Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Welcome to the WNBA Nation. WNBA Nation.
Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is an exciting time to be on the mic because we've got all kinds of things to talk about. And by we, I mean, of course, myself, Logan Jones, and my co-host, Steve Schwartzman. Welcome, Steve. What's going on? Howdy. It's good to be here. Good to talk. It was such a normal week of basketball and zero weird stuff. We survived that week of drama and then just had a totally normal, not weird week. Smooth sailing, since then, huh?
Yeah, no, there's been, I mean, there's more media drama, which is honestly better than media apathy, in my opinion. We'll get into that. Multiple streaks ended recently.
A preseason favorite is sinking. A couple teams are rising. We are going to get into all of it just right away. At this point, you guys know the plugs. We're on at WNBA Nation pod on Twitter X. And we have a website. It's WNBNation.com. So other plugs?
Yeah. Great. Do that stuff. Go do that stuff. Five-star reviews. We'll read them on the show. We really like those. Tell your friends about the show. We really like that as well. Let's dive in. There's another Caitlin Clark story this week. She did not make the Team USA Olympic roster. She's totally fine with it because she's the most normal person ever. Every time they ask Caitlin Clark about any sort of controversy, her response is like, something to work for.
I'm excited. They've played... She didn't say this part, but they've played 11 games in 20 days. So she's probably like, I would love to just have a practice with my team. Maybe even a day of rest for the first time since September. But obviously, the media took this as a slight and Stephen A. Smith called it stupid and Shannon Sharp said something. I don't know. I don't really care what Shannon Sharp said about it. But...
There's a lot of articles out today about her being snubbed from the Olympic team. I just want to get Steve's reaction from this whole story really quick. And then I'll save my two cents. And then we can quickly move on from the Caitlin Clark corner, which is what we're going to call the first two minutes of the show until a time when this does not require our attention. Steve, it's all yours. The main thing I want to call out, and I think like...
I don't think I'm being bold with this take. I really don't. Maybe someone in the ether will challenge me on this. I'm sure I'm not the only one who said that. The women's team USA, the women's basketball team is unequivocally the most difficult roster in all of sport to qualify for.
And I don't think I'm being outlandish claiming that. I don't think there is a harder roster in any sport on any side of the gender spectrum that is harder to be a part of. To qualify for that roster, you know, like it's hard for people to conceptualize what seven consecutive gold medals means going into an eighth gold medal. And so there's that side of it.
The reason I bring that up so heavily at the start is to say, if you want to cry snub, cry snub. Like, I'm not mad about people wanting certain players, whether it's Kalen Clark or Rike Gumbawale or anyone else, Neko Gumike, whatever. Like, call out who you want to call out. If you want to cry snub, cry snub. What I don't want to see happen is doing that...
At the detriment of trying to belittle anyone who actually did put in the work and make this roster. And that's what's frustrating me. Those are the takes that annoy me and anger me is like people. You kind of called this out a little bit.
People who think they know what they're talking about looking at this roster and going, how does Clea Copper? How does Jackie Young? How does Chelsea Gray make this roster? And Caitlin Clark does. Just admit you don't watch this league. Just admit it. Because you're calling out the literal top players in this league.
You're calling out perennial all-stars. You're calling out champions, a couple of finals MVPs. You're straight up just... And it really is... That's what's frustrating about it, is this conceptualization that there is only one player who so much as matters in the spectrum of things here. When what actually matters is who... Herb Brooks...
We want the right players on the court at the right time to win this thing, right? That's what we're doing here. That's what we're doing. At no point when we're sorting out anyone qualifying for the Olympics, is there any conversation about who's the most popular? In individual sports, they obviously don't even have the option. You've got to show up and run the fastest, swim the fastest, whatever. You've got to actually...
qualify in that way. Team sports have a little bit of subjectivity, but that's the side of it. I have a lot of other things that I've said off mic that I just feel like this would take up the entire episode, but that's the biggest thing people need to understand. This at no point is any of this at, at trying to, uh,
Make a case against any other player. This isn't saying someone's not good enough. This isn't saying... This isn't someone acting in jealousy or anything like that. I'm getting so sick of that word. I'm getting so damn sick of the freaking word jealousy. Scratching my beard angrily as I say this. Because it's like... It's so... It's just dripping in misogyny when people say it. But like...
That's not the take at all. The singular take on this is put the best roster on the floor. Cheryl Reeves is working with a committee to put the best roster on the floor and look at that roster and tell me they didn't do that. And it's like, it's, I could have made this a really simple one sentence take, which is simply like,
Who are you taking out to put one of these players in? Yeah, that's probably right. Who gets called out? I know Rebecca Lobo said that on TV. I'm glad she did. But that's the easiest route to getting to a reasonable take here, which is just like... Because then you can skip over the deserving, which... I...
Sure. I think you could swap out someone like Jackie Young for Caitlin Clark and be like, look, I think Caitlin Clark can play at that level. I think they're still a heavy favorite to win a gold medal if she's on the team instead of some of those other players. But when you actually do like a side-by-side comparison this season and seasons past, which obviously Clark can't benefit from because she's rookie this year. Jackie Young's been a good player for a long time. She's won a gold medal in the 3v3 and she's having the best year of her career in the WNBA this year. Yes.
You're not going to take out Kalia Copper. She's averaging 24 points a game. She's the new... I mean, I know Diana Trazzi and Brittany Griner haven't retired from the Phoenix locker room yet. Kalia Copper is the future of that team. And she's carrying the team on her shoulders several... She's going to... She has to be... You see what I mean? Yes. For name recognition alone, you can't just put Kaitlyn Clark in because she's had the media cycle...
behind her all this time. And this is coming off as though I'm like against her. Like, I think it would have been great if she would have made the team. I know it would have been the whole controversy the other way. I like Caitlin Clark. I'm rooting for her. I think she and many other players are incredibly deserving of a, of a nod towards an Olympic spot. But as you mentioned, this is a very hard roster to make. It's very hard to be in the WNBA, uh,
So making the cut to make a WNBA roster and then making a cut to be on the Team USA roster, it's very difficult. Here's the thing. And I know this isn't going to comfort anybody who's crying foul about her not making it this year. Kaylin Clark's going to have her time, right? Like this is... Dana Trousey is going to go get a sixth, which is insane. I don't... I hesitate saying this a little bit, but I don't think she's going to... I don't think she's going to be in the 2028 Olympics.
You never know. Because we were laughing about this a couple years ago. Now that you said it. But you're not taking anybody off this team. In fact, I kind of... The...
People who listen to the show don't have this problem. And so I don't want to just like beat on this straw man that we all agree is wrong. Like nobody's on the other side of this issue. Who's like really tuned into the WNBA. But I do just want to mention like there are six, seven, eight players on Team USA's roster that at various times in their careers, either in college or as rookies were like the chosen one. Yes. To usher in a new era of WNBA basketball. That's a good way to put it.
And that includes Greiner, Tarazi, Stewie, Sabrina, whether you like it or not, like Kelsey Plum. Like these are all players that people will know by name, whether they are, you know, like, oh, I would, I would only ever watch women's basketball for Caitlin Clark. It's like, that's what you said about a bunch of other players that are on that roster too.
Like, so, so don't act like you don't recognize, you know, I know you know who they are. Like, don't, don't pull that. So anyway, that's, it's interesting. That's really all I have on that. Perspective on it because I was pulling up basketball reference and just out of curiosity, I was just pulling in like stat leaders for the year so far. I noticed Caitlin Clark is 15th.
in scoring points per game right now. And everyone ahead of her is essentially this roster, like outside of a rigging Wally, Dwan, a Bonner, Derek, a Hamby. I mean, it's literally from, from just ahead of Clark down. It's to Rossi, Yonescu, Jackie young, uh,
Stewie's on there, Plum's on there, Jewel Lloyd's there, Collier's there, Copper's there, and then Asia's at one. And so it's like, it's basically the roster. Like it's, it speaks to that. But the one other take I did want to throw in there, and I'll make this really quick because we already talked about this, was obviously the thing about this and what I'm learning is,
is there's like a meta focus when it comes to this onslaught of mainstream media and how they're focusing on the league right now, which is to say when they hone on these issues, they, the issue isn't actually what they're talking about. It's, it's really the fact that one, they don't know how to properly respond and prepare for a rise in popularity when it comes to any side of sports. Yeah.
Look at how ESPN tried to cover the NHL when they took on a contract with them. And this is also indicative of – look at how they talked about soccer when there was more discussion there and they took on more contracts with soccer leagues and football leagues. This is part of that. The other side of it is that the media is generally – a lot of this is stemming from the fact that they're just –
Too scared to admit that they were wrong about this. This is why the Monica McNutt soundbites have been phenomenal and a hall of fame level is, is it wasn't her just saying, Stephen, a you're wrong or you don't understand. It's her saying, listen, you could have been having this conversation three years ago easily. Like that's it. And, and being dead on correct about that. And that's the kind of the point that hits on this is,
Is that point, you know, and this is all to say, if are you to say that if Caitlin Clark makes this, this us roster, all is like, it's a completely flipped conversation. Everyone's seemingly happy and we're actually giving love and warmth to this league. How we are. Absolutely not. There will always be something for these people to complain. I have a three-year-old and a six-year-old in my home. There will always be something to complain about. That's just how it goes. And the,
I guess it kind of rolls into my one thought is like, if Clark was very serious about the Olympics this year, which you and I've talked about, honestly, I think she'd be better off. Not if there's anything that Clark can use right now, it's, it's naps. Let's get her some naps, get her some breaks. Yes. And after the schedule she's had from last fall to now, let's get some breaks. But if she was serious about it,
And was in the mix and in the workout mix, things might have been different. But also, if she was serious about making a roster and getting proper playing time and all of those things people seem to want to complain about, why wasn't she trying to make a 3x3 roster? Because she played on US 3x3 rosters for years with Hayley Van Lith, with...
I believe with Paige Becker's, she would fit in perfectly with Van Lith. I'm willing to bet at least one text was exchanged. Like, you want to do this? I understand if you've got stuff going on. But like, the option must have been. Brian Howard. Sure. All due respect to Sarah Burdick, who's a great fit. That's a phenomenal roster that's about to be. And I'm not just saying that as like a fun out there discussion.
You're on an Olympic squad. You're immediately in the mix. If you guys want to make it up marketing and attention, you get tons of marketing and attention being one of four. If that's really what was what mattered to you or to the general public, whatever you want to say there.
Um, like you get all of that, you get all that set of accolade and historically we only have one Olympics to look back on. But when you look at the roster of the last three X, the three X three experience has done very, very well. Thank you. And it's done extremely well for the players who've done it.
Look at where Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young... The Kelsey Plum brand rose so much because of the three-on-three. Legitimately. She was on the Aces, and she was playing well on the Aces. The Aces were a big team at the time. But I think it elevated her status in a lot of people's eyes. Looking at where Plum, Jackie Young, and...
I know Steph Dolson was on that roster as well. And Alicia gray, looking at where those players were status wise in 2020, 2021 and where they've risen to now, I don't think it's a coincidence that three X three was right in the mix there. I think it really actually is a great way to refine and hone someone's game. And yeah,
I think it's when you look at players like Van Liff. Watch Van Liff at TCU this year after whatever she's going to be putting on the court. I'm actually excited. I think the three-on-three tournament will have another...
The event will have a similar effect this year. And people will realize... I think there's a lot of people out there that consider themselves not even really casual fans of women's basketball, but just generally sports fans. And they know who Kaitlyn Clark is. They might know who Asia Wilson is. But they're just like, I don't know. I don't have a team or whatever. They're going to be surprised when the three-on-three tournament is on. And they're like, oh, I remember Haley Van Lith.
Oh, I remember Cameron. Yeah, I actually do know more players than I realized and that they're going to watch this. We have this discussion all the time about like, like it's great. The Caitlin Clark frenzy in a way has been great because it does move the needle of viewership somewhat, but it's not the only thing that keeps people watching or like, like viewership is up around the league for non fever games. So,
So there's growing interest regardless because the teams are getting better coverage and the network has better deals and all that. It's been moving in this direction anyway. I remember you and I were psyched a couple years ago when PTI had a 10-second... In the final rundown of the show, they talked about South Carolina for a second. And we were like, Oh!
Like just a mention on ESPN. I mean, you remember when the draft a couple years ago was like... It was just like, oh, by the way, the Fever are going to have the number one pick. Anyway, bye. Thanks for watching SportsCenter. It was that fast. We've come a long way. The needle has moved quite a bit. The discussion now isn't even women's basketball is boring and nobody watches it. It's like, will people only watch it for Kaitlyn Clark? Which...
is just as asinine, but it is moving in the direction of like, you can't deny that people watch it anymore. And that's where we were just a couple of years ago. Like you have trolls on the internet that are always going to be wrong about everything always, but like,
It used to be a defensible opinion in their eyes, I guess, to be like, well, if it's so cool, why does nobody watch it? And now it's like, well, people do watch it. It's like, oh, it's only because this one player. It's slowly moving in the direction of you just can't refute anymore how much talent is in this league. The more aware of it you are, whether you hate it or love it, you're invested in it. Well, and obviously, when you add...
Page to the mix. When you add Juju Watkins to the mix, when you add those players to the mix who are also going to have substantial buzz, all of a sudden, like it can't just be a one player focus like you're claiming. I think a lot of us, and this is probably a perfect transition out of a discussion that you and I took much longer than we probably wanted to about this. I was expecting this to be like a couple of minutes at most, but yeah,
I think for me, and we hit on this a little bit last time, last episode is just whenever this conversation peaks, whenever it pops up, whenever it's in trending comments or anything like that, you just, it just makes you desperately wish you could just go back to talking about basketball. Like, and it's all, all you want to do is talk about basketball. It's just, why can't we just make this about the game within itself, which is why like,
For instance, I know people like – I know Mina Kimes and Pablo Torre have tried to talk about like, who's this Connecticut Sun team? They're suddenly so good. And like, I really – And in Mina and Pablo's defense, who is this Connecticut Sun team? There's a lot going on there. Yeah.
So what do we talk about? I guess, I guess this is my thing to say, like, I meant to take two minutes on this. We took 20. Why don't we finally talk about some basketball? Cause that's, yeah, there's a lot of good basketball to talk about. Yeah. In fact, while we've been talking, some games have gone final, uh, that we're on the, the Seattle storm one again, and they beat a sparks team. That's like clawing already. I mean, we're a quarter of the way through the season, but like, they're going to be battling on the edge of a playoff spot with teams like Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, uh,
I personally would like to see a Sparks team with, speaking of rookies who I think could see their stock rise a lot, a Cameron Brink, D'Erica Hamby, Sparks team would be very fun to have in the playoffs. D'Erica Hamby, by the way, one of the players who's getting no press at all for making the Olympic team. She's 30 and having the best year of her career.
So just shouting her out. They're using her more efficiently there. She's not shooting threes anymore, which is a good decision. Anyway, I love what she's doing there. The point is Steve Seattle take, which was very bold in our preseason predictions. I thought they're currently fourth in the league right now. I can't tell if the standings are updated yet or not, but they're basically going to be right there with Minnesota.
on the heels of the two best teams in the league. Meanwhile, the Aces are not in that tier. So I guess I'm all over the place here, but I guess we could start with the Aces and work our way up because usually we start at the top and work our way down. The Aces are the other game that's going on right now. And sorry for being clunky about announcing that, but they're barring...
in the next 39 seconds, they're going to lose by almost 20 to the red hot Minnesota Lynx. And they're going to drop to five and five. So the Minnesota Lynx are cruising. The Vegas Aces are losing at home. Their coach is getting tossed with double technicals. They're dealing with some injuries. Are things going to be okay in Vegas? Yeah. That's a very confident yes. I like that yes. Here's the problem.
Everything I'm about to say after this, in this part of the conversation, is really going to make it sound like I don't think they're going to be okay. Because really the only main take I have for why they're going to be okay is it's the aces. Like, it's just like, guys, guys. It's going to be okay. There's one... Oh, gosh, now I've got to find it. I'll come back to it in a second. I would say this, like...
Panic button, no. Is there a heavy amount of concern for the Ace's ability, like what we're seeing now? Yeah. I think there's going to need to be some course correction, and there's going to need to be some discussion. And, like...
We there's going to have to be a lot of admittance to just how human this team is. Do I think they'll figure it out? Yes. I'm not going to call anyone out if they see concerns for the team suddenly being five on five, especially when they have had, I don't want to call it the cushiest, but they played the least amount of games in the most amount of days than any other roster. And they're about to send a third of their roster to the Olympics and
Uh, so there's no rest there. One of those players, we're not even sure health wise where they're standing. I, I believe that matters a lot, by the way, to, to get to the mid season break and know that you've got to make up some games and have, I mean, you're, you're used to a Vegas roster. That's running a six woman rotation, three, four of them, four of them are going to the Olympics. Yeah.
Three of them? Four of them? Your starters are not going to be... Everybody else is going to have time to practice and rework things before the playoffs. That stretch between whatever, July and the playoffs. The Aces are going to be just expected to figure it out because of who they are. And I'm not sure that's...
I won't say it's unfair because they've put themselves in this position by being awesome and having a ton of good players, but geez. Yeah. I don't think they're indeed you're falling out of the playoffs by any means, but I think certainly their fans are going to be like, why are we playing on the road? Oh, that's right. Yeah. There's a lot of the mix that's really, I just don't think after the first 10 games, the first quarter of the season for the Aces, this is what anyone could have possibly expected. Now,
This was the point that I wanted to make because I had this thought individually and someone called it out. And I was going to call out one tweet, but there's actually a bunch of tweets that make this claim. I'll read the first one I saw from Raheem Palmer because I do like the take here. And it's just a very us take, but I like this. It says, Mark Davis rebranded the Las Vegas Aces to look like the Las Vegas Raiders, and now they're playing like the Raiders. Shh.
Rough. As big of fans of We Are of the Mighty Ducks movies, is there anything that potentially is more storybook than coming out of the Olympic break, busting out the red and the gold, doing the full we're back to business and making a run back to form? And I'm not saying they're planning on that. They should. But that's certainly where they're at in the story. They should.
They're not quite at the point where it's like the team is bottoming out and they look talentless and they got to change their shoes at halftime. They're not at that point, but...
You don't want to wait until you get to that point and then be like, we got to scrap our way back into like a halfway decent playoff spot. But I will say. Or you're going to find yourself facing the New York Liberty in the first round of the playoffs. Yeah. And you're going to be like, how did we get here? You don't want that. I just, I mean, this is probably just me being able to capitalize on the fact that I do not, I haven't liked that rebrand at all. I still don't like it and it doesn't make any sense. And it feels like the fan base doesn't get it either.
And so there's that, but there's a struggle there and it's tough because like I Asia is far and above the best player in the league right now. She's playing better than anyone else. Like statistically and I test wise, she's playing at a level above everyone else. And I feel like if you looked at stat sheets, if you looked at the production that the aces have been putting out,
I don't know that there's one specific set of numbers that you could go, oh gosh, but what about that? Because Kelsey Plum's in top seven in scoring. Jackie Young's in the top 10 in scoring. Like they're putting up good and confounding numbers. The only thing that I can stand on outside of Chelsea Gray being hurt and being out and like the contingencies with that is depth. I think that's the only thing I can think of is right now.
They're not digging as deep into their coffers. Like the, the depth that they're used to isn't quite there, which is hard to say when they've turned Kate Martin from a draft spectator to a bona fide star in record time. But yeah, that's like the main thing I get. That's the hard part about this situation is there's nothing you can put right on it to go like, that's it. You can claim Chelsea gray being out, but yeah,
Going from a team that was gangbusters to five and five, it's just a curious case. They also, they didn't get to the championship series without her, but they did complete the run without Gray. So I know they can be...
top caliber team but it it does matter it does i don't want to act like it doesn't matter but i know they've they've played at a higher level than this with gray out of the lineup um i know like young was battling some illness asia's still been awesome she's putting together an mvp case regardless like we kind of figured that she would but it's a it's a little deal it's a it's not no deal
If we're playing by those rules, like this is not nothing. This is an Aces team that if the next time we record, they've ripped off two straight weeks of wins and it's just like, all right, they put those concerns to bed, everybody's healthy, then it's nothing. But the direction they're moving in right now is not great. Although I would submit that even a bigger deal than them losing by 14 tonight at home is the Minnesota Lynx whipping them tonight in Vegas by 14. Hot damn.
The Minnesota Lynx are on a tear. They scored 100 for the first time in regulation this season against the Aces, which is just something that you don't expect to have happen. And I would like to do a little recap really quickly here for the WNB listeners or the WNH listeners of just how Minnesota's season has gone. So they... Am I looking at the right team? Yes, I am.
They start off the season, two of their first three games went to overtime. Yep. And we weren't sure how to feel about that. But they got two wins against Seattle and then they lost in overtime by one at Connecticut.
That's what college football calls an acceptable loss. They won a couple more games. They lost to Vegas. We were like, okay, Minnesota is good, but they're not upper crest. That's fine. Then they beat everybody else. And then they lost by one to Kalia Copper's buzzer beater in that Phoenix game in Phoenix, which was just insane. X Factor. Shout out. Yes. And then they beat Seattle by 20 and they beat Vegas by 14.
So they've got losses on their record. None of them you can point to and say, that doesn't make sense. That's an ugly loss. My usual criticism of this Lynx team is second half defense sometimes gets disorganized, uninterested, doesn't show up. Cheryl Reed has to go light a fire under them to get them back on task. That hasn't happened yet this year. They're a buzzer beater and an overtime game away from being 11-1. Yeah.
And they're cruising. I believe this. We haven't talked directly about Connecticut or New York yet, although I have the updated standings. Connecticut and New York are the one and two right now. I think Minnesota is the team that I least want to play.
At my place or at their place in the WNBA right now. Just on vibes. Yeah. I don't want to deal with trying to score on a Collier anchor defense. I don't want to face Kayla McBuckets when she's red hot and feeling like, you know what? No one's had my name front and center in a little while and I'm tired of it. I don't want to face Cheryl Reeve in a series. I don't want to play them. I know New York's got a lot to play for. Connecticut's got a lot of experience. They've got a lot to play for.
I think Minnesota is playing the best basketball of any team right now. Yep. They even messed around and let Alyssa Peely drop a 20 point game. I mean, it was just this roster is so intriguing.
Do we need a rookie sophomore game at the All-Star break? Oh, hell yes. You know what? It's time for that. If they were ever going to inject that just out of nowhere, it's like, we're doing it. I've never been into that, but I think it's time. I think we can do it. You can even make it like a three-on-three game.
Sure. Style showcase. But yeah. Sure. Because like take this rookie class against, let's say next year's rookie class, or even this, the elite Boston rookie class against the Caitlin Clark rookie class. But then you take the Caitlin Clark rookie class against the upcoming page Becker's rookie class. And then the page rookie class against the juju work. Yeah. They got to do that. I got goosebumps saying that.
Yeah, we might have to make some calls. That might be it. Because I think that needs to happen. I'll tell you this. Maybe this is a mean take. I don't know. I would rather watch that than any skills challenge. And I mean that from any level of basketball. The skills challenge is all but dead. It's not interesting anymore. Especially because they made the passing accuracy ring one I could throw through. And it's just not at all interesting anymore. I would... Yeah. A Shining Star's... Yeah. Yeah.
I'm into that. Let's file that one away. That might be worth it. I'm into that. We'll wrap up the links thing here. You had a good stat in pre-record that I thought was fun. First of all, I just want to make a point. Throw that one out there. I just want to call it the point that when you started talking about the links, it's the narrative that
no one in all the mix of all the narratives and all the stories to talk about in this league, no one has been talking about Minnesota and they're pissed about it. And that's, what's really made this team fun. It's not just like when you watch the physicality and the confidence that they have, but I think this stat does speak most for it. Um,
The current leader, and this is with this most recent game, not in the can, so may have served. But as I'm speaking on this on the 11th of June, the current leader, albeit tied with Asia Wilson, but the current leader in offensive win shares in the league is Kayla McBride. The current leader in defensive win shares is the FISA Collier.
And I feel like that tells a lot of this story. By the way, that's a stat that is often cited as part of someone's MVP case or defensive player of the year case. This matters. If you've watched the last couple seasons of Minnesota basketball and felt like they haven't quite been there, something hasn't been clicking, the two narratives you would hear was, well, Collier's not quite back yet.
to being fee yet. She's not quite at that level. She's coming back from pregnancy. She's kind of getting into form, but she'll get there. And people up to last season could say like Kayla McBride hasn't quite been at her level as a shooter, as she's been in years past, but that look at the, we are watching both of them in like super sand mode. Like they are converting like the clip that Kayla McBride is shooting at is
is discuss. I think she's shooting 51% from deep this season so far. Like it's, she has been so insanely effective in key moments. It's been huge. Um,
And Collier's just been at an MVP level. I think there's no other thing. Like, I think when you talk about who is in the MVP discussion, we've talked about this last week. I think Asia is clearly a front runner. If you're just watching the game, maybe how the aces are playing right now might gear you away from that. I don't think you're going to have the discussion, not talk about Alyssa Thomas, but Collier is the third name in that discussion far and away.
And you were, you were not wrong by the way, that Kayla McBride stat is correct. She's shooting almost 52% from three. I don't believe that includes tonight's stats where she was, I think the team leader in points. She is very nearly 50% from the floor on the season, man. I, I,
she's cooking a good a good wnba is a wnba where mcbuckets is on like when she's she's on it's there's a few things the the sample size is right on the edge of being exciting enough to bring this up so i'm going to bring this up she's currently on pace for a 50 40 90 season hell yeah by a lot like by what with like some room for error
Which is very cool. And Collier, I feel like all last season we spent, any time we spent on Minnesota, it was like if Collier gets things figured out, she's just one of the best this game has to offer. Boy, they're good.
They just really... And they can win with defense or they can win with McBride going for 30 and when you can do both of those things. That's the thing that other teams maybe further down in the standings don't have. You have a Dallas team where when everything's working offensively, they can beat you. And if not, they're probably not going to beat you with defense. I'll put it this way. That's just kind of how they're built. As someone who doesn't have a sole roster, a sole franchise that is like my team...
Cause that's sort of been the narrative of our show is, is I don't think we've like, you know, we have teams we lean toward, but it's not really been that one thing about how the broadcasting has been scheduled this year has been really tough because there's been a lot of nights where several games are played at the same time.
And it's gotten to the point where if Minnesota is one of the teams in that mix, that's the game I'm watching. Every time I look like the next few days at the schedule and I see who Minnesota is playing, I always kind of have a little like, like the last couple of nights they've played Phoenix, they played Vegas, they played Seattle. And it just feels like,
Anytime they're in a mix up and a matchup, it's like, that's going to be a fun one. And it's just because it's other teams that have interesting stuff in the mix, but you just know the links are going to bring something like skunky to the table. Like it's going to work. And I've just had, it's been a lot of fun watching what they've put together. It sours my Seattle take only slightly. Yeah.
And so is Connecticut a little bit. I may have put Seattle a little above. I mean, you've given me love for that, and I appreciate that. But I think it's just because no one, somehow no one saw this coming. I don't know why we're in a world where we're doubting Cheryl Reeve.
At any point. And people are definitely doing so with this Olympic crap. So I just like, yeah. One of the few people you just don't want to piss. I don't know why people were wanting to piss her off so much, but. Okay. I do. I promised at the start of the show that we would get to two big streaks ending. I know people are listening for their team to come up and I promise we will get to that in the, in the next bit, but you brought up Seattle and I did just want to touch on them again. I kind of mentioned them to start the segment. And then I, I went back and looked at their schedule as well.
They're a very interesting team. They might be a team that if you own stock in, you would be sell, sell, sell right now because they're at maybe the peak of what they're going to look like. But I don't necessarily know if they're going to come crashing back down to earth either. I'm going to read this to you. Let me know what you think about this. Seattle's got four losses on the season. Three of them are to Minnesota.
So the team we just spent 10 minutes praising. The other one was on the road at New York. Currently the number two team in the league. They've won all their other games. One of those losses was in double overtime. Three of those four losses were on the road.
So Seattle has a nine game homestand from June 23rd, basically up to the Olympic break in which they play Indiana, Dallas twice, Chicago twice, Minnesota again, Atlanta twice.
They're going to win a bunch of those games. I'm just going to spoil that for you now. That's actually not fair. That's a Seattle team that you might be waiting for them to turn into a pumpkin until August. Because it kind of feels like they're going to be in the playoff mix the whole season. It's so interesting. I don't see them tailing off, especially with their gelling better. Jewel Lloyd is still a superstar.
I think they're in the, they've thrown their hat in the ring now. It's like, you got to deal with us, which I didn't expect. The last episode we recorded, I was like, look, they've played a soft schedule. I don't know if this is for real. And then they went out and beat Phoenix twice and they, or they beat Phoenix and LA and then they beat Vegas. And now here we are.
And they've just been on the road the whole time. They haven't played Connecticut yet, but they got a bunch of games left against teams that are currently like bottom three in the league. This is so nuts because it feels like we have, I don't want to speak too soon, but like we have like five teams that could potentially be lobbying for like the top two to three spots.
Like we're going to have a weird top heaviness at the top of these standings. Now. Yeah. Could teams like New York and Connecticut pulled away by the end of the year? Obviously like that could easily happen, but like those three and four spots are not guaranteed. I'd say the two through, like, it's going to be interesting to see like who carries the most steam toward the end of the year between Minnesota and Seattle. But we just talked about like Vegas at the top of the table. Isn't guaranteed. Like,
I expect Phoenix to get hot at a certain point. Atlanta and Chicago are in that weird place where I could see it going either way. Atlanta just dropped a game to a bad team. Chicago is dealing with some stuff. They have made this really interesting. I'll put it this way. When I'm listing these top five teams, you've got Connecticut, New York, Minnesota, Seattle, and Vegas.
And you rank them based on teams you'd least like to face in a five-game series? Minnesota and Seattle might be higher on that list than a lot of people would expect for me. I would right now put Vegas after – I think I'd still put them above Seattle, even with how they're playing. And I can respect that. But I wouldn't put them above Connecticut, New York, Minnesota. Yeah.
I think most people like power rankings on ESPN and all that, they all kind of agree. And that, that isn't panic alarm time for Vegas, because I think everybody assumes like you got a long season or long enough season. I won't say a long season, but you got a long enough season. And it's hard. Cause like if, if, if we were considering the season production so far, if it was Seattle and Minnesota, they did just get swept. But like,
But that's where this is really interesting, is you have a lot of teams that are going to be scary. And Seattle has shown that. And the hard part with Seattle, too, is...
Jewel Lloyd's put out really impressive numbers, but there hasn't been need for a Jewel Lloyd show. Nick is playing at as, as quality of a level as she's played in several years. Skydake is finding her fitting there. As he Magbogor is playing at an all-star level, especially defensively. If you were to ask me, she's rebounding as good as anyone in this league. I love what Jordan Horson's doing in a, as a contributor, uh,
There's so much going on with this roster and so much movement and so much swagger. They probably don't get enough credit as a defensively sound team either because they are pretty close to being on par with the Lynx and the Liberty in terms of points per game allowed. Yeah.
Like they, they don't give up a lot, which is surprising. You'd think that they'd be in shootouts every night. Like, yes, we'll try to beat you 195. That's just the type of roster we've got. I'm, I'm impressed. They're, they're number four in both points per game and opposing points per game. So it's just right, right under the radar. Just right below what you might consider like an elite team in either respect, but they're, they're interesting.
It's crazy, too, because we could be talking about Atlanta in a similar breath, not the same breath, in a similar breath. But then you lose to an 0-12 team and all of a sudden things feel different. Let's talk about it. Yeah. Let's talk about it. All right. So the first streak that ended, I guess it wasn't sequentially the first streak that ended, but we're going to talk about it first because the segue. Brittany Sykes returned to the Mystics roster after being out since mid-May and the Mystics got a win and it happened to be over the Atlanta Dream.
First, I like the Mystics. We hear from their people every so often. We know they listen to the show. And I'm glad that they got out of there. They were on pace for... I think if they lost one or two more games, it's going to be a franchise record losing streak. And you just don't ever want to see that. So I'm glad that they got out of that hole. And maybe that changes some things around for a team that just desperately needed something to go right. At the same time, I was really high on Atlanta at the beginning of the season.
And they have a lot of talent on their roster. Every WNBA roster does. They've lost three of their last four. They've also played tough teams in their last... I don't know. I don't know. They've got a win over Vegas. They've got losses to Connecticut and New York. Who doesn't? But that... I mean, they lost 87-68 against a Mystics team that I guess they just overlooked. Thought they might be able to cruise through. I don't know. They shot terribly.
They turned the ball over. They didn't rebound. It was close at half. And then they just came out of the half flat and never really... I mean, they never threatened in the second half to really take control of the game. So, I don't know. You shouldn't base your opinion on one team off of the outcome of one game, especially in the first quarter of the season. I'm concerned that Atlanta...
I mean, I think Vegas is going to turn things around. I think the Sparks in Chicago have designs of being better teams than they are right now. Atlanta needs to be careful not to fall out of a playoff spot after being a team that I thought took a big step forward last year. Yeah. It's probably an overreaction because the Mystics are really bad and nobody's going to go winless all season long. So it's probably whatever. Maybe it's a wake-up call. But they just...
They did not. They're not a three-point shooting team, so they're not built to come back or put up big numbers. I thought they would be a better rebounding team. They haven't been this year. Let me double check the stats on that to make sure that wasn't just recent history, but...
It it's confusing. And I don't know if you've got answers for Atlanta or if you've just always been down on them. And you're like, this is kind of what I thought would happen. Remind me. I don't remember where you had them in the preseason rankings, but I don't think it was great. The Mr. Maybe I don't remember the sorry, the dream, the dream. I think I had them just out of the playoff mix. So about where they're at now. Yeah, possibly. But it's also like.
They're definitely a team that I'm most interested in seeing how they transition after the Olympic break. Because I could see them mixing things up pretty well and making this work for them after that point. But it's really hard to tell. Like, you know, it's extremely hard to figure out how all that will lay out. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Their bottom, bottom three and assists per game. Their bottom three, or they're actually the worst in the league at assists per game. Their bottom three and rebounds per game. There's, it's not coming together. It's not gelling. That's you look at assists to see how well the offense is moving the ball and getting easy open baskets. You look at rebounds to just see like effort level and both.
Both of those things just seem to be lacking. So that's a little bit concerning. On the other end of the spectrum, I don't know how much you can look at the Mystics or their recent win as being prescriptive other than it's such a relief to have Brittany Sykes back in the roster because she's one of my favorite players to pay attention to in this league. And I won't be shy about it. I'm glad that it felt like she did have an impact on that game. But this is a lost season for the Mystics. I don't know if this changes that.
No, it's definitely refreshing. You know, 18 and four in her first game back, she looked really solid in a lot of, you know, several different metrics that I really like. If there's one player who I'm in, for some reason, happiest for, and it's a player we have not discussed yet on the show that I can recall. That's Julie Van Loo. Okay. Who has been,
Maybe it's just the charm of the 31-year-old rookie. But in what has been a really frustrating stretch for the Mystics where they've been playing down, Van Loo has played at such a hard and high and inspiring level and is a really hard player to stop off the bench. She feels like one of those players that could actually be
a shot in the arm for this roster. And that may not pay off this year. Probably will not pay off this year, but she's the type of player that I feel like you could get, like you could make some comparisons to players who she currently feels similar with, but like, and obviously name wise and homeland wise, you could talk about like the Courtney Vander Sluits and stuff like this. She's almost though, like a smaller Eva Miesemann to me.
Like I, she's able to get to make quality plays. She distributes the ball. Well, she makes very difficult shots. I have just really, really, really enjoyed watching her play.
And if for no other reason, I'm glad that the Mystics got to win. It's just so I got a chance to mention Van Loo on the show. She's been a lot of fun. No, I think she's a great player to call out as like a – in my mind, she's like a utility infielder that like she's not going out and mashing home runs and has a hot bat. But it's someone that's just like, dude, if you watch them play, it's like it's cool that like –
Like there's something worth watching on this team besides like Ariel Atkins is the machine that makes this team go. We know that like we were excited about what this team can maybe do in the future, but we kind of know that like they have to kind of deal with this weird transition year of like, like Deladon era. Pretty much the book is closed on that as far as we know, like they're going to have to do some rebuilding. That's fine. There's still some, some stuff to be invested in here. And it is, it is fun to have a 31 year old right out there. I'm happy for that. Yeah.
I'm definitely happy for... 8-4 or 9-6. Yeah. I'm happy for Ali Edwards, especially, on top of that. You know, just... You've seen flashes of greatness from there, and you hope that that kicks off. What I'd like to see from the Mystics from this point on, now that they've got this monkey out their back, is just... I'd like to see them work through their depth a little bit and give them opportunities. Jed Melvin does not need seven minutes a game. Like, you need to be giving her...
significantly more time on the court. I'd say Emily Inksler is similar. There's certain players where you go, why is DeeDee Richards only playing a handful of minutes a night? DeeDee Richards is my... She's getting seven minutes a game right now. She could be a real... Give her some reps. Make her a defensive player. Start playing around with this roster. I have a sinking feeling that the turnaround for the Mystics won't be terribly long. Maybe it will come in the form of
Finally acquiring a post Della Dawn star and someone that they can build around. But what makes those types of teams actually happen is, is taking advantage of these down periods where certain players get those, that exposure and opportunity they wouldn't normally be able to afford. And you may find, uh,
Those diamonds in the rough that turn into Natasha Howard doesn't happen the way Natasha Howard did. If Seattle didn't have some of the down times that they did, you could argue copper was in that discussion. Being able to move from coming off the bench to getting quality time in a starting lineup and becoming a bona fide star.
And I'm not calling out some of these players coming off the bench for the Mystics as, oh, they're potential stars. They could be. I just think you do a good service to the long-term health of this roster and to Eric Timo's potential job if you're trying to strengthen some of those fibers now so that if you're able to bring a core in that can get wins for this team,
You suddenly added depth to it. And I think that that's capable record wise. You can call this here a wash. There's a lot they can get out of it. I think they're in a very different type of position in terms of a down year than like the fever are because with the fever, it feels like you have what you have and you just need to get all that stuff to oil together and work with the mystics. It's kind of, you have a chance to fortify something that,
that when you add to it is going to be exciting. So I guess this is, yeah, good state of the mystics, but I'm happy for them. They got the win. They played well. It was a comfortable win. And I think that's one thing that you can look forward to is they got a very comfortable result. Right. It didn't, it didn't require an act of God to be like, all right, we avoided. Oh, and 13 is like, no, we pull ourselves together. And,
figured it out, which they almost did in their previous game, which we will talk about. We've
I'm glad we covered the teams that we've covered, but we have made two fan bases wait plenty long enough. This is probably the last segment of the episode. The other streak that ended was obviously Connecticut's unbeaten streak. Yes. They did. They did finally drop a game. And it was not, I wouldn't say it's predictable. I think you could have either, you could have gone at, you could have gone either way on this, but they lost a big game. They didn't pass the Liberty test. They were at home against the New York Liberty. We know the Liberty is a good team.
outscored. They got outscored 25 to 15, the fourth quarter ended up losing by seven. So,
New York got off to a hot start and a very good finish in this game. That was kind of the shape of the game, if you will. Sabrina played really well. I think this is the first time we've really seen... I don't know if you've been paying attention this year to this story in particular. Connecticut's not a good three-point shooting team at all. No. And they've been winning all these games. They were 9-0 and it was looking like...
Who cares? Like sometimes the aces don't shoot any threes and they still won back to back championships. This is the first game to me that it showed up where they really could have used one in that fourth quarter and ended up shooting 25% from beyond the arc for the game. And, and for the season, let me look at their season numbers, 30% from three on the season. That's not a good number. They were 36, 35 and a half, 36, the last three seasons before that. So something happened there.
That's too big of a dip. They can't all be going through a cold streak at the same time. They're getting guarded out on the arc. They're not doing something on the interior that's opening people up outside. They got to figure that out because this is the sort of team that they will have to get through in a series to finally get the ring. And I will be unashamed in this stance. I love Minnesota. I love Seattle. I love Vegas. I love so many different teams that we've talked about today.
no team do I want to see do it more than, than Connecticut. I, I would love to see them do it this year, especially if Vegas is going to go through a little bit of like a, Ooh, we thought we were going to go for three straight, but things are a little iffy and New York could easily be there, but they also, I don't know. New York could easily be there. They're a really good team. And they just, they, they did, they won this game. They were the better team. I think three out of the four quarters in this game. Um,
But I want to see Connecticut do it with this group because I think so many players on this team have won individual awards that would easily just give up all of those to be players with a ring by the time they retire. And that day is coming. Not a lot of these players are going to be around for the next Olympic cycle. That's just who this Connecticut team is. So I know...
I think Stephanie White's done a great job since being there. They're still cruising. They're 10-1. There's no reason to be worried. But the way that you said, I'm not worried about Vegas because it's Vegas. It's just their DNA. A little bit, I'm worried about Connecticut because there are some red flags deep in there that make me feel like...
Can you figure those things out now offensively to get more and better open shots with your array? You've got between, between Thomas and Bonner and all those players they've gotten that locker, you should be getting a better, like you should be getting a better hit rate from distance than that. And I think that can change games like this around in a hurry. It was just, it was hard to watch their scoring just kind of maintain the same pace as they fell further and further behind in the fourth. Like they got very close towards the end of the game, but it,
I mean, New York's a good team. You can't take that away from them. And I, I don't know. That's, that's all I have to say about Connecticut is just like, I'm not, I'm not fading them in the power rankings. I'm glad that we were kind of both in on them this year. And at the same time, it's, it seems like that could be a problem in, in modern basketball to not have anything going on from beyond the arc. Can I ask this? Yeah. This doesn't come at the head of a 11 game, one streak. Um,
10 game win streak. It's just a good game. Two good teams. Let's say they...
snuck by the links in overtime, right? We've talked about that game. Right. If that goes the other way and they get their second loss of the year against the Liberty, but they have eight, nine quality wins outside of that, does it feel different? Does the streak to start the year inflate how that loss feels? Because they turned around. Maybe not. And I know this isn't impressive to some people in match wise. They turned right around
And, you know, it was cherry pie against the fever, like, and had a very simple win. So like, it's, it's interesting because it'll be, I'll be interested to see where their stock goes from this point, because we just talked forever in a day about Seattle and Minnesota and where their rise is. And it's hard for me to say, like, I keep having this thought in my head of like, put them in a five game series, right?
And even while Connecticut was playing gangbusters and winning all these games in a row, I wasn't quite bought in on how do I feel about this team in a five game series against certain teams and against Seattle and especially against the links, you start to feel like, I don't know, man, like it just, it's not quite there. I don't know if it's shooting. I, I,
I mean, just because like defensively, they did what they wanted to do against Stewie. Stewie played basically the whole game and she had a pretty low, like below average Stewie game. Honestly, five for 11, two free throws. She scored 13 points. And you're like, all right, we'll take that. Like if you're Connecticut, you'll be like, great. We held Stewie to 13 points. John Quill Jones had a good night. Sabrina had a really good night.
She was getting the foul line and getting open shots. She was the game high leader with 24. All you needed if you were the sun was one player to go out and have a special night shooting. Usually, Connecticut throws their five stars out there. They all get 12 to 16 points and you're like, great. And they actually had that. It was Tiffany Mitchell, but she went and she was five for six, but she only played 14 minutes because she's just their spark off the bench player. So you needed, I don't know,
Bonner was 4 of 14. That's less than you'd hope to get from her, but she was at the foul line too and she was making it count from there. Harris was trying to do... I mean, she was a big reason that the three-point number wasn't great because they didn't take a ton, but she was 1 for 6 from beyond the arc. She didn't have a great night. Carrington played fine. Jones played fine. Thomas did her thing. Thomas only had 10 points, but she also...
She had, what, like 12 rebounds and 7 assists. Like, she was stuffing the stat sheet in other ways. So, like, I don't have a problem with that. It just feels like the one thing they were missing was, like, can we get someone to catch a little... Like, it doesn't have to be red hot flames coming out of your hand fire. But, like, someone to be enough of a threat that they can take over this game late. And it's like, Sabrina could do that for New York. The hard part is they need a couple of those weapons, right? Because...
Most nights, the answer is Bonner. Right. Bonner's on the talent to do that. When Bonner is on, there's no question that they're untouchable. And when she has a four for 14 night, it's kind of indicative to how well the offense in general is gelling.
Like it's, if she's not doing well, it kind of feeds out to the rest of that offense and they tend to not, you know, generally not shoot well, but she obviously she struggled to make pivotal turning point shots that she often could in that game. And that's where it gets tough. And so I don't know, that's the hard part of the W as a whole is you're limited at the ability of like mid season type moves. You can make, um,
to add pieces to a roster, though that is possible. We've seen it. It's really kind of figuring out for me, also part of its volume. They're not putting up as many threes as they probably could. And we might see a more competitive bit if you increase volume, maybe not across the roster, but I'd say as you look at it, I mean, I'm just spitballing as I'm looking at these stats, but I give, I,
Ty Harris and Tiffany Mitchell, a handful more attempts a night. Yeah. Possibly even Bantam, even though she's not shooting well. But like there's a few players where I go, let's I think if you increase the volume, it helps there. But the hard part is that's the son of always kind of been a mid-range under the basket team.
And I love that about them so much. It makes them so fun to watch. But is the ability for a lot of these top teams having a handful of lethal weapons now officially a point where it's going to hurt them? And that's where it's, you know...
Like it or not, if you're in that weird internet contingency that just doesn't enjoy Sabrina Ionescu, you're going to have a really rough time this season. Yeah. I hate to say it, but if that's your pick for the... I would take her off the team and I would put Kaitlyn Clark on Team USA. You got to look up the stats. It's not... But if you go across those teams, if we want to talk about this top five grouping, if there's one thing that...
I'd say New York, Minnesota, Seattle, Vegas all have that you can't put on Connecticut right now. It's a sniper. It's one to three players who you can count on to splash and kill.
add cushion. And that's, yeah, I agree with you. This is a long way to say, I get, I get where you're coming from. Yeah. And the, the sun roster, you got to understand, like you've got Jones and Thomas and Bonner and your starting lineup. And then you've got Nelson, a Dota and some kind of deep, I think that's pretty much the only like other big that they have coming off the bench. The rest of the bench is guards. So Tiffany Mitchell might like, maybe she needs more than 14 minutes a game. If she's going to go out and be that where she can hit shots from kind of anywhere, um,
I mean, she had the best plus minus of anybody in this game. And if you're going to have a bench full of like five different guards, one of them needs to be able to come in and be like, look, I can...
Maybe I'm a defensive liability or maybe I've got this weakness, but there's one thing I can do and it's we can get a bunch of points really quick and force the other starters back into the game and then maybe reset the deck a little bit. You got to have that player because like Thomas is famously Thomas is never beyond the arc. So she's not taking three. She I think she's taking like one three in her career. She's not. It's not her. But.
Like she, she could win the MVP this year. Still not her. Um, Bonner can be that player some nights, but I don't think she's going to be that player every night. And you want her mix. You don't want her just like clinging to the wing the entire game either. Yes. Like, and then, and then you've got someone like Ty Harris who like, she's just getting used to,
I guess she's not as much of a young player anymore. I'm so used to her being like rookie tires, but she's, she's jumped from like 15 minutes a game to 30 minutes a game this season. Yeah. And so like, I don't know, she's shooting pretty well from the floor, but like, I don't know how much more you can ask of her since she's already acclimated fairly well to, you know, twice as much responsibility as she's used to. I don't know. This is a lot of talk about like, that sounds doom and gloom about just about a sun team. It's,
Playing really well. Yeah, they're doing just fine. But I feel like we've been conditioned to kind of look for the cracks in Connecticut where we maybe don't do that for other teams because we give them the benefit of the doubt. Equally to this, I would say one thing that in all of the hubbub about this season, whether it's the fever, Howard the Ace is doing, the Seattle and Minnesota coming up out of the blue and...
Firing, you know, and commanding attention. This win streak that Connecticut have a storyline that's maintained that just seems to not be on people's radar is the Liberty Liberty lost two games partway into this early stretch of the season. And then people were just ready to write them off.
Like, oh, maybe they're just not going to be what they were. The narrative of last year was... I think because one of them was against... Yeah. Yeah. One of them was against Minnesota and we didn't know if they were great yet. So we're like, oh, it's the Chicago and Minnesota. And one was against a Chicago team who played their best team, their best game of the season. Yeah. And this... It's just been interesting looking at this spectrum with New York because in all of this, we've...
I think people not, not that writing off was too harsh of words, but it's that idea of like,
Last year, they were one of the focal points of the entire year. Vegas and New York were the focal points of the season. And this year, things got weird. And suddenly, they're standing there going, does anyone know what we're doing over here? Because I think pound for pound, the Liberty are the best team in the league right now, I would say. Coming out of that Connecticut game, that's how it feels to me. They've clinched their spot in the Commissioner's Cup game.
They got that, you know, and name a bigger accolade. Man, we crap on the Commissioner's Cup maybe too much, but... But like, when you look at... To your point about New York, they have won seven in a row. They're going... I think the rest of their June schedule, they could easily put together...
I mean, Vegas isn't playing well right now. They just lost a big at home to Minnesota and then they go to Phoenix and then they got back to back games against LA and then Atlanta. That's the rest of their June. So like until they play Minnesota at home on July 2nd, I mean, they might put together another 10 game wins. That's a lot of games in a row that you're going to favor them in every game. Again, good teams don't win every single game. Vegas didn't go undefeated last year. It kind of felt like they did, but they didn't.
They'll drop one of those and it won't be that weird and we won't panic, but they could easily just keep checking every box for the rest of the month. And at some point, we're going to have to be like, hey, I know they didn't finish the job last year, but this is a team that went to the finals last year and felt confident that they could go toe-to-toe with aces.
Like a defending championship. Like they're still... Their window couldn't be more open. This is the widest, openest window for a championship you're ever going to get as a sports fan is being a Liberty fan this year and being like, we know we can get there. The schedule is wide open. We got an Olympic break coming up at the end of whatever, July, middle July. Like let's win basically every game from now until then and just let everybody know. Well, yeah. I mean...
It looks like Sabrina. It feels, it feels like she hasn't lost a single step from last year. It's scary to say, cause I know a lot of people do not like hearing that she's, she's playing. Starting to heat up. John Quell, I think looks better than she did last year altogether is just really finding your spot. Vander Sloot's weirdly the odd name out there, but is doing everything Courtney Vander Sloot should be doing for this roster. I'm interested in their depth and how they build things out. I mean, like,
Kayla Thornton's getting really quality minutes coming off the bench. Like, Feebich, Sobley are playing well, which I'm really happy for Naira Sobley. I'm happy to see that she's getting some... Doesn't matter home or away. Doesn't matter level of opponent. Here's what you're going to get from John Quote Jones every night. It's 29-8, 22-8, 10-8, 18-13. Like, you could just write that into the notes before the game and just be like, I'm...
Those are just four of her last five games. She's going to be every night here getting that. The two games that she did not play well were the two games that they lost this season. And she played the fewest minutes, scored the fewest points, got the fewest rebounds.
Ever since she's been full go, they've been fine. If two players on the precipice of averaging double-double, Stewie's one, John calls the other. And it's very indicative. I think the pieces they're putting together there...
make a lot of sense. Now, what is interesting to me is they didn't win the tip Hayes sweepstakes. That's right. I think as things get closer to the playoffs, that tip Hayes acquisition is, is going to speak more volumes than we realize, but it's going to matter. Yeah. We just talked a ton about how Vegas is depth might be the only thing that can,
help them kind of get on track. And last year that depth was non-existent this year. It's like, Oh, you got someone who's the league. They've done it everywhere. You know, I hope I come off that competent if I retire in whatever field I'm in and then decide I'm just going to come back to it. She didn't look like she's missed one second. But no, like right now I think pound for pound New York's the best team in the league. And it's tough in these, these 20 in these Olympic years, it's tough because you take a month long break.
And then it's out of nowhere. I remember talking about this W history on the Candice Parker rookie season and how I firmly stand on my feeling that the Sparks probably win the title that year if it's not an Olympic year because they were starting to hit their stride, that mix of –
the mix of Candice and Lisa Leslie, like they had something really working there. You're not putting them on an Olympic roster to go across the world to Beijing. And, you know,
You're not doing all of that. Yeah, it's not just like travel. Think about any three-day weekend. We just had Memorial Day weekend where you got to go back to work Tuesday or whatever. It just feels funky because it's not your routine. If that times a thousand because of the travel and the wear and tear on your bodies, other teams have a chance to look at tape and rest and get healthy. Of the teams in the mix at the top of the standings, New York might be best suited for
For the situation they're in coming out of the Olympics. Now, they still are sending several teams to the Olympics because let's remind people the Olympics is more than just the U.S. And they have a handful of players that are going to be playing on teams in other countries. So, I mean, they're still going to have that load to deal with. But I just think they set themselves up in a really good way coming out of there. Yeah.
We'll see. We're a quarter of the way into the season. There's a lot that could happen. But it also feels like a significant chunk of the season. This is the patented Logan Jones favorite portion of the season because up until this point, the 12-game mark, it's always like, what do we talk about on the show? Is this prescriptive? Is this for real? Are they just on a rough stretch? This is right at the point where it's like teams have played between 9 and 13 games and we're starting to...
Like whether they're good or not, they're going to have to start playing good if they're going to be good. Because like this part of the season is now in the books. We've got another quarter to go and then there's going to be a month break for the Olympics. And then we're going to have a lot to talk about that. So we will be here for all of it. And, and I don't, I don't want to tease it too early, but for a long time, you've heard from Steve and I, and you haven't heard from some of the other hosts on the show because there's been live stuff going on, but we've heard word that,
That there might be a light at the end of the tunnel and that we might be getting rejoined by some of our co-hosts after a very long drought, which we're very excited about. We can't say much, but help us in a way. No promises, but thank you for sticking with W Nation and hearing Steve and I out as we kind of walk through each of these things and do the standings, watch every week and...
the Caitlin Clark media frenzy corner and whatever else we get into and various uniform takes that we'll try to keep as short as possible. Yes. So anything you want to throw out there for the W before we close this one up, Steve, I think that's the mix of it this week. I mean, there's certainly a lot happening, but that's, that's it. It's just, yeah, we're, we're in a fun stretch right now where we're going to be seeing a pickup of a lot of games and,
And we're going to start zeroing in on the Olympics. Obviously, the voting for the All-Star game is going to be picking up soon. So that'll be fun. Yes. This will be a fun matchup. The All-Stars versus the Olympic team is always kind of a fun matchup that I'm glad they've been putting together. So that should be a good time. And maybe they'll scrounge together really quick.
rookies be sophomores game. Cause now I, I like really want that. You should really do it. Yes. Um, yeah, no, I absolutely want to see that. Um, other things we absolutely want to see in the week ahead, you're going to get, um, an Atlanta team fresh off of a loss to the mystics playing at the Indiana fever, which is kind of morbidly interesting. Um,
You've also got always a fun matchup with LA and Minnesota. So hopefully Minnesota lives up to the billing that we've given them today. And then also Saturday's matchup is what I really wanted to talk about. You've got New York at Vegas. If there is ever a time for Vegas to settle any concerns...
1 p.m. Las Vegas hosts New York. That should be a good one. So pay attention to those. Be on the lookout for that. We will obviously be tweeting and commenting and recording and doing all of that in the meantime. But until then, this is my favorite part. This is where Jason puts the outro song in post. And we start just dancing. We start dancing. For WNBA Nation, I'm Logan Jones. I'm Steve Schwartzman.
And we got you next time.