2025 WNBA Regular Season Discussion Thread

[hermes]

probably not worth a lot of hand-wringing right now, its early and the fever have a lot of new pieces - including a new coach

last year, the fever looked a lot different in may compared to september

[Green Chile]

This is really random, but on the Sue and Megan podcast, they mentioned the period-ACL tear thing. Have I been living under a rock, or did you guys know about this?

It came up because some study is going to look into women being more likely to tear their ACL when on their period.

This was new to me, but Megan and Sue made it clear it's been common knowledge among female athletes for a long time.

Megan tore her ACL 3 times, and she said every time was on her period. When Sue tore hers, she said the first thing the doc asked was if she was on her period.

Anyway, it was wild to my ignorant self. Just wondering if anybody else had ever heard of this.

And of all the crap women have to deal with, this just seems over the top.

[tmorgan]

Letting Mitchell walk would put more pressure on CC to score though, wouldn't it?.

More pressure on everybody. At any rate, my comments are premature. Bonner scored 17 points per 36 last year and is only at 6 points this year. We need to have more games to see if she's really fallen off a cliff, or if this is just a slow start. And Cunningham hasn't played yet. If those two are contributing meaningfully to the offense, that will take a lot of pressure off Clark, who was quite frankly asked to do too much last night. I mean, she came through, but I can't imagine going through an entire season carrying that much offensive responsibility, even as the other team rotates defenders to hound/foul her.

It’ll hurt her efficiency somewhat, but CC can carry at whatever level White asks her to (on offense). She has plenty of experience doing it — those Iowa teams were almost strictly CC buckets and CC creating buckets off good passing. One woman army.

Is it tougher in the pros? Of course. But Clark is tougher herself now.

The choice with Mitchell was an interesting one. I don’t think she’s around for the Fever’s first finals appearance, whenever that is, but that doesn’t make keeping her now the wrong choice. They aren’t beating the upper echelon of teams in a playoff series this year just by adding a couple past-their-prime all-stars and Cunningham. The goal, one would assume, is progression from decent to good. A playoff series win. More experience for Clark and Boston. Incremental improvement.

The championship form team of the future needs a prime Clark and Boston, good defense everywhere else, and play finishers, be it shooters, cutters or post play. Clark won’t rest much in playoff games, and she’s the best creator for others the league has ever seen and will get better yet. They’re moving in the proper direction, but this team isn’t it yet.

[sikma42]

Letting Mitchell walk would put more pressure on CC to score though, wouldn't it?.

More pressure on everybody. At any rate, my comments are premature. Bonner scored 17 points per 36 last year and is only at 6 points this year. We need to have more games to see if she's really fallen off a cliff, or if this is just a slow start. And Cunningham hasn't played yet. If those two are contributing meaningfully to the offense, that will take a lot of pressure off Clark, who was quite frankly asked to do too much last night. I mean, she came through, but I can't imagine going through an entire season carrying that much offensive responsibility, even as the other team rotates defenders to hound/foul her.

It’ll hurt her efficiency somewhat, but CC can carry at whatever level White asks her to (on offense). She has plenty of experience doing it — those Iowa teams were almost strictly CC buckets and CC creating buckets off good passing. One woman army.

Is it tougher in the pros? Of course. But Clark is tougher herself now.

The choice with Mitchell was an interesting one. I don’t think she’s around for the Fever’s first finals appearance, whenever that is, but that doesn’t make keeping her now the wrong choice. They aren’t beating the upper echelon of teams in a playoff series this year just by adding a couple past-their-prime all-stars and Cunningham. The goal, one would assume, is progression from decent to good. A playoff series win. More experience for Clark and Boston. Incremental improvement.

The championship form team of the future needs a prime Clark and Boston, good defense everywhere else, and play finishers, be it shooters, cutters or post play. Clark won’t rest much in playoff games, and she’s the best creator for others the league has ever seen and will get better yet. They’re moving in the proper direction, but this team isn’t it yet.

wait? how many all-stars do the Fever need before we expect them to compete.

Caitlin Clark - Top 3 Player in the League
Kelsey Mitchel - All Star. Top 15 Player
Aliyah Boston - All Star. Top Tier Big
______________________________________
Top Tier Supporting Cast

Sophie Cunningham
Natasha Howard
DaWanna Bonner
Lexie Hull - was playing great last year

They should be expected to compete imo. They have enough talent to win a title but CC/Boston need more time to develop mentally. But the talent is there.

[tmorgan]

Mitchell is not a top 15 player, that’s just silly.

Clark is not a top 3 player as of today. Not quite as silly, because she probably will be in the next couple of years, but not now.

Boston is getting better, clearly, and can be a championship piece. Still improving,

Have you seen the rosters New York and Minnesota have? It’s pretty clear Howard and especially Bonner are not what they once were. We shall see how Cunningham fits, but I’m hopeful. Lexie Hull is fun to watch but she’s a very average WNBA talent overall.

No, this is not a roster that can compete for the title. Once Clark and Boston fully develop, we shall see — but it won’t be Bonner or Howard leading the supporting cast at that point, and as I mentioned, I doubt Mitchell is around, or if she is, it’s offense off the bench that you can hide defensively.

[Green Chile]

Hopefully we get to see the rookies tomorrow, I don't know what the exact status is for them, I know Morrow is dealing with a knee injury and is listed as day-to-day, and Rivers is out due to personal reasons (no idea what), and I don't know what's going on with Lacan

Saniya Rivers' mom passed away suddenly on April 30, of congestive heart failure, at the age of 47. She was with Saniya at the draft just a couple of weeks before that.

Evidently she was known to have had a heart condition, but her death was unexpected. She took a bad turn, was admitted to the hospital, and passed away two days later.

Lost a little last night, but Saniya made her debut.

Sun got their ass kicked, but Saniya was fantastic.
Long, athletic, disruptive as hell.

I can't imagine what that kid is going through, but she's certainly going to make it in this league. I so wish her mama was here to see it.

[Green Chile]

Probably not sustainable, but the Wings look great early.

[hermes]

not a great start

[hermes]

too many turnovers

[Green Chile]

not a great start

But then the Lynx do Lynx things.

[hermes]

nice run!

[hermes]

clock operator was asleep at the wheel on that one. let like 5 seconds run after the whistle

doesn't look like they are going to put it back either.

[hermes]

not a bad quarter, rough start but strong finish

[hermes]

wow thats a rough call (travel on shepard)

[hermes]

interesting lineup, two centers and two point guards

[Green Chile]

Alanna Smith is such a badass. Her not being an all-star last year will always piss me off.

[hermes]

sloppy tonight with the turnovers

[hermes]

flagrant on carrington

[hermes]

jessica works so hard down low

[hermes]

really good rebounding tonight