RebKell's Junkie Boards

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

[kojthiabkuv]

[ClayK]

Kiah Stokes: 14:47, 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 3 fouls.

Glass half-full: One-point loss carrying that weight.

Glass half-empty: Stokes has regressed, perhaps to the point of sitting down at the end of the bench.

Prince looked good. If she keeps that up, New York will be much more consistent offensively. (Haven't seen the fourth quarter yet, though ...)

Sugar Rodgers is not a good shooter. She's not a bad shooter, but she's a volume scorer -- and because of that, the Libs, it seems to me, definitely need a sharpshooter to balance her out. Someone like Leilani Mitchell, say, who can make open shots, which is not something Lindsay Allen or Brittany Boyd can do.

Still, a gutty effort on the road against the league's best team with a starter going down mid-game.

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Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

Regarding replacing Z if needed, Bec isn't ready. She still only has the one move, a pull up J going left. Defend that by forcing her to either pull up to the right or to penetrate and she has nothing. She either has to drive with both hands (something she is actually capable of) or accept that she's going to be very one-dimensional and easy to defend the more minutes she plays. Sugar also defended Maya way better than Bec did in her limited SF minutes. I'd rather have Sugar at the 3 in ensuing games with the upcoming matchups if we need it.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[root_thing]

[root_thing]

[LibFan25]

I think Liambeer should try to give Rebecca Allen a chance to start in the absence of Z at the SF, lets see how she can handle it. And again keep Sugar as a 6 woman comin off the bench

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

If she's absent. Which leads to another issue. Finding out about injuries. Info is very hard to come by.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

[ClayK]

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

Here's some 3 point percentages of some players. Player A and Player C are whole career. Player B and Player D are most recent years since early years either have little sample size or no measurable differential in stats. Players A through C were all-stars this year:

Player A
31.2%
36.5%
21.6%
25.5%
29.8%
29.7%
44.0%

Player B
31.5%
38.7%
34.0%
36.6%
45.4%

Player C
43.8%
36.4%
31.3%
42.6%
34.9%

Player D
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
36.6%

Player A is Jasmine Thomas. Player B is Allie Quigley, who also won the 3 point shooting contest. Player C is Elena Delle Donne. Player D is Tamera Young. As we can see, 3 point shooting percentages of three of these players are at extreme career highs in 2016. Delle Donne's 3 point numbers tend to fluctuate, and I don't think anyone would argue against the theory that she is one of the league's top shooters. If you look at Sugar, she certainly has better form, release and touch than Thomas and Young. And she has a release that's on par with Quigley's.

I don't think Sugar's problem is the 3, in terms of her actual ability. I think she'll find the touch. I think Sugar's far bigger problem is that in spite of heavy work on it, the mid-range game is still largely not there. We see some of the wild shots, etc...shots that I think she must be working on in practice to continually try them in games, even though she misses most of them. The fact remains, however, that she is really disproportionately dependent on the 3 point shot in order to maintain a representative overall field goal percentage. If you look at the 4 players up top, they all have varying degrees of mid-range play that are better historically than their 3 point percentages. Quigley and Delle Donne are particularly good at it, with EDD also getting to the line a bunch. Nobody's going to focus on Delle Donne's 3 point percentage if her overall percentage is good and she gets to the line a bunch. What makes Sugar's percentage a difficult issue is the fact that her 2-point percentage does nothing to raise her overall field goal percentage. It also puts a lot of pressure on her to make 3's, because if she doesn't, she doesn't balance it out too effectively with other parts of the game, including handle and passing.

Factor also that Sugar doesn't really have point guard play getting her the ball in open places too often. Last year she did, as well as a post player who averaged 4 assists per game. This year she is doing a lot more work off the dribble in a system where higher pace of play is expected. The results have been less than stellar. But I don't think it necessarily means Rodgers isn't one of the league's better shooters. I think this is a case where you take the numbers for what they are, but you also look beyond them. If Sugar was shooting 43% overall from the field with the same 3 point percentage, would any of us be so focused on just the 3? I don't think so. In turn, I think she puts a ton of mental pressure on herself from the 3 point line because it's such a disproportionate factor in her success or lack thereof in terms of efficiency.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[ClayK]

Good stuff ...

I'm impressed that some players have developed steady three-point shots over time, so maybe there's hope for Brittany Boyd. (I remain unconvinced, however, that Teresa Weatherspoon is any more than average as a shooting coach.)

In general, looking at the NBA as well, only a small percentage of players are able to add consistent threes to their arsenal after they turn professional, but we're seeing more and more of it as people realize that size is actually an advantage for a three-point shooter, not a detriment (generally, taller players are stronger and thus the shot is easier).

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Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

[pilight]