WNBA: Indiana cans Christie Sides

[bballnut90]

Okay, that's fair. However, I would argue that her being a legit 6'0 helps to offset that, especially considering that Vandersloot (5'8), Bird (5'9), and Whalen (5'8) were/are all a good bit shorter (which, in addition to their athletic deficiencies, hurt their chances of becoming better than average defenders). I would also say that Sabrina (5'11) is noticeably slower than Caitlin, which hurts her (Sabrina's) chances of being substantially better than average.

So if Caitlin is taller than the average guard and can move her feet better than at least one elite contemporary guard, then I'm not really seeing any reason why, from a defensive ability standpoint, she can't be held to a higher standard. No one's saying that she has to lock up Arike Ogunbowale for an entire game, but slowing her down for stretches/getting a game-changing defense stop on a player like that should be an expectation for a player who is to be heavily featured in MVP talks in the future. There are two sides to basketball.

And before anyone mentions it, Nikola Jokic (3x NBA MVP) is considered to be an average defender.

I don’t disagree, she should be expected to improve defensively and likely will if her rookie season is any indication. Like I said, Clark is never going to be an elite defender, but if she improves and isn’t a major liability on that end, that’s good enough if they have other pieces in place. Jokic is a post defender which is a lot different than guarding on the perimeter. Clark will never guard an opposing team’s best perimeter player. If she did, she’d expend so much energy running through screens and chasing the offensive player around the court. Her offense would suffer as a result. She’s also not quick enough to guard an elite 1 on 1 playmaker like Arike. That role will always go to someone who doesn’t carry near the load she does offensively. As long as she does a good enough job and can’t be exploited defensively, she’ll be fine. She has room to improve but the focal point of her game will always be offense, similar to most other great guards in the league.