***CC22 and the Fever mega thread***

[Franisdaman]

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Franisdaman]

Meanwhile, here are some highlights from the face of the WNBA:

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Franisdaman]

 

[Hawksfor3]

Tomorrow's game @ Portland will be on CBS @ 7PM. Portland is 5-3.

 

[Burghawk87]

Amazon warehouse workers had to pull double duty last night, packing and officiating. Woof.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Leaving Caitlin on an island to guard Burton, who's driving to the basket every chance she gets, is horrible coaching. Only a handfull of players in the league have the defensive skills to win that isolation matchup and Caitlin is not remotely one of them.

Why the Fever coaches didn't switch CC off Burton or get her some help is just throwing the game away. The Valkyries don't leave any of their defenders on an island. Help is never more than a step away. And, they have more athletic defenders. If the Valkyries would have guarded Mitchell the same way the Fever guarded Burton, Kelsey would have scored 40 plus points.

No adjustments by SW. None.

They like to leave their defenders, not on an island, but on a sinking ship and tell them "sink or swim" to prove a point........a point that is entirely unnecessary.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

For the Fever to be really good they need their big 3 to play really well. Valkyrie’s are a tough team, especially at home. CC’s road shooting woes unfortunately continue. 3-12, but she did get to the line a lot and go 8-8. But 6 assists and 5 turnovers is not great. But the bench played well, which is a bright spot. And I do kind of agree with eyes (can’t believe I’m saying that) that she’s got to keep getting better on the defensive end. If you’re always having to help her because she’s getting worked that leaves open the 3 or another open player. Her home road splits are certainly concerning.

She played a little out of control late with those couple of turnovers. Rather than taking the time to compose herself under the pressure of the double team she chose to dump it as soon as she felt the pressure. The other turnover on the sideline was also because of panicking and rushing to make a move under the expectation of a double team.

A few possessions later she learned from that and created space to reverse the ball before the double team could come, which the broadcast crew blamed on the help defender being late and not taking a good enough angle. You can blame people all you want for why something doesn't happen every single time, but the fact is Caitlin learned from her mistake and adjusted and made a better play.

Unfortunately, by then she also already had the extra turnovers to her stat line so that's what people jump all over.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

I didn't see the game, but I'd imagine as usual the assist/to ratio is partly because of team mates not finishing their opportunities. That's certainly the case in most games. I'd agree that her shooting on the road has been off last year and this so far. I think she has improved somewhat on defense, but I'm not sure she'll ever be a really good defenders. (By the way, how many of the leagues top guards are really good on both ends of the floor)? While I think she's putting more effort into her defense, she still (and will probably always lacks) the lateral quickness of many of her peers. We saw the same thing at Iowa. It doesn't show up on offense because with the ball in her hands she can dictate the angles and she has pretty good straight ahead speed. The other point is pretty much EVERY team is making a concerted effort to attack her with the dribble drive when she's on defense. They all know its hard to slow her down on offense, so forcing her to foul, (or play matador defense), is their best option.

I watched some of the highlights trying to shame her for her defense.

She lets herself get upright and then expects her teammates to bail her out. Other times she chooses to gamble for steals rather than face who she's guarding and play defense.

There's definitely an effort issue at times still, and I don't think any amount of internet/social media shaming and people turning on her and booing her in arenas is gonna change that..............just sayin.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

The richest contract in WNBA history last night:
13 points, 6 rebounds, 0 blocks, 0 steals. Only 22 minutes played because she doesn't know how to not foul.

One of only 2 players in the WNBA currently playing on a super-max contract last night:
14 points, 3 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks.

Sure we can complain about CC having an off night. 16 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block. Also 5 turnovers and shooting from the floor poorly in a road game. But she's costing the team less than $530k this year. Total salary for the prior two players combined is $2.4 MM.

Aja Wilson is the only other super-max player currently playing. She's chipping in 24 points and 7 rebounds per game and is absolutely worth that money.

Looking at the Max contract players we see:
Alyssa Thomas at 17 pts, 8 rbs, 8 assists
Kahleah Copper at 19 pts, 2.5 rbs, 2.3 assists
Marina Mabrey at 19 pts, 3 rbs, 3.5 assists

Mitchell is at 21pts, 1 rb, 2.3 assists and is getting $200k more than any of those three players. She somehow has managed only 6 total rebounds this season to go with 3 steals and zero blocks, out of 7 games played. I'm sorry but you can't be a 1 dimensional player on a super-max contract in basketball unless you're pouring in 30 points per game. A lot of players earning a lot less than her are more well rounded while still contributing nearly as many points. Fever played the salary cap wrong in this offseason by throwing a super-max at Mitchell, not to mention $800k at Billings. And frankly Lexie and Sophie need to be contributing more for their money too.

It is still in the first 1/4 of the season, so things can improve. And they're literally 4 converted shots away from being undefeated. But they haven't looked good and it is looking like the front office made more bad mistakes in this offseason, similar to last offseason. If things don't improve I don't know how you can keep this front office for next season. Not to mention a coach that is trying to out-think the game of basketball rather than just going with one of the most dominant pick and roll pairings in the league.

They do need to evolve their P&R options though.

I like some of the stuff they're doing with the ghost screens but let's not fall in love with it at the expense of actually running effective pick and roll offense.

Teams are spending more energy now trying to eliminate the Clark/Boston pick and roll, and while the Fever ARE trying to work around that....it looks more like they're tinkering and trying this or that, rather than having found a clear solution right now.