7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Hey guys, this is Liz Cambay. This is Nikki Collin. What up guys, this is Eppie Sarkin. Hey, this is Imani Lee Stafford. Hey, this is Jordan Canada. This is Asia Wilson. Welcome to the WNBA Nation. WNBA Nation! Hello again. We're so close to the end of the regular season and then it's playoff time and things are going to get nuts. It's somehow September...
I swear, like last week, it was March, but whatever. But here we are. Welcome to another episode of the show. I'm Steve Schwartzman, again, and always gratefully flanked by Logan Jones. Logan.
How are you feeling? I'm feeling okay. I'm glad I don't have intro hosting duties this time. We all know that from last time. And I appreciate you hosting as always because my voice is shot. So we'll get through this one today. And actually, knowing what we have on the docket for today, I'm actually pretty excited for as soon as we finish this show, I think I know what I'm going to have for lunch. So I'm just going to tease that for a second.
I feel like we're going to have an extremely good, uh, fun time. So we'll see how that, that runs, but yes, we're in for some good times here. Um,
Before we jump into anything, of course, I'll just run the plug real quick. Head over to WNBANation.com. Stay connected with everything we have going on as a program. You connect all our episodes, any of our socials, our fantastic merch page. You can grab some good digs there. And, of course, you can listen to this episode and all of our episodes anywhere that you listen to your podcast, namely on Apple Pods, Spotify, Google Pods,
All of the tertiary apps, if you have an Android, because that's just life for us over here. If you do listen to anything that has a standard review system, especially an Apple pod, we'd love a five-star review and we would absolutely welcome any comments that you have on the program. Let us know what you love about the show. Let us know what more you'd like to see from the show to make some good times. And of course you can stay connected with us, email socials, all the goods,
Give us your response to the show, how you're feeling. And also I've been asking for, please for ideas for some potential upcoming W history episodes, because we're looking to rumble that back up.
Once the season's over and I would love some feedback. So we'll see how that goes, but thank you for staying connected to the show and continuing to listen to us. I know it's been a little, we've been a little off routine this season, but we're getting there. It's almost playoff time. We have some high end headlines, a lot of stuff to look forward to some seasoned records, broken some injuries to update on a lot of stuff going on. Logan, I'm going to kick it over to you kind of for to,
walk us through this. Um, what were some main headlines? Yeah. Uh, if you're just catching up with the WNBA with us on this episode, know that a couple of big, uh, records have been broken, which on one hand makes sense because we've got more games in the season than we've ever had. And we've got a lot of talent at the league. And on the other hand, we still need to recognize that some incredible things have happened this year. First being that Stewie has set the WNBA single season scoring mark, uh,
She's crazy. She's so good. So I don't have any comments to make besides, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. We also have the Suns, Alyssa Thomas breaking the single season assist mark just the other night. That's... I feel like the Connecticut Sun got a lot of love and attention out the gate at the start of the season because we were pleasantly surprised that even with a new coach and kind of a different cellular makeup, the core was still the same. They're still...
you know, tough out tough team, all that. I think Alyssa Thomas has somehow, even after the start of the season, like being so good flown a little under the radar, um, in terms of like, she's going to be a huge difference maker in the post season a week from now. So, yeah, to note on that real quick, I think the interesting thing with the sun is obviously right now, when we talk about, for instance, the MVP race, it's very much been Asia and Stewie focused too, by the way, we're both players of the month for August, um,
League wide, which to the shock of nobody. But the sun brought up an interesting conversation with that, because if you think about the sun, like, do you there were different points of the season where you go, well, do you go with Bonner? Do you go with Thomas? Because they both seem to have takeover moments. And then Alyssa just really started to do things that just we haven't seen before.
And it culminated the other night. She probably had possibly my favorite quote of the season from anyone. And maybe it's because it's coming from someone like Alyssa Thomas, who, you know, doesn't always have this type of open flair. Like it's, it's not just from recent history, but doing postgame interviews, she basically just said, yeah, I'm doing stuff we've never seen before. And I'm making it look easy. Yeah.
And I just, I loved it. I used to, I used to think that players who said stuff like that, I'd instantly be like, you know, the part of me that loves an underdog is like, who is this coming out here and just being like, and I make it look easy. Like, you know, now I understand the mindset of players in, in the position that Thomas is in, which is very much like, Hey, I see you talking about the Liberty and their winning streak. And I see you talking about the aces and their number one overall seed and
just FYI, look at what we've done and quit sleeping. Like that's, I feel like the subtext of being very confident in postgame pressers and saying stuff like that is like, yeah, you're not saying it on our behalf. So let me go ahead and tell you what's up. Like I can respect that. I love it. Yeah, I know. So I, I've, uh,
Really enjoyed watching Connecticut play and, you know, I big props there to Alyssa, but yeah, the single season record numbers, things like that. And that's on top of Jewel Lloyd, not, you know, coming not far behind there and, and in scoring champ mode. I mean, you've seen a lot of amazing individual performance to couple some good team performances this year. I think it's part of what's made the season a lot of fun. And there's arguments, like you said, like at the 40 game season adds a little bit to that, but I don't think, first of all,
Maybe the aces aside, technically we haven't. I mean, maybe one extra game when you go off how far into the season they hit those numbers. It's not necessarily the extra, you know, that's made that happen either. That's what's been impressive about it.
which is really interesting. So there's that piece. The Minnesota Lynx makes some history. They become playoff eligible. I believe, Logan, you told me before record, they're the second team in WNBA history to start 0-6 or worse and still qualify for the playoffs.
Which, I don't know about you, but it makes me feel a little bit better that we wrote them off at the start of the year. Because I've felt kind of dumb throughout the middle of the season. Like, man, we should have known the Lynx were going to get back to 500. They're always at 500. They're always in the playoffs. But it helps to know that historically, the odds were against them.
Good on them for overcoming that. They've played pretty well. They're not a team that I think a lot of people expect to do a ton in the postseason. And that, I think, includes the Minnesota fans that I follow on Twitter. They're kind of like, we're trying our best. But they're in it. And we're going to talk about a team today that's...
Looks like they're not going to be in it. So that's more that you can say for teams that are kind of on the rebuild. Exactly. And what's more intriguing to me as well, it's not just making the playoffs. They're currently sitting, as we record this, one game out of fourth place. So, you know, this isn't a squeak-by situation. They've played very consistent, very disciplined, very fluid basketball games.
And we can expect to see that if the matchups stay the way that they're looking in the standings right now for the first round of the playoffs are, I might be most excited for the potential of a Dallas Minnesota series.
because yeah. Yeah. That'd be chaotic. Yeah. Yeah. I just think the matchups there are going to be very, very intriguing. Very interesting. Any other notable kickouts headlines? I mean, obviously we have the final weekend of the regular season. We've got one more playoff spot up for grabs as we record this. We're recording this on Wednesday, Thursday, sorry. And the sparks can, can,
extend or squash their destiny, depending on how they play against New York tonight. Uh, if you're listening to the episode, you'll probably know what that result already is. Uh, but any other, just one, um, and it's the, we know two things for sure about the Washington mystics. One is that they will be in the playoffs this year. And the other is that they will be without Christie Tolliver who tore her ACL. Uh, that was the fear when she went down the other night, it's been confirmed. She's done for the season. Um,
not only does that suck for us right now, but it also sucks that it's happening at the very end of the season where now you have to look ahead to next season and say like, how quickly is that recovery process going to be? Are we going to see her on the floor at the beginning of next year? We don't know. We won't harp on that too much right now, but it does significantly hamper any excitement over a potential mystics upset in the first round. Absolutely. Um,
That's definitely a tough ad. I know her reuniting with Washington is a cool and special thing, and that's going to be rough. I mean, say what you want about her age and tenure and how much she's been playing. That's a key piece you want available for playoff time. And this is completely underrated, but speaking of Christy Tolliver, we've been talking about W history ideas. The 06 Maryland women's team,
Sure. It has been an interesting one with me. I'm not going to talk too much about that, but I just want to skirt that out there with maybe if I throw out an idea or two, it'll wreck some other brains and we can come up with some good creative ideas. But that was one of the better national championship games we've seen. This is really quick, but when we were at the Final Four in Minneapolis and they had to
the banners up for everybody that had won titles and several of them, obviously, you know, Yukon, Tennessee that had like several different years listed on the banner. And then you saw Maryland up there and you're like, yeah, like that's, that's right. Like it was, it was cool. It's like, you knew, even if you knew nothing about college women's basketball, you're like something happened there.
Cause that doesn't, that doesn't match the rest of the recipes. That was a super, super fun tournament and Tolliver, uh, one of the better college basketball in small time. I know it's unrelated to what's going on now. We hope the men for Tolliver goes well. Uh, we'll see how the mystics adjust with having that skill and veteran leadership off the table. Uh, but definitely no fun. I've got one more headline I want to throw out. That's different from everything. Um, and I sent a link about this, uh,
But I don't know how much you've looked into this or heard about this, but have you? And if you have, how excited are you for the release of the Sid and TP show?
I have heard of it. Because you sent me a TikTok about it that I watched this morning before I even got out of bed. I was clearing all my notifications. And I wasn't sure I understood it correctly at first, so I watched it again. I'm very excited. That's going to be great. It looks, in a word, it looks rad. It looks... This is kind of a... I think this is for... So Sid and TP, this is Sid Coulson and Teresa Plaisson's
Real Life Best Friends apparently are going to be running an unscripted series of some kind on the Maximum Effort channel, which I believe is Ryan Reynolds' new joint that he's putting together. They're going to be putting that together. And based on the kind of the sizzle reel that's come out about it, it feels a little tough to show exactly what the flow of it is going to be.
Um, if it's going to be, I know it's going to be unscripted, but like, I don't know if it's kind of a reality follow us around thing, if it's going to be more of like a podcast type program, but these are two of the foremost, um,
most interesting personalities in the league. I thought it was a podcast when you first sent it to me. And then I was like, oh, it's a show. And so that's very much the vibe I got from the commercials. I mean, we'll obviously have to stay in tune with that one. But I love how much access people have to athletes now compared to when you and I were growing up. And it was basically like...
I don't even know if I saw... If they weren't on gym room the day after having a great game, I don't feel like I saw players off the court ever. Yeah. It was just not a thing. And it's very hard to explain that to people now because it's like Kevin Durant... There's people walking around in their daily lives like, I talked to Kevin Durant over Twitter today. He yelled at me. Yeah. Or something. Exactly.
Yeah. And so what I love about this is it's often known that for one name, Sid Colson is one of the more. She's hilarious. Hysterical. Yeah. I mean, she was the best Twitter follow almost by far and has always been.
you know, great in her own right. But it just, as a personality, it was hilarious. So this like fits right in. They have a very natural story of being good friends, being close friends. And, um, just the trailer alone was killing me. Like, like I showed it to my wife, to Jenny specifically for one moment, because Jenny's not really into basketball, but, um,
Just the moment where they were doing what appeared to be a podcast thing, and it's just Teresa Plaisance. I just blanked on the word, the type of content. But ASMR-ing pickles. Oh, yeah. Right away, one of the funniest things I've heard. She leans in and is like, these pickles are giving my mouth a sensation that only my mouth can explain. It's just...
I'm excited. I had to throw that out because if you're looking for fun, I think that'll be great off season content to enjoy. I know nothing about maximum effort. I know nothing about paywalls there or how that works. I know paying for streaming services sucks royally right now, and we do not have any sort of affiliation with them. So I'm not going to sit here and tell you to pay for anything. But if you do for anything, check the show out because it seems like it's going to be a good time to,
Logan, should we get down to the heart of what we're looking to do today? Let's talk about something that I know Jason is going to be thrilled to hear us talk about. And Kyle is going to just shake his head at because he's not about this life. Here's the deal. The situation was we were actually going to do a preview on the final weekend of the season. What happened was we came into the day we were recording and...
The playoff seeds could very well be decided tonight as we're recording this. So at risk of being very outdated in this content, we realized we haven't done one of these types of drafts in a while. So Logan, you want to talk about soup? I want nothing more than to talk about soup. So if you've listened to the show, you've know, we've done this before. We've done it with pies. Jason and I did it with apples.
I believe there's been other iterations of this. It's a team draft. Basically, Logan and I are going to name a team, and we're going to assign them a soup. If this team were that soup, because it's soup, at least where we're at, very temperate Sunday, it's soup season. September, it's time to hardy up.
And it's soup time. I'm a huge soup fan. You're very much a soup can be a meal person, right? Because that's sort of a controversial thing. Yeah. And don't get me... I'm not crazy. I understand you don't want to walk around all day feeling sloshy. So I want to have bread with the soup. But yeah, soup can be a meal. It doesn't just have to be an appetizer. I feel bad. Maybe it depends on where you live. If you live somewhere that's sunny year-round and you're just like, I never got the appeal of soup, then that's probably why. Yeah.
We live in the Rockies. Sometimes soup just hits. But different soups have different vibes. And I think we all kind of can tap into that. And that's what we're going to do today. If I'm understanding this correctly, because we planned this just before we started hitting record, we're going to find out which WNBA player represents which vibe.
For which soup? And then I'm going to go immediately after this and go eat some soup because I'm really excited about it. Yeah, it immediately opened me to many possibilities. This is officially a companion to both the pie draft and I believe you and Jason did apples once. Yes, the apple draft, which was one of my favorite episodes I've ever recorded. We both learned together on that episode how much we both...
eerily love apples. I was listening to that episode. This is two or three years ago now. And I remember thinking like, man, it's a good thing I was not on that episode because I would have been Googling types of apples. Like, so I could probably name two types of apples. Yeah. And so I got soups.
We both were nerdily into apples. The pie episode was one of the easiest things we've ever done. I don't think we had to think hard about that one at all. And that wasn't even W. I don't even know if that was WMA. That was college ball related. Um, I believe it's because I called, that was the episode where I famously called Minnesota mud deplorable. Uh, I think about that a lot, but yeah,
Just to set the tone here, and I think I can speak for Logan, neither of us have put a moment of thought into this. So sometimes you do these types of episodes, you have a chance to research Supes and facts and figures and how they might link to a certain team.
We haven't done that. This is on the spot. You know, so if you disagree with what we're saying, you might be right. So so connect with the show. Let us know what you think. If you're like, no, the Chicago Sky are not that soup. They're this soup. I would go. Yes, we are not strictly going to make these regional shows.
There aren't going to be any soups that specifically going to be, oh, you know, this clam chowder because it's here and they're a clam chowder place. This is all about soup vibes, which...
Band name, if you need one. But let's kick it off. I'm going to jump right in, unless you have any other thoughts or questions. I totally forgot that you just slandered Mississippi Mud Pie several years ago. And now that you reminded me, I remember that I haven't forgiven you. All right. Sorry. Kick us off.
That makes me so happy. So I'm just going off the team page, which on the WNBA website, which still has the team separated by conference, which I still find very cute. So let's start the Eastern Conference. We're going to start with the Atlanta Dream. So the Dream, first time in the playoffs in four years. Ryan Howard and company making really good things happen. Very exciting squad.
My favorite question I've asked anyone all week, Logan, what soup is the Atlanta dream? What soup is the Atlanta dream? First of all, congrats dream on honestly, like I don't think they're getting enough credit for their turnaround because people forget just how different the team was not too long ago. Congrats on making the playoffs. I'm really excited to watch this team, not just in the playoffs, but this like, this is sort of the team that we all hoped we would get out of both Atlanta and Indiana this year.
In terms of just like tons of young, awesome talent that's already showing up. And they're not taking a long time to simmer and show what they can do. They're coming up quickly. With that in mind, let's see. What soup? This is harder than I thought it was going to be. So many soups. I'm going to call them cream of mushroom soup.
And I don't want anyone to pull back and be like, hey, stay with me. You use cream of mushroom soup. First of all, you use cream of mushroom in more things than just... I don't even like mushrooms. And cream of mushroom soup is all right. But I was thinking of something not chowdery, but something legitimately smooth. Because in my head, I'm thinking smooth sailing. This is a team that...
we were getting reports of like videoed fights a handful of years ago and like personality issues and just, you know, even their new draft picks, it didn't seem like we're, we're super having a great time. Now all of a sudden it's just like smooth sailing. They're in the playoffs. They, they finished the season with as good a record. It,
I mean, they're in that middle of the pack bunch, but whatever happens in the next week, they're going to be there with Minnesota, Washington teams that we're used to seeing have success and be there. And I think Cream of Mushroom Soup is just like a solid, basic... I know basic has a negative association with it now, but I mean foundational type of just like... Yeah. Count on them being in the playoffs for the next three years because...
This is a – what's the word I'm looking for? This is a standby. Every fall, you're going to have cream mushroom soup. It's just going to be there. And I think that's really what I'm getting at here as I've found my way through this explanation. I think you can count on some consistency from the Atlanta Dream in the years ahead. I'm happy with the trajectory they're on, and I'm excited to see what Ryan Howard can do.
Absolutely. I love that. I've had two seconds to think about it. And I promise this isn't a cop out because this is one that people were like, if you named this soup, then you're not like a soup fan. But I mean this. The Atlanta Dream are homemade chicken soup, not chicken noodle soup, chicken, just, you know, good. I was wondering which which one of us was going to first go for homemade chicken soup. And there's a couple of key reasons as I thought about this more.
For one, I really appreciate you calling out that this is really the dream's opportunity to step out of what's been a handful of frustrating years through the sale of the team to get away from a fascist owner to dealing with a lot of internal issues and like public strife within the team. You've talked you talked about the.
Like the fight on tape and all of that stuff. Trying to take on young potential stars and moving on from them very quickly. It kind of felt like things weren't clicking right away. Things weren't making sense. You could say that for a while, the Atlanta Dream might have been sick. Sure. And nothing brings...
heart into healing from sickness, much like your classic chicken soup. And that's a part of this. But the other thing that makes chicken soup work is flavors, right? There's a key ingredient to great homemade chicken soup because people will think it's chicken soup and you're probably thinking something generic. You're thinking like Campbell's chunky can of chicken soup. A good homemade chicken soup is worth its weight in gold because it's
how the flavor keys work. There's a key ingredient. If you know anything about making good chicken soup, that's lemon pepper. Yeah. It's some good lemon pepper, even spritz of lemon. Just a little bit can go a long way. You don't need a ton of it, but a little bit gives it a zest and a kick that makes it flavorful, makes it hearty and makes it worth your time. And I love drafting Ryan Howard. Ryan Howard has been phenomenal in these two seasons. And that's been a huge thing.
I like how the squads come together. You know, all of that. Tanisha Wright's been phenomenal as coach. She's done a great job running this together. But you want to know who the lemon pepper of this team is? I do want to know. Oh, good call.
Something about that sprints of Alicia Gray has kind of molded this squad together, made them more offensively synced, get more confidence. They've been able to play positionally very well. They space better. Alicia Gray is one of, you know, for value. She's someone who's brought so much energy into the squad. And when she left Dallas, I was curious about,
Coming to Atlanta, it seemed very intentional. She seemed very excited. There was a lot of good booze there. Coming out of the 3x3 experience in the 2020 Olympics, I was interested to see where that is. And she seems to have really found a nice, comfortable spot for herself and the rest of the team. And you've seen a lot of other players flourish out of it, much like how lemon pepper and that zest helps bring out flavors within a chicken soup. A.D. Durer really starting to hit stride there.
Eric McDonald has played some really strong basketball. There's a lot of elements to the squad that seem to work and who had been there. And Alicia gray, I think has made that happen. I really, really enjoy watching the Atlanta dream play basketball. And I enjoy a good bowl of homemade chicken soup. So that's my safe. It's a good call. Oh, that was not easy. Toss. Yeah. Toss me. Toss me. No, I feel like I've got two or three that I've, I've kind of had percolating now, but I, for a lot of these teams, I'm still,
I'm still feeling it out. So we'll see where we go next. Well, we're going to stay. We're going to go through the Eastern Conference and then we'll go Western and this thing. So let's let's just keep going down the line of what the website's given me. I don't know if this will be easy or not, but who are the Chicago Sky? Chicago Sky is tomato soup. OK, let me tell you what. I don't think tomato soup is bad. I don't look at a bowl of tomato soup and think that looks bad.
But if you just eat it on its own without adding something to it, cornbread, crackers, something, it doesn't do much for you. It looks bold. It looks great. When you serve it, you're like, hey, loving the jerseys.
Still got... We still got players on this team I like, but it's missing something is what I'm getting at. And that's the Chicago Sky or Tomato suit because they're missing something. They obviously went through a big generation in this offseason with their roster. I'm happy that Clea Copper still looks like who we really believe her to be because she's a really fun player. But just...
didn't have enough this year to really make an impact. Now it looks like they're going to probably slip into the final playoff spot and then promptly get annihilated because I just don't think that they have the horses to run with the good playoff teams. But...
Like I, I like a lot that's there. I like Ruthie Hebert. I like Marina Mabry. They, you know, Courtney Williams came in. They, they have a lot of like experience, but not like, like not quite like, Oh, like they're veterans and they can't play in their prime anymore. Like they have a lot of like veteran prime presences and like a fair amount of youth on the team. But Khalid Copper is 29 years.
Uh, maybe 26 is he Harrison's 29. They haven't had her this season. And then Ruthie Hebert 25. So it's like you, I, I'm not really sure what direction they go from here. I don't think the answer is to go out in free agency and hit like the let's get jewel Lloyd market. Although everybody should be trying to get jeweled free agency. I think it's more like what young infusion of talent can we get in the next draft or two? That's really going to help us get to the next level. Um,
And that's my feeling. Anytime tomato soup is served is kind of like, okay. And what? Like good base, nothing wrong with it. What else are we going to add to the equation? Yes. I like, I like where a lot of that's coming from. This one might be more of, of just a classic me thing, but I, I really consider Chicago a ham bone soup.
Because ham bone soup, which is not it's not actually a heavy fall soup. I'd almost think of it more as like a springtime one because like a post Easter one. A lot of people will have because it centers around when you'd have ham requires ham bone soup. And the thing about ham bone soup is it's very much like a leftover specialty. It's a we have other things that we can put together and make ham bone soup with, particularly ham and particular, particularly the bone to kind of organize this thing and make it work.
The Chicago sky have gone through so much stripping down. This team looks very little like the squad that won a championship two seasons ago. It's very interesting to see the champion. Many of their core faces are gone. Their coach up and split just, you know, as things were kicking off. I mean, it's,
It's really frustrating. And they've had to try and put something together and make it work. Now, ham bone soup isn't always a highly popular item. It's probably not one of my favorite soups, to be honest. But it's something that works. It's something that's substantial. And if it's a flavor that works for you, it works for you. Because this year could have easily been a heavy wash for Chicago. I had them like 11th, I think, in our predictions. And if they're able to make this playoff run work...
I think you can still have some shine to put on them and at least have some positivity toward what they can build off of the core that they have and make that happen. So that, that has a handboon, handbone soup feel to me. They took the ingredients that they have and they tried to make something work and they just might've gotten some payoff out of it. Would I expect them to go very far come playoff time? I mean, probably not. No, but yeah,
They easily could have been at the bottom of the barrel, very outside looking in. This story could have been written off for them a long time ago. And they're still fighting. And I can appreciate that at all times. So that's what I'm going to say. Yeah, I think that's a fair... Yeah. Hambone soup was not on my list. Like in my mental list of soups that I'm drawing from, that's not one that I immediately go to. So I like you pulling that up.
I think I've already, I think I already know where I'm going with this one, but we'll have to see. Let's talk about the Connecticut sun. All right. This is one of like the two teams that I think I've really got nailed. Give it to me. Uh, the Connecticut sun are lobster bisque. Now, first of all, because if do right,
No can defend. Lobster bisque, when it's good, man, it hits really good. But the thing that makes lobster bisque work is the complementary flavors and textures. Now, I get that all soups are a bunch of ingredients thrown into a pot and they simmer and all the flavors have to work together. That's all soups. Lobster bisque is a really specific ingredient.
Like if you've ever had it before, like the flavor and the texture of the lobster has to work. I'm not even a lobster or a crab guy.
But when it all comes together, that's... And no team says complimentary to me more than the Connecticut Sun year after year after year. Their stars know how to play together to get the most out of one another. They always have a starting five that knows how to score at every one of the positions that's on the floor is a threat at all times. I love watching them play basketball. I love Lobster Bisque. I love that it's fall and that we're having this discussion. Lobster Bisque.
For very much the same reason that you call it out lobster bisque. It's why the Connecticut Suns are meat and beef stew. Or just a good stew in general. Because during and post-Kurt Miller era Sun, man, if there's a word I think I could give you to talk about the style of basketball, the Connecticut Sun, the product they put on the court, and it's hearty. It's a holistic style of basketball.
to work as a team, they need to execute well on both sides of the court. They have to play team offense, team defense. And that's on top of the fact that we just talked about Alyssa Thomas is doing things no one's ever done and making it look easy. We've talked about how effective the one of Bonner is. We've looked up and down that roster and seen a lot of solid performances. But the, the thing about it is,
I understand why beef stew may not be a very, I don't want to say appetizing, but like a very exciting meal in the back of someone's head. You know what's funny, though? You ever have beef stew? Do you always find yourself getting a second bowl? Of course you do. Yeah.
It always works. It'd be like, you never get the ratio right of stew to rolls or whatever you're having with it. You always are just like, no, I can have more. This is solid. This is very good. And I think part of that is consistency. I think also a part of it is, um, I think a part of it is that classic trope we've talked about where, um,
To this day, why is it so difficult to talk about the Connecticut Sun? Why is it that we seem to, they seem to not be a hot button thing until there's no choice. We have to do it. We have to talk about it. This is a team that if there's anyone potentially in the running to actually do something about this Aces Liberty situation when it comes to the finals, it's the Connecticut Sun.
they've always been the team in that situation, that team that can make destiny work. And that's how I feel about it. I've loved watching their consistency. I love watching their Hardy style of basketball. And I'm very intrigued at what comes next. And they may not always pop right up on your list, but you're glad you got them when you got them. And that's a beef stew type of a roster. I feel like my soup so far hasn't been very fun. I'll be getting fun.
When I eat beef stew, I'm not like, am I having fun? I'm like, am I comforted? And there's something about watching the Connecticut Sun play basketball where you know you're in for a good game and a spectacular performance from one of those players every night. So I like that. This is right. That's a good call. This is right. Absolutely. All right. This is where it gets fun with Connecticut Sun. Logan. Oh, man. Let's talk about the Indiana Fever. Minestrone.
And I'll tell you why. First of all, you're right. I'll tell you why. And I don't even need to hear why, but I want to. I've never had a bowl of minestrone soup that didn't make me wish it was a little bit better.
I, I, it's not like I dislike them. I want to like minestrone soup legitimately. Like I'm not just playing this up for the sake of the, the metaphor on the podcast. I want to like minestrone soup, Steve, but I never really do. Like once, once I'm experiencing it, it kind of feels like I should have gotten something else. And that's, that's the Indiana fever this year, this year and next year, every, every, every,
Every time, every, all the ingredients in minestrone soup, if you read it on a piece of paper, you'd be like, that should work. And it, for me, it just never does. So I don't, I don't know if you have anything to add to that, but that one to me was just right there. Yeah, that's really good. That was my thoughts about like where I could go with it. Um,
I'm going to say this is hard. I'm looking at lists now and I'm like, I don't quite know exactly where to go with this, but it's everything. I almost just want to agree with you, but that feels like that would be cheapening everyone else of a good conversation approach.
Korn Chowder feels too on the nose. I'm not going to do that because it's too on the nose and it just feels mean. That's right. I'll have at least one of those today that's like, all right. One or two of those that's just like, oh, yeah, there's that. But it is. No, it's not. Because there have been some positives this year with Indiana. Heavy positives. They have one of the best. I mean, they've got...
they have the makings for being an extremely popular and effective team for a very long time. And they're going to be that way. Um, and obviously Aaliyah Boston has turned this into something that can really work. And so I don't want to just limit this down to, Oh, they've been a disappointment because they have been very good and they've made moments really, really work. And, um,
I just want to believe in them more than I can right now because it's just frustrating. And that's why they're broccoli cheddar, I think. Because broccoli cheddar has one thing going for it. If you're a broccoli cheddar fan, i.e. Kyle, if you're a broccoli cheddar fan, good for you.
But I've never quite gotten it. It feels more like a sauce than a soup to me. It's got one main thing going. I worry that the reason Kyle kind of isn't in on soups is because broccoli cheddar is what he pictures when he pictures soup. And that could be a big part of it. You could very well be correct there. A big thing with broccoli cheddar soup and what makes it what it is, like the appeal of it, in my opinion, is that it's commonly served in a bread bowl. Yeah.
And yes, which is kind of cheating, but that's fine. Exactly. But the new look, the new feel, we've got a young coach. We've got Lynn done making some moves in the, you know, in the gym spot and you draft the Leah Boston. The Leah Boston has brought some real spice to this roster, has played really well, has performed well in some close games. She's the bread bowl. She's what you're building off of. I like that. And it's going to happen. But I think there's some scar tissue. We're still working through.
to get Indiana to where they are. And it can still be a little bit frustrating. Um, because my experience with broccoli cheddar soup is that's what you have in a bread bowl with the chilies gone. Yep. Uh, or the chowder is gone. And, uh, so it makes it tough and it's kind of like, it's kind of like getting into that broccoli chili. You know, there were, there are times where you have it and it is pretty good. If you may do it with real cheese, good chunky rock, like fresh broccoli, it could work. It could really work. Um,
But it's a soup that also falls victim to, for one, when you get about halfway into it, it's a difficult one to get all the way through. You kind of get numb to the flavors partway through. It doesn't leftover very well. It skins really easily.
There's still a lot that the fever have to work through, but I don't want to just call this year a wash. It feels a way I want to, because it's just more frustration of, it really felt like we were finally hitting that up very much. What, what Atlanta is going through. It felt like that's what we were going to get out of Indiana. And it just didn't quite click. And that's frustrating. So this isn't just Ted heavily dog and broccoli, cheddar, super dog on this roster. I think there's a lot of good things to see out of this, but yeah,
What can we put in this bread bowl to make it click? What can we put in this bread bowl? It's my rallying cry. The Indiana fever. That's really good.
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Indeed.com slash blue wire terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. You need indeed. All right. Now, now it gets zesty. It's it's we're officially in fun range. What soup is the New York Liberty? I've been thinking about this and I don't, I'm not confident about this one, but I know we've got to pick it up because we've got a lot of teams to go. So I'm just going to throw it out there. I think the New York Liberty or French onion is,
Interesting. It took a second for it to caramelize or to come together at the beginning of the season. But now that things are rolling, it's another one of those like... I don't think everybody likes French onion soup. I don't think French onion soup cares. Because it's still going to be bold and popular and...
Really good for a lot of people every fall. And I feel like that's the impression that I get from the Liberty this fall. When honestly, I think they have a really good chance of being the aces in a series if it comes down to it. And I think a lot of people have kind of been counting on the aces to repeat. And you might be a little bit like, whoa,
I'm getting some strong flavor from this Liberty team. Don't know how I feel about them. Stewie just got there in the offseason. Now are they a super team? How do I feel about that? French onion soup is divisive, but undeniably good for those who love it. So that's all I got for the Liberty. That one was tough, though. I've been kind of mentally working through the different teams as we've been talking. And I don't know if I feel very confident about that one. Yeah.
It's interesting because at one point we had thought about doing sandwiches instead of soup, or at least I had thought about suggesting it. And I knew what sandwich they were. A Reuben, by the way. They would have been a Reuben. But that doesn't matter for now because we're talking soups. They are of a very spicy pot of Cajun gumbo, aren't they? Expound. Because this was a mixture of lots of unique flavors.
and loud ingredients that all serve a very unique purpose. Let's talk about you brought in one of the most dominant stars in the league, while you also brought in one of the best offensive facilitators and playmaking players in the league. You brought in a former MVP. They added so much to this roster. It was such a new look roster. Your coach is still fairly new, only a season in.
You're adding that to another set of flavors. The interesting thing about gumbo is it is a collection of it's, there aren't a lot of muted, smoothed out flavors to a good pot of gumbo. And that's, if you do seafood gumbo, you do chicken and sausage gumbo. I don't know what you would do necessarily, but it's very, very loud ingredients coming together. And when I say loud in this term of the roster, I'm not saying like personalities as much as I'm saying style of play,
Like they didn't just go get someone that can get us assists and move the ball. They got the loudest flavor of a facilitator in the league that they could at Courtney Vander Sloot. Like they went to 11 with getting someone who can make plays in the league and make things happen for the rest of their team.
They didn't just go at a star to center around this front court. They went and got the loudest version of it. And then some could argue they went and got the second loudest version of that or third or fourth, whatever. But in the top five loudest with John Cole Jones, like they added so much noise to this and they,
When you get your brew together and you get your pot together, just like you said, it takes time to facilitate. We weren't sure what the uphill, the ramp was going to be for the Liberty. It was going to take time. And we didn't know things look rough here to there. They seem like they're peaking now. And gumbo is a soup that, that,
benefits from time very well. If you give it time to simmer, if you give it time to mix up, let the flavors work together, you're hardly going to find a better soup.
In fact, Southerners are offended that I even call it soup because it's not soup. It's gumbo, but you get the idea. That's where I'm going to take it. We're not... I know Jason... Southerners and Jason will have lots to say about whether stews and chowders and bisques and whatever are soups. Look, for the sake of this podcast, you know what a soup is. It goes in a bowl. It's not a chili. That's really the only requirement. I've had a lot of chili. I've had a lot of chili.
And that's about as far as I've gone. Don't ask me to explain why it just is. Yeah. You know, this is the very much in the similar conversation. If you're ranking pies and you don't include Boston cream pie, that is a cake that has pie in the name. We know this. We're going to close out the Eastern conference with the Washington mystics. What are you thinking? The Washington mystics. That one's tough. Maybe let me, let me look at the Washington mystics for a second.
Because this is a team that we all expected to be top three in the league this year at the start of the season. Quickly, we realized, like, I don't know if they're at that level of the competition, but they should still win some games, go 500, all that. They're going to end up being around there. They're currently 18 and 20, which it feels like half the league is right in that spectrum. You know, I think they are Zupa Toscana.
If you are a frequent patron of the Olive Garden, you know, Zupatiscana is their potato and kale and spicy sausage soup, basically. It's good. It's potato soup. It's good. The thing about Zupatiscana is it's actually much better at home.
And that's really my guiding principle here for Zupa Toscana. I actually really like Zupa Toscana. I was rooting for it this year coming into the season. It's been the champion before.
And by that, I mean, at one point in time, it was my favorite soup. And the Mystics have been champions in recent history. But they're 12 and 7 at home this year. They're 6 and 13 on the road. They're just not a very good road team. That's really where they've lost a lot of ground this year. And if you go out to Olive Garden, eat Zupatiscana, even fresh out of the pot from back in the kitchen, it's actually not as good as if you just make it at home.
If you make it home, it'll ruin the experience of having it outside of your home from then on. So just be ready for that. But seriously, throw a bunch of the stuff in a crockpot.
let us sit for half a day and suddenly you'll be like, oh man, like in the comfort of my own home, this is pretty dang good. Anywhere else outside of that, I don't necessarily trust it. So that's my loose approximation of how I feel with the Mystics this year, which is that like they have a soft spot. I have a soft spot in my heart for them. But there's certainly soups that are performing better right now. Yeah.
I'm going right off a limb as I'm scrolling past it. And I'm going to say the mystics are beer cheese soup. Okay. Okay. I've had extremely good beer cheese soups before. Like it's a very tasty soup. There's a lot of flavors that work. Um, and like I've had some that have docked my socks off. I have not. I just, just see, I have not had beer cheese soup. I, I, this is, it's really good. It's kind of, I almost think beer cheese soup is kind of what broccoli cheddar wants to be. Okay. It's, it's very creamy. Um,
And, like, extremely flavorful. Here's the thing, and kind of where it gets to what I was saying. Washington's been a victim of what I would say, like, there's been some injuries. There's been some exhaustion. I think there's a lot of teams that went on the uptick, and they didn't quite match up as well. And so they haven't quite succeeded at the level a lot of us expect them to. In fact, I think all of us as hosts expected them to in our predictions.
And beer cheese is really good. It's not filling. Like it's not, it's sustainable as, as a full on meal. Um, and that's kind of almost how I see this with Washington. You know, it's the, they're, they might be that classic. I can't believe I'm about to quote this dumb ass song, but they're that classic case of they're not as good as they once was, but there's good ones as they ever was type of thing. Um,
where they're a hard L. They're going to be a hard matchup whenever a healthy Mystics team plays on the court. And so night to night, they can put on a strong product, but it may not be sustainable over an entire season. We'll see how things translate to the playoffs. But to me, that's beer, cheese, soup. The other thing about beer, cheese, soup, it needs additional carb to really work.
It's very commonly. Yeah, this feels like the tomato soup Chicago take a little bit where it's just like, there's stuff there. It's served over bread or like some sort of croutons or pretzels. And that's to say with Lady Della Dunn's like off and on injury history, the issue with Washington is if you can't have her at 100% of the court, it's a really hard team to lean on right now.
And it probably means there's going to be need to be some roster reshifting. You're going to need to see some star support for that situation because when Elena was on the court, it didn't quite click. And that's what it is. So that's my take. That's one where I scrolled past it and just made a judgment call. We're going to head West. Now we're going to talk about what might be the most interesting story of, of the standings this year. And that's the Dallas wings. Oh man. Yeah.
I knew this was coming because I knew we were going to hit the teams. Dallas has been probably the one that I've avoided thinking through. Again, over the course of this episode, I've tried to think through how we're going to get to... But I can't figure Dallas out. I think they're ramen. And I don't mean the drywall square of ramen you buy from the store. I mean real ramen. Yeah.
good ramen hits, but you don't really expect it to be like a filling meal most of the time. And I think my overall impression of Dallas this year is that they surpassed my expectations. I, I know they were in the playoffs last year. I figured they would be not as good this year with the departure of Marina Mabry. It turns out roster construction was something that they didn't have to worry about. They had, they had a plan and they've been able to execute that. Um,
I really like Natasha Howard there. Obviously, like, Tierra McCowan's there. Arike is there. Satu Sabli is... I think it's her team. Even in... Officially and on all of the... On all of their paperwork, it's going to say that it's Arike's team. But Satu Sabli is just...
I feel like she's the engine that's making that team go. And then maybe Arike is the steering wheel. If you want to use a car analogy, but today is soups. So we're going to stay with soups. That
That's I, I think now I, the, the way I tie ramen into this is basically like anytime someone wants to go for ramen, I'm kind of like, I think it tastes fine, but then I'm going to have to go get something like hearty and filling afterwards because I don't think it's going to be enough. And then I'm pleasantly surprised when it's like, Oh, I forget that there's like, there's a wide variety of ramen. And when it's the right season, it's,
It can really like it could show up and surprise you. So I would not be surprised if this wings team wins a playoff series or two and turn some heads doing it. Just like I will be pleasantly surprised the next time Steve and I are down in Phoenix and we go to my uncle's house and are served delicious, delicious ramen for dinner. Oh, that was incredible. I forgot all about that. That was such a good. But yeah, yeah.
Now I've got to think about that again. Sorry. I didn't mean to throw you off right before tossing it to you. No, I like that. Yeah, I like that a lot. I like that call out in a very different way. I'm handing Dallas one of the mantle that's important to me that I don't know how prepared they're going to be for this, but.
Dallas is tortilla soup or taco soup. Wow. Yeah. Now, let me make – That is surprising. Let me be real here. My favorite soup by like a mile. I'd love a good tortilla slash taco soup, whatever you call it. And that can be chicken taco soup. That can be –
Like beef. That could be vegetarian. For my own clarification and for the sake of our listeners, sometimes I hear tortilla soup and nacho soup used interchangeably. I don't know what nacho soup is.
I've always called it tortilla soup or chicken tortilla soup. Nacho soup. I think if you're going to have nacho soup, it almost is a creamier style. Okay. Cause, cause tortilla soup is like halfway to a stew. It's, I mean, there's beans and there's protein and it's yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. In some ways, taco or tortilla soup can sometimes be like a runny or chilly in a way. It has a lot of similar. Yeah. For a while, but a lot of uniqueness that comes with it. Um,
tortilla soup for me works a lot because, uh, first it's probably one of the more common and I'm using Pinterest terms here. It's one of the more common dump soups of like, if you want to make it, you get a bunch of cans of things and put them in a crock pot, some cans of corn, some cans of kidney beans, some cans of black beans. It's one that you can, that's how I make soup. Yeah. And it lasts for a long time. Right. That's, that's how that works. Um,
And that to me is kind of when I looked at this roster, it very much started with like, there are so many more high profile names on the wings roster than people realize. When you look at their front court alone, we've talked about this before, like Satu Sattli and Colleen Brown and Tierra McCowan. And like they have an intimidating front court and it kind of catches people by surprise when they see that. And so that's a part of it.
But the other thing is, like, they have so many individual pieces that stand out. Right? Ariga Gumbawale is spice personified when it comes to basketball. And that very much is what she brings. She's either, you know, she's that spicy element. She could even be that spritz of lime, depending on what you're looking for within there. You have several other pieces that have played really well. I'm trying to...
My internet's like, okay, we're good now. But like Natasha, you look at that front court, Natasha Howard, there's just so many names. Like who do I give this to? Basically I'm trying to decide who to danger field even like there's some uniqueness elements to some of these stretch players, which is like, if you put avocado in a taco soup, it adds it a long way. But yeah,
Ultimately, I love you already calling it out that this is Satu Sabali's team. I think she's been the reticent star that's come out of that. She's continued to play at such a high level. I think she's going to be someone that we end up seeing with MVP hardware before too long as things mud together. The story with Taco Soup and the reason that this stands out to me is I've watched so much of this team this year and I
Um, when there's been nights where there's been multiple games, I find myself leaning toward the Dallas game, regardless of who they're playing. And the thing is, because of how we've covered this league since the start of our show, none of us really lean heavily into like, we don't all have really like a team that's our team that we root for. We very much love the league and our fans in the league and are here to watch matchups. So I feel like year to year, I always kind of have a team that I find myself eyeing a little differently than the others.
And it kind of hit me two-thirds away into the season how often I was clicking into Dallas. And it was hitting me like, is Dallas my favorite squad right now? Like when I put them at the top of the rankings? Probably not. Are they the team I find myself pulling for? And they really are. And I wasn't expecting that. I remember sitting in a Vegas, like Irish pub to eat like pub food. Not too many years ago. It must have been one of the all-star games we went to.
And talking about Dallas and our frustrations with the Wings for just feeling like, I don't know what their plan is. They just gave Arike a lot of money. I don't know if she can be the A1 without any help on the team. What is going to happen with them to prevent them from becoming a five-year-long rebuild, which we've seen happen elsewhere in the league? And it's so pleasing now to see them up. Like I said, they're...
They're the four seed and they're a game or two up on like that big pack of teams that are all like, you know, really, really similar records, but they've consistently held that game lead on that bunch of teams for a month and a half.
And they've been able to lock up home court. And I, I'm just, I think it's locked. I don't know what happens after today for the next week, but the point is they, they're a team you can expect to win some games in the playoffs now versus just being happy that they made the playoffs, but knowing that they still have a long way to go, a lot of pieces to add, like they've, they've got the makings of a team that can make a run if they make the right moves in the coming off season. And that's very exciting. I like it. Um,
I like that much. So the wings, I'm going to skip the aces because I think we'll do them last. Let's talk about the sparks really quick. I'll go ahead and start because I've had you start multiple times. I really see this. This is going to sound like a very L.A. pick, but it's just what it is. I really see the sparks as a big bowl of pho. Yes. Because. Good call. I was wondering if one of us is going to bring up pho. It's a bit trendy. And at many times during the year,
The Sparks felt like a trendy pick. If you don't forget, at the start of the year, they were winning very close games against... Not even close games. They were winning pretty statement-level games against very good teams at the start of the season. And there were times where they were kind of a really trendy pick, and things seemed to be clicking really well for them, and that roster was coming together. The thing about FUH, if you've had it, when I lived in the Houston area, which is known for having...
um a lot of vietnamese influence there's a lot of vietnamese restaurants um which is interesting because if we were doing sandwiches i wouldn't give them a bond me that needs to go to a more successful team but um this is very much is very much an if do right now can defend mr miyagi soup and i say mr miyagi because that's his quote for the record um
uh, from the karate kid. It's funny cause I quote that a lot. I don't even really like the karate kid, but that's a different story for different days. Um, if you have prepared really well, it's an incredible dish, like incredible, very tasty. If not, it's kind of just a mix of non flavors. And then you just have a bowl of MSG broth that you're staring at and kind of similar to what you called out before, like wondering when you're going to go eat like,
It's something that doesn't quite stick or stand well. I think even to Sparks fans feel very familiar this year is like, oh, like I thought we were this, but then I had another bowl of it from somewhere else. From week to week, we got a different bowl of pho from the Sparks. They looked like one of the most dynamically talented teams in the league or one of the best defensively strong teams in the league. And then they would just go flat.
And we're watching that happen here right at the end of the season. The situation they're in where they need to win out and pray that the sky lose out to get into the playoffs is a totally, a totally avoidable situation for them. There was a time when there was that like five way mix of really close teams in at the end of the standings. You and I talked about how like the sparks could easily be the top of those five. And now they're looking at the potential of being like outside looking in and
And it's just not quite clicking yet. The, the, I don't know what it is that needs to make it work. And that's, you know, it's a hit or miss soup for me. The sparks are hit or miss team for me. We'll see how it goes. That's a, that's a good call. Uh, for me, this is my, I don't know if I want to make them that there's another one. I'm not very confident in, but I'm going to throw split pea soup to the sparks. Um,
And it's for a lot of the same reasons that you were saying first, let's just look at the sparks without the metaphor for a second. They were on a six game winning streak the last time we recorded. And I said something to the effect of, and they have a bunch of winnable games coming up, which should have been the death knell for any sparks fan listening to me say that because I've been so wrong about everything this year. Uh,
They lost a game at the Sun. That's fine. Connecticut's a better team than they are. But then they lost by one to the Sky in a game that we did... I know we mentioned that game by name as saying the Sky are going to want that game. If they're going to get into the playoffs...
You have to have it. So maybe that crushed the spark spirit or something. I don't really know, but they went from having that awesome comeback when on the road against the dream to dropping the one to the sun. And then they dropped that one by one point to the sky. And then they went and lost at home. These all, all these losses are home. They lost at home to the storm by like 11. Yeah.
Like they just did not play well at all. They scored barely over 60 points in that game. They finally snagged a win against the Mystics and then they went and lost at the Sun again. And now they play at the Liberty and they're not going to win that game. So really it comes down to that Sky game. And it kind of feels like they hung their heads after that loss feeling like, well, we should have had that one. Maybe our season's hanging in the balance. And then instead of taking care of business, they went and also lost a game to the Storm that they had no business losing. Yeah.
So I split pea soup is another one that it's like, not on my, I hate this. I'll never eat it list. It's not my first choice either in, in a way. This is my way of saying like, I'm a little bit disappointed because I wanted it to be better. I wanted to see the sparks in the playoffs. I thought they were going to squeak in. Um, I have nothing against Chicago making it because they won the right in that game.
at LA in order to do so, but it just, it feels bad. And now with a Gumbawale hurt, it kind of feels like, well, or excuse me, you know, Gumbak hurt. It kind of feels like, well, like it's, I don't know how serious the injury is, but it's kind of like shut it down. Like, and maybe that's not their attitude yet in that locker room. I imagine they're, they're still gonna like fight to their last breath, but yeah,
I'm interested in seeing what offseason moves they make. Obviously, this is the sort of thing that you add a Jewel Lloyd in the offseason to this team, and you're talking about a completely different recipe. It's not the same formula if that's what they look like next year. So I have optimism for the future of the Sparks. I'm not super excited about what we saw from them down the stretch this season. Split pea soup.
Yeah, I feel you there on many levels. Many, many levels. So I like that. Okay, we're going to kick down to the Minnesota Lynx. I actually have them picked out too. This is an easy one for me.
It's really not. Oh, for... I thought for... Right from the beginning, I was like, what's the most net neutral soup? And to me, that's chicken noodle. Now, I understand if you make homemade noodles at home and you do homemade chicken noodle soup, it can be really, really good. But if you get any brand canned soup, chicken noodle is fine.
Like that's your, that's your Mendoza line of soups and the links. I've joked about it often, but they pretty much have come to represent like the rain or shine or historical trends. It doesn't matter. They were, they're going to find a way into the playoffs and to be a roughly 500 team. Chicken noodle soup is my perfectly average. Nobody really has a problem with it.
It's some people's favorite and nobody would blame you for that. It doesn't feel very creative, but that's fine. It's just so neutral. It's so in the middle that it almost feels like it gets discredited sometimes for not being one of those upper crusts. But what about this and that? And you forget sometimes. It's nice to have a consistently good soup, no matter what brand you get, no matter what restaurant you're in, no matter whose house you're eating at.
And there is something to be praised for the Minnesota Lynx starting the season the way they did 0-6 and getting back into the playoffs and just being like, that's just who we are no matter what adversity comes our way. So as much as I feel like I probably hated on them too much this season, I'm actually pretty impressed at the resiliency. It feels like they are eternal. They're never going anywhere.
That's chicken noodle soup. Chicken noodle soup is going to be a part of our... It's going to be 2070 and the sun will have burned out and we're going to be eating chicken noodle soup. So that's the Minnesota links to me in a nutshell. Okay, you ready? The Minnesota links are borscht. You know what's crazy? I knew you were going to say that. I'm not... I wouldn't say this just for laughs. I had a weird feeling that you were going to say that. Sorry, continue. I had...
I have had two bowls of borscht. One was weird. One was delicious, which kind of speaks for it. But there's really one reason for this. First of all, this is another team that's well-disciplined. They play a very fluid style of basketball, which I love to watch. And borscht is aesthetically pleasing.
Yeah, it's like a deep red. It's a deep beet red color. It's a beautiful color. It's fun to look at. And I love watching fluid team basketball, and that's what Minnesota brings to the court. So I always enjoy that. It's also one of the only soups that is served both hot and cold. That is literally what the Winks have been this season. They started as a very ice cold soup, and then they just got piping hot and sit where they sit now.
And for yet another season, we're looking at a team we were about to write off and going like, are they going to blow up everyone's plans come playoff time? And it could happen. It's a tangy sour soup. It's like one of the few that I would call like sour other than hot and sour soup. Like it's a very interesting flavor profile, but it makes for –
You know, a lot of versatility with the hot and cold at night. So I had to go with that one. I forgot it's one of those soups that's sometimes served cold. But when you said borscht immediately, I was like, because it's like it can be sour and good or too sour and very not good. And that's a really good call. I like your take better than mine. That's it. Well done. Absolutely. Beet soup.
Beet soup. My dad made something similar to it because he was a vegetarian. He made a very veggie-heavy soup with beets in it that we called beet soup, but it wasn't quite borscht. But here we are. All right. Let's move on to the Phoenix Mercury. I'll go ahead and start. This one actually is in the same vein in some ways or another, but it's because this team has been kind of frustrating in some ways.
But not at the same time. I mean, the Phoenix has been through the ringer the last couple years just with everything off the court, on the court, whatever have you. But their gazpacho, the flavors are there.
They are. You know that's my favorite Gordon Ramsay gif is him shouting at whatever contestant. The flavors are there. I mean, this is a Spanish-Portuguese, depending on where, you know, a little different each way. But soup, it's got a wine vinegar, like, base to it. It has a lot of flavor.
But different from Borscht, this team started cold and ended cold. And I don't know. I'm confused. It's confusing having gazpacho because it is good and you enjoy it. Like you enjoy the taste, but it's weird eating a cold soup. It's weird. And Phoenix has been weird to me because all of the pieces, the talent base is there.
I mean, Grenner hasn't been healthy all season. When she was playing at the beginning of the season, she was playing at an extremely much higher level, I think a lot of people expected, given everything she's been through. So if Cunningham was there, obviously with DT, there's a little hit and miss. But there's been a lot of intermixing here to make this team work. But they started cold and they ended cold, and it's frustrating because they could have been – this could have been so good.
And I'm hoping they can find a way to rework some of these pieces and turn this into something successful next season. But it would take a lot of changing. You know, adding Skylar Dickens-Smith to the mix might add some heat to this, but we're going to have to see where it comes.
So Phoenix is frustrating. Phoenix is, I know people see Phoenix at the bottom of the standings, probably don't give them a lot of thought, but the end of their season has been very strange. Um, they won three of four games, including two wins at home against both Connecticut and Washington, and then lost nine in a row.
And a lot of them haven't even been close. So I don't really know what happened in the Mystics and Sun games where suddenly everything fell apart and the wheels fell off. But since then, it's been really ugly. Basically, by halftime of every game, they're just kind of dogging it and trailing by 10, and it hasn't been good, which is why it's probably going to surprise you that I'm going to give them a really good soup despite them being that type of team at the end of the season here. To me, they're my tortilla soup.
And I know what you're thinking. You're like real, real original going with the Southwest, you know, thing for a Phoenix team. But the actual reason is it's got some of my very favorite ingredients you can have in terms of ingredients being players. I like a lot of players on Phoenix's team. I actually really liked this Phoenix team, but every time I have tortilla soup, even though I really liked tortilla soup, I'm kind of just reminded of other better food.
Because I would rather be having Mexican, like I'd be having like tortillas or burritos or something like that. And the sad thing about this team is you look at all of the names on it and you just think like, remember when they made a crazy run just like not long ago? And then think about how much has happened since then.
Not just to the team, but like Griner's stuff, firing a coach, like all sorts of, you know, just weird off-court stuff. The locker room stuff just after the finals ended. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, they made that crazy run. We all thought they were going to come back next year with, like, some unfinished business and then never really got a chance to do that. And so every time I see Phoenix down there at the bottom of the standings, I think, yeah, that makes sense. They're not a very good team this year. But they remind me of when they were...
They're a really good team. And like, I like tortilla soup, but when I eat it, I just think like, kind of wish I was eating the real thing. That's, that's sort of my, my, my take on that. And they, you know, Southwest influence, but you know, that, that I was, I was trying to branch out that, that one feels like maybe a cop out, but no, not bad. Not bad at all. Let's talk about Seattle. We have two more teams left. Let's go to Seattle first.
Any immediate thoughts here? Seattle has probably been the toughest one because I don't know, like the best I've got is like roasted red pepper because, because Jewel Lloyd smoky spicy can get like as red hot as anybody in the league. It feels like a very obvious, like, Ooh, like,
But I don't really have any other thoughts on roasted red pepper soup. And I don't have a ton of thoughts or opinions on her surrounding cast in Seattle because it's so obvious to me that while I do trust that organization to rebuild, I think...
Without a centerpiece to build around, it's really hard to feel anything about that team. And my perspective for a long time has been, I think Jules is going to leave, and I think they're going to draft the next centerpiece of that team. So until they have an identity in Beckers or Clark or Reese or whoever, or Van Liff, whoever they end up getting in the draft, I don't really know how to characterize this team moving forward.
Roasted red pepper soup. Mine might be cheap, but the Stormer matzo ball soup, that in terms of chicken-based, like chicken soups and that style, it's not one that I would immediately turn to. There are lots of other forms, like chicken noodle, chicken dumpling. You know, there's all kinds of things I'd turn to. But the star of the show is the matzo. It's called matzo ball soup. It's the matzo ball. And I mean, like, flavor texture-wise, but then also just...
aesthetically. Like it's one of those soups that if you see, like, you know what it is when you see it, right? It's very, it has an element with the matzo ball that gives it its standout. And I think it sounds pretty obvious. Jewel Lloyd's the matzo ball. She's what's been worth watching this year for Seattle. She's what's made this fun as a storm fan. And that's not to belittle anyone else on that roster, but,
the storm lost a lot between Brie Stewart and super retiring and a lot of other movement within their roster. There is going to be a lot of interesting changes, but I still watched a lot of storm games because it was a lot of fun watching jewel Lloyd do things. Um,
It probably feels unfair to FIFA fans that they're not the last place team this year, and now we're heaping love on Phoenix and Seattle. But to their credit, as you said, I've really enjoyed watching Phoenix and Seattle play games this year. Phoenix at home more so than on the road. But Seattle for the same reason, because Jewel Lloyd is just a joy to watch play basketball. And to your point, matzo balls are delicious. This is exactly. And this is kind of a thing that like...
maybe it's a Pacific Northwest thing right now of just basketball teams with singular scores who need support, but put on great individual performances. Now the thing is, Julie doesn't have a Miami to potentially go to, but like that move, I mean, you talked about the potential of July and like what's going to happen there with the future. I see all realities is equally plausible and,
her saying let's build something here makes sense, her saying let's go here and put something together. It all makes sense to me. But yeah, I feel pretty good about that in general pick. Let's close this out with Vegas. I'll jump right in with it. I thought a lot about this. My natural inclination was to initially give it clam chowder
So it was kind of the last big soup I hadn't picked. And it's very commonly on the top of people's lists. It's very, you know, very much a pocket thing, but Vegas just isn't clam chowder. Like they're just not, I should have probably given them gumbo and I didn't, but I'll put it this way. If, if Dallas is a taco soup in, in its elements and its flavors and its profiles, Vegas is pozole. Like Vegas,
let's take that and supercharge it. Authentic, real. I mean, uh, like all the elements are there and everything's done exactly, you know, what, you know, and, and for some people, Pasola may not be here for the, maybe more of a menudo fan. I don't know. But, um, Pasola is one of those that's just, you know, it's always a joy to me. Um, and what it is, it's interesting with them, similar to what we've seen in New York, um,
It's a weirdly chunky soup. I don't know if you've had a lot of pozole, but it's like... There could be lots of potatoes, there could be lots of pork. There will commonly just be a cob of corn in it. There's a lot of things that come through. And that's the thing. When you have to play Vegas, you're constantly reminded of their star power. I can't tell you how many times I've watched a game where I can feel the bench of the opposing team out loud saying, Right! Chelsea Gray! Chelsea Gray!
Right. We have to also be on top of Asia Wilson, on top of Kelsey Plum, on top of a qualified bench. We also have to beat Chelsea. Like this just keeps happening. We just keep getting faced with, you know, this deep roster that can make things happen now. But so like there's some people that would want me to say, like, can you really just like say, turn everything up to 11 and everything done well?
When they had like a down period? Yeah. I can forgive the one week where they didn't look that good. Yeah. And then they immediately went back to being what seemingly is the best looking team in basketball.
I can deal with that. So if I'm giving taco soup, which is my favorite soup to Dallas, I'm going to turn that dial all the way up and give pozole to Vegas. Now, I'm very intrigued at what you've got for Vegas. I'm looking forward to it. There's probably a better soup for what I'm trying to say about Vegas. But the one I've come up with is creamy tortellini soup.
Fun. My reasoning being that tortellini on its own, even outside of a soup, just in a vacuum, is like, okay, incredible. Off to a good start. We're full of cheese.
We're good, right? Whatever. Asia Wilson just on her own, I think could make any team probably a contender. Maybe you don't drop her onto Seattle or Phoenix this year. And instantly that team is fighting for a championship, but you're in the playoffs no matter what, if she's on your team, that's where you're starting from. And then you have all this other stuff in it that a lot of times soups on their own, like their ingredients on their own are very different than once they're all mixed together. So like,
You could have chopped up carrots. If you're not big into lima beans or carrots or peas or whatever, but it's in a soup, a lot of times you're just like, but it's kind of working right now. Creamy tortellini soup is just banger ingredients one after another. So you got spicy sausage in there. I think you got kale in there, which is another one of those kind of just for soups. I don't really love kale outside of soups. But...
I don't know who the cloves of garlic are. Like Kelsey plum and Chelsea gray can fight over who is what ingredient, but everything in it is like so good on its own. And then all works together in, you could do this with beef stew. I think too. I think they could easily be a beef stew where it's just like, you got meat, you got potatoes, you got your veggies. It's all working. It's hardy. Like the, the point being that it's exactly what you said. You're just like one after another, like you have these, these,
You have so much talent in the WNBA, and even then, it feels like there's such a concentration of it in Vegas. So much so that Candice Parker went there in the offseason. We all thought, well, boy, here we go again. They lost Candice Parker after the season and were not really phased by their championship chances at all. I don't know if the odds have had... I don't know what the Vegas numbers look like, but...
I mentioned at the top of the show, I do think the New York Liberty are their equal. I do think they're going to play each other in a series and the Liberty have a chance to do something that maybe a lot of people don't expect. But it's the Aces season to lose right now.
And I know we've had some Commissioner Cup talk and some battles in the past where it looked like the Liberty were the superior team. But one of these teams has experience winning a title in recent memory. And the other's got Stewie, who knows what she's doing there, too. So there's going to be a lot of balance, I think, in this postseason when it comes to the upper crest teams. But I no longer think the Aces sit on a tier all their own.
Because I think the Liberty have kind of caught up to them in terms of what they have to offer. It's just that when you look at the Aces top to bottom, it's just like, where are the weaknesses? Where are the ingredients that you're like, I could do without it? There just kind of aren't any. And that's what makes them such an intimidating team to go up against because there's just never... There's no breather. There's no break when their bench takes the floor. It's just the best players that are giving you the best they have for maybe the best coach in the league every single night.
Yes. No, that's a really good pick. That's a good way to close things out. I think it's – that's kind of why I said, like, man, I should have given them gumbo in hindsight because it's the idea of just – we're just going to completely crank up the flavor profiles here and just let it work. But I love it. Yeah, that was –
A good healthy hour plus of soup talk. There's some sort of movement between the sun and the moon and the stars that determines when fall begins. But when fall actually begins is when WNBA Nation gets on the mic and talks about soups. So now that we've done that, you'll notice the leaves are going to start turning brown and it's going to start being really pretty outside. That's us. We did that. So...
Sorry. No, this is... I like doing these episodes. These are fun. No, this is good fun. Had a good time here. So, you know, we're closing in on the end of the season this weekend. It's the last week of the regular season, and then we're diving right into playoff time. We're looking to get a preview up early next week so that we can...
Get excited for the playoffs and run through that. And then that's September. Stay tuned. It's all things dialed down. We still have college ball to talk about. We'll have some other sports and events to talk about. We might have some specialty episodes. I'm hoping to get some W history content pumped out. There's a lot of stuff that we're looking to stay tuned.
in tune with anything else we want to shout out or call up for recovery day. Logan, uh, final week stretch before the post season. And then like you said, early next week, expect an episode from us. We're going to try to get you our sort of our lay of the land post season predictions, uh, so that you'll know the opposite direction to bet. If you're into sports gambling, uh,
Yeah. So that's not, that's not why we do it. It's just, that's just me being funny, but yeah, we're going to make sure that we bring that to you as soon as we can. Fantastic. Well, thanks again, always for sticking around with us for another episode of the show. We're very excited to see how this season culminates. Well, also wishing for more WNBA basketball, but it'll definitely be an exciting time. And we're very, very, very grateful and pleased that,
to have you here with us along the way. Until next time, I'm Steve Schwartzman. I'm Logan Jones. And we got you next time.