2024 WNBA Season Discussion Thread

[Ice Man]

It's crazy how at the beginning of the year, a lot of Fever fans absolutely hated Mitchell and Sides. Now they all love Mitchell (deservedly so), and they're even starting to come around on Sides.

Did they hate Mitchell? My memory was that the fans were like me, that Mitchell is a dynamic offensive talent but as she was weak defensively and not a passer, maybe not a fit for Clark. But certainly a good player. For me, it was only the Clark Stans who outright disliked Mitchell, because she tended not to give the ball back to Caitlin.

And yeah, everybody disliked Sides. I don't think that narrative has changed much. People decide that a coach is good or bad and then all the game results are interpreted in that light. So these wins aren't due to good coaching to most fans, rather it's to the credit of the players that they figured it out. But the early losses owed in part to the coach being terrible. That I think remains the common belief.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Your life is on the line, but you can choose one person to save you if they make a shot, who are you taking?

Angel Reese layup.

Or

Steph Curry half court shot.

[cdubbz]

It's crazy how at the beginning of the year, a lot of Fever fans absolutely hated Mitchell and Sides. Now they all love Mitchell (deservedly so), and they're even starting to come around on Sides.

As a new fan of the Fever and WNBA - I remember wondering a lot why the Fever players weren't getting Clark the ball on possessions, but going to everyone else. It was really scattered basketball with no identity. Obviously CC didn't have much time to learn her new teammates, but Sides also didn't seem to have a clue on her game plan going into the season. I don't remember much KM hate, but I can definitely see new fans get mad at the teammates.

I think Sides has finally gotten comfortable with this team and she's done a great job the past 2 months. Still think it took her too long to put Lexie in the starting lineup and she's finally benching Katie Lou. I like having Wheeler, Dantas, & Temi as the 3 off the bench for the team. Wheeler as a ball handler is helpful when CC is wiling out on turnovers.

[ellobo]

It's crazy how at the beginning of the year, a lot of Fever fans absolutely hated Mitchell and Sides. Now they all love Mitchell (deservedly so), and they're even starting to come around on Sides.

Did they hate Mitchell? My memory was that the fans were like me, that Mitchell is a dynamic offensive talent but as she was weak defensively and not a passer, maybe not a fit for Clark. But certainly a good player. For me, it was only the Clark Stans who outright disliked Mitchell, because she tended not to give the ball back to Caitlin.

And yeah, everybody disliked Sides. I don't think that narrative has changed much. People decide that a coach is good or bad and then all the game results are interpreted in that light. So these wins aren't due to good coaching to most fans, rather it's to the credit of the players that they figured it out. But the early losses owed in part to the coach being terrible. That I think remains the common belief.

I'm not on social media, but I do visit the WNBA forum on Reddit, where I saw a lot of this, and where people post a lot about the social media discourse. But, yeah, my impression is it's a lot of crazy Clark stans. On Reddit, a lot of them think Cheryl Reeve is a terrible coach because she hasn't been complimentary enough to Clark, and because they think she kept Clark off the Olympic team. Reeve also got a lot of criticism for how she coached the Olympic team. I'm not sure if that was just bitter Clark stans or not, but there was a lot of online commentary to the effect that a 4x WNBA champion coach with a career .644 wining percentage (and .646 in the playoffs) doesn't know what she's doing.

Point being, there were a lot of silly people out there with hyperbolic takes that went way beyond "Mitchell is a good player, but has these flaws..." or "Mitchell is a good player, but not an ideal fit."

[MrDollarBills]

It's crazy how at the beginning of the year, a lot of Fever fans absolutely hated Mitchell and Sides. Now they all love Mitchell (deservedly so), and they're even starting to come around on Sides.

Did they hate Mitchell? My memory was that the fans were like me, that Mitchell is a dynamic offensive talent but as she was weak defensively and not a passer, maybe not a fit for Clark. But certainly a good player. For me, it was only the Clark Stans who outright disliked Mitchell, because she tended not to give the ball back to Caitlin.

And yeah, everybody disliked Sides. I don't think that narrative has changed much. People decide that a coach is good or bad and then all the game results are interpreted in that light. So these wins aren't due to good coaching to most fans, rather it's to the credit of the players that they figured it out. But the early losses owed in part to the coach being terrible. That I think remains the common belief.

It was 100% the Clark stans. Mitchell and Boston were on the receiving end of a ton of abuse early on from them on social media. I give both players a ton of credit for not only remaining professional, but doubling down on how much they love their teammate because CC has no control over these insane people. AB is such a sweetheart too, that's the part that really pissed me off.

I was hard on Sides early on but she definitely figured out how to use this roster to max ability. That's all you can ask of any coach.

The early losses were a mix of a lot of things. Clark was not used to the physicality of the game and officiating. Roles weren't clearly defined. The opponents were all the top teams in the league. That was a horrible situation for any young team, but it's not about how you start, it's how you finish. The Fever are a legit club.

God bless Minnesota, that best 2 outta 3 will not be fun anything that softens up teams for the Liberty I'm grateful for

[ellobo]

It's crazy how at the beginning of the year, a lot of Fever fans absolutely hated Mitchell and Sides. Now they all love Mitchell (deservedly so), and they're even starting to come around on Sides.

As a new fan of the Fever and WNBA - I remember wondering a lot why the Fever players weren't getting Clark the ball on possessions, but going to everyone else. It was really scattered basketball with no identity. Obviously CC didn't have much time to learn her new teammates, but Sides also didn't seem to have a clue on her game plan going into the season. I don't remember much KM hate, but I can definitely see new fans get mad at the teammates.

I think Sides has finally gotten comfortable with this team and she's done a great job the past 2 months. Still think it took her too long to put Lexie in the starting lineup and she's finally benching Katie Lou. I like having Wheeler, Dantas, & Temi as the 3 off the bench for the team. Wheeler as a ball handler is helpful when CC is wiling out on turnovers.

I don't really know how good a coach Sides is, but I don't judge her too harshly for some of those lineup decisions, especially in light of how the team has improved over the season.

Temi and Dantas were hurt a lot early so that's two important rotation players who just weren't available.

Meanwhile, Kristy Wallace shot 43.5% from three last year, and Katie Lou Samuelson shot over 35% from three her last two full seasons, whereas Lexie Hull shot 18.6% and 21.7% her first two years in the league. So I can see rolling with two proven shooters over a proven non-shooter. Hull was a 37.4% three point shooter in college and 39.3% as a senior, and she's always been a solid free throw shooter, so her abysmal three point shooting as a pro (before now) has been a big disappointment. If she continues to be a knock down shooter that's a completely different player than she has been before this season.

Plus, Kelsey Mitchell was injured during preseason and dealing with the sudden death of her father in March at age 56, who was a coach (he was an assistant at Ohio State when she played there) and whom she was very close to, so she wasn't necessarily at her best out of the gate.

The early schedule for the Fever was extremely difficult and Sides could have easily lost the team after that brutal start and never recovered. Maybe she deserves some blame for just how badly the team struggled at first, and I understand people being down on her because of it, but it's also hard not to give her significant credit for the turnaround (which people are starting to do).

[MrDollarBills]

It's crazy how at the beginning of the year, a lot of Fever fans absolutely hated Mitchell and Sides. Now they all love Mitchell (deservedly so), and they're even starting to come around on Sides.

Did they hate Mitchell? My memory was that the fans were like me, that Mitchell is a dynamic offensive talent but as she was weak defensively and not a passer, maybe not a fit for Clark. But certainly a good player. For me, it was only the Clark Stans who outright disliked Mitchell, because she tended not to give the ball back to Caitlin.

And yeah, everybody disliked Sides. I don't think that narrative has changed much. People decide that a coach is good or bad and then all the game results are interpreted in that light. So these wins aren't due to good coaching to most fans, rather it's to the credit of the players that they figured it out. But the early losses owed in part to the coach being terrible. That I think remains the common belief.

I'm not on social media, but I do visit the WNBA forum on Reddit, where I saw a lot of this, and where people post a lot about the social media discourse. But, yeah, my impression is it's a lot of crazy Clark stans. On Reddit, a lot of them think Cheryl Reeve is a terrible coach because she hasn't been complimentary enough to Clark, and because they think she kept Clark off the Olympic team. Reeve also got a lot of criticism for how she coached the Olympic team. I'm not sure if that was just bitter Clark stans or not, but there was a lot of online commentary to the effect that a 4x WNBA champion coach with a career .644 wining percentage (and .646 in the playoffs) doesn't know what she's doing.

Point being, there were a lot of silly people out there with hyperbolic takes that went way beyond "Mitchell is a good player, but has these flaws..." or "Mitchell is a good player, but not an ideal fit."

Yeah WNBA reddit was cool last year, this year the quality of discourse has tanked, like every single thing is some sort of slight or conspiracy.

Aliyah Boston runs to pick CC up after she got hip checked by Chennedy Carter:

"The Fever players hate her it's obvious"

The Fever are off to a slow start against elite teams:

"Sides is trying to sabotage her. Mitchell clearly hates CC. Aliyah Boston sucks she needs to be traded."

CC doesn't get selected for the Olympics team over literal first ballot HoF players, and I quote:

"Cheryl Reeves is a (b word)"


And then you had/have the racist stuff that was said about AB (her own teammate), Angel, Chennedy, Dijonai, and the blatant homophobia towards NaLyssa Smith (again, her own teammate) because she's dating Dijonai.

I hope these folks calm down at some point because it's not cute and it makes finding good intentioned discussion surrounding the Fever difficult. I figure that these are mostly young fans who are just immature though, so hopefully as the years go by this stuff dies down.

[MrDollarBills]

It's crazy how at the beginning of the year, a lot of Fever fans absolutely hated Mitchell and Sides. Now they all love Mitchell (deservedly so), and they're even starting to come around on Sides.

As a new fan of the Fever and WNBA - I remember wondering a lot why the Fever players weren't getting Clark the ball on possessions, but going to everyone else. It was really scattered basketball with no identity. Obviously CC didn't have much time to learn her new teammates, but Sides also didn't seem to have a clue on her game plan going into the season. I don't remember much KM hate, but I can definitely see new fans get mad at the teammates.

I think Sides has finally gotten comfortable with this team and she's done a great job the past 2 months. Still think it took her too long to put Lexie in the starting lineup and she's finally benching Katie Lou. I like having Wheeler, Dantas, & Temi as the 3 off the bench for the team. Wheeler as a ball handler is helpful when CC is wiling out on turnovers.

I don't really know how good a coach Sides is, but I don't judge her too harshly for some of those lineup decisions, especially in light of how the team has improved over the season.

Temi and Dantas were hurt a lot early so that's two important rotation players who just weren't available.

Meanwhile, Kristy Wallace shot 43.5% from three last year, and Katie Lou Samuelson shot over 35% from three her last two full seasons, whereas Lexie Hull shot 18.6% and 21.7% her first two years in the league. So I can see rolling with two proven shooters over a proven non-shooter. Hull was a 37.4% three point shooter in college and 39.3% as a senior, and she's always been a solid free throw shooter, so her abysmal three point shooting as a pro (before now) has been a big disappointment. If she continues to be a knock down shooter that's a completely different player than she has been before this season.

Plus, Kelsey Mitchell was injured during preseason and dealing with the sudden death of her father in March at age 56, who was a coach (he was an assistant at Ohio State when she played there) and whom she was very close to, so she wasn't necessarily at her best out of the gate.

The early schedule for the Fever was extremely difficult and Sides could have easily lost the team after that brutal start and never recovered. Maybe she deserves some blame for just how badly the team struggled at first, and I understand people being down on her because of it, but it's also hard not to give her significant credit for the turnaround (which people are starting to do).

I had no idea about Kelsey's father, that's awful.

[MrDollarBills]

Your life is on the line, but you can choose one person to save you if they make a shot, who are you taking?

Angel Reese layup.

Or

Steph Curry half court shot.

Neither of those things are a certainty, but the fact that Angel Reese lives in your head rent free damn sure is.

[MrDollarBills]

Dallas is better then Chicago or Atlanta. I initially wanted to see the sky make the playoffs but nah to that now.

The Dallas defense is complete jokes.

Yeah. They're fun to watch when their shots fall but their matador defense has been a problem for awhile now well before this season's injuries killed them

[ellobo]

Did they hate Mitchell? My memory was that the fans were like me, that Mitchell is a dynamic offensive talent but as she was weak defensively and not a passer, maybe not a fit for Clark. But certainly a good player. For me, it was only the Clark Stans who outright disliked Mitchell, because she tended not to give the ball back to Caitlin.

And yeah, everybody disliked Sides. I don't think that narrative has changed much. People decide that a coach is good or bad and then all the game results are interpreted in that light. So these wins aren't due to good coaching to most fans, rather it's to the credit of the players that they figured it out. But the early losses owed in part to the coach being terrible. That I think remains the common belief.

I'm not on social media, but I do visit the WNBA forum on Reddit, where I saw a lot of this, and where people post a lot about the social media discourse. But, yeah, my impression is it's a lot of crazy Clark stans. On Reddit, a lot of them think Cheryl Reeve is a terrible coach because she hasn't been complimentary enough to Clark, and because they think she kept Clark off the Olympic team. Reeve also got a lot of criticism for how she coached the Olympic team. I'm not sure if that was just bitter Clark stans or not, but there was a lot of online commentary to the effect that a 4x WNBA champion coach with a career .644 wining percentage (and .646 in the playoffs) doesn't know what she's doing.

Point being, there were a lot of silly people out there with hyperbolic takes that went way beyond "Mitchell is a good player, but has these flaws..." or "Mitchell is a good player, but not an ideal fit."

Yeah WNBA reddit was cool last year, this year the quality of discourse has tanked, like every single thing is some sort of slight or conspiracy.

Aliyah Boston runs to pick CC up after she got hip checked by Chennedy Carter:

"The Fever players hate her it's obvious"

The Fever are off to a slow start against elite teams:

"Sides is trying to sabotage her. Mitchell clearly hates CC. Aliyah Boston sucks she needs to be traded."

CC doesn't get selected for the Olympics team over literal first ballot HoF players, and I quote:

"Cheryl Reeves is a (b word)"


And then you had/have the racist stuff that was said about AB (her own teammate), Angel, Chennedy, Dijonai, and the blatant homophobia towards NaLyssa Smith (again, her own teammate) because she's dating Dijonai.

I hope these folks calm down at some point because it's not cute and it makes finding good intentioned discussion surrounding the Fever difficult. I figure that these are mostly young fans who are just immature though, so hopefully as the years go by this stuff dies down.

I do post on WNBA Reddit here and there, but I never mention this place because so many of the posters there are just unhinged. I also hate the downvote system on Reddit, which is very unpredictably vicious on r/WNBA. I have a "no downvote" policy when it comes to Reddit. No matter how much I disagree with someone or how much I think they are toxic or stupid, I don't downvote anything under any circumstances.

[MrDollarBills]

I'm not on social media, but I do visit the WNBA forum on Reddit, where I saw a lot of this, and where people post a lot about the social media discourse. But, yeah, my impression is it's a lot of crazy Clark stans. On Reddit, a lot of them think Cheryl Reeve is a terrible coach because she hasn't been complimentary enough to Clark, and because they think she kept Clark off the Olympic team. Reeve also got a lot of criticism for how she coached the Olympic team. I'm not sure if that was just bitter Clark stans or not, but there was a lot of online commentary to the effect that a 4x WNBA champion coach with a career .644 wining percentage (and .646 in the playoffs) doesn't know what she's doing.

Point being, there were a lot of silly people out there with hyperbolic takes that went way beyond "Mitchell is a good player, but has these flaws..." or "Mitchell is a good player, but not an ideal fit."

Yeah WNBA reddit was cool last year, this year the quality of discourse has tanked, like every single thing is some sort of slight or conspiracy.

Aliyah Boston runs to pick CC up after she got hip checked by Chennedy Carter:

"The Fever players hate her it's obvious"

The Fever are off to a slow start against elite teams:

"Sides is trying to sabotage her. Mitchell clearly hates CC. Aliyah Boston sucks she needs to be traded."

CC doesn't get selected for the Olympics team over literal first ballot HoF players, and I quote:

"Cheryl Reeves is a (b word)"


And then you had/have the racist stuff that was said about AB (her own teammate), Angel, Chennedy, Dijonai, and the blatant homophobia towards NaLyssa Smith (again, her own teammate) because she's dating Dijonai.

I hope these folks calm down at some point because it's not cute and it makes finding good intentioned discussion surrounding the Fever difficult. I figure that these are mostly young fans who are just immature though, so hopefully as the years go by this stuff dies down.

I do post on WNBA Reddit here and there, but I never mention this place because so many of the poster there are just unhinged. I also hate the downvote system on Reddit, which is very unpredictably vicious on r/WNBA. I have a "no downvote" policy when it comes to Reddit. No matter how much I disagree with someone or how much I think they are toxic or stupid, I don't downvote anything under any circumstances.

Yeah I keep this place a secret. There's not a lot of us, but the discussions that we do have I find to be very thoughtful and spirited, you always bring some great insight and i learn a lot.

The influx of new Fever fans have made it fun here too.

I just lurk on reddit now for the most part, it's where i get news on all sorts of things, but I don't see the point of mass down voting either. Challenge that person's point or opinion if you feel that mad about it.

[cupcakesnake]

Dallas is better then Chicago or Atlanta. I initially wanted to see the sky make the playoffs but nah to that now.

The Dallas defense is complete jokes.

Yeah. They're fun to watch when their shots fall but their matador defense has been a problem for awhile now well before this season's injuries killed them

I don't really understand why the defense is this bad. Last year and this year. Forget the injuries for now, they've been awful when healthy (the injuries have just taken them from awful to...not WNBA level at all).

They had basically the most size of any team. Teaira and Kalani means a giant rim protector is always on the floor. Natasha Howard is a former DPOY. Satou is 6'4". Are all the guards awful? Are the bigs too slow?

[Green Chile]

The Dallas defense is complete jokes.

Yeah. They're fun to watch when their shots fall but their matador defense has been a problem for awhile now well before this season's injuries killed them

I don't really understand why the defense is this bad. Last year and this year. Forget the injuries for now, they've been awful when healthy (the injuries have just taken them from awful to...not WNBA level at all).

They had basically the most size of any team. Teaira and Kalani means a giant rim protector is always on the floor. Natasha Howard is a former DPOY. Satou is 6'4". Are all the guards awful? Are the bigs too slow?

I'm no X's and O's guru, but it does seem like the bigs are a little slow.

There's a lot of versatile, skilled bigs in the league and more and more teams spreading the whole team out the the 3-point line. Seems like teams can put the bigs in some bad match-ups.

[cupcakesnake]

Yeah. They're fun to watch when their shots fall but their matador defense has been a problem for awhile now well before this season's injuries killed them

I don't really understand why the defense is this bad. Last year and this year. Forget the injuries for now, they've been awful when healthy (the injuries have just taken them from awful to...not WNBA level at all).

They had basically the most size of any team. Teaira and Kalani means a giant rim protector is always on the floor. Natasha Howard is a former DPOY. Satou is 6'4". Are all the guards awful? Are the bigs too slow?

I'm no X's and O's guru, but it does seem like the bigs are a little slow.

There's a lot of versatile, skilled bigs in the league and more and more teams spreading the whole team out the the 3-point line. Seems like teams can put the bigs in some bad match-ups.

But they still get murdered by teams like the Sun and Storm, who don't even like shooting threes.

[Green Chile]

Finally finishing up the Sky-Lynx game. Man, impressive 4th quarter for the Sky.

The last couple of weeks have kind of gone perfectly for the Sky, as a franchise. They probably would have preferred the Fever game not to turn into a blowout, but outside of that, they've been losing competitive games. Good reps for the kids, and Cardoso keeps looking better and better.

The roster is not in position to do any damage in the Playoffs. Just develop your 2 1st round picks from '24, and get ready for multiple 1sts in '25 and '26.

Best case for them this year is to miss the Playoffs while being competitive (and for Dallas to miss the Playoffs). They seem to be doing just that (if ATL would cooperate).

[Green Chile]

I don't really understand why the defense is this bad. Last year and this year. Forget the injuries for now, they've been awful when healthy (the injuries have just taken them from awful to...not WNBA level at all).

They had basically the most size of any team. Teaira and Kalani means a giant rim protector is always on the floor. Natasha Howard is a former DPOY. Satou is 6'4". Are all the guards awful? Are the bigs too slow?

I'm no X's and O's guru, but it does seem like the bigs are a little slow.

There's a lot of versatile, skilled bigs in the league and more and more teams spreading the whole team out the the 3-point line. Seems like teams can put the bigs in some bad match-ups.

But they still get murdered by teams like the Sun and Storm, who don't even like shooting threes.

I agree, in that I'm not sure either.

But the Storm's bigs are a lot quicker. Nneka is taking and making a lot more 3's this year. They've got athletic bigs that can handle the ball and shoot a little bit.

For the Suns, Bonner dropped 29 on them last time out.

[Green Chile]

Lost in the hullabaloo from yesterday (that was a hell of a lineup), Tina ############# Charles!

I'm an old fart, so a traditional old-school post player just going bonkers makes my curmudgeon heart smile.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Your life is on the line, but you can choose one person to save you if they make a shot, who are you taking?

Angel Reese layup.

Or

Steph Curry half court shot.

Neither of those things are a certainty, but the fact that Angel Reese lives in your head rent free damn sure is.

Neither are a certainty...hence the question. Who do you have more faith in?

Sure, she lives rent free in my head. YOU GOT ME!

[cdubbz]

Not a good look for Swoopes man.

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