Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Hey guys, this is Liz Kandage. This is Nikki Collin. What up guys, this is Ezzie Sarkin. Hey, this is Imani Meece-Bachman. Hey, this is Jordan Canada. This is Asia Wilson. Welcome to the WNBA Nation. WNBA Nation! A good spring to you. Draft season has come and gone. We're gearing up for summer camp, which is like literally like a week ago.
Like camp there, you know, it's the seasons like right around the corner. We've got all the picks. Anyway, I'm ready to talk. I think, I think Logan is as well. I'm Steve Schwartzman. I'm here with Logan Jones.
Logan, happy post-draft. I'm absolutely ready to dig into the draft results here. Not just necessarily grades, but you got something special for us planned today, which I'm really excited about. I can tell it's going to be a fun episode because we just spent about nine minutes of pre-record. I mean, we were actually recording, but we had pre-record and then we had pre-record where we just...
school of rock. So I feel like this is going to be a money episode. I don't, I don't know how that's related to basketball necessarily. I just know it put me in a good mood. Yes, it really did. I just, what a good time. Actually. And that was, we had the pre, pre, pre record where we talked about holes. It,
It's interesting where our discussions bounce from one movie to the next, but I don't know. If we were in our Patreon days when we had the Patreon, like, maybe we would share that with y'all and you'd have bonus material, but I don't know. Maybe it'll find its way. If I know Jason, I know that it's going to find a home in his, like, crypt of bonus material, like...
that he keeps. Cause I know he just keeps like all this little sound, all these little sound, but, and then it's just going to be under one day when we least expect it, which is why it's always fun going back and listening to these episodes. Cause he'll always drop some fun eggs, but yeah,
As Logan pointed out, the 2024 WNBA draft is done and dusted. We're rolling right into summer camp. We wanted to take some time to review over that. But Logan, before we jump into that and explain what we're going to do, do you want to head over to Plug Corner and tell everyone a little bit about how they can connect with the show?
Absolutely, I do. The first place you should go find us, if you've already found the podcast, which you have because you're listening, is wnbanation.com. It's .com. That's our website. You can find...
Merch links and social links and blogs and everything that we've done on there. I know you're thinking Homestar Runner 2 because that's what I was thinking. Wmbnation.net. It's that. I didn't mean to do that, but I knew right where you went with it. Studies someday will be done on how Steve and I communicate entirely in like...
like reflecting certain words, certain ways. Um, anyway, in terms of plug corner, uh, in addition to finding all of our socials there, you can find us at WNB nation pod on Twitter X. Uh, if you're, if you're over there, we're also trying to get the tick tock and YouTube machine going. Um, that's going to be kind of a work in progress because we're all 30 something year old men. Um, and I don't know.
I don't know if I'm cool enough to be on TikTok, but we're kind of working out. Um, so you can also find us there, but most of all, please do, uh, like and subscribe and review our show so that other people can see your reviews and, and it shows up on their feeds as well when they're looking for women's basketball content, especially this time of year. Uh, we always see a big, a big bump in, uh, I was gonna say viewership in listenership. There is a word for that. Um,
Just because people are seeking out like, hey, I saw some stuff about the draft and Clark and Reese and wanted to get into this, like,
Are their teams good? Are they bad? Blah, blah, blah. We're going to talk about all that. In fact, a lot of that we're going to cover today. So that's where you can find us. We're on Apple and Spotify, and we're on all the places where you can find podcasts. All the things. Absolutely. Thank you for that. Yes. So stay connected with us. We're getting really back in the groove with things. And of course...
When it comes to the W, things are going to be kicking off in a very, very big way. But this episode is going to really be strictly dedicated to recapping the draft and talking through things. And here's what we're going to do. Because you see, the beauty of the world of women's sports content creation right now, there is an absolute myriad of places where you can get very quality content in all the places that Logan just listed. Yeah.
but especially when it comes to the draft. So over at JWS, at The Next, Windsider, all of the athletic, there's all kinds of places where you can get some really good material. We encourage you to check it all out. Look up some draft grades, look up some rankings, power rankings, things like that. We thought a unique way to do things in pure, I guess you could say, us fashion was
we wanted to do some drafting of our own. So we're doing what I'm calling a draft draft. And here's how it's going to go. Logan draft draft. I'm explaining it to you. Like it's the first time when we, we made a point, we discussed this already, but how is it going to work? We're going to draft teams and, you know, first pick, second pick. So on solely based on the draft hall players, they drafted how we're feeling about it, how we feel they're going to fare well.
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You know, who we thought, you know, if I get to have six teams, these are the ones I want based on how I feel. I feel like I've explained to this method about four different ways already. So, Logan, if you're ready, I think we're going to hop right into it. Yeah, let's do it. And to be clear, mostly for my sake, but also for listeners sake, not not just strictly by like these are the order in which I would grade things.
the drafts for each team from best to worst drafts, but just in general, like you're going to pick six teams. I'm going to pick six teams. And at the end, we're going to be like, dang, I really like my six teams. And we're going to obviously have an eye towards the draft, but also just based on like what we expect from them this year. Is that somewhere close? Yes. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Just general. Yeah. This is solely off of, we're not looking at whole rosters where we're, you know, we're, we're taking the draft hall, uh,
And, and basically after that kind of, you know, this is just a different way of doing a ranking or grades because we just like drafting Logan here. So I'm going to determine the first pick. I guess it's his own lottery style. Um, uh, I've got a number generator up here. I'm going to let you in like coin toss fashion, decide if the number that I generate, is it even, or do you want even or odd? I will take evens, please. So if it's an even, you'll get the first pick. The number is five. Okay.
So I have the first pick in the draft. And I'm sorry to do that to you. I'm not mad. Yeah. When it comes to these types of things, sometimes having the next pick is almost a better scenario. I know when we used to do our own fun pop culture-y brackets and things like that.
You almost never wanted the first pick. That's true. You usually want three. And that might be interesting here, because for some people, I think this first selection would be obvious, right? There's kind of one case, and we'll see how that goes. I'm going to take a different route. I don't know if this is similar to you or what you're thinking, but with first pick in the 2024 draft, I'm taking the Chicago Sky draft.
Okay, that makes sense to me. I absolutely am head over heels in love with what the Sky put together. They would be almost above and beyond if their third selection went a little bit different than it did. I like Brandon Maxwell, but I think they have the potential to... I mean, they were one pick away. They...
If they basically, if they use that pick to snatch up Nika Mule, this would have been a no brainer for me, in my opinion. But Cardoso and Reese, I love seeing a team pick up two picks in the first round. And I'm feeling very confident in saying they will make the roster like those two are going to find a spot.
and potentially be starting picks. And the narrative is there. Like this wins off of your basic eye test and, and like the narrative story of the tick tocks immediately. Like all the edits were immediate of let's watch Cardoso and Reese and
muscle it under the basket in college. Let's watch them basically start a fight in the SEC tournament. And then let's watch them be ecstatic behind the scenes when they realize they're about to be on the same team because they basically, if you're a Mighty Ducks fan, like they're the Bass sisters now. And I'm not saying they're going to come in and throw elbows and be problematic. I just mean like that's a beefed,
Front court, right up the bat. Yeah, if you're a competitor and you've competed against the best and then you watch your team draft someone that you know is like...
I mean, like other than me, that's the, like, she's the best. Like, yeah, that's, that's gotta be a very exciting thing. Yeah. You've got two bona fide champions, national champions. Um, they bring, uh, this, this has potential to be one of the, you're looking at a sky team. That's going to improve immediately in terms of rebounds, especially because Cardoso is great in her own right. She's a phenomenal defensive player. Angel Reese is one of the best players.
rebounder, you know, when like her ability to play on the boards on ball off ball, like is one of, it's one of her main skills and something that she is. I think this might be a little crazy of a term. I think she's a savant at, and has the potential to piece that together.
Now you have the chance to pair that with Michaela Nguede and Brianna Turner and Elizabeth Williams. And all of a sudden, you've got a pretty bad front court in Chicago that might start making a turn very similar to how the Wings did when they beefed up their front court.
And so I see this as a move that's going to help turn the sky around. I don't know if it means they're suddenly playoff ready this season, but the long-term value of what they pick up with Reese and Cardoso is very strong. The Chicago Sky are really interesting this year because they did... If you remember standings from last year, they were in that pack of Atlanta, Minnesota, Washington, and I think...
L.A. L.A. missed the playoffs. So Chicago just barely made the playoffs. Yeah. But they were all within like a game or two of each other and all kind of felt similar in that it's like these aren't fully realized teams and don't feel like contender teams, but they're all good enough to be in the playoffs. One of them is not going to make it. So Chicago got that eighth seed by winning the last couple of games of the season, which was fun, but they definitely didn't.
It's still pretty fresh in our minds what they looked like when they looked like championship contenders. And we knew they weren't that. So having a draft like this... Granted, it's easier to have a good draft when you have two top 7 picks. But to get... Yeah, like you said, players with hardware, players that are big, that are... I think it's easier to find in the second round of the WMB draft, which is... At least in recent years, like...
Not slim pickings necessarily, but very hard to find someone who warrants a roster spot. Yeah. To put it that way. Because as much talent as there is in college, it's tough to find room. Yeah. And there's some teams we'll talk about today that took three or four players in the draft and we might never see them on the court this year. Like I said, this has the potential. But they absolutely found like...
Not just like names for publicity sake, but players that I think big players who will be in the league for a long time versus like trying to be...
You know, like, oh, we had a guard fall to us that we thought was going to go in the second and she's in the third. We'll talk about those types of players later. And I'm excited for some of those, too. But these are the big pillars. Yeah. And it's like I said, like to be able to say you have two players who have the ability to join a team like they may have a similar. They have the potential to have a similar effect that like felt silly fouls and Elena Deledon did with this team. And I know that there's a lot of sour grapes still about this.
with Sky fans about those two players and how they left the team. But, you know, they took those two in their young stage and turned Sky to a team that made a finals. And I think there's a lot of that, but on top of on the court brand ability. And I think you, that can't be in a world where we're trying to determine who and who isn't marketable, where barstool bros suddenly think they can determine that. Yeah.
This is pretty marketable of a crew. Um, and so I like that off the top. Um, there is a very obvious team that I think a lot of people would assume is the no brainer if you were to draft these teams based off their hall. And the one thing I will say is I, when it comes to the full package, I just really like what they did with their first round with two picks. Um,
over having a blockbuster no-brainer with one pick, and I'm not sure if you're going to go that direction or not with yours, but I'm going to shut this down because I've been talking too long about this guy. I'm just really excited about the potential of this team. I'm excited to see if Teresa Witherspoon can connect the dots and make this work because I just really like the recipe that they cooked up here. So this guy or my pick, I'll kick it over to you.
Alright, so again, if I'm understanding this draft correctly, I know where I'm going with this next one. But to be fair to Fever fans, I'm not going to go Fever here. Although I know you could easily argue that just getting Caitlin Clark at number one overall...
kind of supersedes everything else we're going to say about other draft halls. I'm actually going to skip down to a team that also had a very easy time getting a good hall because they had two picks in the top four. The Los Angeles Sparks took Cameron Brink at number two. They took Rekia Jackson at number four, and they took Mackenzie Forbes out of USC at number 28.
To me, that is the team short of Chicago and honestly kind of the fever too, that should feel best about themselves post-draft versus pre-draft. And it's not because they didn't have players pre-draft. Like this is a team with a lot of players that you'll recognize on it that we just like,
haven't talked about a lot this off season. We like De'Erica Hanby, like Azrae Stevens, like these are at least you Clarendon's there. Like we, it's, it's a lot of pieces around the league that have kind of found their way to LA and a coach that we really like. Um, but Cameron Brink coming in as a 22 year old, who's going to be a defensive force in this league,
And then Ricky Jackson, who I don't know if that was always the plan or if L.A. took Brink and Cardoso went off the board to Chicago and L.A. said, sure, all right, we'll take a card. That's fine. But either way, I know either you or Kyle, I think, is a little cooler on Jackson than the general consensus is. I'm very hopeful that she will translate quickly to the league. I think that's a good pickup at number four.
She can do things on both sides of the floor that will help that Sparks team
And they are a team that I think should have been closer to 500 last year. They ended at 17 and 23 and just missed the playoffs by a game. I finally... I just pulled up the standings in front of me a second ago. And it feels like they will once again... Just in general, I think the standings will tighten up. I don't think we're going to have as drastic cellar dwellers as we've had in the past couple of years. I think it's all going to be a little bit closer of a race from top to bottom. But that middle group is still going to be...
full of risers and fallers. And I think LA is a great candidate to rise by a number of wins this season, just based on the coach. Like Kurt has a chance to settle in a little bit. They've got two exciting new players. They didn't trade those picks. They knew going in what they wanted and what they want to do with this team. And we're going to see what they can do at the next level. I like this a lot. I will say you made the point about Rekia Jackson.
I am not low on Rekia Jackson in terms of Jackson's potential and how good she's going to be. It's more just comparing it to the rest of the draft board. I think L.A. had a really interesting shot at maybe another big. That –
That Brink and Cardoso matchup would have been a lot to turn down. And then when that obviously went off the table, it made sense that they went to Jackson. Cause I think if you're in a top four pick scenario, best player available makes a lot of sense. And a lot of that was really high in a lot of draft boards. Key Jackson was probably the best player available to them.
But I really like the potential of Reese. I really like the potential of Aaliyah Edwards joining that roster. And not just because then Aaliyah Edwards hair matches the team's training, which is not... I did think that might be where... Which is nothing. They went... That is nothing. When Cardoso got taken, I thought maybe Edwards would be climbing up the list. Do whatever the hell you want with your own hair and live your life, right? But also...
The Sparks are spoiled for choice when it comes to their backcourt. They have the potential to build something. They don't have something really dyed in the wool and ready to go. But now you've got Rekia Jackson joining a mixture of Eric McDonald, Taylor Mikesell, Kia Nurse...
You could even throw in Alicia Clarendon. You can throw in Lexi Brown. There's a lot going on in their backcourt. And then you add Rekia Jackson in the mix. And it's like, how's this going to work? Now, this sounds ridiculous. Talk to Brian and Billy. In terms of vibe check...
Through the roof, right? Like, I think that's... These two players alone, they... If you even didn't know much about them and just watched them enter the stage after these picks, you kind of knew it was a big deal just off that field. But...
I still had them fourth on my list in terms of what we're doing right now for a few reasons, and I'll explain when two of the other teams that we get to are gotten to. But I will say I love Mackenzie Forbes.
And I love watching Mackenzie Forbes at USC. I would really like to see her make the roster. I didn't talk about her at all because it's just... Anytime someone gets taken in the third round, it just becomes... Very much a long shot that Mackenzie Forbes make their roster. But if nothing else for the moment that Forbes got...
for those who may not have seen video of it or not, Mackenzie Forbes' pick was called in by Cheryl Miller. That was cool. And it was one of my favorite moments from the entire draft, getting maybe the great Trojan getting a chance to call Mackenzie Forbes into the Sparks. It was just a sweet moment, and almost for that alone, this bumped me up a little bit. But I like this setup. Cameron Brink is high star potential. Rekia Jackson has...
Very high potential. And I like the mix they have there. Ricky Jackson's listed as a three. I'm not sure what that feel is there. Maybe because you can play a three and D role in a small ball lineup. But at 6'2", you feel like there's... Yeah. So maybe that's part of why they went with this is that there's some flexibility as to where they potentially could work Jackson and still give opening to their backcourt.
Really good. I mean, a lot of high potential. You're reconnecting with Roy Burrell out of Tennessee. There's a lot of cool stuff there. So, yeah, I like what the Sparks have put together in general. Let's get the obvious one out of the way with this next move. We couldn't go very far without bringing up the feeder. They were second on my list. I love the mixture of what Chicago put together.
There's only one other reason. Now, I'll get this out of the way. There's just nothing left we could say about Caitlin Clark that hasn't been said like a thousand times over. So analyzing this pick is moot because it is what it is, right? One of the few reasons that I also feel like I had this guy over the fever is...
The Sky had two high-level picks that they were able to strategize and work around and build this mixture of what is a very exciting package of players to add to their roster. To put the Fever at the top of my draft draft basically feels like I'm putting them at the top because they won the draft lottery, and that's really it. Because it was just like...
Andrea Carter said it like when they were on the clock on the live broadcast, like, why are they still on the clock? How have they not locked their pick in? Like, it was pretty obvious how this was going to go for months and months. And if you want proof of that, the fever is social had so much already to go that had first of all,
For seven years now, we've been so critical of the Fever front office on the court. We very much had our nose down on the Fever for a lot of reasons. Their social and marketing teams have stepped up in such a huge way this offseason alone. It's been remarkable. And the Toy Story-esque reveal video they used to announce, like, this is our first pick, Kate and Clark, is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.
That is such a cool video. I'm glad there's someone in the Fever office saying, guys, we can't fumble this. We're going to make the pick and it's going to be the right pick, but we can't fumble the execution. Because unfortunately, we can't always trust...
individual teams usually do a great job. Sometimes the WNBA as a league does kind of fumble the execution of announcing the mid season tournament or generating hype for something that they want to generate hype for. So the Caitlin Clark fever moment really needed to hit. Um, and, and there was, I mean, it would have been very hard to screw up, but they, I mean, they nailed it and it was awesome. And I thought about putting them first on my list just cause it's like,
We might be overthinking this. Two or three years down the road, we could just look back and just be like, I know it was the number one pick, but it was the most impactful franchise-altering pick. Yes, it was number one, but you're still getting value for Caitlin Clark at number one, even though it's number one. Yeah, and obviously we'll be talking a lot more as things go in future weeks about what this means for the Fever, what their mix is going to look like in terms of their roster. Obviously,
You're pairing two greats with, with Clark and Boston, and that's going to be exciting. But even outside of that, there's a lot to be excited with this roster and some additions that I think they were piecing together. And,
That makes a lot of sense. Now, going through the rest of their picks as well, they picked up Celeste Taylor out of Ohio State. I'm really high on Celeste Taylor. I like a lot of what she put together at OSU. Leilani Correa out of Florida. So they stayed backcourt for a lot of this. I'm really shocked they didn't try to squeeze in a big somewhere across the line. But, I mean, overall, those are okay. But honestly, I mean, I don't think I'm being completely –
uh, shallow and one-sided by saying this really was kind of a one pick hall in general. Um, yeah, I, Celeste Taylor is a five-year player at Ohio state. She played virtually every game, which I always like to see her stats improved pretty much every season, but there isn't any one thing she does that really jumps out at me. Um, so if she makes the team, it's more for, she's like not seen as a defensive liability and they want to keep costs low. Um,
Otherwise, I'm not sure that Taylor and Leilani make this roster. But I mean, I hope I'm rooting for every rookie. I don't want her to sound like these players don't matter. Like she went 15th overall. That's still well in the range of like that player has something to offer. If nothing else, she offers just steady 10 and four game performance.
to practice against in the meantime. Like, I don't, I don't know. It depends on how the, the rustics constructed, but yeah, so we'll see how that goes. Now I'd say if you were to pull most people and say like, what are your top three T you know, who of the draft performances, which three teams did the best. I think, I think the fever, the sparks in the sky are probably what most people would say potentially. Now,
I have one thrown in the middle there because we took my one, two, and four off the list. I do have another one who I put third on my list. I don't know if you're going to have a similar feel with this one. So I'm going to kick it over to you. I'm really intrigued. This is where I think this discussion, this draft draft starts to get really spicy. I think it can go a lot of different directions. And I'm interested not only to hear what you have next, but as we do picks, like –
I'd be interested to hear who the counterpart where they would have had them on the list because that makes it really interesting. So take it away. This is where, yeah, you do have to kind of start getting creative here on how you're going to, how you're going to grade these. I think there's one that's a little more obvious, but there's also one that I want to talk about more. I'll, I'll go with, with what I, what I think is the more logical of the picks and then I'll get really excited, but also upset if you, if you pick my team next.
I'm going to take the aces draft. Oh, I like it. I, yeah, I really like getting Daisha fair at number 16. That's great value for a guard that a lot of people had rated as a first round pick and then getting Kittley at 24. That's if you listen to the, the,
mock draft episode that we did with Kyle. She's sitting out for a year with an ACL tear. It's not expected to be a career ender because the ACL isn't the career ender it once was. That's the perfect landing spot for her because she can sit for a year and wait and doesn't need to do anything this year in order for the aces to be good.
But she could also learn from probably the best coach in the game, at least at the pro level. Here at the WNBA, you've got Becky Hammond. You've got a whole bunch of people that know how to win in that building that she's going to be able to hang out around. Also, you get a sit at the feet of... It depends on roster construction. You get a sit at the feet of Aisha Wilson and Candice Parker. Right. Everybody that she's going to be surrounded by, you couldn't ask for better mentorship. Like...
I don't know how long she gets to be around them or if she's with the team or not, but...
A healthy Kitley is a first-round pick. And this is an Aces team that had a bunch of late picks that I think they easily made the best of in kind of an unfair way. We didn't really talk about the Aces much in the mock draft episode because they weren't picking until 16. And we all know that they're good. And we talk about Asia a lot. But we haven't really talked about the future, like what happens when...
Becky Hammond takes the Spurs job or when this core starts to drift apart, like what, what happens to the future of this like aces dynasty that we're in. And, and,
We're going to be like, how come they just never run out of talent in a couple years? It's because they do stuff like this. Getting Kitley at pick 24 and Daisha Farr at 16. There's also two other picks in there. Kate Martin out of Iowa. Thank you. They got at number 18 just two picks later. She's good. That's such a redundant thing to say about these players. I was waiting. You're burying the lead, dude. No, I'm... But Martin is an interesting player in the sense that...
Like she has to kind of be molded into, uh, maybe she doesn't, I don't know. Connecticut has made an entire franchise out of players that don't necessarily fit the traditional archetypes of their positions. Um,
Um, Martin is, is also one of those players who is just good enough at basketball that you need to get her on the court somehow, some way, even if she doesn't fit your traditional build and skillset. So between those three plus getting angel Jackson at 36, like, I don't know how much of an impact those, those late third rounders necessarily are going to make on a team like Vegas, but yeah,
This is like if you erase the numbers, if you had no idea when, like what round or what pick numbers these were, I think if you looked at it like agnostically like that, you'd be like, dude, Vegas is one of the better drafts that I'm looking at. Like obviously Chicago and LA and the Fever. But those are three players in the top 24 picks that all could have gone in the first round under different circumstances. Yeah.
Yeah. That's, that's what you got to do with your picking in these rounds. So good on them. Kate Martin might be one of the best also on top of this. And I'm saying this in the most positive way possible. One of the best versions of a personality hire you could possibly have in terms of a draft. I just think what she, when you look at the impact she had at Iowa in terms of leadership attitude, that, that whole level of things, just, yeah,
I don't even want to say fan, like the fan favorite type appeal to it, but like, um, there are very intrinsic qualities that, uh, I'll put it this way. Kate Martin is a very different flavor of, of what Sidney Coulson is.
Uh, like say Colson is, is a pivotal part about the, of the ACEs dynamic and what makes them work. And Kate Martin fits that real pretty easily. Matter of fact, those two need a TV show somewhere. I mean, we already have TP, Sid and TP already have one, but like they need a podcast, something. I just, those two personalities in the same room should be fun. Um,
I wouldn't be shocked if Kate makes a roster based off that, but it's going to be, I mean, you're talking about the defending two-time champions. So making a roster is going to be tough, but they put themselves in a really interesting position. And I agree with you for a team that didn't have a selection for the first one and a third rounds in this draft that didn't even get an option, get on the clock until 16. This is an incredibly impressive hall. And hopefully they find a way to work together.
a good chunk of these players into this roster, it's going to be difficult. But I really like what the Aces did. Somehow I had them down at about six or seven on my list, and there's a handful of reasons for that. But I think a lot of it is because of what we already talked about. It's going to be difficult to make that Aces roster. They kind of, I don't know if you've noticed, had a good thing going.
That's the, if somebody from that hall makes the roster, it tells us that there's something there because it's, it's just as likely that none of them make it. And they all, I don't know, they all just kind of like hang out and wait for the phone call. But I like your take on Kittley in that it's almost worth seeing if you can sign Kittley and get her on some sort of, I don't know if there's like a hardship contract or something and say, Hey, we're suspending this for a year because the,
You're basically getting yourself a lottery pick in Kittley a year later. And I mean, that's just an advantage anyone would take if they had the chance. I think you're looking at Kittley and Aaliyah Edwards going at roughly the same spot in a draft if fully healthy. Yeah. She's in that tier of player. So if you consider for a year, keep her under contract somehow, and then essentially...
like snatch her up next year as though you had a number six overall pick. That's pretty good. Yeah. My next selection, I've got them third in my list. My next selection might be a shocker to some, but I'm going with it. I'm going with the Lynx and it's one sided. I'm incredibly high on Alyssa Peely. And I think this is one of the best potential scenarios for Peely. Like this is one of the best teams ever.
she could have landed with i love i i'm very certain shiro reeve already sees a lot of dollar signs with what she can bring to this mixture um there that's a front court that has a lot of questions as to what their mix could be obviously have to face collier you're not going to question that um and you're looking at that around i mean at six one it you know there's a lot of
there that you can discuss. But, you know, you're coming up against Ruthie Hebron. You're coming up against Dorothy Ujas. You're, you know, there's a large mixed Diamond Miller. There's a real interesting mix of players that have the potential. They also signed Cecilia Zandalosini to a potential contract. So, but I just, PeeWee is one of those players that I watch. And maybe I'm a little biased, by the way, because I,
I had a lot of access to Alyssa Peely's game over the last couple of years being 40 minutes down the road from her school. But I felt like she had NBA style game, WNBA style game through the last two seasons, especially.
And even just watching some clips of her already doing workouts with the team, you can just tell that there's a dynamic there that works. So I'm really high on Peely in terms of I think when some of these obvious starry names, your Clarks, your Brinks, your Angels, your Cardosos are kind of done out of the way. Peely is going to be right there in the mix in terms of rookies who I think are going to have a long-standing power in this league.
And that's really it. You know, D.G. Jefferson's a really has high potential at 31. Obviously, it's very hard to say that there's going to be a roster spot at the guard position there. So that's tough. But I'm putting a lot of stock in what Peely can do for the Lynx. And that's why I had the Lynx at third. So if that's me over hyping something, fine. But I just really liked it.
Well, no one can call you out for any Peely take yet because everybody's all over the place on her. Yeah. Like ESPN's whole board of people is just like, we don't know what to do with her. I think the draft investment of a number eight pick to a team that does desperately need to get better says something. But I do think there's a tier break. Picks one through seven, I feel pretty safe with.
pretty comfortable that those are going to work out in the league. Peely is where some more risk starts to get introduced. The reward is still very high, but it does start to feel like not as a sure thing maybe as a Cardoso or an Edwards, but definitely worth like if you're sitting there at eight, you know, go for it. So I do think that there is a break there, but I'm excited to see what you do. Absolutely. I hope she makes it. Yeah. So there's that. What do you got at the five spot?
Six. Seattle. Very good. Or six, rather. I think this is because five was the least. Yeah. I have the storm at six.
And it's purely because I think Nika Mule is a good freaking player. And I think getting her at the 14th pick is a great value. Yep. In terms of what she could provide. She's going after other guards in this draft. I'm assuming because of the lack of scoring or the perceived lack of scoring that she provides from the guard position, which I think is fair. But she does so many good things on the court. And Seattle is kind of in need of...
I think Seattle, the franchise, when we're not talking about the draft, we're just talking about how they operate. They can go out and get players to fill star roles. What they need in the draft is exactly what Nika Mule does, which is all the other stuff. Yeah. And I think she was the best, not just the best available at the time, but I think she was the best player in this draft at Seattle.
just providing... I mean, she's going to be steady assist numbers. She gets steals. She gets... She does little defensive things. She does nice things on offense that... She does get a couple points a game that are always timely. And...
She freaking just slayed at the draft. I don't know. I just really like Nika Mule. Um, and I expected her to go a little bit higher than this. So her dropping to Seattle at 14, it's kind of a fun destination for her. Yeah, absolutely. Um, because we all kind of want to see what the storm have in mind for the future core of that team. They have Jewel Lloyd. We thought maybe Jewel wouldn't be coming back. She is, um,
Everybody on that team kind of represents like, are they like a staple or are they someone who's just kind of like in flux until Seattle can get like their new big three together? And I think Mule going into that environment has a really good chance of establishing a spot on that team for a long time. Yeah, I think when the first round was over with, Mule was still on the board.
I was nervous because at that point it really is questionable whether or not you can make a roster right after the first round. But at 14 to Seattle, who didn't have a first round pick is as close to a first round thing as you can get without being it. And so the value for me went straight up. And I think there's high potential there. The guard situation, the backcourt situation in Seattle is extremely deep.
Obviously, she's not going to get really any starting minutes if Skydeg and if Jewel stay healthy. I mean, that's pretty obvious. But you're looking at a really interesting mix of this backcourt with a player like Jade Miliband, who very much matches a lot of the same energy that I see out of Nika Mule. You've got Sambam back in the mix. It's...
There's a lot going on with this backcourt that I'm really excited to see where that fits. But I think there's high potential to be added to that roster, which is really cool. I like Mackenzie Holmes a lot. Obviously, that's a tough one. We'll see if Holmes has the potential to find a home in Seattle. If not, I definitely expect Holmes to find a comfortable spot over the next year or so somewhere as this develops.
That's going to be a tough call. I feel like you bumping up Seattle for Mule is similar to what I did with Minnesota for Peely. I just feel like those are two teams that... Yeah, when you were giving your Peely take, I was kind of feeling like... Now I feel better about just being like, I think Seattle had a good draft considering no first round pick. And they do... They kind of have their immediate future figured out. It's just that they're all over the age of 30.
So they have Jewel who's 30, Skydig's 33, Neko, Gulunke is 33, Sandy Whitcomb's 35. That can't be the plan forever. Yeah. And so I do... I like going with someone who's got a dynamic skill set.
And is young that can maybe fit on this roster and do things that they don't have someone to facilitate right now. And they could kind of piece her up. I think she's a great player to try to piece like other stars around as they kind of manipulate those other players aging out. So absolutely. So moving forward, heading over to the seventh, how did we go to the back half? I think after this pick is when things are going to get really interesting. But this one is kind of the last like,
spot on the table. So I think this one's pretty clear, but let's go with the Mystics here at this spot. I think that makes a ton of sense. Aaliyah Edwards is going to be
uh, a very, have a very high level impact on this team. Obviously the future with the mystics in terms of Elena Deladon is so very rocky. And so that opens up high potential for stepping into a front court in Washington that needs someone, uh,
Who can put their foot forward and be impactful and put in quality minutes and get points on the board. And here's the funny thing. That is literally to the letter what Aaliyah Edwards did in UConn the last three seasons.
An injury-riddled team that had a hard time settling with their full depth, and they needed players to step up and keep that roster honest and win games. And UConn got that out of Nick Neal, and they got that tenfold out of Lee Edwards. And so I almost think the situation...
stands to be a huge gain for Washington there because of the headline. I also think it's not lost on me that you're going to get a lot of fan groundswell. You're in decent proximity to Connecticut. It's not quite the sun, but I wouldn't be shocked to see a lot of UConn fans finding their way to Washington to support Edwards because she was a big fan favorite for a lot of the right reasons.
I also really like this haul because I have – and this is hard, dude, because if there's two people who'd never like to say anything nice about Gonzaga, it's us. But I really, really, really like Caelan Tron. Just a very fun shooter, good energy. I really like what she brings to the mix here.
If there's any way to sneak a backcourt spot, you know, it's always going to be a tough high potential. But on this roster, it's somewhat possible.
Uh, it's not dead on possible. I mean, D.D. Richards is going to be coming in, uh, just completely blazed, like just ready to find a spot after getting dropped by the Liberty. I think she's going to come in with her, with her head on fire, ready to make some happen. Um, Samuelson's always a high level move. Brittany Sykes has a pretty founded spot. I think she, Tori Walker Kimber has a pretty founded spot. Uh,
But Tron has potential to sneak her way into that backcourt, potentially. I don't know if it happens for certain, but I think if there's a team where there might be a chance to weasel your way in, Washington's as good as any when it comes to their backcourt. And I like Tron a lot, and I like her energy, and I hope something works out there. But...
Overall, I generally like what the Mystics are doing. It's just now they take these picks and they see if they can work them into whatever the new identity of the Mystics are going to be, because it definitely feels like they're going to need to start transitioning into whatever the next era of this team is going to be.
I like that. Yeah. They were my obvious kind of next pick, but they would have been my next pick as well in, in the draft draft. But there is another one that I do like quite a bit, which I will talk about right now. Good segue. We are, we are good at this. The, I really liked Dallas's draft for, for where they were at. They, they,
It feels a little underwhelming because they had the number five overall and came away with JC Sheldon, who is not Angel Reese or Cardoso or any of those names that we kind of keep going back to as the big names. Greg Boop doesn't care about that because he really, really wanted someone who could come in and hit open threes and defend the perimeter. And JC Sheldon, if the draft was about finding that player...
Jaycee Sheldon is probably going number two overall because that's what the shooting guard out of Ohio State does. She's about better than anyone. She was over 51% from open threes this past year. She can defend well. She's going to be their 3D. There's no question in my mind that they took her because that's a draft for need. They need her and she will make the roster and contribute. So right away, your number five pick, I'm feeling pretty good about.
Number nine is a little bit more of a question mark, but it is Carla Light out of France. There's two French guards in this draft. They went back to back. One went to Dallas and then the next one went, the next pick to Connecticut. Yeah.
This is another player that I expect to make the roster. I just don't... I'm out of my depth when it comes to the two French guards. These are not players that we watched this year in college. I don't know how to grade them out aside from what I've seen people in the industry say, which is that it's basically like... It's a pretty good pick. There's also just in general, both in men's and women's basketball, there's this groundswell of...
like talent coming out of France specifically. I don't know if you've picked up on this yet or not Steve, but like there's, there's like, here's the U S and all the talent here. And then there's like the world. And they're about even in terms of the talent they're supplying to the pros. And then France is specifically just like cranking out like tons of men's and women's talent. So it wouldn't surprise me if either of these players became like big names in the league in the longterm. I just don't know how to evaluate that number nine pick at all. Um,
And so I'm kind of just grading this largely off of the Sheldon pick at number five. And I hope that that's okay with everyone. They also picked up Ashley Owusu out of Penn State at number 33. And as we've stated several times throughout this recording, it's tough. After a certain number of picks, it's tough to see someone making a roster. But you never know. So the thing, Logan, is maybe... I don't know if this is strange or not. Maybe it's something I'm not saying...
In terms of my power rankings, I have Dallas at 11. I'm not very high on them. And I'm not just saying, oh, because I wish... Steve hates Dallas. That's what I'm hearing. Well, I'm not just saying, oh, I wish they had a sexier pick at five or anything like that. I like J.C. Sheldon, and I like what they put together. I just... They went three in the backcourt. They really didn't put anything... You had a lot of high potential for bigs you could have picked up under the basket.
I don't mind late at, at, at in general, but I just go, if you're going to go guards and mules on the table and Lakin was on the table, there were just a lot of different potential moves that they could have made. I just felt like when they had a pick and who they went with, there's probably two to three to four players. I would have put ahead of them. If it was as healthy, she's decent, but she's so late in the draft. I don't know if that'll happen. I,
So I think Dallas just got lost in the mix with me and I'm not very high on what they're putting together so far, but guess what? Um,
Dallas is what? Fourth in the standings last year and have finally started to see their picks blossoming. So this is a great opportunity for me to get shut right up. Well, I think that's probably why they felt more like they could pick for positional need rather than take like Aaliyah Edwards who went with the following pick. Because I think they look at like, what do we need to make the leap into real contention? And JC Sheldon, I think, represented some of that. But you're right. I mean...
We all know none of us will know what happens if they take Edwards or Reese or any of those players there now. And it's those are hard players to pass up. Well, I just think like if you're going to the pool, I get the idea of looking for shooting. I understand that. It's like a lot of what, for instance, Mule, who I when Dallas's pick came up at nine, I thought for certain that's what they were going to go with because they're
Mule pairs really well with, for instance, Enrique Gumbawabe. Of course, so does Crystal Dangerfield. So it's not like she was getting a starting job. But there was a lot of potential to meet on that. But I also think they just got lost in the mix. From 8 to 12, there's a lot of maneuvering that happens. And that's probably what happened here for me. So I'm not as high on the wings, but I'm willing to be wrong. I like seeing them succeed.
And I really like their roster. So, and I've been very open and public about that Dallas fans. I've been very open about that. Okay. You've sold out your season packages and proud of you for that. And good for you. So I know you're out there and I know you're loud. Stay loud. Connect with us. Tell me about why I'm wrong, but we'll move things forward from Dallas to
to what I think is probably like the next pick. You took one French guard. I'll take the other and take Connecticut. Perfect. Of the two guards, I probably like Lincoln a little bit more, but it's not a high-level take there. But...
I'd say on the Jackson, Helena, well out of Arizona, I think overall they put together a really solid piece here. I think Connecticut's back or backcourt is going to be really competitive. And so there's high potential to add one or two spots there. Though I don't think they're struggling for choice over there as well. But, you know, I don't know that Connecticut, uh,
needed to fill any high level piece on this roster. I don't think there's anywhere where it's like, oh, you've got to do this. I will say this though, really, really, really rooting for Abby Shue at a Columbia, really good shooter. University of Columbia's first ever draft pick.
And I just really, I've actually watched a bit of a good amount of Columbia and Ivy league ball this last year. And it's really like what Abby puts together. The third to last pick in the draft. I'm saying that knowing it's, it's a high improbability, but if there's one player that I'm like, I'd love to see a Cinderella situation where you come out of nowhere and you
Uh, and not to, not to call it a legend like this and make an immediate comparison, but you know, to Kimper out your way into a roster, uh, Abby's one that's high in my list that I think would be really cool. So overall a decent with Connecticut, um, could have done better, could have done worse, but a lot of good solid pieces that if they were to make a roster, I think stand to gain a lot from it. So,
That's me. This is sort of where I... Everything you said about Dallas is sort of how I feel about Connecticut. It's just kind of like, oh, it's... At 10, there were still some players there that maybe I would have gone with. But I also don't know much about 19-year-old Layla Lakin from France. She's 5'11 with...
you know, three years of game development before she's even as old as some of these players. This is where these later discussions, these picks are interesting because there's not a lot of like, Oh, they did really bad. And this is why they're 10, 11, 12. It's just kind of like, okay, like we'll see, you know, they're just, the maneuverability is a little bit different. So I'm interested to see where you take it in comparison to me. We got three teams left on the board. Where are you going with that?
There are three teams left on the board, and I think it's probably... I have reasoning for two of them to be encouraging for fans of these teams. I'm going to go with the easier one. I'm going to go with Phoenix. I'll pick Phoenix here. And this is another one that's, I think, purely because I think Charisma Osborne was a value with where they were able to get her in the draft. Yeah.
This was a player that I saw not regularly drafted in the first round, but she was kind of a other players to watch type player on a lot of draft boards if things fell right. It's also just nice anytime you can get a five-year player out of a Pac-12 school like UCLA. So she's played against a high level competition for a lot of her career.
I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do with the Phoenix team that I think we might be forgetting was quite bad last year.
We know the Fever were 13 and 27. And I think sometimes we're just like, oh, right. They got the first overall pick because they were bad. And the Fever are usually bad. And then the Storm finished behind the Fever. And we're like, all right. The Storm also had a down. But we all kind of saw that coming. Single-digit wins for the Mercury last year. And it's injuries...
team and they won one road game all year. Like I said, I think the standards are going to tighten up a little bit. But there's an opportunity here for sure for a player taken deep into the second round who
who could have gone much sooner to really make an impact. She played most games throughout her career, so injury stuff isn't something I'm super worried about. She can be a primary scorer on any given night. Her averages went down over the course of her career, but she stayed strong from the free throw line. She's been a good field goal shooter her whole career. She doesn't do much for you on the defensive end, which is probably going to hurt. If anything, I think that's probably why she fell is...
can she match up against like the dynamic pro guards, which is again, why I think the competition in the back 12 has probably helped her more than, more than other guards typically experienced. But just, just because I thought that was a player that might go a lot sooner. I think that puts them slightly ahead of the other two teams that we're going to talk about. And then they also picked up jazz Shelly four picks later out of Nebraska. She was at Oregon originally, right?
I don't want to speak incorrectly, but I think that's right. She's sort of a... Again, this is... I don't know what Phoenix's plan is, but they just won nine games last year. So technically, anybody could make the roster. She shoots what? 40% from the floor?
And pretty good from three point. So this was just a total like, hey, if you come in here and light it up, maybe there's a spot for you. That type of pick. And I'm okay with that at pick 29. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I had Phoenix at the 12 spot here. And a lot of that is because maybe I see differently. I just I think there's a next to nothing chance of...
um, either of these picks making a roster in their front court. We've got, this is a team that, yes, everything you said is correct about how they perform last season, but this is also a team that just picked up Natasha, Claudia, Cleo copper. So, uh, that's right. It's copper is there now. Yeah. So I think, and honestly, like air Hearn who just got picked up from, uh, the unlimited league, like the, the, the UA, the AU league, uh,
Almost as high of a chance because they kind of come in with a unique buzz. I'm not saying they don't make the roster. And obviously, this is a situation Phoenix is in where single-digit wins. You're not going to have a pick until the third round. They were just never put in a position for this to be a high-level haul at all for them. I think if they roster 12...
I think she could sneak in there. I think Charisma Osborne is making that roster. She'll be behind Maya and Atwell and all those players, but like
I don't know. They didn't dig deep into their bench until last year. Maybe. They just didn't have guard depth. Yeah. That's kind of a misnomer. They have guard depth, but they're paying all of their guards. They're paying Cleo Copper all the money and they're paying Tarazi all the money because you do. And they're paying Cloud all the money.
And then Rebecca Allen and Sophie Cunningham are the next two highest earners on the roster in front of Greiner. And so it feels like, hey, maybe we should get a 22-year-old cheap talent guard in here because at some point, we're not going to be able to keep a million dollars worth of twos and threes on this roster. Yeah.
No, and I can understand that perspective. I will say, yeah, I mean, as far as high value picks, Osborne at that late is probably as high as potential as you get. I think I could have been talked more into something in the front court there. One of the McKenzie's homes or Forbes stands right out immediately would have been an interesting move. But, you know, I think the jury is going to be out on that one.
in a lot of different ways. But, um, yeah, that's why I had them last. I don't think it's a bad move at all. I just did some quick math. Do you want some, do you want some fun? Uh, just, this is nothing. This is just a Phoenix fact. Go for it. Currently on Phoenix's payroll, um, Tarazi and Griner, uh, combined for 27 years of experience. The entire rest of the roster has 27 years of experience. Um,
In total. So that's fun. Yeah. And that's like people that aren't even signed yet. That's just like 15 other players worth of experience. Yeah. So that just really jumps out at you when you look at the spot track stuff. You're like, wow, age 41, 18 years. That's a lot. Anyway, I just thought that was funny. Absolutely. So we've got two more selections coming.
Uh, uh, as it stands here, I'm going to go with the team that actually was rated pretty high, at least on, I know ESPN's draft board, uh, like their review, they had a B plus for this team. We've got them all the way down to 11. Let's go with Atlanta. Uh, if, if for nothing else, um,
They basically said, screw your college teams. We're going across the pond for all of our picks. We're going Aussie, Aussie, Italy, which I thought was hilarious. But Nadia Pach actually, I think, is very high potential, very dynamic because of being out of Australia. There's a lot of natural comparisons to Izzy Magpul-Gore and those types of pieces. So I think there's...
some high level there. I like them finding a solid front court pick to come out of there. So overall, that's good. But for the most part, a lot of those picks are just going to be wait and see type of situation. The Dreamer very much in a situation of their rebuild is starting to flourish and they're starting to get to a competitive place. So we'll see how these
goes with making the rosters. But I had a chance to pick between two different teams, and I just kind of really enjoy that they went international with all three of them, and I thought that was kind of cool. So I'm taking Atlanta.
Yeah. And I've Atlanta's draft. I've been thinking about taking them like the last couple of picks, honestly, because you could put them anywhere. And like you said, ESPN has them and it'd be plus we have a number 11. It's just, I think I'm looking at it as someone who's like, look, the Atlanta dream. They were in that middle third in the standings last year of Atlanta, Minnesota, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, like, like,
All 19 and whatever, kind of hovering around 500. Like you said, the rebuild is kind of coming into full focus. Ryan Howard is really, really good. This would have been a fun draft for them to add an exciting piece to make me believe that they could be a genuine top four or five team and do some things against those other top teams in the league. And even though this draft could very easily turn into one that makes us sound stupid years down the road,
Right now, it doesn't feel like it's doing that for them. And so it just feels like, oh, well, I would have liked to see Atlanta make the leap in this way with some draft picks. But they can make the leap in other ways. Players can just get a year older and wiser and more experienced and just be better next year. So, yeah. But definitely doesn't have the same thrill factor as the other teams we've talked about today. Because it's like, oh, Atlanta, you're a team on the rise. Like, why didn't...
why didn't you do something that was going to really affect you this year in the draft? But we're looking at this through a pretty narrow lens. There are other ways to improve a team. And also, if they were pretty certain they were going to go frontcourt with that 12 spot, Potch is actually pretty solid in comparison based on what was available moving forward. Yeah. I think when you look into the second quarter,
You've got Esprit Martinez. You've got Tiana Jackson. You've got Jessica Carter. They could have taken a shot at Kittley, but there might be some backcourt moves that would have made more sense to me. But if they were pretty certain they wanted to pick up a...
uh, more or less call it a big, um, then I think it makes a lot of sense going. I say big, she's six one. Um, and Kelly would have been to me like the wrong, that would have been the wrong situation. Like she goes to Vegas where she can easily sit for a year. I think Atlanta right now is like, let's gear up. Like we are, we're piecing a team together to go like us in Dallas are kind of on the rise. Like let's. Yeah. I think they want to add to that mix for sure. Um,
uh and and figure out what that front quarter mix is going to be so i think it's really interesting as a whole um and yeah i think for the most part i like it um this is interesting i'm going to keep it over to you to actually give analysis for the final pick but it's just funny because it's not like they necessarily had a bad draft and it's not like they're um
They have a want for much when it comes to putting together a roster based on their success, but I'll let you finish it off. All right. Two off on our list is the New York Liberty, um,
They had picks 11, 17, 23, and 35. So not exactly like premium lottery picks to go with anyway. They also just didn't give us nearly enough Ellie the Elephant during the draft. So they got docked points for that as well. They should have gotten so much more. I did say a highlight of the draft was Marquise Davis giving a very emotional interview on Mike about finally realizing your dream. Literally with...
Ellie the elephant, like doing her own human wave, just like bouncing up and down in the background with fans. Just best. Really quick. Let's just let's sidebar this really quick. Best mascot in the game. I don't mean in the WNBA. I mean, in the like in the mascot game. Oh, oh, that's a bigger. That's a much bigger question. I would be. I think Seattle's mascot is strong. Yeah.
I'm talking all mascots, by the way. I can't commit to that. I'm going top five. I'd have to think about it. I'm going first year Lightning McQueen hot shot and shocking people and a big deal. That's Ellie the Elephant. That's my hot take of this whole episode. Top five mascot, Ellie the Elephant. That's bold. I'll circle back to this in a future episode. I'll give this some thought.
No, in all seriousness, Marquise Davis, really good guard. She's a good field goal shooter. I don't think any of New York's picks stand an amazing chance of cracking the roster, at least not this year, because the Liberty have kind of... Did they pave the way or did they... I feel like I always think of the Liberty as sort of being the first to do this thing where they just roster less players than... Like in order to keep the payroll, like...
top-heavy. They basically pay star players and then they don't bother rostering players at the bottom of the pitch, which a lot of teams have accused them of being like, there's a certain number of jobs in this league and you need to give out a certain number of them. And they're just like, no, we pay the players that we want to pay and that's the team that we roll out there. And they were the second best team in the league last year. I think actually, if you look at it, they've spread the love a little bit. I think a couple of their star players actually...
um, kick back on their, the amount of money they took to make room for other pieces. Um, so that's cool. Like restructuring types. Yeah. But I don't know. I don't know what that stood to benefit the second squad as much as it did, like getting junk. Well, and vendor salute and Bree Stewart, right? Like let us, let us get our, yeah, it may still be in town. Yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, getting Martinez out of Arizona, that's a fair pick for the place. But I think we're both in agreement here since we've both saved the liberty for last that none of these picks are things that get us really excited about
About the Liberty? Don't hear what I'm not saying. It's not that we're not excited about the Liberty or their chances at winning a championship this year. It's just that by the draft haul, it doesn't really seem like this is going to be the reason that... I don't think the draft is going to catalyze anything new for this team. I think my critical feelings about the Liberty's draft haul is completely biased. Or not biased, but it's clouded. It's given a bad curve based on what the Aces did.
The Aces put together something that's very abnormal for a championship, like a finals team to do. And I think the Liberty put together what you would typically see in their situation. And the Aces managed to do something abnormal. I don't know if that makes sense, but... Yeah, there's a chance that Jessica Carter out of Mississippi State turns into...
Someone serviceable in the WNBA. Not nearly as good a chance, I think, as Elizabeth Kittley. And so it just feels like the comparison between New York and Vegas is just so natural to make anyway because those are the teams fighting for supremacy right now. And New York continues to come up on the short side of it so far. And so when it comes to the draft, it just feels like, oh, this isn't like...
Doesn't blow me away. But then again, there's probably no thing that sports people are wrong about more often than draft grades, except maybe their mock drafts. So maybe. But there are so limited roster spots and these players don't have a lot. They don't have the premium picks invested in them to make me believe that they're going to stick. But if any of them do, it means kind of like we were saying with...
I can't remember what team earlier. Like if they show something, probably Vegas. Like if they stick around, it means that they showed something that coaches like. So that could be interesting. Interesting. Yeah, just nothing here that like generates a lot of like, oh, wow, they went there. Interesting that they went all front court. I'll say that. Mm-hmm. Because they had a couple swoop ups they could have made in terms of guards. They could have been the team that gave Kate Martin a nod.
And they went frontcourt instead. That's probably nothing. They probably were just going best available based on what they're seeing. But just an interesting thought, though, from observation's sake. Yeah. I hope we get to see Davis play just because you mentioned her words about just making a dream come true. It's like, well, I'm rooting for her. And not making a roster this year doesn't mean they don't go abroad and then come back and make a roster in the future. That happens occasionally. It's just...
We have like a month before the season and they basically have to go in and immediately steal someone's job in order to make it. And that's hard to do. And speaking of drafting two players with the same last name, fight on Caitlin Davis, fight on. If it's not the Liberty, let's, let's find a home for you. Does every women's basketball. And I mean this at the high school level, the college level, every women's basketball team has to have someone named Caitlin Davis. Is this like my high school team did?
I feel like Utah State did. It's just... And it's never... I'm not saying it's the same exact player. I'm just saying there's always one. I feel like if you really dig deep into your social coffers, like everyone that you know... Everyone knows maybe six people named Kaitlin Davis. I could do that. I think everyone probably does. And each... Kaitlin's a different spelling too. Because that's... That's true. That might be the name with the most...
variant spellings and we know that because all these uh all these new rooks who suddenly want to pay attention to the w for all their own reasons don't know how to spell caitlin clark's name they don't know how to spell caitlin nor clark which i find really amazing uh really yeah they try to throw the e on there caitlin clark like they are boston columnist it's weird
Yeah. Stuff like that. You can't be doing that. Don't be doing that. But there's the draft grades or the draft draft, as it were. We would love to hear how you feel about it. Hit us up on Twitter. Head us up. Anywhere you connect with us. Send us comments. Let us know what you think.
Who do you like in this draft? Who are you excited to see come up and out? Who do you have high hopes for in terms of surviving summer camp and making a roster? How many teams do you think need to exist within the next two years? Because 12 is not nearly enough and 13 is also not nearly enough. And is it weird that like,
When Kathy Engelbert made that note of like, we want to have 16 teams by, I want to say it was like 2028 or something like that. It was almost like, that's not soon enough. Like we need to figure this out. Well, yeah.
And I won't spin this into a whole discussion, but for many years, I've been a little bit on Kathy's side in terms of like, it's okay to be patient. It's okay to wait for the right time. But because I've been having that conversation and defense for enough years, it does kind of feel like, all right,
Next year is 2025. I feel like we could do some things. Next time! If we've been having this conversation since 2018, I think it's probably... It's that it took this long to get one expansion team. And I don't want to compare one league to another, but the NWSL is basically set and ready to add their 16th team. They're laughing at us, Steve. They're laughing at us. We're sitting and making that, and there's so many areas that
based on the new rise of, of, of interest in women's basketball, like,
I think there are a lot of markets that are going to be hungry for it. So I wouldn't be shocked if we see some announcements come over the next year. You and I have also been big advocates for as much as we need to expand the teams. We need to expand the rosters. We need more than 12 spots because that's dumb to just have 12 spots. We need to pull that together. There needs to be a system in place where we're housing as much of this talent as possible. And it's really unfortunate that a lot of these players aren't finding homes or
when they absolutely should be. But that is a discussion that we'll continue to have as we do. That said, stay connected with us. Your thoughts on the draft. We'll be paying very close attention as summer camp rolls in to see how these rosters pack out. And then guys, before you know it, it's going to be the season starting. We're well under a month to the start of the WNBA season, which is nuts to me. I don't even know how to fathom that. Like we've got to start doing season previews and we're,
All kinds of stuff.
So I hope you're geared for that. Logan, anything else you want to bring to the table before we put a bow on it? No, that's it. I think, I don't know if it was just that like 2020 and 2021 were really, really long, but ever since then, it's just been like, bam, it's, I mean, we are mid spring headed quickly to summer already. So stick with us. Should be fun. This is one episode. I like the draft draft. This was good time. I had a good draft draft. I like it. It's fun times. Um,
I, yeah, I think that's it. I think it's all good. It's, it's late. We had a good draft talk. I love basketball. I love all the things happening. Good times. Great oldies. Great ratings. That's what it is. 2 million people watch this thing. Plus that was awesome. That was awesome. But yeah, we're going to roll this right in to summer camp. Uh, and especially now the draft and the dog campus is out and dusted. Um,
Man, I sure wish I was involved in a profession that allowed me to have puppy and Pilates time. That looked like a dream. But summer camp and then the season kicking off. Be excited about it. Stay with us throughout. We'll be here to talk about it with you all along the way. But until then, thanks for listening to this episode of WMA Nation. I'm Steve Schwartzman. I'm Logan Jones. And we got you next time.