August WNBA thread

[nwhoopfan]

Aces almost came back to steal it, but not quite.

Here's my bold prediction (so I'll probably be wrong). Las Vegas is stumbling at the end of a long road swing. This weekend they will be in front of 18,000+ extremely motivated fans in Seattle cheering on Bird in her final regular season home game. I smell a blow out win for the Storm.

 

[Tangential]

LV gets last 5 pts before half.

Dallas looks so much more balanced without Arike going head down full bore

Some really nifty and crucial passes by Ty in addition to her 7-8. Gotta agree they look much more crisp with better ball movement, but sometimes playing at a higher level is unstainable for longer stretches with only the subtraction of a key player (see Phoenix without Charles). Hard to say for sure.

 

[eebmg]

Some really nifty and crucial passes by Ty in addition to her 7-8. Gotta agree they look much more crisp with better ball movement, but sometimes playing at a higher level is unstainable for longer stretches with only the subtraction of a key player (see Phoenix without Charles). Hard to say for sure.

Pheonix was not very good with Charles either. They clearly have underlying issues.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Plum did become only the second player in WNBA history to make 100 3's in a season.

 

[Bigboote]

LV gets last 5 pts before half.

Dallas looks so much more balanced without Arike going head down full bore

Arike sits and the Wings beat the Aces for the first time in four years.

Coincidence?

I want to give a shout out to McCowan. She didn’t have a good shooting night, but she was playing against one of the best defenders in the league. The last month she’s looking like the player I expected her to be in the W. She’ll never be a huge scorer, but she can be unstoppable on the boards and an intimidating presence in the lane.

 

[Tangential]

Aces almost came back to steal it, but not quite.

Here's my bold prediction (so I'll probably be wrong). Las Vegas is stumbling at the end of a long road swing. This weekend they will be in front of 18,000+ extremely motivated fans in Seattle cheering on Bird in her final regular season home game. I smell a blow out win for the Storm.

I would say if that prediction comes true and Stewie plays well, the MVP will go to the former Husky. A'ja had another all-around solid game (battles with McCowan down low went in both directions late), but missed a bunny to tie. If LV loses 3 in a row and Seattle wins 3 out of 4 with wins at Washington & vs the Aces, I think that she deserves it.

 

[Tangential]

Pheonix was not very good with Charles either. They clearly have underlying issues.

Correct, my point was when they won their 1st game at Dallas and 3 in a row after the divorce, everyone was saying that they were better off without her. Now they are back to where they should be (I know they've had injuries to Diamond & DT recently). I've seen so many times in the NBA that a team loses one of its best players, rallies together and wins the initial 2 or 3, and then reverts back to the mean.

I did have a long post after last game and another one a couple weeks prior, that they are much better off playing a pure point guard rather than the 3 shooting guards, so there might be more merit in this particular situation than others.

 

[Tangential]

Another interesting stat is Hamby averaged 13.9 over the 1st 16 games and 5.3 over the last 16. I know that they don't rely on her that much for scoring with the other 4 starters, but that is a precipitous drop over a large sample size, without an injury or another front court player replacing her scoring.

 

[Dillon77]

Dallas looks so much more balanced without Arike going head down full bore

Arike sits and the Wings beat the Aces for the first time in four years.

Coincidence?

Rather than attribute the wins over Chicago & Las Vegas on the absence of one player (Arike), I'll flip the switch and say that it has more to do with taking advantage of multiple players. To wit:

- Rather than have three scorers (Arike, Mabrey, Gray) taking turns playing lead guard, Coach Johnson is playing her point guards, both of whom merited first-round drafting. And guess what? Burton had a good game against the Sky and Harris took the reins against the Aces. These PG's concentrate on leading an overall offense, which includes...

- Having Gray and Mabrey do their thing, which is score, in slightly different fashions, but score, nonetheless. Both can and will play in the team concept when it's being accentuated and you see that with Burton/Harris out there. (To many of the points made, Arike can and does put her head forward ... damn the torpedoes! )

- Big T seemingly rebounds anything in her direction and Thornton does a great job going weakside. And T seems to be more in the flow with her Wings teammates. BTW, she sets an awfully good high screen (no movement, necessary) and Mabrey -- in particular -- uses her very well to get off the mid-range jumper.

Arike's a force of nature and Dallas needed that when she first came aboard. As we've seen, the team doesn't need her being option 1, 2 & 4 day in, day out. GM Greg Bibb and Coach Johnson should have a talk on keeping that PG in the starting line-up and seeing if it makes sense to rotate Arike, Gray and Mabrey. If not, one of those three could go...
In the meantime, I look forward to seeing how Dallas closes out.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Another interesting stat is Hamby averaged 13.9 over the 1st 16 games and 5.3 over the last 16. I know that they don't rely on her that much for scoring with the other 4 starters, but that is a precipitous drop over a large sample size, without an injury or another front court player replacing her scoring.

I've definitely noticed she's been in a prolonged slump. With almost no scoring from the bench, they can't really afford to have a starter not scoring.


Can we take a moment to ponder what the thought process was from the Aces constructing a bench with Colson, Sheppard and Bell? Those 3 have collectively done just about nothing all season. There absolutely had to be better players available, and still are. Syd Wiese has been out of the league for a couple years, she's 10X better than any of this trio. I'm sure there are many, many other players you could say that of. I think Karlie Samuelson had a cameo appearance w/ somebody early in the season, but I don't think she's been on a roster for a while. I'd also take her over any of these 3. Jefferson and Dangerfield were available at some point, again much better than these 3. You get the point. I don't understand why the Aces decided to stand pat with a bunch of obviously unproductive players.

 

[Tangential]

Plum did become only the second player in WNBA history to make 100 3's in a season.

3x3 gold, 6th player of the year, should win MIP & be a 1st teamer, all within 2 years of missing the entire season with the achilles injury. She did have trouble staying in front of her person a couple of times in the 4th, but knowing her, she'll work on that in the off- season and become a much better on-ball defender.

 

[Tangential]

I've definitely noticed she's been in a prolonged slump. With almost no scoring from the bench, they can't really afford to have a starter not scoring.


Can we take a moment to ponder what the thought process was from the Aces constructing a bench with Colson, Sheppard and Bell? Those 3 have collectively done just about nothing all season. There absolutely had to be better players available, and still are. Syd Wiese has been out of the league for a couple years, she's 10X better than any of this trio. I'm sure there are many, many other players you could say that of. I think Karlie Samuelson had a cameo appearance w/ somebody early in the season, but I don't think she's been on a roster for a while. I'd also take her over any of these 3. Jefferson and Dangerfield were available at some point, again much better than these 3. You get the point. I don't understand why the Aces decided to stand pat with a bunch of obviously unproductive players.

Completely agree. Just like I mentioned in my post yesterday, there are so many examples of much better players not in the Association, relative to current bench players. And it's often the 8th, 9th, 10th players that need to be contributing. I'll reiterate, should S Thomas be in the league?

 

[TheFarmFan]

A lot can be explained by the CBA's mandates for the $ of playercontracts. Rookie contracts are pretty cheap, whereas the minimums for players outside of their rookie contracts has to be higher if they are signed to longer term deals. So for a player like Wiese, they can briefly roster her for a few games but if they roster her for a season, she is much pricier than, say, Bell. It's the reason why a lot of players hang around for 3-4 seasons and then disappear as soon as their rookie deals expire.

 

[jchusky]

I do think for whatever reason when Arike sits, Mabrey benefits more and becomes a way better scorer.

 

[nwhoopfan]

A lot can be explained by the CBA's mandates for the $ of playercontracts. Rookie contracts are pretty cheap, whereas the minimums for players outside of their rookie contracts has to be higher if they are signed to longer term deals. So for a player like Wiese, they can briefly roster her for a few games but if they roster her for a season, she is much pricier than, say, Bell. It's the reason why a lot of players hang around for 3-4 seasons and then disappear as soon as their rookie deals expire.

That makes some sense, but doesn't explain Colson. In the league off and on since 2011, way beyond rookie contract.

 

[nwhoopfan]

She did have trouble staying in front of her person a couple of times in the 4th, but knowing her, she'll work on that in the off- season and become a much better on-ball defender.

I'm obviously a big fan of Plum, but I think she's taken a step backward on D this year. She had become somewhat of a pesky defender maybe starting around year 3. But the whole team is just AWFUL on D this year, despite having some players who are supposed to be good defenders like Young, Hamby and Wilson. I think it's abundantly clear that Laimbeer put more emphasis on D than Hammon.

 

[GoChips20]

I'm obviously a big fan of Plum, but I think she's taken a step backward on D this year. She had become somewhat of a pesky defender maybe starting around year 3. But the whole team is just AWFUL on D this year, despite having some players who are supposed to be good defenders like Young, Hamby and Wilson. I think it's abundantly clear that Laimbeer put more emphasis on D than Hammon.

Yeah that’s been my observation as well. Three individuals known as upper-tier defenders in the league with another one coming off the bench in Stokes. But the intensity and cohesion just doesn’t seem to be there. Much was made about the improvement of the Aces due to their hot start but now they’ll finish with a worse record than last year.

 

[azfan]

Sky extends her lead in Ts with yet another in leading the Mercury to a loss at Connecticut. Post game comments by the T star are revealing.

 

[bbsamjj]

Over the last 6 games (Dallas is 4-2 in those games), McCowan has averaged 19ppg and 10.5rpg while shooting 63% FG. If she/her team could ever find a way to be consistent, she would be one of the most dominant forces in the league.

 

[eebmg]

Over the last 6 games (Dallas is 4-2 in those games), McCowan has averaged 19ppg and 10.5rpg while shooting 63% FG. If she/her team could ever find a way to be consistent, she would be one of the most dominant forces in the league.

I think she has been great but it seems she still has minute limitations (fitness?). What comes accross to me is that she does not show frustration if she thinks the refs blew calls.

 

[GCKSFN4L]

Personally I don't think Arike and Marina shouldn't share the floor together except in very extreme circumstances that merit a offense intensity. Dallas runs better when only one of them is on the floor at at time. The backcourt can consist of Ty/Veronica as the PG, Arike/Marina as the SG and Allisha as the SF. I think any combination of that would lead to a more successful and dangerous Wings.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

I think she has been great but it seems she still has minute limitations (fitness?). What comes accross to me is that she does not show frustration if she thinks the refs blew calls.

I never really thought Big T would be a dominant player in the W and I believe her lack of conditioning has contributed to her inconsistent playing time. However, I do believe in the right envrionment she could become a contributor who is a difference maker. It appears she has improved greatly with the change of scenery in Dallas.

 

[Tangential]

Personally I don't think Arike and Marina shouldn't share the floor together except in very extreme circumstances that merit a offense intensity. Dallas runs better when only one of them is on the floor at at time. The backcourt can consist of Ty/Veronica as the PG, Arike/Marina as the SG and Allisha as the SF. I think any combination of that would lead to a more successful and dangerous Wings.

I have generally been advocating this. I would also have no problem with Marina & Arike sharing the floor with one of the true point guards while Allisha is getting her short periods of rest on the bench.

 

[bbsamjj]

I never really thought Big T would be a dominant player in the W and I believe her lack of conditioning has contributed to her inconsistent playing time. However, I do believe in the right envrionment she could become a contributor who is a difference maker. It appears she has improved greatly with the change of scenery in Dallas.So

i always thought her bigger issue was fouls? either way, her last four games she's played 31, 28, 35, and 27 min respectively. so it seems like she "can" play major minutes, even though for her career, she's only average 22mpg.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

i always thought her bigger issue was fouls? either way, her last four games she's played 31, 28, 35, and 27 min respectively. so it seems like she "can" play major minutes, even though for her career, she's only average 22mpg.

You could be right, I just "assumed" (which we know what that does) that it was lack of conditioning that gets so many players when they make the jump. MSU as a team was constructed to play to McCowan's strengths and in the pros, few players get that luxury.