***The Official 2025 WNBA Playoffs Thread***

[hermes]

let's get phee a touch please

[Green Chile]

I can't imagine the Mercury will pull this out or win the series, but as much as as they are giving it a go, Lexi Held would have made a difference, IMO.

[cupcakesnake]

AT blowing up that Phee/Courtney DHO was insane. They got her with that play in crunch time and she wasn't letting it happen again. Annihilated it.

[hermes]

[cupcakesnake]

Phee doing that to Bonner twice is rude.

[cdubbz]

Damn AT had an open lane and passed it out.

[Green Chile]

This damn game!

[hermes]

most of this second half, even when we're scoring we look so out of sorts on offense

[hermes]

well that sucked

[Shewasfly]

I want to see a Phee/Aja showdown in the finals so I'm hoping the Lynx pull it together. They gave Phx a lot of confidence last night though. What an incredible come back, and now they're headed home.

Happy to see my Aces stomp on the Fever. They have enough front court depth with Aja to make Boston irrelevant. The Fever are nothing without Mitchell carrying them. I'm so glad the Aces did not adjust and stuck with the game plan through the bull 3's Hull was hitting.

[Doctor MJ]

Never easy to beat a team led by AT. I feel like she does more to get her teammates into intense-defense mode on the regular than maybe anyone we've seen in the women's game.

[Shewasfly]

I really hate this schedule. Its Friday, why have two games back to back going into Friday night (almost guaranteed reduction in ratings)?

Should have had one today in the evening during dinner time, and one tomorrow. Then back and forth like that.

Some things the WNBA gets right, like the 3-5-7 game series from the first round to the Finals. Idc what anyone says, I like that the 3 game first round adds high stakes and invites upsets/Cinderella teams. I also kinda like the game 1s of the 2nd round starting on the same day. But they've gotta figure out how to balance the schedule after that.

[Green Chile]

Not Playoff related, but Annie Costabile thinks there's only a 20-30% chance Angel suits up for the Sky again. Not reporting, just her opinion.

I'd be really curious to see what Angel's trade value would be.
I love Angel, and think she could be special, but I'm not sure what she'd command in a trade. I think it could be lower than people may think.

By my count, she's about the 8th best PF in the league right now.
Just on pure position, she's not as good as A'ja, Phee, AT, Stewie, Nneka, Hamby, Satou, and IMO, Naz.

That's not counting some younger bigs that may already be better or have more long term potential (Malonga and Kiki), or other bigs that could sort of count as a PF.

Not going to quibble on the specific players, but 8-9ish right now seems right.

Of course, the big part of her value is the upside of what she could become.
The issue is that there's still a massive variance in how good/great she can become. MVP is in the range of outcomes. She needs a lot of development to get to that, but it's certainly possible. AT with more upside with good shoulders is certainly possible (though thinking that's likely really underrates AT. AT is really damn good players like her don't grow on trees).

But if Angel doesn't continue to see big improvements in her offensive game, the upside as a player you build around is somewhat limited.

I hope this isn't seen as a knock. I think everybody here knows how much I love Angel.

But if a team is going to give up multiple 1st round picks for a player, it needs to be slam dunk best player on a title contender sort of player. Angel is getting there, but we surely don't know that yet.

Angel is an insanely unique player. Trying to gauge her trade value after year 2 seems impossible.

[MrDollarBills]

Not good. Phee is probably done for the rest of the playoffs and Unrivaled season.

[Ice Man]

'd be really curious to see what Angel's trade value would be.
I love Angel, and think she could be special, but I'm not sure what she'd command in a trade. I think it could be lower than people may think.

In addition to the factors that you mention, there would be a personality discount. Forcing her way out of her first WNBA team would not enhance a reputation that was sketchy when she joined the league. For example, there is this quote from a pre-draft article -

"Some of the stuff she does is disrespectful to the game," a general manager said.

This would matter less in the NBA, but in the WNBA, where we have already seen a good player in Chennedy Carter outright blackballed for personality issues, this surely must be considered.

[hermes]

what are we even doing here?
is the league ever going to realize that this overly physical play they allow isn't good, and harmful to the players?

forget pay, the players should strike next year for their own health and safety
its too many games in too little time combined with allowing almost gladiator-level physicality
how many injuries has there been this year? how many big stars have had to miss time?
how is this sustainable?

[Doctor MJ]

Not good. Phee is probably done for the rest of the playoffs and Unrivaled season.

Nope not good, and the idea that there was no foul on the play is just crazy.

I think you actually argue they should have called a foul in Phee before the steal for holding AT, and I don’t think what AT did was dirty, but she basically changed direction and ran through Phee as she reached for the (clean) tip.

I understand the idea of it being a loose ball situation - the tip came first - but when you let a bigger stronger player do that without consequence, it’s a recipe for them causing injury to others.

Then you add on top of that that that Phee literally could have fouled out in that play, but she shot no free throws the whole game, while being less physical than the other team is wild.

As I say all of that, AT just seemed to outfox Phee on the regular in the matchup. Steal after steal, it was incredibly impressive. I feel like AT is the smartest player in the W.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Doctor MJ]

'd be really curious to see what Angel's trade value would be.
I love Angel, and think she could be special, but I'm not sure what she'd command in a trade. I think it could be lower than people may think.

In addition to the factors that you mention, there would be a personality discount. Forcing her way out of her first WNBA team would not enhance a reputation that was sketchy when she joined the league. For example, there is this quote from a pre-draft article -

"Some of the stuff she does is disrespectful to the game," a general manager said.

This would matter less in the NBA, but in the WNBA, where we have already seen a good player in Chennedy Carter outright blackballed for personality issues, this surely must be considered.

Yeah I have to say that I felt like the hype surrounding Angel in her rookie year - which she earned to be clear - was setting her up for problems.

Coming out of college she was brash and antagonistic as a matter of course, but between the support & success in the college program, and her immediate success in the pros, which led to among other thing, an endorsement with McDonalds, it took the rookie year that would normally humble a player a bit, and made her double and triple down on the individualism.

Then the Sky fall apart last year - not her fault - and you take that same attitude, but now she's getting asked about what's wrong with her team instead of some drama with those outside of the team, and she answers the same way, which is something literally no team anywhere would ever want.

I think it's possible that the Angel-Sky relationship gets mended... but in the long-term, I think that only happens if the team leaps into contending status to give the media something to talk about other than "the Sky aren't going anywhere".

Then there's the matter of other teams being interested. The odds are not zero, but any team looking to acquire her needs to understand and accept that she's out there for herself, and that there's a good chance she'll cause drama if there are any team struggles.

You add to this the factor that until she learns how to actually shoot, her rebounding-focus is not typically the focus of the team's alpha. She's much like Dennis Rodman... but Rodman was never an alpha on the court, rather he was the one who pleased the alphas (Isiah, Jordan) by getting their misses and passing the ball back to them.

I feel like it's entirely possible that Reese eventually exits the WNBA like Liz Cambage did as they have quite a bit in common - plenty of talent, but treating a team sport like an individual sport relationship-wise, which really only works if the team success is sufficient... and we shouldn't forget that Cambage was a core part of a team with the best regular season record which still wasn't enough to keep the devil at bay, while Angel's literally never played on a team that was even mediocre in the W.

[wojoaderge]

Liz Cambage? This is freakin' hilarious

[Doctor MJ]

Liz Cambage? This is freakin' hilarious

Uh, why?