May 2024 WNBA Thread, part II

[WBBTakeover]

Nobody has ever guarded Kiah.

What are their options? Gustafson hasn't shown much. Go small w/ Clark at the 4 and move Hayes into the starting lineup? Then you still have the problem of no bench scoring.

Ask Natalie Williams, Becky Hammon, and Nikki Fargas--because they were convinced they had five starters coming into the season. They have three--four if you count the newly-acquired Tip Hayes.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Welp! Not having a PG took this team's chances of competing in the Commissioner's Cup Finals away. Thank you, Aces FO! What other season goals are you going to piss away via incompetence?

 

[nwhoopfan]

More like 2 starters tonight. Wilson and Plum. Young has gone cold after a brilliant start to the season.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Phoenix beat Minnesota, Copper went off again.

LA beat Dallas. Wings find themselves tied w/ LA and Indianapolis in the win column.

Seattle tied w/ Minny for 3rd best record. I wouldn't have predicted that a couple weeks ago.

 

[GoChips20]

Something’s not quite right in Vegas. Obviously missing the best PG in the world is going to hurt, but there’s a lot of talent left there. The defense looks porous despite having three All-Defense caliber players in Wilson, Young, and Clark.

Young’s shot has been off all year despite overall excellent play. 52% last year down to 43% so far this year and that’ll be in the 30s after going 1-12 tonight.

 

[nwhoopfan]

The defense looks porous despite having three All-Defense caliber players in Wilson, Young, and Clark.

I don't think Clark is anywhere near the defender she was 4 or 5 years ago w/ Seattle. It's a crime she was never DPOY, she used to make her defensive assignment just disappear. I don't think she has that ability anymore.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Something’s not quite right in Vegas. Obviously missing the best PG in the world is going to hurt, but there’s a lot of talent left there. The defense looks porous despite having three All-Defense caliber players in Wilson, Young, and Clark.

Young’s shot has been off all year despite overall excellent play. 52% last year down to 43% so far this year and that’ll be in the 30s after going 1-12 tonight.

We have three starters (while other teams can somehow manage to find five), and one of them has had some sort of illness the last two games.

Also, not having a PG affects the quality of shots a team can get. The Aces FO have done a poor job of addressing this very important position. There's no way that this team should EVER shoot 31% from the FIELD. That's incompetence of the highest order.

It's going to be tough sledding for this team moving forward thanks to a foot injury and a retirement. Kiah Stokes would not start for any other contending team, so why here?

 

[MilfordHusky]

Copper for the win!

Very close scores tonight--except for the Vegas loss. Yes, a strange night in a strange season.

 

[WBBTakeover]

I don't think Clark is anywhere near the defender she was 4 or 5 years ago w/ Seattle. It's a crime she was never DPOY, she used to make her defensive assignment just disappear. I don't think she has that ability anymore.

I somewhat agree, but she did make last year's regular season MVP disappear in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals less than a year ago.

Not having Chelsea is going to sink this team. They're convinced that they'll go on a run during the season, but I don't see it. They don't have it. What's worse is that they think they do.

 

[nwhoopfan]

she did make last year's regular season MVP disappear in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals less than a year ago.

Stewie made herself disappear for most of last year's playoffs...

 

[WBBTakeover]

Stewie made herself disappear for most of last year's playoffs...

AC forced the ball out of the 2023 regular season MVP's hands with great positional defense. I don't think that fact can be disputed.

Neither can the fact that this team is COOKED without a real PG. Becky sounds like she's ready to start pursuing NBA jobs.

 

[hoopsnloops32]

Stewie made herself disappear for most of last year's playoffs...

And has continued to disappear for the majority of this season as well.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Young’s shot has been off all year despite overall excellent play. 52% last year down to 43% so far this year and that’ll be in the 30s after going 1-12 tonight.

True.

That said, none of the guards are shooting the ball well this year, which can be attributed to the lack of a PG. KP is shooting 37% from the field and 35% from three this year after shooting a very efficient 48% (and 39% from three) just last season. I know that Tip Hayes just joined the team, but her current FG% (33%) would be a career low by several percentage points. Kate Martin's FG% has dipped below 30%. Syd Colson, who barely plays, is at 33%.

And, on top of this, the team's defense still STINKS!

Becky's head has to be exploding right now. There's virtually no time to figure it out. A PG is needed. We are one of four teams playing without a starting-caliber PG and a starting true C (Atlanta, Washington, and LA are the other three)--and it shows (though LA and Atlanta have a starting-caliber PF that they can slot into the 5 position. Washington has had injuries and they didn't bother acquiring a PG anyway).

Oh wait--Minnesota doesn't have a true 1 or 5, either--yet they're 7-3.

 

[hoopsnloops32]

True.

That said, none of the guards are shooting the ball well this year, which can be attributed to the lack of a PG. KP is shooting 37% from the field and 35% from three this year after shooting a very efficient 48% (and 39% from three) just last season. I know that Tip Hayes just joined the team, but her current FG% (33%) would be a career low by several percentage points. Kate Martin's FG% has dipped below 30%. Syd Colson, who barely plays, is at 33%.

And, on top of this, the team's defense still STINKS!

Becky's head has to be exploding right now. There's virtually no time to figure it out. A PG is needed. We are one of four teams playing without a starting-caliber PG and a starting true C (Atlanta, Washington, and LA are the other three)--and it shows (though LA and Atlanta have a starting-caliber PF that they can slot into the 5 position. Washington has had injuries and they didn't bother acquiring a PG anyway).

Oh wait--Minnesota doesn't have a true 1 or 5, either--yet they're 7-3.

I’d imagine Gray is coming back soon so this PG problem seems like it will resolve itself quickly.

 

[Dillon77]

It was a free article yesterday, now it's behind a pay wall. They have Brink #1. I think the others were Reese, Jackson, Vanloo and Martin. You could maybe argue a few of those, but Vanloo or Martin is just beyond ridiculous.

A caveat -- and please don't shoot the messenger -- this is a poorly enunciated attempt at a "statistics-driven" analysis.
Here's the explanation from ESPNw:

"Throughout the season, we keep tabs on which rookies perform the best according to a variety of statistics. To that end -- and in a similar vein to our NBA playoffs player rankings -- we'll be blending three different metrics: Basketball-Reference's Win Shares, Estimated Wins Added from Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and wins generated via the Simple Player Rating (SPR), a box score plus/minus-style stat that provides yet another prism through which we can view a player's production.

"Each estimate of wins created is then averaged into a single metric, called Consensus Wins, which can be used to rank qualified rookies on a per-minute basis."

And so on, which then leads to the rankings, where it gets eye-raising pretty quickly. And then it got even more ridiculous when Clark went for 30 last night and was back to her "Caitlin-logo" self.

Stats can tell a lot, but sometimes they're part of the equation.

 

[Geew1992]

Stewie made herself disappear for most of last year's playoffs...

That’s cuz she got tired from carrying the team all year

 

[Dillon77]

I was at a family dinner last night and tuned into the games/festivities on the board a little on the later side.
While watching a game or two and reading the board's reaction to ESPNw's rankings of rookies (based on statistical analysis factors), this thought hit me: sometimes it's really important to note what is being done by whom at really important points in a game. To wit:

• Kahleah Copper had a heck of a game, period, against the Lynx last night but no shot was bigger than the game winner with less than a second left. Bam. She keeps making arguments about being on the U.S.A. Interntional team with clutch shots and overall fine play.
• Skylar Diggins-Smith didn't have an especially effective overall shooting performance (6-16), but she scored 19 of her 21 points in the second half of the Storm's win over the Aces and, according to the AP article, saved the best for the end:

"Diggins-Smith scored nine points during Seattle's 11-2 run, including two 3-pointers, a three-point play and a nice pass to Nneka Ogwumike for a layup, to extend their lead to 74-61 with 2:01 left. Diggins-Smith capped the scoring with 14 seconds remaining."
She finished with 7 assists.

On the other hand, there was some, consistent serious stroking last night:

• Kayla McBride went for 8 three pointers last night on 8-13 attempts (that's 60%+) Save for Copper's heroics, that would've been enough for a road win. BTW, McBride has sunk the most threes in the league thus far -- 36 -- while shooting the highest percentage (49%).
• Caitlin Clark was more than 50% from three (7-13) and felt many her misses were "in," too. The 7-8 FT's were important, too.
• And, in a...whoa, where'd that come from?...Stef Dolson reminded folks she can stroke it, but going 5-6 from three. Maybe Ariel Atkins (7-21) should've deferred a bit...

 

[JellyBean]

Something’s not quite right in Vegas. Obviously missing the best PG in the world is going to hurt, but there’s a lot of talent left there. The defense looks porous despite having three All-Defense caliber players in Wilson, Young, and Clark.

Young’s shot has been off all year despite overall excellent play. 52% last year down to 43% so far this year and that’ll be in the 30s after going 1-12 tonight.

Yeah. They just had a terrible shooting night. Not having a PG is not the issue. They just had an off night. Nobody mentions anything about the point guard until the Aces lose. They are okay. Hats off to Seattle and Coach Quinn! She has her players playing well.

 

[azfan]

On the other hand, there was some, consistent serious stroking last night:

• Kayla McBride went for 8 three pointers last night on 8-13 attempts (that's 60%+) Save for Copper's heroics, that would've been enough for a road win. BTW, McBride has sunk the most threes in the league thus far -- 36 -- while shooting the highest percentage (49%).
• Caitlin Clark was more than 50% from three (7-13) and felt many her misses were "in," too. The 7-8 FT's were important, too.
• And, in a...whoa, where'd that come from?...Stef Dolson reminded folks she can stroke it, but going 5-6 from three. Maybe Ariel Atkins (7-21) should've deferred a bit...

By far the most entertaining game played in the valley of the Sun in the last 3 years. Vintage DT as she picks up the technical and over the next 2 minutes takes us down memory lane.

In an evening of very entertaining games this may well have been for Phoenix fans the summit for the upcoming season.

Cheryl Reeves can now join Becky Hammond in a head scratching defeat to the million dollar coach. Carlton usually extremely reliable from the line misses the front of two free throws which opens the window for the heroics by Copper.

Griner's return shows both possibilities and challenges for the team down the stretch. But with that said and this was a thriller the million dollar coach's perimeter defense held the Lynx to 15 made threes an improvement(by the Lynx) of one over the Minnesota destruction of the Mercury earlier this month and Minnesota.

The question is can Copper and Cloud keep this up. They're wildly inconsistent and the Merc are a terrible road team. But the fans were rewarded with an extraordinarily entertaining game that really indicates the limitations of the construction of the Merc as well as the intriguing decision to bring in the million dollar coach.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Yeah. They just had a terrible shooting night. Not having a PG is not the issue. They just had an off night. Nobody mentions anything about the point guard until the Aces lose. They are okay. Hats off to Seattle and Coach Quinn! She has her players playing well.

This isn't just an off night. It's been a trend so far. The Aces' shooting efficiency has been in the bottom half of the WNBA all season long--and I'm usually the one who's pointing that out (win or lose). They most certainly aren't okay unless they can get a PG who can come in and get the ball moving right away. Jackie and KP are not adequate at this position, and it really makes the Aces' offense look incompetent when one of the two shoots 8% from the field against an opponent who also struggles with shooting efficiency.

Noelle's team played okay last night. But because this team also lost to a Nate Tibbetts-coached one and a Tanisha Wright-coached one, it's hard to say how much of an accomplishment the win is for her coaching résumé at this point of the season.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Let's make this simple. Loyd and SDS couldn't find the bottom of the bucket to start the season. The Storm looked bad. Plus Nneka missed a few games. Now the new parts seem to be meshing, the stars are hitting shots, and they are on a 6 game winning streak. Simple.


Connecticut is undefeated. EVERYBODY else has been up and down to some degree.

 

[nwhoopfan]

And then there were none. Liberty get a big win on the road and hand the Sun their first loss of the season.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Ionescu and JJ carried the Lib today.

 

[WBBTakeover]

NY's defense has been looking much better lately. Gee--I wonder what happened? Maybe playing without a liability could make all the difference.

 

[baggerbob]

NY's defense has been looking much better lately. Gee--I wonder what happened? Maybe playing without a liability could make all the difference.

That's 4 straight games the Liberty closed well in the 4th quarter.
The constant in those 4 games, no Sabally, still out injured.
The rookie from Germany has started to get some run. Not great,but seems to be helping.