Three is more than 2. Their outside shooting (3pt) and spacing has been an issue since Stewie left and Sue retired. And then we give up a first round pick for another on ball guard who doesn’t space the floor. This is on the GM and front office. Also, like Jeff said, even though their offense is based on points in the paint, the Storm won’t rebound and don’t get to the FT line. That is a losing combination. On a positive note, Atlanta is peaking and fun to watch. Shows what a difference good coaching can make. Their coach should win coach of the year. Happy for BG.
I think Coach of the Year should come down to Karl Smesko of Atlanta, Natalie Nakase of Golden State, or Cheryl Reeve of Minnesota. Reeve is in there because of how good the Lynx have been, and doing it even without Napheesa Collier. I'd like to see either Smesko or Nakase win it. I was super high on Atlanta coming into the season, but even then, I thought they'd finish 5th or 6th. I thought Golden State was going to be dead last and might not win more than 6 or 7 games all year, and they have a legit chance to make the playoffs, which is incredibly impressive.
The Dream are easy to root for. It would be cool to see them win it all.
Nneka played 36 minutes last night and was +8 in a game we lost by 10. That means we lost the 4 minutes where she was resting by *18*! That's ... insane.
Well 2 of them were at the end of the 3rd quarter, so I guess that checks out. It's really not hard to see why Noey grinds her starters into the ground with too many minutes. (I really wish we'd had the chance to see what this team could have done with Horston and KLS giving them actual depth and a real rotation, not to mention lineup options.)
The trade for Sykes has been a mismatch of what is needed and what Sykes provides. I thought about how we needed someone to space the floor, and ideally a shooter off-ball. But then we got Sykes - another guard also likes to carry the ball and doesn't space the floor. And that's where my hope for a competitive playoffs team died.
I went to look for usage rate, as a result, it brought down Gabby USG% from 18-20% previously to an average of 13% in the last 3 games.
Now I just hope we somehow make playoffs so the pick that we gave to Mystics isn't a lottery one, because it will be hard to swallow.
While Sykes was not the perfect solution to all our problems, she does make the team significantly better than it was before the trade. I don't think there was a knock-down shooter we could have gotten instead. Honestly, we're lucky we were able to turn AC into as much as we got with Sykes ...
I wasn't hoping we get a superstar shooter or something, i was hoping we went to Chicago and asked for Rachel Banham, Bec Allen.
But if we can't and there was not a solution to our problem, it would be better to not try fixing it at all. I don't consider ourselves lucky for giving up a 1FR (very likely lottery pick) to turn AC into Sykes.
Certainly if we miss the playoffs then trading away our first round pick was a mistake. However, at the time of the trade I definitely thought it was a good idea (and I thought our own pick was the correct one to trade away). And I still think we're more likely to make the playoffs than not. I think their goal is - correctly - to win a playoff series and then see what happens in the semifinals. Renting Brittany Sykes helps with that goal (plus if she works out then there's a relationship built where maybe she chooses to stay). And the price of approximately the 10th pick of the first round is reasonable. Now if it turns out they can't even make the playoffs after adding Sykes, and that pick is in the lottery, then people should get fired.
Really good point about Sykes not being a good fit. Totally agree. And we gave up that first round pick to the mystics ( which could come back to bite us) for a month rental. Sykes is an UFA.
Giving up what looks like it'll be a lottery pick for a one-month rental is really bad. They had the luxury of having three first-round picks, so I don't fault them as much because of that. However, if they felt the ship was sinking, they should have traded Las Vegas's pick instead. Since Pokey is the Assistant GM, I wonder how much of that trade was coming from her or the coaching staff, desperate to keep their jobs.
Pokey is both assistant coach and assistant GM? That seems not ideal. They would be far from the first team in any sport to make a panicked decision to save their jobs. But if it doesn’t work out…
Three is more than 2. Their outside shooting (3pt) and spacing has been an issue since Stewie left and Sue retired. And then we give up a first round pick for another on ball guard who doesn’t space the floor. This is on the GM and front office. Also, like Jeff said, even though their offense is based on points in the paint, the Storm won’t rebound and don’t get to the FT line. That is a losing combination. On a positive note, Atlanta is peaking and fun to watch. Shows what a difference good coaching can make. Their coach should win coach of the year. Happy for BG.
I think Coach of the Year should come down to Karl Smesko of Atlanta, Natalie Nakase of Golden State, or Cheryl Reeve of Minnesota. Reeve is in there because of how good the Lynx have been, and doing it even without Napheesa Collier. I'd like to see either Smesko or Nakase win it. I was super high on Atlanta coming into the season, but even then, I thought they'd finish 5th or 6th. I thought Golden State was going to be dead last and might not win more than 6 or 7 games all year, and they have a legit chance to make the playoffs, which is incredibly impressive.
The Dream are easy to root for. It would be cool to see them win it all.
I love Cheryl Reeve and think she is the best coach and team president in the league. All three are great candidates to win it.
Nneka played 36 minutes last night and was +8 in a game we lost by 10. That means we lost the 4 minutes where she was resting by *18*! That's ... insane.
Well 2 of them were at the end of the 3rd quarter, so I guess that checks out. It's really not hard to see why Noey grinds her starters into the ground with too many minutes. (I really wish we'd had the chance to see what this team could have done with Horston and KLS giving them actual depth and a real rotation, not to mention lineup options.)
The trade for Sykes has been a mismatch of what is needed and what Sykes provides. I thought about how we needed someone to space the floor, and ideally a shooter off-ball. But then we got Sykes - another guard also likes to carry the ball and doesn't space the floor. And that's where my hope for a competitive playoffs team died.
I went to look for usage rate, as a result, it brought down Gabby USG% from 18-20% previously to an average of 13% in the last 3 games.
Now I just hope we somehow make playoffs so the pick that we gave to Mystics isn't a lottery one, because it will be hard to swallow.
I guess you could say the Storm have solved their consistency problems…,,
This made me laugh. Have to laugh, so we don't cry.
Omg, that’s hilarious.
While Sykes was not the perfect solution to all our problems, she does make the team significantly better than it was before the trade. I don't think there was a knock-down shooter we could have gotten instead. Honestly, we're lucky we were able to turn AC into as much as we got with Sykes ...
I wasn't hoping we get a superstar shooter or something, i was hoping we went to Chicago and asked for Rachel Banham, Bec Allen.
But if we can't and there was not a solution to our problem, it would be better to not try fixing it at all. I don't consider ourselves lucky for giving up a 1FR (very likely lottery pick) to turn AC into Sykes.
Certainly if we miss the playoffs then trading away our first round pick was a mistake. However, at the time of the trade I definitely thought it was a good idea (and I thought our own pick was the correct one to trade away). And I still think we're more likely to make the playoffs than not. I think their goal is - correctly - to win a playoff series and then see what happens in the semifinals. Renting Brittany Sykes helps with that goal (plus if she works out then there's a relationship built where maybe she chooses to stay). And the price of approximately the 10th pick of the first round is reasonable. Now if it turns out they can't even make the playoffs after adding Sykes, and that pick is in the lottery, then people should get fired.
Really good point about Sykes not being a good fit. Totally agree. And we gave up that first round pick to the mystics ( which could come back to bite us) for a month rental. Sykes is an UFA.
Giving up what looks like it'll be a lottery pick for a one-month rental is really bad. They had the luxury of having three first-round picks, so I don't fault them as much because of that. However, if they felt the ship was sinking, they should have traded Las Vegas's pick instead. Since Pokey is the Assistant GM, I wonder how much of that trade was coming from her or the coaching staff, desperate to keep their jobs.
Pokey is both assistant coach and assistant GM? That seems not ideal. They would be far from the first team in any sport to make a panicked decision to save their jobs. But if it doesn’t work out…