Post#402 » by cupcakesnake » Thu Oct 19, 2023 2:05 pm
I was playing basketball last night so I missed getting to watch the game live. I rushed to the bar after my game but only caught the final 3 minutes (still a pretty good thing to catch!). I watched the full game over a couple cups of coffee this morning.
I don't want to define the Liberty by this loss, because I'll always remember the ridiculously high level they reached and maintained over the whole second half of the season.
But putting them under the microscope, using the specific lens of a long head-to-head with the Las Vegas Aces, I have a couple of takes:
- Fundamentally, the Liberty lack a consistent point of attack. Stewie is more of a KG/Candace Parker/Steph Curry in that she bring immense value simply by walking on the court and makes the game easier for her teammates. Her value is more passive than active. She's lubricant on offense and defense, and her versatility unlocks any lineup possibility. She can also hit tough shots and be a mean scorer, but her on-ball power isn't really where her value comes from. She makes Sabrina and Jonquel harder for opponents to guard, with her gravity, her scoring threat, and her decision making, but her style isn't so much getting the ball in her hands and forcing the defense into awkward decisions.
- This contrasts heavily with A'ja, who is a super aggressive force of nature that constantly pressures the defense, sucks in the defense, and provides space for her guards to attack. She can't touch Stewie's versatility, but her superior FORCE really shined as the most valuable thing either team had in this series.
- Jonquel Jones is probably the closest thing the Liberty have to that point of attack that A'ja is. Until this game, Jonquel dominated, and there's a parallel universe where the Liberty shot better from 3, won the series, and Jonquel was finals MVP. But Jonquel isn't quite A'ja Wilson with the decision making speed. It's hard to be a resilient full-time offensive hub when your passing can't beat the extra attention you draw. A'ja isn't the world best passer, but she's very decisive about how she attacks extra coverage sent her way.
- Sabrina is not there yet. We can see the shooting. We can see the playmaking. But she doesn't put them together often enough. The decision making tree hasn't developed yet where she can identify how her scoring threat affects the defense and punish it accordingly. The result of that is a player that's either on fire or not on fire. Sabrina not on fire doesn't help the team a ton. She draws traps but reacts too slowly for the team to benefit from that attention. She's got all the hype in the world but until she levels up she's stuck as a streaky shoot first player that elite defenses can deal with most nights. I think Sabrina leveling up is the most clear path to the Liberty taking the next step.
- Sloot's weird shooting reluctance was a real storyline that affected everything and it was fitting the Liberty's season hung itself on a final open corner 3 for Sloot. Had she hit that, it would have been a great story. Unfortunately that airball was a nail in the coffin for Sloot and the Liberty. It sucks to say but I'll always remember this chunk of Sloot's career where her shooting reluctance became a real problem. In the bigger picture she's been a very up and down shooter her whole career.