Damning with faint praise....

[ocoandasoc]

After their latest loss it seems the Shock's coach felt he had to come to Skylar Diggins' defense. Not sure his comments came out they way he wanted them to.

"She's getting an education by fire," Kloppenburg said. "It's a totally different game -- the college game to the pro game -- learning the screen roll, learning all the nuances of playing point guard. But the thing we love about her is she's a competitor. She wants to win. She's going to find a way to win. I think as she develops that experience that she's getting she's going to be an excellent point guard in this league."​

Yup, thanks coach. She gives it that "old college try." But she's a pro now. At ND Diggins was usually able to elevate her game against the teams that could match up with hers -- but that was only maybe three or four teams all year. Now, EVERY team is a tough matchup.

The problem, of course, is the unrealistic expectations the Shock have created among their fans with all the hype about Diggins. She was a good to very good (not great) college point guard.... but that position is the toughest transition to the pros. At this point in time she is much closer to being the worst starting point guard in the WNBA than she is the best. In a year or two she may turn out to be a good to very good (not great) pro point guard, but we'll have to wait and see.

 

[ThisJustIn]

Since you've already written her off for this season, should I assume you expect her numbers at the end of the season to be equivalent to what they are now?

Since you've already written her off for this season, can you show us where Shock fans have?

Since you've already written her off for this season, there are only 12 starting point guards in the W. Since she's much closer to being the worst, can you name the 8 who are in front of her?

 

[TheTruthBelow]

There is nothing wrong with what Klop said. This is just more unnecessary bashing. Diggins wasn't a great point guard at ND? Seriously?

Sue Bird is really the only point guard who has come into the WNBA and been great as a rookie. And she had the advantage of playing in a 16-team league, so talent wasn't nearly as concentrated as it is now, and also when guard play wasn't nearly as good. Taurasi, Beard, Whalen, Augustus, Pondexter, Toliver, Prince, etc., all of these guards have filtered into the league after Bird. Sue's gone from making four All-WNBA first teams in her first four seasons to none since because of the increased depth.

Another major disadvantage for Diggins is that she isn't playing next to a great shooting guard. Wiggins is basically a shell of what she once was. Skylar is doing about how I expected overall. Partly because of her own deficiencies, but also because it was likely to be a bad situation (and has been, especially with the team's injuries). She'll gain as much from an improved situation as she will from the improvements in her game.

 

[HuskyNan]

When a PG feeds the ball to the 6'8" woman in the paint but the 6'8" woman only hits 48.5% of her shots, the PG ain't gonna rack up a lot of assists. In fact, no one on the Tulsa team is hitting more than 50%. What's a point guard to do?

Skylar was never a spectacular shooter. What she was in college was a clutch shooter, a closer - a winner. Some people take more time to adjust to the speed and physicality of the game at the next level (cough, Breanna) but that doesn't mean they can't be great at the next level. It's just too soon to be declaring anyone the best or worst of anything at this point in their career.

One last thing - I've seen some comments from pros about the "three to see" promotion, comments about "hype" vs reality. Do you think the pros are putting a bit more effort into defending the three? Skylar's problem isn't that she's a bad point guard, it's that she's not playing with Diana Taurasi or Sylvia Fowles.

 

[semper]

Why did the Wigg go downhill like that? Man, she was spectacular for Stanford.

 

[meyers7]

Since you've already written her off for this season, there are only 12 starting point guards in the W. Since she's much closer to being the worst, can you name the 8 who are in front of her?

Can't really find 12 PGs. Dream seem to have McCoughtry as a Point SG/F, but of the other 11 I can come up with, I would put (by stats) Lawson, Latta, Robinson, Whalen, January, Harding, and Pondexter above her. Diggins comes in with Johnson and Vandersloot. Prahilis is at the bottom.

So that does put her, at this point, closer to the bottom than the top. IMO, it probably has a lot to do with her playing with the Shock as opposed to anything else.

As an aside, I always thought Wiggins was going to turn out to be a really, really great player. Olympic team caliber. Missed that one badly.

 

[DishNSwish]

Let's not forget Wiggins sprained her ankle in he first game. Husky fans know first hand what playing on a sprained ankle can do to your game.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Let's not forget Wiggins sprained her ankle in he first game. Husky fans know first hand what playing on a sprained ankle can do to your game.

But in 5+ season in the WNBA, Wiggins is averaging only 38% overall on shooting, a little above her 36% 3-pt mark, which is understandable since 70% of her shots the last three years have been from behind the arc. Unlike in her first two years, she has been a respectable 3-pt shooter in recent years, but her shots have been halved from when she started and she's basically now just a perimeter shooter with modest stats. But the WNBA is a different level, and Wiggins has found hers.

 

[ocoandasoc]

Diggins continues to struggle... 1 for 6, 2 pts., 1 assist in 21 minutes against the Lynx.... her and Wiggins (who looked great tonight) can't seem to both play well in the same game. This could be a long year for Tulsa.