Arike's not an efficient player, but neither are Taurasi, Loyd, or Ionescu (and Plum this season). I've seen Copper shoot her team out of games this year. We just saw Plum shoot Vegas out of the Sky game not too long ago (and the first Storm game also sticks out to me). Loyd's historically awful shooting had a lot to do with why Seattle started out the season so poorly.
Those three should have received further consideration for Team USA than they did (I know that Laney's out due to injury, but they toyed with her before leaving her name out of the pool this past spring). If defense is so important to Team USA, why would you construct a team that has Taurasi (a fossil), Plum (small with ZERO defensive awareness), AND Ionescu (lead feet) on it????
Arike hasn't had her running backcourt ate Sabally this season. Plus Howard was out for a lot of the season. Plus the Wings are just a team that drafts strange every single season. She looks good in these All-Star games because she has other top players alongside her. Which is what the Olympic team would be. As others pointed out, there's other guards that aren't efficient either. And those guards aren't on bad teams. Plum has 3 other Olympians in her starting lineup. Sabrina has Stewart and Jones (plus other really good role players). You put any of those guards om the Wings and ask them to be the main scorer and I don't think they'd be efficient either.
Politics have always been in play, unfortunately. This isn't something new. From those questioning whether Lobo should have been on the 1996 roster to players like Ogumike never being selected.
Yeah, but how many playoff wins / championships does Dallas have since Arike joined the league?
But is that all on Arike or the front office? In addition to the puzzling draft choices, the coaches prior to Tramell were underwhelming.
Can’t speak to Rebecca Lobo and others who have been selected prior to the current process that former Team USA members and current Selection Committee members Dawn Staley, Seimone Augustus and Delisha Milton Jones know about and are implementing.
The one constant in Dallas is Arike. Unlike Marina Mabrey who requested a trade to CT, there has not been any request by Arike to get traded.
I don't think anyone on either team played much defense last night.
In reality I think Arike is the face of Dallas and Sabally is the foundation of Dallas.
But the decisions for the players selected and playing style isn't Arike. Putting all the onus on her for how the team is performing isn't fair.
“Arike-in-Dallas as a core fact” — decisions for and with Arike in mind, which weren’t successful with Arike having a hand on the successes, or lack thereof.
7 guards on this team was a mistake. Now with Collier looking like she can't play you go into the Olympics with 4 frontcourt players, 2 nursing injuries in Stewie and Griner.
I agree on nearly all of this, WCCTakeover, especially about Loyd. She's thought to be a good defender. I surely hope so, 'cause she plays a whole lot of bad games on offense.
And, based on her performance last night, Nneka very much agrees with you.
There are no games on consecutive days in the Olympics. They play 6 games in two weeks with an average of 2-3 days rest between games. Easier than the WNBA schedule.
I'm of the belief that while Jewell is an okay defender, she's not going to be earning any awards for her defense--and I don't believe she's ever been awarded for her defense as a pro. She's not the best defensive guard on her own WNBA team. If she was brought along because of her defense, then that was a mistake by USA Basketball. They should've taken Ariel Atkins instead. I know I said in the past that she wasn't needed on this team, but I was wrong. A healthy Brittney Sykes would've been a good option as well. So would a healthy Jordin Canada or a Natasha Cloud. Betnijah Laney, Allisha Gray, and Rhyne Howard are also players who could've helped defensively at the guard spot.
! They couldn't find one top-flight guard defender?
They were playing defense. More than a regular All-Star. There were some full court presses, and Clark was getting a lot of defensive attention. It was intense.
Alisha Gray and her 5 steals would like to have a word. She was en fuego on defense.
I, personally, don't disagree with that. I'm just giving Reeve's take on the matter. "More of Phee" could mean 4-5 minutes instead of the three that she played in the ASG.
They (Team USA) were definitely playing D. They just weren't very good at it.
If you look at true shooting percentage, Arike and Jewell are the outliers. Arike ranks 97th in the league. Jewell Loyd is 94th. All the other Olympic guards are in the top 50.
