Olivia Nelson-Ododa debuts in WNBA

[Notyetready]

Liv marked her first WNBA game with 6 points, 3 rbs, 2 blocks in 12 minutes in the L.A. Sparks narrow loss to Seattle Storm. She came off the bench for both
Nneka Ogwumike at the 4 and Liz Cambage at the 5. One of her blocks was against Ezi Magbegor. She also made a nice defensive play against Breanna Stewart. Good defense generally. She had the highest +/- of all players on both teams with a 9. She was 4 for 4 at the line and 1 for 1 in fg. Nice night for the rookie in her first game for the Sparks.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I like Liv's start. I hope she can build from there.

 

[Aluminny69]

Storm started three Huskies: Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, and Gabby Williams. Is that a record?

 

[oldude]

Storm started three Huskies: Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, and Gabby Williams. Is that a record?

I believe they started Sue, Stewie & Lou at times last season.

 

[Dillon77]

I believe they started Sue, Stewie & Lou at times last season.

Yup. Pretty impressive either year!
There's also an instance when two teams can dominate a starting line-up: with the Mercury, UConn (Tina C., Diana T.) and Notre Dame (Skylar Diggins-Smith, Bri Turner) both have two. When Kia Nurse comes back, UConn could have three or have a sixth person to spell Diamond DeShields.

 

[Aluminny69]

I believe they started Sue, Stewie & Lou at times last season.

In the same game, Lou had an inauspicious debut, going 0 for 5, -7 +/-( lowest on the team), in 9:30 minutes for the Sparks. No where to go but up from there.

 

[UcMiami]

In the same game, Lou had an inauspicious debut, going 0 for 5, -7 +/-( lowest on the team), in 9:30 minutes for the Sparks. No where to go but up from there.

It was her second game back she went 3-6 for 9 points in 23 minutes against the Lynx

 

[BRS24]

I don't know what the +/- stat is, but Liv was +9, the highest on the team. If it's an efficiency stat based on minutes played, I'll take that.

 

[Aluminny69]

I don't know what the +/- stat is, but Liv was +9, the highest on the team. If it's an efficiency stat based on minutes played, I'll take that.

View attachment 76499

Basically, +/- is the total points your team scored while you were in the game, minus the total points the other team scored, while you were in the game. As a hockey coach, this was an important stat, as there is not that much scoring. For example, I had a defenseman who only scored two goals all season, but played the majority of minutes, and had the highest plus/minus on the team. He was our most valuable player. So, it somewhat measures how you are contributing to team offense and defense while you are in the game. After all, it is a team sport.

 

[Notyetready]

+/- is the difference in points the team scores while that player is on the floor. The Sparks scored 9 more than the Storm in the 12 minutes Liv was in the game. Storm came out gunning and went ahead by 18 before Sparks could recover. In the fourth quarter, Liv was popping out to the perimeter to defend and for two possessions the Storm were unable to get a shot off. That was part of the Sparks comeback. A couple of times a Storm player was able to slip their defender and get in behind Liv but that player was guarded by someone else. She fouled Macbegor one time when she got past Liv on the baseline. Generally she boxed out well and gave guards the opportunity to rebound.

 

[eebmg]

I am most impressed with the FT's . Seems to be aggressive inside. Takes mental toughness fighting for a position to make FT's. And she is active getting blocks. Of course, that comes with fouls but in the WNBA, you can trade fouls for aggressive plays from a bench player

 

[willtalk]

Liv marked her first WNBA game with 6 points, 3 rbs, 2 blocks in 12 minutes in the L.A. Sparks narrow loss to Seattle Storm. She came off the bench for both
Nneka Ogwumike at the 4 and Liz Cambage at the 5. One of her blocks was against Ezi Magbegor. She also made a nice defensive play against Breanna Stewart. Good defense generally. She had the highest +/- of all players on both teams with a 9. She was 4 for 4 at the line and 1 for 1 in fg. Nice night for the rookie in her first game for the Sparks.

There are far too many variables involved in the +-stat to be very significant in any individual game. The eye test is more convincing. It does have significance over the season since there is a larger sample to deal with. Its just like assists are dependent on the player being passed too making their shots. A player could have a game filled with dimes but it means nothing it their teammates are cold and do not make their shots. The +- stat is affected by the players you are playing with and against in the same way. Your teammates or those on the opposing team could get hot or cold and that would certainly affect your +- either positively or negatively.

 

[BrianUC]

Nelson-Ododa was effective both offensively and defensively in her limited minutes. I hope she keeps it up!

 

[baggerbob]

There are far too many variables involved in the +-stat to be very significant in any individual game. The eye test is more convincing. It does have significance over the season since there is a larger sample to deal with. Its just like assists are dependent on the player being passed too making their shots. A player could have a game filled with dimes but it means nothing it their teammates are cold and do not make their shots. The +- stat is affected by the players you are playing with and against in the same way. Your teammates or those on the opposing team could get hot or cold and that would certainly affect your +- either positively or negatively.

Players like Stewie get penalized because they usually stay in with the reserves, to stabilize the team.

 

[hoophuskee]

Just goes to show Geno is very impressive handling posts. Since Charde, you give him a recruit that is a top 25 National H/S ranked post and they stay and don't get hurt, his coaching is getting them in the WNBA.

For example, Elissa Cunane 2nd team A/A this past season is watching games on TV while Liv made it.

 

[socal613ws]

Just goes to show Geno is very impressive handling posts. Since Charde, you give him a recruit that is a top 25 National H/S ranked post and they stay and don't get hurt, his coaching is getting them in the WNBA.

For example, Elissa Cunane 2nd team A/A this past season is watching games on TV while Liv made it.

so no player in the history of the Wnba has made a Wnba team if they don't go to Uconn? I thought Charlie Collier went #1 overall and went to Texas? Olivia was top 5 in her class, scored over 1,000 pts, you are acting as she was a 10th player off the bench. She was going to get drafted wherever she went, she put in the work, stop short changing her abilities.

 

[hoophuskee]

so no player in the history of the Wnba has made a Wnba team if they don't go to Uconn? I thought Charlie Collier went #1 overall and went to Texas? Olivia was top 5 in her class, scored over 1,000 pts, you are acting as she was a 10th player off the bench. She was going to get drafted wherever she went, she put in the work, stop short changing her abilities.

Where did I say that? WOW!!!!!

You've invented an argument that I never said. How is saying Geno is doing a terrific job with posts and then even using an example of an A/A vs Liv. -- How do you twist that into suggesting/implying that I said no posts make it into the WNBA other than UCONN?

It's okay that I gave Geno credit, isn't it? Doesn't he deserve it?

 

[UcMiami]

Because there are five others involved, and the +/- stat depends on all 5 on the floor, even season long stats can be misleading. As someone above said, a starter that plays more minutes with the bench than the other starters may be penalized. A team with a very good bench may over-inflate the bench stats because they are playing against worse bench players instead of starters for most of their minutes, and teams generally can go on hot and cold streaks that can inflate and deflate their own numbers and their opponents.

Comparing player +/- with similar minutes per game on teams that had similar records takes some of the variables out of play - no player on a terrible team is going to have a good plus minus no matter how good a player is and almost all players on a great team are going to have much better +/- than those on the worst team.

Example - Geno plays 7 players a ton and yearly the team has a great +/- so those players will all have decent +/-. When the bench plays at the end of games, generally they do not run fast breaks and scoring slows considerably for Uconn so the last five minutes there is often a team negative +/- and any players on the floor for those minutes will reflect that even if they also played a lot of minutes in the first 35 of the game.

 

[JellyBean]

Basically, +/- is the total points your team scored while you were in the game, minus the total points the other team scored, while you were in the game. As a hockey coach, this was an important stat, as there is not that much scoring. For example, I had a defenseman who only scored two goals all season, but played the majority of minutes, and had the highest plus/minus on the team. He was our most valuable player. So, it somewhat measures how you are contributing to team offense and defense while you are in the game. After all, it is a team sport.

Thanks for breaking the whole (+/-) information down. Also, happy to see Liv playing and making an impact in the games. I will have to check out the LA Sparks games and see Liv playing.

 

[UcMiami]

Just goes to show Geno is very impressive handling posts. Since Charde, you give him a recruit that is a top 25 National H/S ranked post and they stay and don't get hurt, his coaching is getting them in the WNBA.

For example, Elissa Cunane 2nd team A/A this past season is watching games on TV while Liv made it.

Geno has had a good record of getting players to stick in the WNBA regardless of position - the secret I think: he is never satisfied with just what they can do well, but is always pushing them to broaden their skill sets. A lot of college coaches are happy to let their stars do only what they do best which is good enough for college but will get exposed in the pros. Stewie liked to play outside and he forced her to develop the toughness to post up and take contact, Tina Charles liked playing in the paint and he forced her to develop her jump shot and expand her range.

The fact he plays a team oriented system and demands all player be good passers helps when they become pros and may not be the best player on their team.

 

[willtalk]

One has to give Liv props for making the Sparks roster. That was a hard one to make considering her position.

 

[socal613ws]

Where did I say that? WOW!!!!!

You've invented an argument that I never said. How is saying Geno is doing a terrific job with posts and then even using an example of an A/A vs Liv. -- How do you twist that into suggesting/implying that I said no posts make it into the WNBA other than UCONN?

It's okay that I gave Geno credit, isn't it? Doesn't he deserve it?

that's not the issue, you are acting as Olivia was a player that was out of nowhere, she was a top recruit. Cunane was not. The comparison just makes zero sense.

 

[hoophuskee]

that's not the issue, you are acting as Olivia was a player that was out of nowhere, she was a top recruit. Cunane was not. The comparison just makes zero sense.

Again you are making things up suggesting how "I'm acting."

She was a top recruit that made the WNBA. Have there been other top recruits that have not made the WNBA?

 

[EricLA]

Again you are making things up suggesting how "I'm acting."

She was a top recruit that made the WNBA. Have there been other top recruits that have not made the WNBA?

Exactly. Makes zero sense to look at where they were ranked coming out of HS. Alana Beard was outside the top 40 and she ended up NPOY (along with Dee for splitting awards). Angel McCaughtry was outside the top 80 (maybe outside the top 100) and she ended up an Olympian. Where was Morrow (DePaul) ranked in HS? And yet 2nd team AA as a freshman.

Cunane was on all 3 AA lists as a senior. Liv was not. In fact, Liv did not even get an HM. So congrats to her for making a roster.

Just to spread the love a bit, Isabelle Harrison never averaged more than 14 PPG at Tennessee, ended her career under 10 PPG, never made an AA team, but also is in the league. As a starter.

 

[Jingo]

so no player in the history of the Wnba has made a Wnba team if they don't go to Uconn? I thought Charlie Collier went #1 overall and went to Texas? Olivia was top 5 in her class, scored over 1,000 pts, you are acting as she was a 10th player off the bench. She was going to get drafted wherever she went, she put in the work, stop short changing her abilities.

As I said in the past, a sure lottery pick [or equivalent] ... eh?