WNBA -- 2023 Season

[Dezoworld]

Naphessa stepped her game up after being snubbed by not being named a starter for the All-Star game

 

[cancontent]

Sorry. Short answer, yes. Try this link.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Yay! Seattle needs help, and Gabby has established herself.

 

[JellyBean]

Alright I'll eat my crow. This Storm/Lynx game is fantastic.

Yup. I am right there with ya, on eating some crow. That Minnesota/Seattle game was pretty intense.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Phee is averaging 22.4 ppg, tied with Arike for 2nd in the W. That's a Maya Moore-type number!

 

[nwhoopfan]

Naphessa stepped her game up after being snubbed by not being named a starter for the All-Star game

This year's Chelsea Gray?

 

[Bigboote]

That’s a crazy stat line, I can’t think there have been too many games like that in league history.

The 35 shots by Loyd is a record, eclipsing 33 by Taurasi (twice) and McCoughtry.

 

[azfan]

Mercury add ex-ASU coach Turner Thorne to staff

Legendary Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne is joining the Phoenix Mercury staff as an assistant coach, the team announced Friday.

www.espn.com

CTT joins her former assistant.

 

[GoChips20]

The 35 shots by Loyd is a record, eclipsing 33 by Taurasi (twice) and McCoughtry.

Loyd is really having a spectacular season. I remember she did an interview in the spring where she said she was more than ready to take on the additional responsibility created by Seattle’s departures. She’s played like it. Her FG% percentage isn’t great in isolation but the production is considering she’s drawing the opponent’s best defender each and every trip down the floor.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Mercury add ex-ASU coach Turner Thorne to staff

Legendary Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne is joining the Phoenix Mercury staff as an assistant coach, the team announced Friday.

www.espn.com

CTT joins her former assistant.

Huh. Retirement didn't last long. Maybe she was just tired of ASU.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Courtney Williams records a triple-double for Chicago in a win over L.A.

Canada got hurt, so the backcourt for L.A. at the end was Henderson and Cooke. Remember them?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Not sure why Miller felt the need to bring J. Thomas w/ him to LA. Probably on the back end of her career. She's been scoreless in half her appearances this season and is averaging just under 2 ppg. Shooting %'s are terrible. Not playing big minutes, but she did get the start tonight. Why?

 

[Dillon77]

Huh. Retirement didn't last long. Maybe she was just tired of ASU.

Some quid pro quo here, with possible benefits: Blue was an assistant for three years at ASU. In fact, she's been an assistant everywhere before being named interim head coach. Thinking Turner Thorne can add some tips on being an HC for Blue as she tries to navigate the Mercury HC role the rest of the season....which might lead to a HC gig somewhere next year (Phoenix or elsewhere). As for Turner Thorne, maybe being at home wasn't everything it was cracked up to be? Or she wanted to get away for the summer?

 

[JellyBean]

Man, one of my favorite players, Elena Delle Donne, went down with an ankle injury in the game tonight. Hoping for a speedy recovery. EDD was having a solid game tonight.

 

[Geew1992]

Not sure why Miller felt the need to bring J. Thomas w/ him to LA. Probably on the back end of her career. She's been scoreless in half her appearances this season and is averaging just under 2 ppg. Shooting %'s are terrible. Not playing big minutes, but she did get the start tonight. Why?

She’s also returning from an acl tear. She may not be 100%. And they said Miller wanted to bring Stevens off the bench to help cut turnovers. Although not sure that helped much

 

[awhom111]

Huh. Retirement didn't last long. Maybe she was just tired of ASU.

When they play the Storm in August, I wonder if she will tell Jade Melbourne that she would still be coaching there if Jade had not opted to turn pro instead of heading to Tempe.

 

[nwhoopfan]

When they play the Storm in August, I wonder if she will tell Jade Melbourne that she would still be coaching there if Jade had not opted to turn pro instead of heading to Tempe.

Will also be a battle of former UCLA Bruins players turned head coach, I think their careers overlapped there.

 

[bbsamjj]

Tough game to watch as a liberty fan. The contrast between the teams was stark. Defensively the aces looked sharp, and had the foot speed especially with Plum and Young to really pressure the liberty guards. Offensively, I thought Vegas ran much more sophisticated action and the team as a whole looks bought into the idea of creating for their teammates.

The liberty looked really flat. They are in love with a weird action that doesn’t really generate any shots. They run a give and go through the pg and a post at the top of the three point line, and have the guard immediately attempt to drive the lane. It got cut off almost every play, and their guards picked up their dribble forcing a pass out to the same forward that initially initiated the pick and roll.

Vandersloot drives with no plan a lot, and got caught so many times last night either in the air, in the lane, or on the baseline with nobody to pass to. And Ionescu looked too slow to get any shots off.

I actually thought Jones had one of her better games, they should utilize her size down low more often. And they don’t really put Stewart in positions to be effective.

Vegas looked sharp, controlled the tempo, and shot lights out. Even Candace Parker came ready to play. Best I’ve seen her look all year.

I think the liberty have a shot, but they need to clean up a lot of things to close the gap. It’s not surprising since individually I’d say

Gray>Vandersloot
Plum>Ionescu
Young>Laney
Parker<Stewart
Wilson>Jones

The Aces guards were targeting Ionecu early. If you watch the first half especially, Laney's assignment was rarely shooting. Problem is, Laney can't guard Plum, Gray AND Young all at once. Aces were much better at finding the matchup advantages on offense and exploiting them; and on defense, they were much more locked in [and perhaps are just a better defensive team overall.] Quite frankly, the Liberty will never beat the Aces if the Aces are going to shoot 58% for the game. Every Aces starter shot above 50%. Part of that is poor defense on the Liberty, but you have to make choices on defense, and if Parker is going to shoot 3/4 on 3 pointers, there's only so much you can do.

 

[bbsamjj]

Collier with the game winner on a tough shot. Finishes with 31 points, 8 boards, 5 assists, 6 blocks. She's playing as well as anyone in the league this year.

Loyd with 41 for Seattle but had a brutal turnover on a final possession that led to Collier's heroics. She's been great this year but has gotten zero support aside from Magbegor. Their offense late was just give it to Loyd and let her create--that isn't going to win games. Quinn needs to be able to draw up plays instead of just hoping Jewell can create magic on every possession (35 FGA tonight).

In fairness to Quinn (who I actually think has done a pretty great job in making a clearly rebuilding Seattle team somewhat competitive), is there a better shot for Seattle than letting Jewell create magic?

 

[azfan]

Huh. Retirement didn't last long. Maybe she was just tired of ASU.

Since retirement CTT had done some local sports broadcasting. As I understand it she was given a special services contract upon retirement that through 2024 with ASU.

She's still very young I'm just surprised where she landed. I'm assuming the contract ASU gave her upon retirement was at least 50% of her last year's salary. No way is she making that much with the Mercury and while she has outstanding coaching skills particularly on the defensive side of the ball I scratch my head her choice

Nikki Blue was a finalist for the ASU head coaching position last year but Ray Anderson and the clowns in the athletic department went with Natasha Adair. Adair was an outstanding coach at Delaware but all of her contacts and experience are in New England and I the Midwest and it remains to be seen whether she'll have any ability to recruit the West Coast or Texas. However given the disintegration of the Pac-12 as well as the list of schools that may come into replace usc, ucla, and the other defecters from Washington Oregon and Colorado Adair's recruiting level may be appropriate for the new Pac-12.

Both Blue and Turner Thorne have demonstrated pedigrees working at the professional level or international level but again it remains to be seen whether these two will be able to right the ship.

 

[azfan]

When they play the Storm in August, I wonder if she will tell Jade Melbourne that she would still be coaching there if Jade had not opted to turn pro instead of heading to Tempe.

Very interesting question. ASU did have four players with eligibility leave after CTTs retirement. However I think her decision involved factors such as the ineptitude and lack of support from the AD's office, the upcoming disintegration of the conference, as well as her reluctance to deal with the changing landscape of college athletics.

 

[bballnut90]

In fairness to Quinn (who I actually think has done a pretty great job in making a clearly rebuilding Seattle team somewhat competitive), is there a better shot for Seattle than letting Jewell create magic?

Yeah move the ball around. Set screens for Loyd or Whitcomb (who has a lightning quick release and was red hot). Get Magbegor involved. Get to the basket and shoot from close range and grab an O-board (they dominated the glass). The WNBA is arguably the toughest pro league in the world to earn and keep a spot, there shouldn’t be a single player taking 35+ shots a night IMO.

 

[GoChips20]

Here’s a question I’m curious about from the board. When Stewie and A’ja were coming out of college, did you expect them to become the (general consensus) top two players in the league? I didn’t start following ball until ~2016 so didn’t have a frame of reference like when EDD, Griner, Parker came out.