Really loved reading this. I don't read all of your stuff but I think I'm gonna start! You have interesting analysis and as a new fan of the W/WBB (and sports in general lol), I appreciate the insights.
I have one small grammatical nitpick for you if you don't mind: "while more progressive than its’ counterparts, is still a capitalistic entity that is about its’ bottom line and the pursuit of a championship." The possessive form of "it" is just "its", with no apostrophe needed at the end.
Just wanted to point it out. Thanks for the continued awesome journalism!
I have a comment that’s really a question, and I don’t know where it fits, so I’ll try here. It’s about No Cap Space staffing. I feel like I need to offer some context. I’m a relatively new reader so maybe you’ve dealt with this elsewhere. I became a paid subscriber a little while ago, because I love WBB and I love your content. The piece that made me finally to decide to become a part of your community and to help to support it was the thoughtfulness and tone of your piece on Hannah Hildago. You really balanced between giving her grace as a young person but not wanting to provide a platform for hate. I also appreciated your criticisms of old school types who pile on without trying to understand what it means to be young in the age of social media. I’m old school, and came up in the era when as WBB became more popular, many women who had been doing the work, under-recognized and under-compensated, lost jobs to white dudes with little knowledge of the game. Admittedly, the women were white, and some of the men knew what they were doing. Not to mention how long it took for Black women and men to have a shot, a struggle which is by no means over. So if you’ve read this far, here’s my question. Why don’t you have more women and especially Black women on staff and in leadership positions? It’s a little hard for me to tell, but it looks like an imbalance. I’m not trying to exclude other marginalized identities here, especially LGBTQ, just trying to call attention to what I have noticed. Thank you.
Great question and I can answer it for sure! So we have a team of five. Two white men, two Black women and one Black man. Everyone functions in a different role and their work capacities are mostly predicated on what they can do day-to-day. Greer handles a lot of our YouTube and business side work including marketing and partnerships. Chauny has been completing a move to Atlanta but she'll be back in providing more content once the season gets rolling while Rashard is our draft analyst and lead scout, mostly writing for our paid subscriber tier.
It might be helpful for us to update our 'about' page to include our masthead and leadership positions. As it currently stands, I function as our Editor-in-Chief, Chauny is our Managing Editor, Greer is our CMO, Tyler is our Director of Video Content while Rashard is our Insider. I appreciate you bringing up the subject though! We can do a better job of highlighting our teams' diversity and leadership positions for our audience!
When I got serious about evaluating Sedona Prince for draft purposes, I was surprised by how many basic things she did poorly for someone under WNBA Draft consideration: she set screens poorly and made incorrect movement decisions after setting them, isn’t much of a passer, got disoriented on defense when she got pulled 12-15 feet away from the basket. And, like you said, she would be an age-25 WNBA rookie so she’s at her ceiling. Piling on, she’s slow for a WNBA big and the game is getting even faster.
I ended up putting her 25th (the last spot) on my final big board, but mainly to discuss why there were basketball reasons to pass on her, trying to put out there that Prince going undrafted wasn’t necessarily a referendum on her off-court behavior.
If Prince had Kamila Cardoso’s skillset, or even 80% of it, Prince would have been the kind of first-round pick who gets GMs fired, sinking either the GM who drafted her if she failed, or sinking the GM who passed on her if she succeeded. But the actual Sedona Prince didn’t present that dilemma.
What's wild is that she presented those qualities when she first arrived at Oregon. It just...never really improved. Interestingly, it appeared to boil down to a mindset issue in terms of aggressiveness especially against top end competition.
I’m struggling to think of a player evaluation who did so well on the math test but so poorly on the eye test. 6’7”, 17-and-10, with 3 blocks, that’s Kamila Cardoso’s senior season with an extra layup per game, a first-round pick with lottery consideration.
But the tape says let her be someone else’s project.
Anyone else come to mind for you? Who else had such a big disparity between the stat sheet and the game tape?
Sedona Prince not being drafted surprise me. I didn't know anything about relationship issues. I thought it was injury related issues. Her moment didn't happen on court, it happened when she posted the weight room picture.
Agreed. Even when I covered her at Oregon it was the same story. She looked the part against inferior competition and wilted against WNBA level opponents. I think your point is well taken, though. It's more about the basketball stuff than a moral stand and it's worth remembering that before anointing these GM's or front office folks as people that care about anything other than winning.
Question: do you think Paige needs to perform like a Luka to be the next big Dallas superstar? For example, if she struggles her rookie year, is the fact they need a star enough to keep them believing in her? I don’t know the answer - I remember Sabreena Merchant at The Athletic was convinced everyone was going to stop Indiana when they were struggling the beginning of last season, so I’ve been wondering about this for awhile. Would Caitlin and A’ja be who they are for their sports market if they weren’t respectively the best guard and big in the league?
We are putting to much pressure on Paige and expectations, i hope she just is healthy and dosnt get injured right away, the league is very physical, and after a long ncaaw season if they force her to play starting/big minutes its a very high risk and not ideal.
Dallas history of drafting and developing players in recent times is very poor, all stars on the team also wanted out/requested trade as well.
I expect Paige to be more of a Sabrina type rookie season, a lot of hype but not gonna be at the same level as CC/AJA and people might be disappointed at first, she is still a great player and if healthy will have great career in the W as well.
I think Paige will be somewhere between CC and Sabrina just based on the fact that I think she's a more creative finisher than Sab was when she entered the league. I do agree though that the expectations should be somewhat tempered. CC is a true once in a generation Candace Parker type figure and any expectation of equivalency is an exercise in futility.
I think Paige has a bit more of a security blanket because of how deep the Dallas backcourt is. With Arike, DiJonai and Ty Harris she'll be able to have more insulation as opposed to Caitlin, who I think got thrown to the wolves immediately. If she performs at a fringe all-star level clip with a couple wow moments and some wins in the first half, I think she's capable of picking up the Luka mantle.
Really loved reading this. I don't read all of your stuff but I think I'm gonna start! You have interesting analysis and as a new fan of the W/WBB (and sports in general lol), I appreciate the insights.
I have one small grammatical nitpick for you if you don't mind: "while more progressive than its’ counterparts, is still a capitalistic entity that is about its’ bottom line and the pursuit of a championship." The possessive form of "it" is just "its", with no apostrophe needed at the end.
Just wanted to point it out. Thanks for the continued awesome journalism!
I have a comment that’s really a question, and I don’t know where it fits, so I’ll try here. It’s about No Cap Space staffing. I feel like I need to offer some context. I’m a relatively new reader so maybe you’ve dealt with this elsewhere. I became a paid subscriber a little while ago, because I love WBB and I love your content. The piece that made me finally to decide to become a part of your community and to help to support it was the thoughtfulness and tone of your piece on Hannah Hildago. You really balanced between giving her grace as a young person but not wanting to provide a platform for hate. I also appreciated your criticisms of old school types who pile on without trying to understand what it means to be young in the age of social media. I’m old school, and came up in the era when as WBB became more popular, many women who had been doing the work, under-recognized and under-compensated, lost jobs to white dudes with little knowledge of the game. Admittedly, the women were white, and some of the men knew what they were doing. Not to mention how long it took for Black women and men to have a shot, a struggle which is by no means over. So if you’ve read this far, here’s my question. Why don’t you have more women and especially Black women on staff and in leadership positions? It’s a little hard for me to tell, but it looks like an imbalance. I’m not trying to exclude other marginalized identities here, especially LGBTQ, just trying to call attention to what I have noticed. Thank you.
Great question and I can answer it for sure! So we have a team of five. Two white men, two Black women and one Black man. Everyone functions in a different role and their work capacities are mostly predicated on what they can do day-to-day. Greer handles a lot of our YouTube and business side work including marketing and partnerships. Chauny has been completing a move to Atlanta but she'll be back in providing more content once the season gets rolling while Rashard is our draft analyst and lead scout, mostly writing for our paid subscriber tier.
It might be helpful for us to update our 'about' page to include our masthead and leadership positions. As it currently stands, I function as our Editor-in-Chief, Chauny is our Managing Editor, Greer is our CMO, Tyler is our Director of Video Content while Rashard is our Insider. I appreciate you bringing up the subject though! We can do a better job of highlighting our teams' diversity and leadership positions for our audience!
When I got serious about evaluating Sedona Prince for draft purposes, I was surprised by how many basic things she did poorly for someone under WNBA Draft consideration: she set screens poorly and made incorrect movement decisions after setting them, isn’t much of a passer, got disoriented on defense when she got pulled 12-15 feet away from the basket. And, like you said, she would be an age-25 WNBA rookie so she’s at her ceiling. Piling on, she’s slow for a WNBA big and the game is getting even faster.
I ended up putting her 25th (the last spot) on my final big board, but mainly to discuss why there were basketball reasons to pass on her, trying to put out there that Prince going undrafted wasn’t necessarily a referendum on her off-court behavior.
If Prince had Kamila Cardoso’s skillset, or even 80% of it, Prince would have been the kind of first-round pick who gets GMs fired, sinking either the GM who drafted her if she failed, or sinking the GM who passed on her if she succeeded. But the actual Sedona Prince didn’t present that dilemma.
What's wild is that she presented those qualities when she first arrived at Oregon. It just...never really improved. Interestingly, it appeared to boil down to a mindset issue in terms of aggressiveness especially against top end competition.
I’m struggling to think of a player evaluation who did so well on the math test but so poorly on the eye test. 6’7”, 17-and-10, with 3 blocks, that’s Kamila Cardoso’s senior season with an extra layup per game, a first-round pick with lottery consideration.
But the tape says let her be someone else’s project.
Anyone else come to mind for you? Who else had such a big disparity between the stat sheet and the game tape?
Sedona Prince not being drafted surprise me. I didn't know anything about relationship issues. I thought it was injury related issues. Her moment didn't happen on court, it happened when she posted the weight room picture.
Agreed. Even when I covered her at Oregon it was the same story. She looked the part against inferior competition and wilted against WNBA level opponents. I think your point is well taken, though. It's more about the basketball stuff than a moral stand and it's worth remembering that before anointing these GM's or front office folks as people that care about anything other than winning.
Question: do you think Paige needs to perform like a Luka to be the next big Dallas superstar? For example, if she struggles her rookie year, is the fact they need a star enough to keep them believing in her? I don’t know the answer - I remember Sabreena Merchant at The Athletic was convinced everyone was going to stop Indiana when they were struggling the beginning of last season, so I’ve been wondering about this for awhile. Would Caitlin and A’ja be who they are for their sports market if they weren’t respectively the best guard and big in the league?
We are putting to much pressure on Paige and expectations, i hope she just is healthy and dosnt get injured right away, the league is very physical, and after a long ncaaw season if they force her to play starting/big minutes its a very high risk and not ideal.
Dallas history of drafting and developing players in recent times is very poor, all stars on the team also wanted out/requested trade as well.
I expect Paige to be more of a Sabrina type rookie season, a lot of hype but not gonna be at the same level as CC/AJA and people might be disappointed at first, she is still a great player and if healthy will have great career in the W as well.
I think Paige will be somewhere between CC and Sabrina just based on the fact that I think she's a more creative finisher than Sab was when she entered the league. I do agree though that the expectations should be somewhat tempered. CC is a true once in a generation Candace Parker type figure and any expectation of equivalency is an exercise in futility.
100% agree
I think Paige has a bit more of a security blanket because of how deep the Dallas backcourt is. With Arike, DiJonai and Ty Harris she'll be able to have more insulation as opposed to Caitlin, who I think got thrown to the wolves immediately. If she performs at a fringe all-star level clip with a couple wow moments and some wins in the first half, I think she's capable of picking up the Luka mantle.