I was at the game yesterday (such a great atmosphere) and now I'm watching parts of it on TV. I am so impressed with Mack's footwork and positioning. I think she must have learned a lot from Nneka. This bodes well for the rest of our bigs. Nneka's had her excellent long career because of her footwork (and, of course, talent). I can't wait until we are at full strength. I am taking this season of developing our youngsters game by game. The coach wants to develop a winning attitude. I am sure she and the players are "planning" to win every game. If we make the playoffs, we've just accelerated our rise. If we play hard and fierce and are overtaken by more experienced teams and miss the playoffs, then we get a good draft pick. I'm just going to enjoy the ride for now. We've seen such growth and cohesion already. Plus, our defense was crazy good yesterday, wasn't it?
This is all very well said. I definitely agree that this season is all about the growth of these players, win or lose. As you said, if they make the playoffs, that's great because it means the team is far more competitive than maybe initially expected. If they don't, they get to add a lottery pick to this young core.
I am probably the contrarian on this site, as I was hoping Seattle would NOT draft Olivia Miles. Why? Because Miles dogged it on defense. At least she did in the games I watched during her college career. Now I haven’t yet seen her play in the WNBA, but I’ll be very interested to see how she responds to Jade, Xia and Natisha running past Dolson screens. The comparison I keep hearing is Chelsea Gray - but in addition to her wonderful passing, Gray is as tough as nails on defense. My jury is out on Miles, but I can’t wait until we play the Lynx (hope the game is televised!)! And I’m not worried about what the lineup will look like when Ezi returns. The game is changing: you need a deep bench. And if you have a deep roster - you need to play them! Kudos to Coach Raman on that score.
Miles has demonstrated zero interest in defense anywhere, so she gets high marks for consistency, but how critical is that disinterest when you have her playmaking skills at point? Under those circumstances, do you think turnstile defense is a deadly sin?
The second half of this season should be very informative. Storm could be better than anticipated, and end up in an interesting draft position, where they’d be likely choosing from good, but not necessarily elite, prospects. As an example, one projection was Kymora Johnson, whom I love. As a college player. Whether she (or similar) would elevate the Storm could be an important question.
Johnson had essentially zero help her first couple of years at Virginia, and any success they had, seemed due to her sheer force of will, and her clutch gene, which was on full display this past season - especially in the tournament. She’s got a winning mentality; I’m not convinced she’s a great athlete, but she is a very good basketball player. In some ways, she and Taina Mair feel similar to me, although Mair had much better supporting casts.
I think you are completely right Jeff. If we can just add a point guard in the draft, (smya nichols), and work on some things with our existing players, this could be a really good team next year!
Some observations—I thought that first CT home game was an exercise in confusing at best and poor at worst rotations—-from both teams…and we still only lost by 2pts. The last two games with the additions of healthy players, I thought were spot on.
Our defense in the first few games was worrisome. In the first 3 mins against the Mystics, I groaned here we go again….but Raman called a well timed time out and sorted that.
I am still not quite sure about the driving and constantly kicking it out…but I’m hopeful they will sort it and take more of those shots because some of those passes were sloppy.
I still think we’re thin at G talent, but I have to admit that T made a jump in the right direction this last game…and Zia got leaps better than she was last year.
I also have to say, it’s very early and these players have barely played a month together—and you can see that creating parity across the league. Considering that very few of our players have had consistent long term playing time together, I am liking what I’m seeing overall.
I was at the game yesterday (such a great atmosphere) and now I'm watching parts of it on TV. I am so impressed with Mack's footwork and positioning. I think she must have learned a lot from Nneka. This bodes well for the rest of our bigs. Nneka's had her excellent long career because of her footwork (and, of course, talent). I can't wait until we are at full strength. I am taking this season of developing our youngsters game by game. The coach wants to develop a winning attitude. I am sure she and the players are "planning" to win every game. If we make the playoffs, we've just accelerated our rise. If we play hard and fierce and are overtaken by more experienced teams and miss the playoffs, then we get a good draft pick. I'm just going to enjoy the ride for now. We've seen such growth and cohesion already. Plus, our defense was crazy good yesterday, wasn't it?
This is all very well said. I definitely agree that this season is all about the growth of these players, win or lose. As you said, if they make the playoffs, that's great because it means the team is far more competitive than maybe initially expected. If they don't, they get to add a lottery pick to this young core.
I am probably the contrarian on this site, as I was hoping Seattle would NOT draft Olivia Miles. Why? Because Miles dogged it on defense. At least she did in the games I watched during her college career. Now I haven’t yet seen her play in the WNBA, but I’ll be very interested to see how she responds to Jade, Xia and Natisha running past Dolson screens. The comparison I keep hearing is Chelsea Gray - but in addition to her wonderful passing, Gray is as tough as nails on defense. My jury is out on Miles, but I can’t wait until we play the Lynx (hope the game is televised!)! And I’m not worried about what the lineup will look like when Ezi returns. The game is changing: you need a deep bench. And if you have a deep roster - you need to play them! Kudos to Coach Raman on that score.
Miles has demonstrated zero interest in defense anywhere, so she gets high marks for consistency, but how critical is that disinterest when you have her playmaking skills at point? Under those circumstances, do you think turnstile defense is a deadly sin?
The second half of this season should be very informative. Storm could be better than anticipated, and end up in an interesting draft position, where they’d be likely choosing from good, but not necessarily elite, prospects. As an example, one projection was Kymora Johnson, whom I love. As a college player. Whether she (or similar) would elevate the Storm could be an important question.
I think kymora could look kind of like Georgia amoore in the w. (Hopefully she would look at little better).
Johnson had essentially zero help her first couple of years at Virginia, and any success they had, seemed due to her sheer force of will, and her clutch gene, which was on full display this past season - especially in the tournament. She’s got a winning mentality; I’m not convinced she’s a great athlete, but she is a very good basketball player. In some ways, she and Taina Mair feel similar to me, although Mair had much better supporting casts.
I think you are completely right Jeff. If we can just add a point guard in the draft, (smya nichols), and work on some things with our existing players, this could be a really good team next year!
Pretty wild that the Storm and Liberty have the same W-L record. (3-4)
Yeah Liberty are looking kinda rough so far. Their only wins were against Connecticut, Washington and Portland (who also beat them twice).
Some observations—I thought that first CT home game was an exercise in confusing at best and poor at worst rotations—-from both teams…and we still only lost by 2pts. The last two games with the additions of healthy players, I thought were spot on.
Our defense in the first few games was worrisome. In the first 3 mins against the Mystics, I groaned here we go again….but Raman called a well timed time out and sorted that.
I am still not quite sure about the driving and constantly kicking it out…but I’m hopeful they will sort it and take more of those shots because some of those passes were sloppy.
I still think we’re thin at G talent, but I have to admit that T made a jump in the right direction this last game…and Zia got leaps better than she was last year.
I also have to say, it’s very early and these players have barely played a month together—and you can see that creating parity across the league. Considering that very few of our players have had consistent long term playing time together, I am liking what I’m seeing overall.