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So, has the 2018 draft been DEEP, as predicted . . .
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GlennMacGrady



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PostPosted: 07/25/18 7:27 pm    ::: So, has the 2018 draft been DEEP, as predicted . . . Reply Reply with quote

. . . by many fans?

I'm paying only modest attention and don't really have an opinion. How many draftees remain on rosters, and do any other than Wilson and DeShields regularly start?
pilight



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PostPosted: 07/25/18 7:54 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

21 draftees have made appearances. That's in line with recent seasons (20 in 2017, 21 in 2016, 20 in 2015). We've also had debuts by four undrafted players and two players from previous drafts.

Eight rookies are averaging over 20 minutes/game. That's high. Last year there were three, in 2016 and 2015 there were four.

I count 18 of this year's draftees that are on rosters. Other than Wilson and DeShields, there are four who have started more than half their team's games: Atkins, Mitchell, Vivians, Williams.

It's a good draft so far.



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NYL_WNBA_FAN



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PostPosted: 07/25/18 8:07 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Atkins is really good. Stevens has been bringing it off the bench of late. Vivians is starting and doing ok. Williams is a solid role player, albeit out of position. Nurse has shown flashes when she plays. Kelsey Mitchell has been up and down like most combo-ish small guards as a rookie. Other subs, like Vadeeva and Billings, are starting to play better. It’s been a fun year to watch around the league as a whole, as the young players have added quite a bit of talent and depth.

In my personal opinion, I think it’s the best year in the league’s history. The teams are so good that there are plenty of teams clustered throughout the standings. Nobody has entirely pulled away.



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toad455



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PostPosted: 07/25/18 8:13 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Nurse & Atkins have surprised me. Jamie Nared & Ji-Su Park have shown promise. No third rounders are currently on a roster. IMO, Lexie Brown has been the bust of the draft.



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NYL_WNBA_FAN



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PostPosted: 07/25/18 8:20 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

I thought Brown would be better too but that backcourt is really crowded. She may still be good.



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mavcarter
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PostPosted: 07/25/18 9:03 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

NYL_WNBA_FAN wrote:
I thought Brown would be better too but that backcourt is really crowded. She may still be good.


Hard to make an impression when you’re only playing 6.8 MPG.


Rock Hard



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PostPosted: 07/25/18 10:10 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

mavcarter wrote:
NYL_WNBA_FAN wrote:
I thought Brown would be better too but that backcourt is really crowded. She may still be good.


Hard to make an impression when you’re only playing 6.8 MPG.

Ditto. Brown can play. She is on a team that is knee deep with guard talent that she does not get any significant playing time to show what she can do. If the Sun don't want her anymore how about a trade of Faulkner for Brown. Wink



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NYL_WNBA_FAN



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PostPosted: 07/26/18 9:25 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

When you look at a team like CT with their depth being just a little over .500 (I know the Thomas injury and the Jones situation have also been factors) and you wonder if they could land a veteran star from another team for multiple young players.

Not to mention if they wind up picking fifth in the draft they are going to wind up with another player that really adds functionality somewhere. If KLS were to drop to 5 I think she'd get scooped up by CT in a heartbeat. Ditto Collier. I don't love having to also defend KLS when there's so many other weapons to defend against. Dealing with Collier in open floor situations along with Courtney Williams, Alyssa Thomas and Jonquel Jones isn't too enviable either. At what point do they just out-athlete everyone else to a championship? Might be soon.

But in general it points out how deep the league is if a quality versatile player like Brown is struggling to find minutes. In 2006 she would have been someone's starting PG. She might not have necessarily been ready for starter's minutes (and would have needed to get stronger and to balance the scoring/playmaking aspects of the game) but ten years ago there was a vast need for her attributes. Now almost every team has players who are functional scorers/distributors at the point.

And even though CT is very deep, it also says something that they have no real reason to deal her. They're loaded everywhere and better off holding onto her unless they can package a group of players for a franchise caliber player somewhere. But because of the talent dispersal throughout the league, I think 3-for-1's are harder to do unless someone demands a trade.



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Randy



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PostPosted: 07/26/18 9:55 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Comparing to the 2017 class.

Playing more than 20 Minutes per game
MPG>20
2017 2018
3 / 8

MPG>10
12 / 12

PPG > 10

2017 2018
2 / 4

PPG > 8

3 / 7

RPG>4

1 / 4

APG>2

2 / 5


2017 of course, was very weak class though aside from the top 2. But clearly 2018 is much deeper.


WNBA 09



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PostPosted: 07/26/18 10:00 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Imagine Comparing this years draft with next years!! The WNBA is only getting better and better!



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NYL_WNBA_FAN



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PostPosted: 07/26/18 10:12 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

WNBA 09 wrote:
Imagine Comparing this years draft with next years!! The WNBA is only getting better and better!


It really is. When you look at it, there's been discussion about several potentially high-caliber players slated to go in the first seven or eight picks. Magbegor has not even been discussed that much but from the clips I've seen, she has high-end physical talent. She's just thin as a rail. And Ionescu likely to come out in 2020 with a slight chance to come out this year. The league has never been more watchable. Hopefully this year's upward trend in TV ratings will continue. I've got to think if you watched the league when it started and maybe stopped watching for awhile and suddenly started watching again you'd be pretty floored. The talent is unreal.

I loved the league when it started but there's no comparison talent-wise between then and now when you're talking about depth. The Houston Comets, as great as they were, would not be a .900 team today.



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calbearman76



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 12:44 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

The most interesting thing to me is that if the draft was redone now there would be few significant changes in the order taken. Perhaps Deshields would move up to 2 but I don't think Indiana is kicking themselves. Seattle didn't take Canada for this season. Atkins appeared to be a stretch on Draft Day but now seems like she was slotted properly.


toad455



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 8:45 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Yeah, I'd have DeSheilds at #2, Stevens at #3, Mitchell at #4, Canada still at #5, Williams at #6, Atkins at #7, Nurse at #8, Vivians at #9, Nared at #10, Vadeeva at #11, Russell at #12.



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pilight



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 8:52 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

toad455 wrote:
Yeah, I'd have DeSheilds at #2, Stevens at #3, Mitchell at #4, Canada still at #5, Williams at #6, Atkins at #7, Nurse at #8, Vivians at #9, Nared at #10, Vadeeva at #11, Russell at #12.


Why is Nared moving to the 1st round over Billings?



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tfan



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 10:15 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Drafts are rarely, if ever, as deep as predicted. Players just look better playing against college players.


ClayK



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 11:19 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

There's no question that the floor (referring to talent) in the WNBA has risen significantly since the league's beginning and seems to have taken a jump in the last couple years.

The games I've seen are faster, better-paced and more athletic than in the past, overall, and more like the kind of basketball that attracts fans.

What the league really needs are more guards who can shoot to open up the floor and keep the pace at a high level. Hopefully parents will start to realize the value of making threes (maybe they've watched the Warriors) and will emphasize that to their middle school daughters.

This last draft was a good one, and next year's seems very promising as well, so it appears additional talent is on the way.

The bottom line, though, is franchise value. The day a WNBA franchise is sold for actual money will be the day the league has truly arrived.



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WNBA 09



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 11:23 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

toad455 wrote:
Yeah, I'd have DeSheilds at #2, Stevens at #3, Mitchell at #4, Canada still at #5, Williams at #6, Atkins at #7, Nurse at #8, Vivians at #9, Nared at #10, Vadeeva at #11, Russell at #12.



#1 Aja
#2 DeShields
#3 Stevens
#4 Mitchell
#5 Canada
#6 Atkins
#7 Vivians
#8 Nurse
#9 Vadeeva
#10 Billings
#11 Williams
#12 Nared



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Rock Hard



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 5:09 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

It is WAY too early to grade the 2018 draft. Grading this draft should happen not until year three. People it took several years before Sloot and Diggins-Smith became the players they are today.



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PUmatty



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 5:12 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Rock Hard wrote:
It is WAY too early to grade the 2018 draft. Grading this draft should happen not until year three. People it took several years before Sloot and Diggins-Smith became the players they are today.


FWIW, Vandersloot was an All-Star as a rookie.


Rock Hard



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PostPosted: 07/27/18 11:53 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

PUmatty wrote:
Rock Hard wrote:
It is WAY too early to grade the 2018 draft. Grading this draft should happen not until year three. People it took several years before Sloot and Diggins-Smith became the players they are today.


FWIW, Vandersloot was an All-Star as a rookie.

That's good. Was she a first team All WNBA player that year also? The current version of Sloot is ten times better than the rookie Sloot.



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PickledGinger



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PostPosted: 07/28/18 12:23 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

I think 2018-2020 is going to be the best 3-year period for talent acquisition in the history of the league. Next year we’ve got Brown, Collier, Durr, McCowan, Ogunbowale and Samuelson, along with about 10 others that I’m pretty sure are gonna at least have careers. Then there’s the Sabrina draft. It’s a little more top heavy and I think her, Cox, Hebard and Young are pretty clearly the lottery picks at this point, but again there’s a number of intriguing players.


PickledGinger



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PostPosted: 07/28/18 12:28 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Rock Hard wrote:
PUmatty wrote:
Rock Hard wrote:
It is WAY too early to grade the 2018 draft. Grading this draft should happen not until year three. People it took several years before Sloot and Diggins-Smith became the players they are today.


FWIW, Vandersloot was an All-Star as a rookie.

That's good. Was she a first team All WNBA player that year also? The current version of Sloot is ten times better than the rookie Sloot.


I think it’s too early to start criticizing the players yet, especially Canada and Mitchell who (like the above mentioned SDS and Sloot) play the hardest position in the league and will probably need 2 more years to break out. But it’s not too early to start recognizing that this infusion of talent is part of the reason why this is the healthiest, most successful and most competitive season in the leagues history.


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PostPosted: 07/28/18 1:00 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Faulkner, Lyttle, Christmas-Kelly, Isabelle Harrison, Shenise Johnson, Plaisance, Tayler Hill, Moriah Jefferson, Alyssa Thomas, Nneka Ogwumike, Natasha Cloud, and LaToya Sanders would probably disagree with the notion that it’s been the healthiest season ever. Wink I would have tossed Alana Beard in there but she’s had unhealthier seasons.



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Nixtreefan



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PostPosted: 07/28/18 11:14 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Too early to tell. It will take another year or 2 to shake out as it takes some coaches that long to scout players Shocked


Ay Mate



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PostPosted: 07/29/18 10:33 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

A’ja Wilson is the only real deal from the 2018 draft so far.


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