Chicago Sky/WNBA thread 2024

[jc23]

Fever need to make some roster changes. I know its a team that was bad last year and thats why they got the #1 pick but there is a need for them to be relevant.

[dougthonus]

WNBA, where you get drafted, and play real games 10 minutes after the draft. I never knew this happened. And then it dawned on me that this is how sports should be.

The wait between NFL Draft and actually playing is crazy.

But WNBA seems a bit too fast. Very brief/non-existent training for the teams before they're out there playing meaningful games.

NBA is almost the same as football. 4 months. Football about 4.5 months

Think the difference is the NBA is nearly all year round. Like preseason is October and playoffs end in mid June. So you basically have 3.5 months of no games, and even in that break you get 2 weeks of summer league, the NBA draft, and free agency.

The NFL runs august to 2nd week of Feb, so that's 5.5 months between games and you don't have the equivalent of a summer league in there.

[Ice Man]

A great showcase on national TV for the WNBA today. Between the atmosphere of a loud and sold-out Barclay's Arena, the quality of the home team's play, and watching Caitlin Clark looking once again like Caitlin Clark, that game was more entertaining than most regular-season NBA games. Certainly better than the vast majority of Bulls games, although admittedly that is a low hurdle.

[TheSuzerain]

Fever are way worse than I expected.

I don't think there's more than like 1-2 players who they should keep as a supporting cast for Clark. And the coach probably won't be retained either.

[Ice Man]

Fever are way worse than I expected.

I don't think there's more than like 1-2 players who they should keep as a supporting cast for Clark. And the coach probably won't be retained either.

True on all accounts. Especially the latter. No team has ever been as important to the WNBA's future as the 2024 Indiana Fever. Millions of sports fans across the country are watching the league for the first time, to see the Fever. And the product quite frankly has been brutal. Until the second half of tonight's game, it wasn't clear that the Fever could either run a basic offensive play -- like, you know, setting a screen for a shooter -- or figure out how to get each of its 5 players to defend each of the opponent's 5 players.

The team did look somewhat better in the second half, although by then it was garbage time for the Liberty. At any rate, that Indy coach is on a hot, hot seat.

[DuallyNoted]

adam morrison eat your heart out, again

?

Caitlin Clark is just Adam Morrison redo

[DuckIII]

adam morrison eat your heart out, again

?

Caitlin Clark is just Adam Morrison redo

Hot take! You are noticed!

[DuckIII]

Fever need to make some roster changes. I know its a team that was bad last year and thats why they got the #1 pick but there is a need for them to be relevant.

I only watched the season opener so far and Clark struggled, not a big deal, but the main thing that stood out to me was that about half her turnovers came from her teammates being literally unable to catch her passes or simply not being aware that a pass could be delivered in those situations.

They looked really terrible.

On the other hand they did win 13 games last year out of 40 and have now added Clark, so you would think they would not be completely without talent around Clark and Boston.

[jc23]

Fever need to make some roster changes. I know its a team that was bad last year and thats why they got the #1 pick but there is a need for them to be relevant.

I only watched the season opener so far and Clark struggled, not a big deal, but the main thing that stood out to me was that about half her turnovers came from her teammates being literally unable to catch her passes or simply not being aware that a pass could be delivered in those situations.

They looked really terrible.

On the other hand they did win 13 games last year out of 40 and have now added Clark, so you would think they would not be completely without talent around Clark and Boston.

They are also now getting every opponents best the way a championship team would.

[Ice Man]

They are also now getting every opponents best the way a championship team would.

Plus, in their first 4 games they had two games against a 32-8 team from last season, and 2 games against a 27-13 team.

They were much better last night, lost in the last 10 seconds. Clark looked like a talented rookie PG should be expected to look. Made big baskets and some key 4th quarter passes, great floor generalship throughout the game (she has a fully developed sense of how to control game pace), weak defensively, and made two bad turnovers at critical moments.

Mitchell on her team is a live wire, a true keeper. Aliyah Boston is excellent defensively but struggles to score at the rim if marked. The rest of 'em ... hmmm. Not so much.

[jc23]

They are also now getting every opponents best the way a championship team would.

Plus, in their first 4 games they had two games against a 32-8 team from last season, and 2 games against a 27-13 team.

They were much better last night, lost in the last 10 seconds. Clark looked like a talented rookie PG should be expected to look. Made big baskets and some key 4th quarter passes, great floor generalship throughout the game (she has a fully developed sense of how to control game pace), weak defensively, and made two bad turnovers at critical moments.

Mitchell on her team is a live wire, a true keeper. Aliyah Boston is excellent defensively but struggles to score at the rim if marked. The rest of 'em ... hmmm. Not so much.

Ive found Boston to be underwhelming; alot of talk about her and Caitlin being a great 1-2 punch prior to the season start. Still early tho.

[Ice Man]

Ive found Boston to be underwhelming; alot of talk about her and Caitlin being a great 1-2 punch prior to the season start. Still early tho.

Underwhelming is too kind. She's been irredeemably bad. Doesn't run the floor, doesn't space, doesn't pass, doesn't finish. On the latter, she's shooting 39% at the rim as a 6' 5'" center.

After watching her for 4 games, I said to myself that she can't possibly have been this bad last year. I mean, my Lord, she started the All Star game. Sure enough, she was an entirely different player. She had a 23.2 PER, while this year she's at 10.5 (!).

Shrug. You got me.

[nomorezorro]

i saw someone mention that she's never really played this role as a roller next to a floor-spacing pg before, so it could just be growing pains in that respect

[Ice Man]

i saw someone mention that she's never really played this role as a roller next to a floor-spacing pg before, so it could just be growing pains in that respect

That's certainly part of it. You can see that Boston is not used to moving off the ball. But that said, she's getting stuffed when she does get the ball. She can't score right now in any sort of traffic.

She seems very likeable when I hear her interviewed, so I am rooting for her to bounce back. And yes, I am cutting her lack of movement some slack.

[wojoaderge]

Stinks to be a first round pick and can't make it out of camp just due to numbers game. When you go to the WNBA, you better be ready as a prospect because there is no slots for development. I thought Maxwell would break camp though.

If Maxwell can think at all on the court, there would appear to be room for her on the Indiana Fever. Just wow. The Sun played intelligently last night, but the Fever's collective BBIQ was embarrassingly low. Time and time again one of their players would get trapped, her 4 teammates would stand 20 feet away from her, just waiting for I don't know what, and the panicked Indy player would randomly fling the ball in the air.

I realize that there is almost no training camp/pre-season for the WNBA, but they're going to need to improve the product to sustain the viewership that they seek. That was awful.

All that said, I would pay to watch the Sun play a good opponent. That would be worth watching.

Supposedly Maxwell will be re-signed when she's healthy, probably bumping Gondrezick off the roster. Not sure that's true.

I bought tickets to the Sparks on the 30th and the Liberty game on the 4th

It's been said that Cardoso said she will be making her season debut against the Fever on the 1st

[madvillian]

Tried to watch a little bit but the Fever are really bad. For some reason I found the Women's FF more compelling as a basketball fan.

[Ice Man]

Tried to watch a little bit but the Fever are really bad. For some reason I found the Women's FF more compelling as a basketball fan.

You and everybody else. It's going to be a challenge for the WNBA to sustain the women's hoops momentum. It's like the early days of the NFL, when college football was everything. When the guys turned pro, they were afterthoughts.

And yes, the Fever are an unfortunate entry point for the league. Fans tuning into see Clark would be much happier if she were on a well-oiled team like, say, the Liberty. She would look better (not that she has been bad, but she would be better yet when playing with elite teammates), the team would win almost all its games, and Clark fans would be delighted.

[wojoaderge]

Tried to watch a little bit but the Fever are really bad. For some reason I found the Women's FF more compelling as a basketball fan.

You and everybody else.

Speak for yourself

[Ice Man]

Speak for yourself

Fair enough. I will change that to "you and most people." It's pretty safe to say that the WBNA Finals won't touch the FF women's ratings.

If it's any consolation, I am watching a fair amount of WNBA basketball this season, for the first time, and not just Fever games.

[Ice Man]

Wow. My take after watching a couple of weeks of the women's game is that it is ROUGH. Check out this no-call from last night. Man! Or I guess I should say, woman!

Watch on YouTube

Clark later returned the favor by groping an opponent who was attempting a layup. Again, no call.

Watch on YouTube