but..." to these points. Plus, add one or two at the end.
"... playing internationally for young pros exposed them to multiple coaching situations and systems each year."
- Agreed. And a number of WNBA players and members of the U.S.A. team (hello, Napheesa Collier) still do. However, a look at the 2024 All-Euro team shows three Americans (all of whom play in the W): Kayla McBride, Marina Mabrey and Elizabeth Williams. The latter was injured this year. McBride was in the pool years ago but fell out of it and Mabrey got an invite to a camp but never went much further.
Some national organizations are watching how WNBA players produce overseas (witness Spain recruiting Megan Gustafson). Is the U..S.A. organization doing the same with all of the American WNBA'ers in Europe, the Far East or Australia? Or do they care as much?
- Along those lines, one reason young Americans went overseas was to augment their incomes. Now, a lot of these younger players are adding to the bottom line in different ways (Marketing opportunities, working for colleges, etc.). So, will this part of overall development lessen in importance?
Multiple players from one team
."I think that is a double edged sword - if three of the players on the floor are playing together, what are the other two players doing?"
- I can see this point. However, I think it depends on which players you're talking about. Is (at least) one of those players willing to subvert her usual W game to the needs of the international team, which leads to ...
"The current guards (and the ones who have come and gone over the last two cycles) appear to want to play 'their game' and not to adapt to whatever the national team wants/needs."
- All the post-selection public relations blather than came out cited that one of the criterion was working well within a unit. (Call this the "why we'll never have an Arike on the team" line).
And many of the players chosen were praised for their abilities to play multiple positions. This may have been the reasoning for not having a pure point guard to back up Chelsea Gray, who was coming off an injury (figuring Ionescu, Plum and Young could do that. Plus Stewie and A. Thomas bring the ball up into the half court set often.)
- Some of these players alter their games on any team they need. Jackie Young was largely handling the point for the Aces while Gray was out. And on the U.S.A. team, she was often used as the designated defensive guard. (And in the Dawn Staley years, Dawn noted how she used Jewell Loyd as her designated defender.)
Now, for some druthers of my own.
- Unless U.S.A. Basketball goes with a long-term coach who has input into players selection (such as Emma Hayes of the U.S.A. Women's Soccer Team), there has to be painstaking coordination between coaching philosophy, how players are scouted, invited into the pool and, ultimately, chosen for the team.
If Cheryl Reeve wants a defense-first, hard-nosed approach, was a Sabrian Ionescu really the right choice for a back-up guard?
- Is the current U.S.A. selection committee up to speed on where the game and players are? The game is and will rapidly change. The selection committee has to match that.
- While I favor a team-approach to offense and defense, I'm not against having a bit of variety in the players in the pool. While the men's team will bring in a glue-player or two (at most) to round out a team; the women seemed to go in the opposite direction.
Paige B., Caitlin Clark and Hannah Hidlago (the current U.S.A. Women's Basketball player of the year) all can play team ball. They can also go off on their own. Keep that in mind.
- Who knows if these subjects are even discussed in the bubble? I do know training camps and events for Berlin 2026 are going to be coming up sooner than anyone thinks. Time to think about current, near- and mid-term prospects and approaches. Now.
