Nika can be Nika and that was good enough to salvage our season last year when PB went out and helped get us to a FF. She is now doing it again this year. My contention is that she was a lot better in past years than you or some others gave her credit for. Can't hit a layup - geez. Slow feet when she had bum foot, etc etc. A foul waiting to happen - ok sometimes but never fouled out or cost us a game. She's a darn good player and getter better. She will never be a prolific scorer in my opinion, but more like an opportunistic one, which I think and hope will be enough.
This is an admirable defense of Nika, and I'm one of her defenders. But there's a few things we ought to acknowledge if we want this theme in our threads to go away.
1) Nika didn't
salvage the team when Paige went down last season -- that was Evina initially, then Caroline, then Azzi. Did Nika help, too? Yes, of course. But the real burden was carried by those three. I hope I can assume this is what you meant, that
Nika helped, too.
2) No one in their right mind would deny she can hit an open layup. She's done this plenty of times in run-outs off her own steals. That's never been the issue.
Can she finish at the rim in the half court offense? This is something she has not been able to do consistently. She can do it when the defense makes a mistake and leaves her an open lane. But I'd expect a pg to be able to challenge an opposing big directly, maybe draw a foul, or...
3)... or get
an interior assist by forcing a big to shift over to her when she drives to the rim, allowing her to dish the ball to one of our bigs. I can't recall her once doing this last season. Part of the problem is that by midseason opposing teams knew she wouldn't try to shoot in the paint and so she couldn't create an opening for an interior assist.
4) She is good at finding our perimeter shooters, and she often does this by flashing into the lane and then passing out. She has done this a few times in each of our previous games. But if her passing game becomes one-dimensional, if she's only able to drive and then pass back out, other teams will learn to shut this down in March.
5) The only reason people have wished for her to expand her offensive skill set to include pop-up jumpers in the midrange and more confidence finishing at the rim is that
she may need this in March, and the rest of the team may need her to be able to do this. No one is demanding that she become Paige or Azzi. If she went from 4ppg to 8ppg I'm sure everyone would be thrilled. it's not like she has to make a ton of midrange shots and layups. She just needs to be willing to
take a few more of them. That's perfectly consistent with being an opportunistic scorer.
6)... and pointing to those standing set-shot 3s she can make doesn't really address the concern. I'm thrilled when she makes those. But it doesn't really change the way teams defend her that much. A mid-range jumpshot off the dribble would do exactly that, change how she's defended (in the latter half of the season) and open up even more passing lanes.
Some folks here think she can never change at this point in her career. But I think that's selling her short. I think she's already improved since last season. Her passing is sharper, she runs the break even better, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a pop-up jumper soon. I think it will all come together for her this season.