How do you explain Caitlin Clark's mediocre on/off numbers?

[jc23]

Ive seen enough regular season Bulls basketball in my life to know a streak here and there means little to nothing come playoff time. You will get schedule wins/losses and catch teams at the right or wrong time during the season. Far more variables come into play. No such luxury in the playoffs when teams can gameplan and bring their A game every night.

If the Fever are to win a title they need all hands on deck; they will not win without a healthy CC. Just like they wont if AB or Mitchell went down. When Indy got blown out by Atlanta there was no talk of them being better without her. Its a long season, cant get too high and cant get too low.

To form Voltron you need all the Lions.

[JustBuzzin]

She needs to get stronger. It seems she always taking a beating in every game.

She hasn't been injury prone until now. I think once she gets here body right physically she will be fine.

[IlikeSHAIguys]

Think this is more about on/off than CC to be real. We're actually good when she's not injured and not good when she is so does it really matter if she's not hitting whatever number good players are supposed to?

[Ice Man]

Actually, to update this thread, Clark's on-off numbers have been strong this season, considering that she has been laying bricks. The team is +8.7 per 100 possessions with her on the court, and +0.4 with her off the court, for a difference of +8.3. That's the second highest differential for Indy, after Natasha Howard.

I am not sure that Clark really has been that valuable this season, because such statistics are always variable, but the current on/off numbers indicate the opposite of what this thread has been suggesting.

[Doctor MJ]

Actually, to update this thread, Clark's on-off numbers have been strong this season, considering that she has been laying bricks. The team is +8.7 per 100 possessions with her on the court, and +0.4 with her off the court, for a difference of +8.3. That's the second highest differential for Indy, after Natasha Howard.

I am not sure that Clark really has been that valuable this season, because such statistics are always variable, but the current on/off numbers indicate the opposite of what this thread has been suggesting.

Yeah let's not get it twisted. I don't object to calling Clark's +/- as being "mediocre" because it's not the extreme outlier that the hype suggested, but we're still talking about a player with an On-Off of +7 or higher in both seasons so far. That's actually really good in general, and particularly so for a rookie/sophomore whose had some injury issues.

[zimpy27]

If you put Clark on a team that had a strong defensive lean then she'd be leading the league in on/off.

[Doctor MJ]

If you put Clark on a team that had a strong defensive lean then she'd be leading the league in on/off.

I mean, the Fever won the Commissioner's Cup this year without Clark on the back of great defense, led by former DPOY Natasha Howard, so no, I don't think it's that simple.

[sikma42]

does the WNBA track time of possession (i.e. time a player has the ball in their hands)? I know you can find it for NBA players.

Pretty sure Clark is #1 but curious to see how big the gap is

[Doctor MJ]

does the WNBA track time of possession (i.e. time a player has the ball in their hands)? I know you can find it for NBA players.

Pretty sure Clark is #1 but curious to see how big the gap is

I don't believe there's anything publicly available for this in the WNBA like it is in the NBA, which is annoying.

I hope it's just a matter of time before this stuff is posted - meaning it's already being tracked - but it's possible that there's something logistical the matter with teams who don't play in NBA arenas.

Here are the teams in 2024 that were not playing in NBA arenas:

Atlanta Dream
Chicago Sky
Connecticut Sun
Dallas Wings
Las Vegas Aces
Seattle Storm
Washington Mystics

There's also the matter that while the New York Liberty began in an NBA arena (Manhattan's MSG with the New York Knicks) and again play in one (Brooklyn's Barclays with the Brooklyn Nets), in between they played at the Westchester County Center with the G-League Westchester Knicks, and so it's entirely possible that their home games in that time frame (2018-19) data like this was not being tracked.

[Ice Man]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Clark is #1 in time on the ball, too. Whether she should be remain that way ... hmmm. On the one hand, having a single player be so ball-dominant seems suboptimal, and the Fever have had some very good offensive games with Clark out and while sharing the ball more. On the other hand, despite Clark's woeful shooting, the team's offensive rating is 5.6 points higher this season when she's been on the floor. So, albeit in somewhat limited data, it does suggest that Indy benefits from having her pound the ball.

[IlikeSHAIguys]

I feel like maybe missing the playoffs because she's hurt shows she is valuable lol

[Ice Man]

I feel like maybe missing the playoffs because she's hurt shows she is valuable lol

Indy will make the playoffs, as they are 3 games up on the #9 seed with 5 games remaining. Pretty hard to see them getting past the first round, though.