Paige final season

[leepaul]

“This is my last year to get what I came here for,

Nah,, not necessarily .....

Seriously, if I were her, I’d stay a sixth year.

Right now, there’s more spite and vitriol in the WNBA than basketball because rookies come in rich. Another year passes, there will be more rookie targets---- so the envy and anger becomes more dispersed- Paige will still be a target in 2026- but one of many. She won’t be Clark v..2.

Have another year of youthful fun. WNBA isn't going anywhere, Taurausi's played 20 years.

On the other hand, if the team with the first pick makes her an offer she can’t refuse, she can go into the team’s president’s office, put her feet on the desk, hands behind her head and say– “what do you have in mind, Partner?” -).

 

[yhun89]

Agreed. For UCONN to win those types of game this year, I think she likely has to put the team on her back and take 20+ shots to make it happen. In 2 of the 3 games cited she took 20+ shots, and if you include the Elite 8 game vs. Baylor, that makes 3 of 4. In the 3 post season losses, the number of shots she took dropped significantly (down to 14.3 FGA per game) and I think for UCONN to win against a dominant team like South Carolina, she has to be in attack mode the whole game.

That NC State game is legendary in her career. She needs to model herself after that version of Paige the whole season.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Paige has seen up close what Caitlin Clark accomplished at Iowa with a far less talented supporting cast than Paige has this coming season at UConn. While I don’t expect Paige to average 30+ ppg and fire away from the cheap seats like Clark, clearly Paige will be the most effective scorer in college basketball whenever she needs to be.

In addition, this year will be the first time since she arrived in Storrs that Paige has been healthy for an entire season followed by being healthy for an entire offseason. Remember she had ankle surgery after her freshman year, injured her knee during her sophomore season and tore her ACL during the summer before her jr season.

Paige was a 1st team AA last season and I have no doubt is working harder than ever in preparation for this coming season. I strongly suspect we will watch the best version of Paige Bueckers that we’ve ever seen this coming season.

I believe Geno wants Paige to score more and will be on her every game day about it. We will have to see how that turns out. Many of you will remember that Geno was very vocal about that with Diana Taurasi in her junior and even more in her senior year and she pretty much ignored him as she sought to leave behind the best team she could.

 

[hoophuskee]

This coming season, there are some loaded teams in WBB including SC, USC, UCLA, ND & LSU to name a few. But Geno and a lot of UConn fans believe that Paige has the ability to carry this year’s UConn team to a national championship. To do that, her mindset must be to “Take over the game when necessary.” It’s not like Paige has never done it before. SC her freshman year, NC St as a sophomore, USC last season were all games when she had to take the ball and score for UConn to win.

I wonder if this past year that Paige's year is being massively underrated the same way Tina Charles used to be massively underrated. A lot of it has to do with "recency bias."

For UCONN to get to the Final Four and seconds away from a a Finals appearance - she did take over games. Leading up the FF game her average was 28 ppg in which Syracuse, Duke, and SoCal were all tight games. How is that not "taking over?"

I agree Paige has to be an A/A but one player probably can't do it alone vs these super teams. In Maya's last game she scored over 30 and was special - but she didn't get enough help. While in Stewie's last 3 years at UCONN they were challenged once in NCAA's and it was MoJeff that should have been the Fians MVP. And KML was huge too.

Paige will need help/ Just like Clark needed help. Jus like Maya in her sr year needed help.

 

[Alydar]

UConn doesn't need Bueckers to carry the scoring load this season. This isn't 2021, 22 or 24. I'll admit that some of them haven't played even one game for UConn but ElAlfy, Strong, Fudd, Ziebell, Shade are all high volume and efficient shooters. With defenses having to help on Bueckers those great shooters will have a lot of great looks. What UConn needs from Bueckers is her brain, her guts and her will.

 

[ConnMotors]

Yes it would be interested with the Fever getting three number one picks in a row. Am sorry she is an unbelievable talent and deserves the praise but I tired of the whole Clark thing. You can add Reese to this comment. The thing with the W is any player can take a year off at will. Then their team sucks. The rules were changed because of this. But I think that it should be a three year look back. I’ll keep hoping for a Mystics Sparks draw.

 

[PacoSwede]

a few here are missing the point of the article. 'no more passive paige' is not about her becoming a scoring machine -- shooting more and being the focal point of the offense. it's entirely about her taking command by not being shy about leading the team and doing what she does best rather than giving teammates 'a chance to shine' by deferring -- a selfish thing to do when she has an opening to impact the game. she's not going to try to score more but to do whatever allows the team the best chance to win -- the #1 objective, with personal achievements, of paige and her teammates, only a secondary, tertiary -- or last -- goal.

 

[BIGMAC]

I guess by this time next year Uconn fans will have turned the 'Page'

 

[Huskies990411]

As we fans begin to assimilate what Paige has stated and her conversion to a more "shoot first" kind of guard one cannot help but think of it in the context of a previous thread that was titled: "Are there enough minutes to go around". In that thread, we were hard-pressed to be able to spread the minutes around so that our players could all play meaningful minutes. I was criticized by some because I cut Paige's minutes down to 21. With Paige's recent declaration that she is going to be more aggressive, I will have to double-down on my statement because if Paige is more aggressive as she says she will be...then we can assume that UConn will burst out to early leads and will go up big early which will cause Geno to have to substitute bench players earlier. We could see Paige Bueckers averaging around 22-24 points a game because she will only average 21-24 minutes per game.

Here is my minute allocation from the previous spread:

Paige Bueckers..............................21
Azzi Fudd........................................21
KK Arnold.......................................13
Jana El-Alfy....................................17
Qadence Samuels.......................12
Allie Ziebel.....................................10
Ashlyn Shade................................13
Kaitlyn Chen.................................16
Sara Strong...................................17
Morgan Cheli...............................10
Ice Brady........................................17
Carolyn Ducharme.....................11
Ayanna Patterson.......................10
Aubrey Griffin..............................12
Total..............................................200

Point Guard / Shooting Guard total minutes: 94 Total available minutes at the point guard and the shooting guard = 80
Small Forward / Power Forward total minutes: 72 Total available minutes at small forward, power forward = 80
Center total minutes: 34 Total available minutes at Center = 40

Analysis: There are 14 excess minutes at point guard and shooting guard. This analysis is 8 minutes short at the small forward and the power forward position and 6 minutes short at the center. So, one or more of the guards will have to put some time in a small forward. Some of the point guards will have to give up minutes to the Power forwards and the Center positions. Or, the coaching staff will run with a 3-guard line-up or they may decide to play big...at the end of the day there are 200 minutes available and these 14 players will divvy them up among them. Some days they will play more minutes other days they will play less. The above list is simply an average over the year. Minutes will be adjusted if players miss games because of injuries.

You understand this isn’t the way it works, right?

 

[hoophuskee]

a few here are missing the point of the article. 'no more passive paige' is not about her becoming a scoring machine -- shooting more and being the focal point of the offense. it's entirely about her taking command by not being shy about leading the team and doing what she does best rather than giving teammates 'a chance to shine' by deferring -- a selfish thing to do when she has an opening to impact the game. she's not going to try to score more but to do whatever allows the team the best chance to win -- the #1 objective, with personal achievements, of paige and her teammates, only a secondary, tertiary -- or last -- goal.

In other words what she has always done but a year older a year better.

 

[Bone Dog]

'no more passive paige' is not about her becoming a scoring machine -- shooting more and being the focal point of the offense. it's entirely about her taking command by not being shy about leading the team and doing what she does best

I agree completely. Paige is a winner. That's what she knows how to do. It's not about scoring, but about doing whatever is necessary. And that's the most important example she can set for the youngsters.

 

[Galaxyshooter]

This is probably the one season Paige won't need to be a shoot first guard with the talent she will have around her.

this is true but with the game on the line I suspect she'll be looking for her shot and pass it up only if she's double or triple-teamed and her team can hit open shots but most definitely she'll look at shooting first. IMP

 

[PacoSwede]

In other words what she has always done but a year older a year better.

i recall that in the past she has often decided to reject a great opportunity when she clearly would have helped the team by being aggressive, not shamelessly passive. i'm hoping she now realizes that was a serious flaw in her generally impeccable game.

 

[meyers7]

I'm just hoping Geno puts her in the starting line-up.

 

[GoUconn7961]

I'd like to see Paige do a mind meld with DT and soak up some of that swagger

 

[Bone Dog]

I'd like to see Paige do a mind meld with DT and soak up some of that swagger

My favorite line of DT’s when asked about fans booing her at an away game:
“Booing? I thought they were mooing.”

 

[hoopsfan22]

Is anyone else sad that it's Paige's last season?

 

[ucbart]

She's probably more concerned about starting her pro career than landing at the right franchise. She's basically a lock to go #1 and is going to be ready for the next level. Plus she'll be 23 next summer.

Sparks would be an ideal landing place for her. Indiana would be really compelling too. I love the idea of her and Clark in the backcourt together along with Boston upfront in Indiana as much as a lot of people dislike the idea of her playing with Caitlin. If Fever are in the lottery, they'll likely be a favorite to land the #1 or #2 pick considering they had the second worst team record a year ago.

Washington wouldn't be a bad landing spot, though they're in rebuilding mode. Wings also will have a good shot at #1 since they have the right to swap with Chicago, so if either team lands #1, it's going to Dallas. Her playing alongside Arike isn't a great fit though IMO.

Agree:

A 6th year is just.....a lot. Unless it for someone like Aubrey, who needed it for her draft stock since she wouldn't have been able to play in the W this season, I can't imagine doing it if you're a high profile player like Paige.

Placed I do NOTTTTT want her:
Atlanta
Dallas
Chicago

I always though I wouldn't want her in Indiana, but why not? They would be absolute ratings gold together and along with Boston, would be an absolute dynasty starting in 3ish years. If I had to pick a place though, LA. The W needs that franchise to be electric and of all the "bottom tier" WNBA teams, Miller is the best coach, IMO

 

[oldhusky]

I think Paige will try to impact the game more this year, and will have the ball in her hands more to do so. That may also mean more assists with Nika gone, in addition to maybe more shot attempts.

Something that I think is sometimes overlooked, is how remarkable her numbers were given that she was totally playing out of position at the 4. Her assists were down, and rebounds and blocked shots up because of the new position. I expect those numbers to go in reverse this year as she presumably plays far more on the perimeter.

In terms of scoring, it is a little hard to estimate the impact. She was an impossible matchup for bigs trying to guard her on the perimeter last year, but this year will be able to shoot over guards much more easily. Regardless asking her to play the 4 last year was a real stretch, but she made it work at All American level, but this year, Paige can spend most of her time at one of her three natural positions, namely 1-3, all of which are great for her.

 

[meyers7]

Is anyone else sad that it's Paige's last season?

Yeah, that's pretty much what I got out of that interview. I mean we pretty much knew, but to see it verified.... kinda sucks. What could have been.

 

[Bone Dog]

Places I do NOTTTTT want her:
Atlanta
Dallas
Chicago

I always though I wouldn't want her in Indiana, but why not? They would be absolute ratings gold together and along with Boston, would be an absolute dynasty starting in 3ish years. If I had to pick a place though, LA. The W needs that franchise to be electric and of all the "bottom tier" WNBA teams, Miller is the best coach, IMO

What about NY? Sloot is approaching retirement. Paige playing next to Sabrina and feeding Stewie and Jonquel looks pretty good. Plus it's a ratings powerhouse. I know, the draft order won't allow this blah blah blah. But it only means she won't start out there. If I ask myself where she'd thrive and who I'd like to see her playing with, it's NY first and foremost.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

My favorite line of DT’s when asked about fans booing her at an away game:
“Booing? I thought they were mooing.”

Dookeys I believe.

 

[yhun89]

What about NY? Sloot is approaching retirement. Paige playing next to Sabrina and feeding Stewie and Jonquel looks pretty good. Plus it's a ratings powerhouse. I know, the draft order won't allow this blah blah blah. But it only means she won't start out there. If I ask myself where she'd thrive and who I'd like to see her playing with, it's NY first and foremost.

my picks would be Mystics or Wings. Wings are in need of an efficient shooting guard (sorry, but Arike is the ultimate shot chucker and makes some bad shots even when there’s open players) , Mystics are a rebuild team and PB meshes perfectly with Aaliyah.