2024 WNBA Season Discussion Thread

[jumpman28]

Atlanta broadcast camera is too close to a speaker/sub at the arena, everytime there is any kind of music with bass, the camera goes blurry and it's kind of annoying.

[jumpman28]

I know Reese and Clark have been getting most of the media attention for the rookies, and rightfully so. But in the number of times, I've watched Sparks games I've always come away very impressed by Rickea Jackson.

[jumpman28]

Maybe I'm overthinking this or don't have the full information, but as a LVA fan, why would you boo Hamby? I mean I understand booing an opponent because they are an opponent, but they seem to be specifically booing her. That feels kind of 'ick' to me, with what's going on outside the game.

[sikma42]

I couldn’t even imagine not gesturing to the crowd to stop that. Just seems like a trash fan base


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[cdubbz]

If Angel Reese can get any kind of offensive touch in the paint she will be unstoppable 20/10 player. She really is an incredible offensive rebounder. If she can't get that offensive touch then defense might be her calling -- get boards, set solid screens, be a switchable big and try and get more blocks or alter shots.

[Ice Man]

If Angel Reese can get any kind of offensive touch in the paint she will be unstoppable 20/10 player.

That's a big if. She's been playing serious ball for at least 9 years now, since freshman year of HS, and her paint skills are at best rudimentary. That's being generous.

If she can't get that offensive touch then defense might be her calling -- get boards, set solid screens, be a switchable big and try and get more blocks or alter shots.

That's her likely future. The female Dennis Rodman. One thing you didn't mention is court awareness on offense. I don't know what Angel's is like, but Rodman's was good. Never could shoot but he knew how and when to move the ball.

[Ghetto Gospel]

If Angel Reese can get any kind of offensive touch in the paint she will be unstoppable 20/10 player.

That's a big if. She's been playing serious ball for at least 9 years now, since freshman year of HS, and her paint skills are at best rudimentary. That's being generous.

If she can't get that offensive touch then defense might be her calling -- get boards, set solid screens, be a switchable big and try and get more blocks or alter shots.

That's her likely future. The female Dennis Rodman. One thing you didn't mention is court awareness on offense. I don't know what Angel's is like, but Rodman's was good. Never could shoot but he knew how and when to move the ball.

i think she has young kevin love in there. such a great rebounder but pretty poor as a scorer down low. it also kind of feels like she's developing a jumper? she's made 2 nice mid-range ones this game so far

[cdubbz]

If Angel Reese can get any kind of offensive touch in the paint she will be unstoppable 20/10 player.

That's a big if. She's been playing serious ball for at least 9 years now, since freshman year of HS, and her paint skills are at best rudimentary. That's being generous.

If she can't get that offensive touch then defense might be her calling -- get boards, set solid screens, be a switchable big and try and get more blocks or alter shots.

That's her likely future. The female Dennis Rodman. One thing you didn't mention is court awareness on offense. I don't know what Angel's is like, but Rodman's was good. Never could shoot but he knew how and when to move the ball.

Yeah doesn't seem like she has a lot of offensive awareness. Cardoso can be a big part of the offensive hub for the Sky, but need better guards to feed her the ball imo.

[cdubbz]

Reese is up to 19 points and 19 boards jeez. Her offense picked up with a nice top of the key jumper and a couple post toss ups. It's not the prettiest, but she's a banger down there.

[Ice Man]

Reese is up to 19 points and 19 boards jeez. Her offense picked up with a nice top of the key jumper and a couple post toss ups. It's not the prettiest, but she's a banger down there.

Can't argue with 19/19! That said, the Sky badly needs skill players. Even in the WNBA, which is less of a spread-the-court game than today's NBA, you can't win consistently with a formula of one elite scoring guard + offensive rebounds/putbacks.

[MrDollarBills]

If Angel Reese can get any kind of offensive touch in the paint she will be unstoppable 20/10 player.

That's a big if. She's been playing serious ball for at least 9 years now, since freshman year of HS, and her paint skills are at best rudimentary. That's being generous.

If she can't get that offensive touch then defense might be her calling -- get boards, set solid screens, be a switchable big and try and get more blocks or alter shots.

That's her likely future. The female Dennis Rodman. One thing you didn't mention is court awareness on offense. I don't know what Angel's is like, but Rodman's was good. Never could shoot but he knew how and when to move the ball.

At age 22 I wouldn't cap her ceiling in her rookie year. She's working on her 3 pointer and she hasn't had an offseason yet to put in work.

She has some good strong moves around the rim where she uses her size and strength to overpower her opponents, but in terms of what her team needs and her fit next to Cardoso, I think she's gotta get that set jump shot going down more than developing post moves for now.

[MrDollarBills]

If Angel Reese can get any kind of offensive touch in the paint she will be unstoppable 20/10 player.

That's a big if. She's been playing serious ball for at least 9 years now, since freshman year of HS, and her paint skills are at best rudimentary. That's being generous.

If she can't get that offensive touch then defense might be her calling -- get boards, set solid screens, be a switchable big and try and get more blocks or alter shots.

That's her likely future. The female Dennis Rodman. One thing you didn't mention is court awareness on offense. I don't know what Angel's is like, but Rodman's was good. Never could shoot but he knew how and when to move the ball.

Yeah doesn't seem like she has a lot of offensive awareness. Cardoso can be a big part of the offensive hub for the Sky, but need better guards to feed her the ball imo.

Yeah her defensive IQ is way ahead of her offense awareness, agreed.

[MrDollarBills]

Reese is up to 19 points and 19 boards jeez. Her offense picked up with a nice top of the key jumper and a couple post toss ups. It's not the prettiest, but she's a banger down there.

Can't argue with 19/19! That said, the Sky badly needs skill players. Even in the WNBA, which is less of a spread-the-court game than today's NBA, you can't win consistently with a formula of one elite scoring guard + offensive rebounds/putbacks.

The Sky need a lot. They need a legit floor general and they need a SF that can space.

The issue is, Carter isn't a 3 point shooter and neither Angel or Cardoso can space at this point. A lot rides on Angel becoming a consistent threat with her jump shot at the 4 spot tbh.

[MrDollarBills]

Maybe I'm overthinking this or don't have the full information, but as a LVA fan, why would you boo Hamby? I mean I understand booing an opponent because they are an opponent, but they seem to be specifically booing her. That feels kind of 'ick' to me, with what's going on outside the game.

That's trash behavior.

People are foul man. What allegedly happened to Hamby is beyond basketball.

[Ghetto Gospel]

Reese is up to 19 points and 19 boards jeez. Her offense picked up with a nice top of the key jumper and a couple post toss ups. It's not the prettiest, but she's a banger down there.

Can't argue with 19/19! That said, the Sky badly needs skill players. Even in the WNBA, which is less of a spread-the-court game than today's NBA, you can't win consistently with a formula of one elite scoring guard + offensive rebounds/putbacks.

The Sky need a lot. They need a legit floor general and they need a SF that can space.

The issue is, Carter isn't a 3 point shooter and neither Angel or Cardoso can space at this point. A lot rides on Angel becoming a consistent threat with her jump shot at the 4 spot tbh.

chen carter has to be the legit floor general because if she's off-ball that's just another non-shooter in the lineup. honestly, we don't even know if cardoso has a legit post-up game because the guards can't get her the ball that well and the paint is just too clogged to do anything anyway.

i think there has to be like some real calculus being done on whether angel is better at the 3-point line and at what point is it better for her to be there because her best quality right now is her offensive rebounding and she isn't going to be doing it as well from out there. i'm sure at like 38% it'd be better for her to be out at the line but what about early on while it gets better? 30? 32? what if it never gets to a high enough % to be worth it? might be better to just work on the finishing and a couple of post moves? hope chen carter becomes the shooter instead? big career development question

[Ice Man]

honestly, we don't even know if cardoso has a legit post-up game because the guards can't get her the ball that well and the paint is just too clogged to do anything anyway.

My amateur take is that the WNBA is rapidly moving away from the static post-up game that once was prevalent in the NBA but which has now become extinct in that league. I think that will soon be the case in the WNBA. That is most evident with the Fever, which is almost entirely useless when playing like that. The points per possession when Boston or Smith get the ball in the paint when the defense is set is abominably low. The Fever win games by getting players to the rim when they are on the move (as with a P&R to Boston) or on 3-point shots.

The Fever are an extreme case because they are built for 3-point shooting and ball movement with Clark, but I think emblematic of where the WNBA is heading. The only other team that I see regularly is the Liberty and that is a movement team, too. As I have written elsewhere, Stewie and Jonquel are big but they do most of their damage while on the move, rather than being post statues.

[hermes]

they said during the broadcast that boston has either the most or close to the most post ups in the league this year

[Ghetto Gospel]

honestly, we don't even know if cardoso has a legit post-up game because the guards can't get her the ball that well and the paint is just too clogged to do anything anyway.

My amateur take is that the WNBA is rapidly moving away from the static post-up game that once was prevalent in the NBA but which has now become extinct in that league. I think that will soon be the case in the WNBA. That is most evident with the Fever, which is almost entirely useless when playing like that. The points per possession when Boston or Smith get the ball in the paint when the defense is set is abominably low. The Fever win games by getting players to the rim when they are on the move (as with a P&R to Boston) or on 3-point shots.

The Fever are an extreme case because they are built for 3-point shooting and ball movement with Clark, but I think emblematic of where the WNBA is heading. The only other team that I see regularly is the Liberty and that is a movement team, too. As I have written elsewhere, Stewie and Jonquel are big but they do most of their damage while on the move, rather than being post statues.

i think in an ideal world, WNBA teams should play a more modern NBA style but that only works if you have the talent to run that kind of system. as you mentioned, there are only a couple of teams that can play that way. i don't think the sky have the personnel to run that system and they should just run whatever is best suited to that teams strength. right now, it's basically just let chen carter do whatever and hope for offensive rebounds from the 2 bigs. i think it's too much of a burden on chen to carry their offense the entire time so being able to dump it down to someone down low to take at least a little pressure off and give her more of a breather would be nice.

don't crucify me

Spoiler:

i don't think there is enough high-end point guard/forward play in the W required to run this kind of offense. you need players that can efficiently run an offense, see the entire court and make all of the passes. right now it's just sabrina, kelsey plum, jackie young, caitlin clark and..? only #1 overall pick type talents basically.

i think you also kind of need good solid role players and frankly.. i find that the mid to low-end talent to be extremely lacking in the WNBA. there are very few legitimate 3&d players that every top team is required to have at least 2-3 of if they were to play this style.

i think, this is because there are so few girl ballers in the hs and college ranks that anyone good has to play this heliocentric style all throughout hs and college that by the time they get to the pros and aren't one of the top say 10-15 players in the league, they have to adapt to being a role player and yet were never taught or given the skills to do so because they've been running an offense their entire life. on the other hand, there are high school kids in aau being groomed to just sit in a corner and play defense on the other side. i think it's going to take a little bit more time for the WNBA to be able to move towards that style as a whole because there really isn't enough talent in the league to support it

[MrDollarBills]

Can't argue with 19/19! That said, the Sky badly needs skill players. Even in the WNBA, which is less of a spread-the-court game than today's NBA, you can't win consistently with a formula of one elite scoring guard + offensive rebounds/putbacks.

The Sky need a lot. They need a legit floor general and they need a SF that can space.

The issue is, Carter isn't a 3 point shooter and neither Angel or Cardoso can space at this point. A lot rides on Angel becoming a consistent threat with her jump shot at the 4 spot tbh.

chen carter has to be the legit floor general because if she's off-ball that's just another non-shooter in the lineup. honestly, we don't even know if cardoso has a legit post-up game because the guards can't get her the ball that well and the paint is just too clogged to do anything anyway.

i think there has to be like some real calculus being done on whether angel is better at the 3-point line and at what point is it better for her to be there because her best quality right now is her offensive rebounding and she isn't going to be doing it as well from out there. i'm sure at like 38% it'd be better for her to be out at the line but what about early on while it gets better? 30? 32? what if it never gets to a high enough % to be worth it? might be better to just work on the finishing and a couple of post moves? hope chen carter becomes the shooter instead? big career development question

All valid concerns, which is why I'm like....they have a lot of work to do individually and roster wise to balance that team out.

[MrDollarBills]

honestly, we don't even know if cardoso has a legit post-up game because the guards can't get her the ball that well and the paint is just too clogged to do anything anyway.

My amateur take is that the WNBA is rapidly moving away from the static post-up game that once was prevalent in the NBA but which has now become extinct in that league. I think that will soon be the case in the WNBA. That is most evident with the Fever, which is almost entirely useless when playing like that. The points per possession when Boston or Smith get the ball in the paint when the defense is set is abominably low. The Fever win games by getting players to the rim when they are on the move (as with a P&R to Boston) or on 3-point shots.

The Fever are an extreme case because they are built for 3-point shooting and ball movement with Clark, but I think emblematic of where the WNBA is heading. The only other team that I see regularly is the Liberty and that is a movement team, too. As I have written elsewhere, Stewie and Jonquel are big but they do most of their damage while on the move, rather than being post statues.

One caveat, when Jonquel needs to, she will get down in the paint and absolutely post up. This year she hasn't had to do it because teams are so scared of Stewie and Ionescu that she just gets clean look on the cut or at the top of the key.

I think teams will trend for more uptempo, space and pace hoops as well but I think we'll see it naturally evolve as we see the heavy hitters in college graduate.