Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Hey guys, this is Liz Kambay. This is Nikki Collin. What up guys, this is S.S. Carson. Hey, this is Imani Lee Stafford. Hey, this is Jordan Canada. This is Asia Wilson. Welcome to the WNBA Nation. WNBA Nation. Welcome back. Welcome in. Welcome to June. Welcome. It's Logan and it's Steve and it's WNBA Nation, the podcast. Steve Schwartzman is with me. How are you doing, Steve? I am...
Well, I'm a lot of things. It's been a week. It's just been, it's been a time. This is the fireworks of the season. Overall, I'm really good. It's very nice to have basketball back in my life. I can tell mentally you're battling between, do I talk about basketball or do I talk about the life-changing link my wife sent me about basketball?
60 seconds ago. I'll tell the story again. We were about to hit record and then I couldn't breathe because I was laughing. My son is about to turn six. So we're on the week of his birthday. We're doing the last second shopping.
This won't shock anyone. My son is a Lightning McQueen freak. He loves the Cars movies and all that. I get a link for my wife, and I'm thinking, oh, it's just like another toy. I don't know if you guys know this, but the Cars universe has about a thousand toys. That's why there's three movies in the TV series. And I click on it. I still can't believe this. It's a Macy's link for Cars.
Disney Cars Lightning McQueen cologne. Eau de toilette. Cologne. Rusty's bumper ointment. Very prominently cologne. And for some reason, the best part about it, at the very bottom of it, it says 195 miles per hour. Like, it has to...
Is that how fast he's driving? Is that the speed of the cologne? This is something I would have expected you and Jason to come up with as a fake ad during our, this is important. I nearly lost my mind. The product description says, and then we'll actually talk about real things, but speed and adventure merge in the car's fragrance with a citrus and sweet aroma. Feel the excitement of the road at each spray. Yeah.
Hello. All right. Capitalism is destroying us all, but some days. For real? Okay, for real. Welcome to W Nation. We are going to talk about basketball today. In fact, we're going to just start right now. Bit of a free-flowing episode today, Steve, but so many topics to get to. There's really no other way to do it.
By the time you're hearing this, I'm assuming this is coming out probably June 4th is the earliest you're going to get it. So we do have just a ton of stuff to go through. Should we set the tone?
I guess. Do we want to make note of like, here's what we're not going to talk about today. Should we do that? Sure. Yeah. We're not going to address. There's a bunch of stuff going on today in terms of like, like Pat McAfee and Stephen A and talking about Kennedy Carter shoving Caitlin Clark. And there's a Tribune article about it. And there's a lot of discourse about it. Um,
In an effort to just know and respect the audience that listens to the show, you're probably either caught up on all of that and just as upset about it as we are. Or you don't want to hear anything more about it, just like we do. Or just like we don't. So we're probably just going to skim right past that entire headline, if that's cool with everybody. We're at the very tail end of... And if you're also someone who's an ardent follower of this league for a while and you're as online as we are...
We're at the tail end of a pretty Monday that you've probably also had because it's just been that kind of a day. And I feel like the way we put it earlier was we're going to let this be the safe space if you need one, because for some reason, what's gotten lost in all of this discourse is the basketball part of it.
And when you do that, you realize, oh, yeah, that's why we're following this league because we like basketball. And that's what we're here to do. And there's been so much good basketball. I think that's what's frustrating me most is we're taking away from talking about the absolute like shovel full of great basketball we've had in the last two or three weeks of the season.
Yeah, it's a thing about everything that's going on in kind of the media circuits today. And this is a part of every league, so it's not unique to the WNBA. But it a little bit overshadows the actual sport sometimes, which is what we would like to talk about. I know Connecticut Sun fans are probably just sitting there going like, um, like, there's this controversy going on. I'm sure Minnesota Lynx fans are out there just like, hello, can we...
I know Clark's a big deal, but we're over here. So we do want to get to all those things today. I'm sure the Washington Mystics are just like, don't worry about us. We're cool. Talk about whatever you want. But we're going to get into all of it. So let's just start at the top. That's easiest for me. And then I'll toss it to Steve for whatever he wants to get into. To me, I think Connecticut being a perfect 8-0 to start the season, above the New York Liberty, above the Vegas Aces...
They're outscoring teams by 10 points. They probably... Alyssa Thomas has got to be... Her hat's got to be in the ring for a very early MVP bid. Yes. They have lots of players on their team that are doing good things. That's the Connecticut Sun way. But it just feels like she has defined a lot of moments in this season so far. Is this... Not the perfect record, but is this...
Connecticut Sun team, is this like a staying power? They're going to be able to hold on to that one seed because of this hot start? Or are you thinking like, yeah, they're a contender. They're going to be there. But ultimately, I expect Vegas, New York, someone could overtake them. What's your stance on Connecticut right now? I'll say this right now. I don't know if holding on to the one seed is really the answer. Obviously, there's 32 games that still have to be played. But...
there's a really strong narrative where the general assumption was this was going to be aces Liberty at the top of the standings. And there's still a lot of good reason to say that it's starting to feel like aces son is that mode. And listen, this time next week, we may have a different take to it. But I think what they're putting together is,
is very much on brand. And if everything goes, like, I think you can expect this to be an extremely continue to be a dominant team and we'll see where that carries them in the playoffs. But yeah, this is to me, not like a streaky. They just got off to a hot start. Um, they, the, the center at just as good as they look right now. Like that's, um, you brought up Alyssa Thomas as in like the MVP discussion, um,
I think there's three names that are in that running and she might be the first one that comes to mind. One of them is also Asia Wilson. And then I'll get to the third one in a moment. Um, but yeah,
Yeah. If this is you're being like, oh, are the Sun for real? Or is this just a hot start? They're every bit as good as they look right now. Yeah. In classic Sun fashion, their starting five are averaging over 10 points a game. They play at least nine players deep basically every game.
DeJuan Abonner scoring 19 points a game, but Alyssa Thomas leads in rebounds, assists, and blocks. It's the same team they are every year. I don't know why we doubted them last year. I'm glad we rebounded and did not doubt that this year. I think we thought maybe losing Kurt Miller would have really shifted the way for them, but then Stephanie Weintraub and everyone else. Yeah. I'll phrase this question this way. If it was anybody but the Connecticut Sun,
I think there'd be even more momentum behind like, this team's going to challenge for the championship. I could see them beating Vegas. I could see them beating New York. Like, this team's going to do it. The problem is Connecticut's been so good for so long and hasn't been able to climb that mountain that we've all just become so used to just like, oh yeah, they're so good right now. Like, I don't think they're going to... I don't think they're going to do it. And I would caution against that. I just...
They look like maybe they're a special team this year. And again, I have that same temptation to just be like, ah, like, but they always do. But if this was anybody else, if this was an upstart dream or Dallas or whatever team off to a hot start, you'd be like, they're for real. And we should pay attention. So that's the one I wanted to kick off with. I'm pretty sure I know where Steve is going with our next little mini topic here as referenced earlier, but Steve, there's another team that we need to talk about that. I was not correct with my, with my preseason predictions. Um,
So I'll just get that. Let us, let us know. Let us know the other. Yeah, no, you're, you're dead on. This is kind of where I wanted to take things. I'll piece it together with my last take this way.
I told you there were three names that are in the running for MVP. And I have no idea if this is a controversial thing to say, or if people are going to refute this in any way, but I think it's a three name race out of the first six to 10 games, six to 11 games, depending on what team you are, because apparently we don't know how to schedule a lead right now, but out of the first stretch of games, if you give me three names for MVP, there's Asia Wilson. There's Alyssa Thomas. And to me, there's Nafisa Collier.
What's going on in Minnesota? I just really, really like everything I'm seeing out of Minnesota. They look really good. There's tenacity. Kayla McBride looks in full form. Man, I like the league when she's good. Buckets is completely back and in full swing. Yeah, I don't even know. I want to get your immediate thoughts because I have too much to say. I really love what the Lynx are putting together right now.
Yeah. Nafisa Collier, I feel like got a little bit... Not last year. So it was 2022. She had an early injury. I think she played like four games. She was basically a non-factor in 2022. 2023, she comes back. Minnesota is not a very good team. She has a pretty great season. Not just like a good for coming back from an injury, but like...
really good season. And so this is a little bit of just a continuation of that. Only the team is now performing. They're six and two out of the gate, which I think is a surprise to a lot of people. Hopefully not just us. Collier's averaging 21 and a half a game. She's getting steals. She's getting 11 rebounds. She's stuffing the stat sheet. It's mattering to the team. It
It just feels different this year than last year because it's resulting in wins. But she's actually been super consistent across the board, at least with all of her numbers between last year and this year. And for some reason, I thought this was a player that we were getting to like, Oh, she needs to make something happen because she's kind of at the edge of her prime. Absolutely not. She's 27 years old.
And I think maybe she just seems older to me because of the injury year. And so it's like, oh, we lost a year and she was good before that. And, you know, she's got to be getting up there. No, dude. Like there's a lot of good call your years left. So if, if Minnesota's,
I think Minnesota would be right to plan around here for a long, long time. They have some room to play with building a team here and maybe already have. I mean, I'm a big McBuckets fan. Courtney Williams is there. Alana Smith is there. Alana Smith has looked fantastic. I really have enjoyed her this season. She's glued a lot of that roster together. Yes.
I mean, you've got Diamond Miller and players like that coming off the bench for this team. There's Alyssa Peely, who I was pretty cautiously out on in terms of draft value and whether she's even going to make the team. Kind of feels like she's coming along. Just had a 20.9 against Phoenix. I mean, if you're a rookie in this rookie class...
you really, you gotta do something to stand out and she did it. So, um, I, yeah, I like this links team. I don't think they're a mirage being six and two. I think they've, there's always a team that kind of rises, uh,
from the middle of the pack into like, we're going to be spicy this year and you better watch out. I was wrong. I picked Dallas. I thought Dallas was going to be like, Hey, we finished third last year. Like let's take a step forward and be like really good. Um, and so far again, very early. It kind of looks like Minnesota is that team. It's like, you forgot about us. That's too bad. Like, yes, that's a real shame. That's, that's exactly where my, my mind hits here is it's,
they seem to be that team that people are overlooking. I think a lot of it is because they obviously are still not, when you think about it, still not too far removed from the previous era of the big four. Yeah. Not really. And all of that. And so,
You come out to the post-Cillia Fowles. She was kind of the last name of that mix still on that team. You don't know how long this supposed rebuild thinks. And there's one thing I'm learning. I just don't think Cheryl Reeve likes the idea of rebuilds. The thing that's different, though, is the last couple seasons started very sluggishly for Minnesota. They had to put a lot of work in the second half of the season to get themselves in playoff position. And they look just ready to throw already, top to bottom. You have...
Cicely Zandalosini is putting in really good minutes off the bench. Alyssa Peely just dropped the 20-point game and has been really good. You already called out Dorky Juhasz. Bridget Carlton's looking good. The mix with Courtney Williams and Lennon Smith. I mean, this is all stuff you've already said. I don't know why I'm repeating all of it. But a lot of this goes on top of the fact that, like, Nafisa Collier is playing so much at the level that we know she's capable of and is playing with –
a really, I just feel like there's an assertiveness that she's playing. There's an attitude to it. She's definitely in that mode of like,
I kind of am getting tired of not being talked about type of thing. And that's an attitude that is like a thread line through a lot of players this year. There's a lot of people we could call out that it's been really interesting watching players play. And I don't know if I would put this on Collier and this isn't going to sound as like the compliment. It truly, truly is, but there's a real cadre of players this year that are playing mean more than they ever have before. And it's been really, really fun to watch.
So, yeah, I was really big on really surprised with what I've seen out of Minnesota, but they've been very impressive. Yeah. And in fact, I will I will we will save a little bit of time here on the
covering the New York Liberty because we talked a little bit before pressing record about how it's like the Liberty or seven and two, they're not really drawing a lot of like strictly like, let's, let's talk about them. Like we must talk about headlines because we already kind of knew they were going to be really good and they are really good. But the, the,
The thread here that I'm following is New York went to Minnesota and kind of got the crap beat out of them. Yeah, that's like the one big thing. Like, like the, it was really good because there's, there's a lot of talk about like, can New York be the team that breaks Connecticut's unbeaten streak because they play pretty soon.
I don't think Connecticut's going to go unbeaten forever. That's absolutely a possibility. New York is very good. But they traveled to Minnesota, a team that has about 50% of the time, as far as I can remember, struggled mightily with late game defense. New York put up nine points in the fourth quarter of that game. I mean, Minnesota came out of the gate hot on offense, blew the doors off of them.
New York recovered because they're a good team. And then they outscored him 18 to nine in the fourth quarter. If that's the Minnesota links, we're getting all season against good teams. That's a really dangerous. I don't want anything to do with them in a playoff series. I know we're only eight games in and it's ridiculous, but like,
Just be a little concerned. This isn't just Minnesota beating up on bad teams. This is for real Minnesota and New York. Again, no one's really concerned. I think they're going to be fine. They just recently like thrashed Indiana. So, so badly. So I think they're gonna be fine, but legitimately like they, they lost games to Chicago and Minnesota and then beat to the two worst teams in the league. They'd be Washington and they'd be Indiana at home. So like, we'll see. They go on a little bit of a road trip.
I don't know when you're going to be listening to this pod, but their upcoming three-game road trip is Chicago, Atlanta, Connecticut. So we'll see. We'll see. That's all I really have on New York. Do you have any Liberty comments? I mean, I think it's an interesting case where they haven't been playing poorly by any means. So it's not enough to stand out there. But then also three of their seven wins are against what I would call at best an uninspired Indiana team. Yeah. If you're talking about the Fever Wholesale.
And so it's just, I don't think we've figured out their mojo yet. I think the angles there, and obviously I think they're everything we should expect them to be. I just think that we haven't quite seen them catch fire like Connecticut have. And that's why as we get closer to mid season, and this is where it's going to get really interesting, especially for teams like Connecticut, this is an Olympic year. So we're going to have a break.
In just over a month, we're going to have this harsh break where suddenly we're not getting games. And it's going to be interesting on who maintains momentum and who doesn't coming out of that. So that's what makes this really interesting. I know there are certain people that want to be like, well, and also, you know, there's the ramifications for the Commissioner's Cup. And I just, I don't even know if I, that's kind of where I wanted to take these next, but I don't know. It's up to, it's your call, but like.
My thoughts on the Commissioner's Cup. It's black, it's white, it's got some rose gold on it. Sometimes I listen back to our episodes after we record them. And I feel a little bit too pessimistic about things. I always want our commentary and our show and everything to be very...
like honest, but also like uplifting about like, we're in the league's corner. We want to see it do well. We want to see the things that it wants to do succeed. I just have yet to talk to anybody who cares at all about the commissioner cup.
And we're like, we're on Twitter and the show is out there and people listen. And like, maybe I'm wrong. And I apologize. I'm not trying to like crap on like, if it's your favorite part of the season, that is not my intention, but it's, it's just like, if they did away with it tomorrow, I don't think the players care. I don't think fans generally care. It's, it's just this thing basketball is trying to do because they're trying to make the game more familiar. I think to universal audiences, because it's something that soccer does is mid season tournament. And they really wanted to do it.
But nobody was calling for it. They just wanted to do it. I don't want to poo-poo it too much because I want the WNBA to be willing to try things. That's how you find really cool stuff. This isn't one of them.
Unfortunately for me, I don't get a lot from it. That's all I have on the Commissioner's Cup. That's really it. Great trophy. Great trophy. Great trophy. And the ball's there, though. But the ball. They do. They said they were going to ramp this up. They said they were going to add prestige. They said they were going to ramp up the marketing. They were really going to make this work. They did shorten the schedule for it a bit. They made that more succinct. Good for them on that. And the ball, too. And there's that.
And it's black and it's white and it's got some rose gold into it. I do think... I will say this about the ball. If they committed hard to rose gold and maybe made it one, they did like a black and rose gold with the full panels. Maybe that's it. Or if you just sub out orange for rose gold and it's just a rose gold ball for the game, that's cool. It's basically a black and white ball with like a little bit of trim and like lettering that's rose gold on it. So it's kind of fine. But it's also...
It feels like that's the most promotion you've given it. Now, the one thing I'm going to say, your decision is what the W did with changing the ball and what the MNBA did with rolling out what I can only call just ass court designs. I'll take the ball every time. I really feel bad for anyone that thought those mid-season, like the in-season tournament MNBA courts were
We're nice. They were universally not. We have smart listeners. I feel like this is the part where we're going to break from basketball just to talk aesthetics for a minute. I'm going to bounce us back into something that I know you want to talk about. Otherwise, we'll be on aesthetics. I might derail it again because I just realized there's one thing we haven't talked about yet that I'm ready to talk about. But we'll wait on that. I'll wait until we need a break. I know this is one you mentioned. Please.
So, and it does, I'm not intentionally going down the order of the standings, but it is related to the Vegas Aces. They are four and two right now. One of those two was a game at Atlanta. It was now, it was before the weekend. It was on Friday. So like, it's a little bit old news now, but it was an absolutely chaotic in the best way game in which they lost to Atlanta by four.
And it included... There's been a lot of talk this week about meanness because there's been Kennedy Carter and shoving and Caitlin Clark and stuff going on. I kind of wish that this game was the...
The like figure one one in like the NBA or the WB is getting a little spicy early in the season. This was my game of the year so far. I mean, we're, you know, whatever. We're less than a quarter of the way through the season. So don't take too much stock of that. But it was a blast. And it's also just interesting still whenever Vegas loses because it just doesn't happen that often. And it looks like this year.
Might happen a little bit more often than we're used to, perhaps. I don't know. They just picked up Tiffany Hayes in the time since we recorded our last podcast. Anyway, the point is, the Dream are that team that kind of wants to play spoiler for everyone this year. So, A.J. Wilson went for 28-9. They lost the game. It was just really fun. And the topic that I think you wanted to touch on especially was Jackie Young related. Yes. Yes, it is. Yeah.
We talk a lot about Plum and Wilson and whatever they're doing the offseason, Becky Ammon and whatever. It's time to give – let's give Jackie Young a little bit of a spotlight. I'm going to throw it over to Steve for the Jackie Young corner. Here's how I'm going to put it. Jackie Young – and I know it's mainly just two scenarios. But Jackie Young is getting pissed off and it rules is the way I can put it. Yeah.
She had a moment where she got up with Ariel Powers. There was, I believe, with Sophie Cunningham as well against Phoenix. And she had maybe my quote of the season so far, which was her just yelling, you're not built like that. It's so great. The point that I saw someone make on Twitter that I really liked is like,
If you have Jackie Young that fired up, like you're in the wrong. If you've gotten her to that level, like you've done the wrong, like, because talk about a player who's been generally even keel. She always has a very like introverted feel to her. This is a hype roster. I mean, they're famous for your pregame dance offs in the hallway. And she's always the one that they try to like jab and get her to do something. And she has like that nervous, almost socially anxious look to her. And that's a personality. That's who you are.
Her getting fired up and seeing that has been so fun to see. And by the way, I'm not saying that that's indicative to her play. Jackie Young, being herself the last couple years, has played at a heavily all-star level. So it's not that. It's just environmentally, it's just fun watching her play pissed off. There's something about it that you can only be a women's basketball fan and say this. It's wholesome in its own way.
No, I know what you mean. It's one thing, you know, if a known hot-headed player does their thing, it's fun. It's fun for the crowd. It's fun for everybody. You're like, yeah, this is kind of what they do. This is great.
Jackie Young's having a better season than maybe she's ever had. It's pretty much on par. If you go by per 36 minutes, it's pretty much on par with her year last year. And her field goal percentage just dipped a little bit. But this is someone that for her entire career, you could lock in at like, she's going to get 15, 20 points a game. She's going to take two personal fouls. Like,
It was just... She's just steady, steady, steady across the board. It's exactly what you want in a guard on a team like this. It's just like you know exactly where her baseline is and you're going to get it every night. So it was fun to see her go out and pick up four fouls and do some chirping and do stuff that were kind of like... I didn't know you had that in you, honestly. Like you have... So often you have teammates around you that handle this part of...
being a basketball team. And it was, I don't know, it's just fun. It's part of what makes the season fun. And it was fun that it was against a dream team that is now also, I would call wholesome in a way, because they had some drama and some struggles a couple years back. They've rebuilt the team since then. Ryan Howard's there. Everybody's playing good ball for the most part.
The uniforms are probably some of the better of... I don't know. I can't remember where you're at on the dream uniforms. But they look good. I like the ones they were in the other night. And they won the game. And usually, it's so often it's the aces are punching down a little bit on whoever they're yapping at because it's like, well, we're beating you by 20%.
And it was a little bit fun to see him struggle in this one, even though I have literally nothing against anybody on the Aces roster or their coach. It's like, oh, wow, this team loses a handful of games a season. They've dropped two of their first six. I wish that they'd played six more so that we could see what the truth is, but only a few teams have played six.
11 games and Vegas has only played six. So we don't even have time to get into the scheduling stuff, but it's heinous. I've never seen anything like that, but you've hit a lot about Atlanta and I guess I'm just going to derail all our conversations with aesthetic stuff because I have two different topics. I got to make sure we hit this episode, but I can't hold back on this one any longer. And I'm very sorry. Now we can go down. There's a couple of teams I'd want to talk about down here.
There's one in particular. I really want to talk about Phoenix in a minute. But Atlanta is in the cadre, but I'm going to say this to you. And there's a lot that's been said recently about the fever for a lot of different reasons. There's been a lot of discourse around them. There's one topic that people seem to not be hitting with them. Atlanta also seems to be part of this epidemic. It's starting to get frustrating. Outside of things that are obviously there to be upset about, because there's a lot of things to really be upset about.
There's one thing that's really getting my goat above anything, Logan. And I think it's building a thread line that's detrimental to, I'll say sports as a whole, the game in its richness. And this may be controversial. This may be something that people don't want to hear, maybe something they disagree with. And I think people who are going to disagree with this need to have some self-reflection.
And so to get right out in front of it, Logan, what the hell is going on with gray courts? Gray courts are not good. And I look, okay. Anytime we get into aesthetics or anything, I'm just like, look, let people like what they like. If they think it's cool, that's fine. Like, it's just your opinion is super subjective. This is one where, again, I'm like, I don't know who was calling for this. I want to be careful how I phrase it. Maybe I'll phrase it differently. Great. I do not find a single gray court that I have seen thus far in my life appealing enough.
They're so bad. Especially when your uniforms are so...
Like, yeah, this is what Atlanta, it weirds me out. Cause like Atlanta's rebel Jersey is still maybe the best rebel Jersey league. It's one of the best. It's really good. That's the color scheme. Great. How do you not have that incorporated somehow? And it doesn't, yeah, it just doesn't pop. It's, it makes it so hard to pop when you have an especially colorful aesthetic or some, something bright that pops off. It looks so weird. Yeah.
on the backing of these gray courts because it looks like so it's that classic like 1980 something's wrong with your tv thing you know back in the day of like terrestrial television where like the analog and sometimes your tv would go black and white and you had to smack it to get back to color that's what it looks like to me it just looks strange and it throws it off and it's like in that atlanta arena because one thing that's not being talked about with atlanta is that i think their venue is very cool
I actually like that cozy... Yes, it's not a very big arena, but they fill it up really nicely. And I think it's a really nice setup. And they make a great environment in there. I really like their venue. There's something about the court. It feels like MTV Rock and Jock. It feels like a secret unlockable court you can get at the end of a video game. That's just like, okay, cool, but...
I don't know. Maybe this is me being at my most traditionalist, but it's like, just give me a wood-colored court. Let it look classic. You don't need...
to fiddle with this like in any way and it just doesn't it does it does feel a little old man yells at cloud meme to be like can we not but like i'm okay with creative effort and trying new things with courts i'm i think it's it's too bad when that is just like well you know what the most boring thing we could do is we could just make it sleep right um
Okay. Yeah. It's still better than the NBA's midseason courts. Those were putrid. I still don't understand the point of them. They made it impossible to watch basketball. These, you can at least watch the end, but it's just like so much of like the fevers marketing coming into the season felt like it was on point. It seemed like they were catching their stride and that same staff probably came up with the concept of this great court and just throws me off. Also, I have to call out the fever.
masterfully watermarking a gigantic logo behind the middle court logo so that if Clark so much as shoots an eight foot jumper, we can say it's from a logo. This is a very smart maneuver on their part. Yeah, that's cheating. That's cheating.
They don't need to do that. We didn't do this intentionally, but we basically talked about the top tier of teams. Vegas is currently 4-2, so winning record-wise, they're not in the top tier teams. But they're the top four teams, are the ones that we focused on. So just for the sake of patterns, I'm going to cluster the next four together since we've already talked a little bit of Dream. The apple of Steve's eye, the 2024 Seattle Storm...
Somehow are five and three. Like already. It's not surprising to me that they're like in the hunt for a playoff spot and playing better than people expect. They have Neko Kubike and then Skylar Diggins-Smith and Jewel Lloyd's been there. She's still scoring like 20 points a game. It's surprising that it's happened at the beginning of the season. I expected the slump coming out of the gate and then maybe at the Olympic break, they get together and figure some things out. Instead...
It kind of looks okay. I mean, they've got three of those wins are against the Fever and the Mystics, who are putrid at the moment. They're not playing good basketball. So, whatever. But on the road at the Chicago Sky...
Oh, another one's at the Mystics. Man, they have played an easy schedule, haven't they? They played at the Mystics, won that game. And then they won in Chicago. They won that game. But yeah, maybe that does change my opinion of them a little bit. Because I was thinking they had played the Liberty, which they had, but they actually lost the game. They did take Minnesota to double overtime. I think that's a good point. That's right. And...
weirdly one of the better losses to New York so far. It was still by 11, but when you consider New York has beaten Indiana three times by an average of like 20 points or something, it's something insane. Um, the, you know, I think it changes that now, uh,
Record-wise, I think it looks good. I think I test when you've watched this team gel. That's where you get a feel for how this team is doing and how they're working. Ogumike brings a physicality and a frontcourt presence that immediately changes things. Her ability to mesh with Magbogor has really shown itself really well. The thing that gets me about their backcourt is I don't know if Lloyd and Skydig have figured each other out yet.
And that's scary for other teams. It's going to show... I don't think they're in for a gauntlet coming up on their schedule, but they do play...
They have a stretch that's like every other night for six nights in a row. And it's some of them are on the road. We get the first Seattle Phoenix game here tomorrow on the fourth, probably by the time you're listening to this pod. That's going to be a pretty good test. They're right next to each other in the standings. I feel like Phoenix has figured some things out, but they're also without Griner. So they're are hamstrung in that way. But that's, I think that's going to be a very telling game.
As to what to expect from the Storm moving forward. I don't think anyone's going to be shocked that they're not going to go to Vegas or Minnesota and get wins. Although, as you mentioned, double overtime against Minnesota. So things happen on any given night. But games against the Mercury, I think a home game against the Sparks is another one that's like... If you want to stay being...
This Seattle team that's in contention, got some stuff going on, probably need to win that game. And then I won't get into the road trip after that because that's getting too far ahead. But yeah, they have what I would call like winnable games coming up. And then games that are just like, if you're playing good ball, you go on the road, maybe. But if they lose the easy ones, it might be... They might find themselves sinking pretty quickly. Yeah, it's true. I think...
What's been really interesting so far, especially with this big three, they've each had their fair share of offensive showcases. They've each all had at least one 20 point game where they've been able to showcase what they knew. I think Matt Moore has been consistent. If this team is to show what they can do and be as good as I personally believe they can be the impetus, like the, the glue type player who I think is going to be an over the hump for them is Jordan Horston, who has already been putting in really quality minutes.
and has been playing really well on the boards. And I just think brings a level of physicality in that lineup. That's extremely welcome. Sammy Whitcomb is Sam Bam. I don't even know how much I didn't say there. I think Victoria Vivians has excelled really well in the starting five, much more than I expected. It doesn't show in the statistics as much. I know a lot of people would rather Nika mule have more than three to four minutes per game.
So that's a tough one. Yeah. Give that a minute. They're playing Horsten and Vivian's and Whitcomb who are, I guess Vivian's is a starter, but I was going to say like those three players who are not Jewel Lloyd and sky dig, they're each getting like 20 minutes a game and, and putting in pretty good minutes. So it's, it's tough to find. I mean, this is a pretty good cluster of guards that you're trying to fight through here to get time. So that makes, that makes sense to me, but I think she'll work her way in there eventually. Yeah.
I think you're right, though. I was going to say, Magbogor is one of those players that I think can be a catalyst for this team. She uplevels her game. Suddenly, I think they become a team that's like any given night. It's like, ah, they're a little bit dangerous. I don't know. I don't know. She plays about 32 minutes a game. She's good on the boards. She scores an adequate amount.
She's just that player that I think you'd be happy to have on your team. You'd be happy to have on your fantasy team. But is she going to be able to make a jump to... Oh, we're doing... We're like a special team now because not only do we have a backcourt of names you know and pretty good depth on the bench, by the way, but we also have a starting center that can go toe-to-toe with your...
whatever your Bonner's your Stewie's your whoever's out there for other teams that usually make hay against guard heavy lineups yes absolutely um no I really love what Seattle's put it together I we both had the realization a minute that the schedule still has a lot of proving to do um
Teams just cool as hell. Phoenix will be really interesting. If you had to have me rank it in terms of who's the coolest team in the league, I feel like Seattle's the coolest. And it's not just because Julie, it's been my favorite player for seven years, but that's how it goes. But that said to take it another level, we haven't, we've already talked about Phoenix quite a bit. I just want to make one point out in terms of, of their input that I find is really interesting. I,
How do you currently respond to the fact that Tarana Taurasi is leading the league in threes at 41 years of age? Good. Because what's actually... Okay.
We're not going in this direction. We're not talking about it. But the discourse right now that a lot of people want to have is that the WNBA is getting attention for one player and one player only. It's Kaitlin Clark. And the response that some players have had, which we both love because we think it's very... Angel Reese came out and basically says there's more than just Kaitlin Clark in this league. There's also...
Me, Angel Reese. And I like that while that's all going on in front of presser cameras and mics, Dana Tarazi, who's been doing this since I was a child... Yes. ...is out there. Like you said sometime in the show, this could easily be her final season. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. We know better than to try to speculate early, early. But...
Very well could be. She's not having a farewell season. The spotlight is not on her. And yet, she's got a Phoenix team that I think as soon as the Griner injury was announced, even Phoenix fans were like, that is not good. We might be tough to watch. They're 4-5. They probably got a good chance to get to 500 against that Seattle team we just mentioned. And you've seen Diana Triazzi warm up and hit threes before. She's going to be hitting threes when she's 60. It's not something she can't ever do. Like...
there's lots of talented shooters in the league. And so I get that. It's surprising to see her at the top, but it's like, sure. Like you, you could have told me at any point in the past 20 years that she was on top of that leaderboard. And I'd be like, that makes sense. Yeah. Is she healthy? Is she out there? That makes sense. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's just been refreshing to see in a lot of ways. Remember back in 2021, uh, at the end of, uh,
the team USA Olympic run when she said, we'll see you in Paris. Everyone kind of snickered at that. Oh, what a, what a joker. And now we're just like, oh yeah, obviously she was serious. Like it's not even now I'm certain I'm looking and going like,
just like, does she come off the bench in 2028 or are they still going to start in LA? Like, how's that going to work? Uh, you know, you know where I was, where I was going with that though, where it's like, we have, we have all these rookies that are kind of like making headlines or not making headlines or whatever. And then you have this player who's essentially, I don't know what the NBA equivalent is. I don't want to disrespect her by giving her like an NBA analog, but I,
A verifiable legend for the past two decades of the WNBA is still performing at such a high level. And there's still all this arguments over like, what's the main draw? Why do people watch the league? Are people just there for Caitlyn or is there more? It's like, is there more? Like, do you remember life in 2004, Steve? Things were different. Yeah.
But Diana Drazi was still doing it. It wasn't that different. Yeah, I mean, it goes beyond even comparison. We're talking about maybe the best offensive player that's ever played the game. I mean, it's just been a refreshing thing to see. The Phoenix roster is well put together, I think, to make a lengthy run. If they can manage to get Greiner healthy and on the court at some point this season, I mean, broken lower extremity is hard, but...
Do you know anyone else who like six years ago got a bobblehead on the night they became the number one all-time WNBA leading scorer? I do not. I do not. Six years ago, still leading the league in threes. That's Gretzky level greatness. DT in terms of offensive prowess is she has those stats that almost don't sound real. Like Gretzky always had those stats that are like
If he never scored a goal his entire career, he would still have the most points in hockey history. And he has the most goals. Those are the types of numbers she pulls up. So just seeing her at 41 still still making it happen has been loads, loads, loads of fun.
And by the way, obviously, it should a little bit go without saying, but Kalia Copper is freaking kicking butt in a Phoenix uniform. And Natasha Cloud doing pretty well as well. Seeing them on that team playing big minutes as starters...
You mentioned this, I think, in pre-record. What a great offseason for Phoenix, honestly. Instead of heading over the cliff of, we got to just ride out the Terazi year and then just start with nothing. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to put a product on the floor that's pretty fun. For a team that never really was in a position to benefit from the draft like a lot of teams were this year with this rookie class...
I, their off season performance has shown to be, I mean, it's, it's interesting because the two teams you can call out big time or them in, in Seattle. And it's, it just makes it, why is it always these two teams? Why are they always in the same position at all times? It feels like we're always talking about Phoenix and Seattle in like the same breath.
And at one point there was the through line of DT and bird and we're past that. And now it's just like, we're destined to do this forever. Like they're just always going to be in each other's pathway, but like they both had that kind of situation where they seem to pick up the exact players that are going to make up the culture they're looking to build. And it's doing really well. And I'll also say this about copper is I was really interested to see the types of players who are,
People who are coming in to watch this league for the first time this season and are kind of a part of this uplift, who are going to take it seriously and who actually are showing interest in it. I was interested to see like, okay, maybe you show up for Clark. Maybe you show up for Andrew Reese. But who are you staying for? I was interested to see who they'd stay for. Kalia Copper is one of those players. She's at the top. She's one of those that...
One of the first games of the season, she was already trending and there were people like, wait a minute, that's who's here. Like, I didn't realize this is what you're bringing. Like Alyssa Thomas is another big one that are a lot of people are like, there are people doing this every night of the week. And it's just like, you know, the weirdest, the way people react to these types of players and these performances, these people who you realize like, oh, that's what I'm sticking around for. For me, it was Jewel Lloyd in 2017. It was one of those things that was just like,
I want to watch every minute of basketball. This person plays, I'm really intrigued by how they play basketball. And it, the weird thing that I can think about the same, like energy that comes from it is a really weird reference.
But the moment in the modern 21 Jump Street movie, Channing Tatum's character is hanging out with like all the nerds and they do that thing where they like blow something up. And he's like, this is the science shit you guys do like every day. Like, this is what you guys do all the time. It's that same energy of watching people be like, I didn't realize like people like, like, like copper were on. Okay. I get it now.
And I shouldn't be surprised by that in any way, but it's been fun watching her be one of those players that like, that's who we're going to stick around for. That's pretty cool. If you're a new watcher, it's fun. And if you're a longtime watcher, it's I think extra fun because this is, I'm going to roll Natasha cloud into this too. These are staple players of former franchises who moved this off season that are now having probably the best years of their careers.
I think this is the... I mean, we're 8 games in. Everything has that asterisk to it. But I mean, with Copper, it's a lot of like she's getting up more shots. She's taking more threes. She's doing a little bit more scoring just because that load is on her shoulders. But with Cloud, she was a staple at Washington for years. She's 32 now. I think this is the best she's looked. I mean, this is...
stuff from a Phoenix team that's like suddenly it goes from being like, oh, they're made up of all these kind of like loose parts from other teams to like, oh, they're made up of like veteran presences who know how to play at this level, who like Diana Taurasi respects enough to share the ball with occasionally and who can kind of keep this team afloat hopefully until Griner gets back because we don't...
I don't know what that's going to look like. I think the identity is there and that's what you're finding is like this roster starting to show their identity and it's working in that way. And I mean, to touch all I need to say to touch cloud converse zone, what else? Like, if you know me, you know, my love for converse. So it's like, uh, I'm always gonna, gonna rep for cloud, but like, yeah, she seems very comfortable in her situation, which is great. So yeah, watching what's happening there has been really exciting. Um,
I'm going to hit one last derailer, and then we'll see what else we have for the rest of this, because we've hit a lot of things. But that was the plan. These are all the topics that, for some reason, are getting clouded in the noise of online discourse. And we just thought, if you've been wanting to talk about any of these, we're going to do them here.
Logan, we haven't had a chance to do this. It's been a couple weeks, but we haven't been on mic enough to make this happen. I need you to do something really important for me. I need a report card for the Golden State Valkyries. I need you to grade the name. I need you to grade the colors. I need you to grade the logo. You know me. If you listen to the show at this point, still, hopefully you know I try to be fair but firm. I'm not just going to hand out good grades just because it's a relief to not hand out bad ones.
The name, the Golden State Valkyries, A. Couldn't have done better. I'm sure there were other suggestions and options out there that were equally as good. I can't picture one that was just like, I wish they would have just done this instead. A. Colors. A. That is how you do it. Like...
Yes. Logo. A. We're going straight A's across the board. They nailed it. I reserve the right to edit this at any point if for some reason they...
do something funky with like the quarter or something like that. But honestly, like they crushed it. They crushed it. They crushed it. They they've honestly been doing a really good job. Like for all of the Jersey rebrands and things that kind of haven't landed, a lot of the team expansion things have gone really well across different leagues. Um, the like NWSL, the new teams there. I really liked, um, now I, I, I what's the California one that I'm, I'm spacing on. Oh, BFC. Yeah.
Bay FC was really great. Gotham FC, I've seen them play in person. Their uniforms are awesome. Angel City is perfect. That's great branding. Even if you expand this out to NHL, I thought Vegas and Seattle went very different ways than people expected and still managed to find an identity that was like, you know what?
That's them. Get ready, bud, because Utah is about to derail all that for you. No, we're going to ruin it. But yeah, that's what I care about most. I think the Valkyries is different enough. It fits everything the WNBA wants to do. It's going to feel like a WNBA team immediately, but it's going to have its own identity and branding. I think that's great.
I mean, I'm generally agreeing with you on that. It's interesting you call it the NWSL because when I saw the color scheme, I mean, your media through line is racing Louisville in the NWSL. It's very similar color scheme. There's is more lavender. This is more of a violet. If you want to be technical, I'm interested to see how they work it into color schemes and things like that.
I'm going to be hypercritical just because I like to do that. But like Valkyries is a name. Like I only drop it to an A minus because someone made this point and I actually get it. It's all it could be almost too grandiose of a name.
Like it's almost too like big of a name. That's like, it's going to be interesting, like how that calls that, but it's a good name and it's unique. I normally don't like when teams feel like they're doing like the she version of their male team counterpart. And there is an argument to say that Valkyries could be considered like a she warrior type thing. I don't know that that's what they're going with though. I really like it. Um,
I like the color scheme is an a there's no arguing it. I think there's also a through line to the Sacramento Monarchs, which is really cool.
And I go B plus on the logo only because the elements of how it looks, it's phenomenal. How they work the bridge in phenomenal. I was surprised because I thought the bridge was brilliant. The shape of it is brilliant. The marketing speak is phenomenal. I'm hesitant. I'm hesitant to go full marks on more vertical sports logos. And
And it's not completely vertical. The reason I say that is when you pair logos together across a league, the more vertical ones...
Tend to not stand out as much and have as much prowess because to fit them evenly, they tend to look smaller because there's so much thinner compared to a more typical size logo, either a box or like a, so like the stacked verticalization of it, I'm always hesitant to do now. I might go B plus. I could even go a minus. That's me being hyper, hyper, hyper critical of it because I,
In terms of the aesthetic and how it looks, they couldn't have done a better job. It looks really, the font's great. Like in that it is not stupid, which is all you have to do to get a great font. And it fits the theme perfectly. They, yeah, they didn't like overthink it. They didn't serifize it, which is great. Teams really love to add like their own stylized serifs to letters, which never works.
It tells me that I think that their number fonting on their uniforms whenever they roll at uniforms is going to look good. Yes. The bridge obviously is perfect. If you look too much out of the corner of your eye, it sort of looks like a tie, but I'm over that. Like in general, it hits their merch perfectly.
Like, so much about it is really good. I just wanted to point out, on some of their merch, it's just the triangle. And I do think that that will look better. Like, if you stack it up against all the other logos in the league. I think, like, you know how sometimes you see the Portland Trailblazers logo and it's in, like, the rhombus shape, even though every other thing is... And then other times you just see the pinwheel. This is very...
niche, I guess. But you'll know what I'm talking about. One is the logo and then one is the team branding logo that they have to use. And you're right. It shrinks it down so that they can use that. It's just the Aces fall victim to this as well. Whenever there's a graphic of a game and you use the team's logos, if it's Aces versus Storm...
The ACEs logo always looks a little smaller because if you want to, to normalize and uniform the height of the logos in like a graphic, there's is going to be narrower. So it just, it comes off looking smaller and, and that's it. That's really it. Like looking at their website, I look at the top of their, like the logo, that's just the like look of the, the shield type thing they're doing. It looks really good. It sort of looks like a car logo, like a,
It could be its own Buick-type logo. It has a luxury feel to it. But if it was, yeah, it would be an Aston Martin. It would be a nice car. It's a luxury luxury. I think it'll look really good on a court. It's going to look really good on the court. I'm intrigued to see where they take it uniform-wise. Yeah, I'm excited about all this. My grades are just trying to be hypercritical because I could easily give it full marks and feel good about it. Um...
Any really quick, any run-of-the-mill thoughts on Toronto? Just that it was good enough that... Oh, about Toronto. I was just going to say, the one that was good enough that people texted me about it. And they were just like, this is really good. And it wasn't normal people who normally text me about women's basketball. Toronto, I can't think of any good Toronto names because my brain is so full of all the bad names.
Salt Lake City hockey team names that have been floating around. And so now all I can think of are like Gatorade flavors that could potentially be like, Oh, like we're Toronto. So like there's snow here and it's cold. And it's like, you don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. Um,
I don't know. I don't know. Cause Toronto is a city. You've got the Raptors and the Blue Jays already. So it's not really like a cohesive theme there, a color or a look or anything. So they can do whatever they want. Um, honestly, kind of, kind of jealous that the six has already taken, because I think the Toronto six is the best name and look. See, that's I, when this was an idea years ago, I thought of the sixers. So good. Just six sixers. Yeah. And I really liked that. Um,
I mean, there's a lot of different ones. It's hard because I don't know. It's, I don't know. Maybe I just don't know enough about the area. A lot of people have called out the towers, which is kind of okay. Cause the CN tower, I guess that's okay. There's one that when I first heard it, I was like, no. And then the more I think about it, I'm like, I actually could get on board with this. Cause it's different enough. There's someone who tried to call out the Toronto Northern lights.
And I could be talking to it. It lends itself to some great design options. It's a mouthful, but I think I could be talked into it. I need to learn more about animals native to the area. You know, just do my research. I'm like, what's the Toronto stuff?
What's in Toronto? Like, what are the Toronto things? But we have a while to think through that. One thing about these expansion sets, it seems like they've been taking their time. The league's taken their time with these, and so they don't come right out with the branding, and so they've given them time to work through it. But, yeah, I'm intrigued to see. I tried to look up animals native to Toronto, and the first thing that came up was opossums. So...
This is going to be a minute. Bats, the Toronto Bats. I don't hate it. You do Canadian bees. It's tough. It's tough to go from like the Golden State Valkyries to like the Toronto Bats. It's like, oh, that's very different.
It's a different approach. You know, though, we talk about the Utah NHL thing that's going on right now. And we were with Kyle not long ago and he was trying to talk us into the Utah trout. And I finally was like, you know what? Do it. That's because hockey, you could just put a trout with a hockey stick. You can be a fish. I kind of like it. I like the idea of the Toronto Northern Lights. I think you can shorten it to like Toronto Aurora or Aurora's. I don't know what the I don't know what the plural of Aurora is. Yeah. Um,
So this is coming up on an hour and I know we've been talking aesthetics for a long time. So there is, there's one last thing that I want to do, Steve, if you're ready and it's, I know that you're familiar with PTIs rundown or not rundown, but the big finish. I don't have the timer or the music, but in order to get through any other topics that I can think of, I was wondering if you want to do a big finish style, like lightning round on a couple of questions regarding some of the teams at the bottom of the league, if you're ready. Yeah. Do you have those ready? Yeah.
I can, yeah. Okay. I don't have questions ready, but I'll do it. I was going to say, I don't have a... I guess they do go back and forth. It's been a long time since I watched PTI. I apologize. I have a couple in mind, though, if we watch that the easier way. Okay, sweet. First, the Washington Mystics are 0-8. Their next five games are Connecticut, Chicago, Indiana, New York, Atlanta, and
If they don't win that fever game, they're in big trouble. Are they in danger of going 0-12? The worst thing to do is 0-13. I'm going to give them 2-11 by the end of that stretch. I'm going to be nice and say they'll get 2 out of that. I don't know if the fever is going to be one of them, but they need something. Interesting. We both have them 12th in our predictions, but not this way.
Yeah, this is hard. This is hard. It's rough. All right. Amid all of the Angel Reese, Kennedy Carter stuff going on, we have kind of lost track of the Chicago Sky being 3-4. Their next couple games, they have a home stretch, a four-game home stretch. It's the Liberty, the Mystics, the Dream, the Sun. So you've got the Sun and the Liberty in there, obviously, as your kind of standouts. But Liberty, Mystics, Dream, Sun. Do they have a winning record by the end of that home stretch? Winning record, 3-4. Yeah.
I think they'll fall just short. Maybe this is me being too safe. My brain immediately thought 2-2, put them at 5-6.
That's a rough... Connecticut and New York is a really rough stretch. Yeah, that's a... I think they would be happy to be five and whatever. Five and six coming out of that would be pretty good. Before heading out on the road. I think they're finding it. One thing that's got lost in all of this discourse is that Cardoso in just one game has shown that she belongs full stop. And that front court is going to work and it's going to work for some time. So I'm...
Abbey for Chicago with that. I think it's going to work. Absolutely. Moving on, we got the Dallas Wings. They are also struggling to get going out of the gate. They have lost a bunch of games. Arike Gumbawale is averaging over 26 points a game. Is she taking too many shots a night? Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, yes. Sorry, I should have asked a more open-ended question. That's on me. No, I just tried to think of a way to explain it other than I just think that's almost...
it's, it's like almost obvious in a way to me. When you look at, I see why a Guma while he's taking a lot of load without Soboli, this team with a healthy shot to Soboli working through Soboli offensively is at their best that way. And I understand why she's trying to fill up a lot of that to put that together. But yeah, I just don't think it's, it's playing to their, I feel like this season more than before, right?
they're feeling the loss of Marina Mabry more than even, even now than they were before. That doesn't sound weird. I feel like there's not as much back, the options in the backcourt that jump out immediately for them to be able to take advantage of it. And that's why she's putting up her shot numbers. And I don't know if that's directly hurting Dallas, but it's, it's tough spot.
That was a really long winded answer for me to say, yeah, I think she's taking too many shots. Because it reminded me that that's why I killed Dallas in my preseason rankings last year. So I was like that, that may be less is going to hurt them. And then they finished third and now, or fourth rather another, they're suffering a little bit. Uh,
I don't know a good way to phrase this question either, so I'm just going to serve this one up for you. But despite the Sparks being 2-6 and not a very good winning record right now, De'Arica Hamby is leading the team in four of the five major statistical categories. Is this the best season of De'Arica Hamby's career? That question. Yeah. Well, it's hard to say in the sense that...
I mean, she had seasons where she came off the bench for Vegas, but was starting in the all-star game. So it's hard to put it in that way. But in terms of her impact, the success of that team feels like it's running through her. And that's a big deal. I think that's really good. And I also think...
Uh, not just in terms of the numbers that she's putting in, she's getting Brink and Rekia Jackson into the mix in a really good way. Uh, this is a sparks team that you should feel excited about knowing that the payoff is probably about two years down the road. You may not even want the payoff to be now. Cause you may end up with Paige Beckers on this roster next year. So I don't even know that, but like, so yeah, I, um,
Right now, I think it's going to be the most impactive. It's been the best season she's had, and I almost feel like the payoff for it is yet to come. It may not see in this year's record, but the Sparks fans should feel happy about what they're putting together. If nothing else, Derek Fisher is no longer your coach and is still no longer your coach, and you should feel good about that. Full stop. Yeah.
I know Chauncey's not quite the same, but it's a little bit the same. It feels the same. It's in that note. It feels the same. Last one. And I like how we've been doing this. Are we the only people who've talked about this team last on our podcast this week? Yes. The only people who've waited until the end of the show. I didn't do that on purpose. But the Indiana Fever are 2-9. Kaitlin Clark's obviously scored a bunch of points, but she's getting knocked around a bunch. Leah Boston is nowhere to be seen. Team doesn't really seem like they have an identity. Steve?
Whose fault is it? How do they solve it? You have 20 seconds or less to give me everything you have on the Indiana Fever's problems. I'm going to give you three seconds. The answer is Christy's side. She doesn't have this locker room.
I don't think she has a good sound understanding of offensively how this team should run. She's not playing to any player strengths. And I don't understand why it seems like of all the equations she's trying to build, none of them include a Leah Boston in almost any way. I feel like anything Boston is actually getting in producing. She's just pretty much has to do herself.
Cause the way things are set up are not there to suit her, which makes no sense. Yes. Losing Tammy fag, Ben lay, put them back a peg for a minute or two, but so much of their strategy doesn't make a lot of sense. And I'm not sure if it's going to get better until there's someone who knows what they're doing and, and is in that coaching seat and someone that can get the respect of that locker room. And that's putting away all the drama that's putting away the fact that they played 11 games in three weeks and,
it's just not working. I just don't think she's fit for the situation they're in. That's as bluntly as I can put it. If there's one person I could put it on, it's Chrissy Sides. Yeah, there's a reason that a lot of teams don't do midseason coaching changes. There's not a reason that the Fever shouldn't consider it because there's not a whole lot more down that they could go. It's not... It's...
Yeah. I don't even, I don't, I feel like going deeper is going to start to sound mean and that's really not my place with it. It's just, it's just not a, this situation is not here to suit her. Um, they need someone, um,
who isn't like, they don't have time to experiment. They need someone who's ready to actually run the ship. Yeah. I don't know who that is. It's probably somebody on Becky Hammond staff. Um, but yeah, they need to find out what that answer is. If that's after the season, that's one thing. Um, but if the fever take themselves at all seriously and actually think they can turn something around with this roster and talent wise, they can, I want to make that clear. Um, it's,
It's going to be at the helm of someone else. I don't know who it is. Maybe Dan Hughes is looking to get off, off the couch for a minute and is feeling up for it. I don't know.
Interesting. By the way, I'm not saying that. I know he's very much enjoying his retirement. No, they've bootstrapped their offense back up to kind of like a bottom half of the league. But like fairly average, their defense is giving up more points a game than anyone by a lot. And that includes the Phoenix Mercury without Griner. So they got to get somebody in there to fix that. But that is that.
And that's the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie is such a cool name. All right. We clocked in a little bit over an hour, so we gave Jason a lot to work with here. But thank you so much for joining us again for the latest episode of WNBA Nation. Make sure to tune into this week's game. We've got a lot of fun stuff happening in the league this week. I'm pretty excited to see which streak is going to break first. The Connecticut Sun just absolutely red hot or the Mystics just having a bad time.
So we'll probably figure out the answer to both of those things this week, but I don't have anything else. Toss it over to Steve for any sort of plugs or promos or anything from other leagues he wants to get to. And then we will wrap this up. Congrats to PWHL Minnesota, your first Walter Cup champions.
If you didn't watch that series, there are game recaps on YouTube and you should watch them. That series pretty much ruled from top to bottom. The game four sequence was one of the most insane things I've witnessed live. And by live, I mean like watching it live on my screen. It was nuts.
Go check it out if you haven't checked it out, but everything that happened in that second overtime was insane. And I still can't believe it actually happened. And luckily Minnesota was able to redeem themselves and still take that cup home. Cause I feel like if they lost the cup after what they went through in that second overtime, it was going to be, it's good. It was going to be one of those 30 for 30 S stories. Like it had that feel to it. It was that insane. Yeah.
Also, Simone Biles is really good at gymnastics. Did you know that? She's like super duper duper good. People tune into our show for our original fresh takes. Nine-time world champion. In a sport where if you're 22, you're ancient...
Being a nine time world champion. That's freaking insane. I hope I have that number correct. If I don't, feel free to correct me. I'm lying. And also one thing that we haven't hit in all this that somehow got swept under the rug between 34 convictions and all of this other discourse is, and I just want to make sure it gets mentioned on the show because people are going to ask about it. Congrats to Kelsey Plum for winning a divorce in record time. Like,
That's right. Good for you. And then Darren Waller immediately just retired too. He's just like, I don't want to be a part of this. Yeah. You just sat back and were you and someone ruined their entire career. That getting pushed to the side because of everything that happened in the news and then all this stuff over this weekend was... To quote...
Jessica day from two girl. That's the most embarrassed I've ever been for someone not doing improv. That's it's something else. And that's, that's my quick run of, of non W stuff. But yeah. Yeah. We're, we're big believers on this show that if you're going to have, um, like personal family stuff play out in the public eye, you should do it at the same weekend that someone is convicted of something. Um,
That does it for the show. That does it for everything that we had to cover today. So excited to get back in the chair again in a couple days to record the next one. But until then, for WNBA Nation, I'm Logan Jones. I'm Steve Schwartzman. We got you next time.