Five Out: Rickea Jackson deserves starter minutes, the early MVPhee campaign and Toronto's new WNBA team
MVP Contenders, who needs more minutes and the Fever finally win a game! Andrew's thoughts on the world of women's basketball for the week of May 27th, 2024.
Folks, we have got to pace ourselves. Usually, the weekly column touches on all things women’s basketball on and off the court. But the off-court discussion has spiraled so out of control that we’re probably gonna keep our five simply related to basketball this week. At this point, it seems to be the only antidote to a near hourly discussion on the macro issues in the WNBA and what side everyone wants to pick. Is the world being too easy on Caitlin Clark or too hard? Who gets to be in this space? Whose voice matters? Part of that problem is getting what you ask for: with new eyes and new money in the league, there is going to inevitably more (and worse) discourse. At the same time, there’s pockets of the old world that brought their own problematic methods to general women’s hoops discussion far before the men™ showed up. And yes, I fully appreciate the irony of being a man in the space discussing men in the space. The column is nothing if not self-aware.
We’ll probably have some separate pieces of content dissecting the Caitlin Clark phenomenon, where the other rookies fit into that discourse and the debate regarding how welcoming old fans should be vs. how new fans should act. But as Aragorn once told the Men of the West before the Gates of Mordor, “It is not this day.”
So let’s just keep it ball-centric for now and then we’ll get back to the great debates later. We’re less than a month into the season and there’s a long way to go.
1. The Fever finally win a game…now what?
After both Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark got their time in the unfortunate spotlight of missing late game chances to win earlier in the week, both got to be heroes in their own right in the Fever’s first win of the season. After a bad five game start Boston emerged with 17 points and 6 boards on 8-14 shooting, keeping them in the game at multiple points, while Clark - on a significantly colder 4-14 shooting night - managed to find ways to contribute outside of scoring. What’s been impressive for the top 2024 pick is her passing and rebounding, traits that can keep her involved when the shot isn’t falling. But when the shot does, the roof comes off the building. Now comes the rest of the season…
Clark is still learning the speed of the WNBA. That first step that she usually takes in that patented crossover stepback isn’t getting the same separation she got in college. Boston looks to be finding herself a bit more but it’s clear she and Clark need some more time to gel before we see the partnership really start to bear fruit. Keep in mind, Clark hasn’t really had much of a break between the start of the college season and where we are now. The secret may be in the 2022 tape of Clark and Monika Czinano (word to Chauny who floated this in the NCS groupchat) to see what Clark and Boston can be. The WNBA off and preseason is notoriously short so it isn’t surprising to see them not immediately be the Shaq and Kobe they were billed as. Temi Fagbenle has been a nice revelation as a rim runner for Clark, giving some serious Hannah Stuelke-in-the-open-floor vibes. She also entered the starting lineup over NaLyssa Smith in the Fevers’ loss to Las Vegas.
With all the eyeballs (every single game the Fever have played in has been a sellout) on Clark and this team every play and rotation will be scrutinized. Despite being 1-6, there’s a world here where Indy is 3-3 having seen Connecticut, New York and Las Vegas a combined five times. While players don’t like losing, there is still a glass half full view of the Fever and what can be achieved this year.
2. The early M-V-Phee campaign has already started.
A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart kicked off their campaigns to join hall-of-fame company as three-time WNBA MVP’s but Napheesa Collier is making a push to spoil that party in 2024. After spending most of 2022 on maternity leave, Collier was viewed as a consensus fourth best player in the league last year behind Wilson, Stewie and Alyssa Thomas. But the early returns so far this season show that Phee may be the one to finally take some first and second place votes away from the aforementioned group. Mind you, it’s still early. *Very* early. But Collier’s performances are impactful on every end of the floor. She’s managed 2.8 steals and 2.2 blocks per game across the first four matchups while averaging 23 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists per game.
The question is going to be how long she can keep up those averages and how much the Lynx can challenge the two-time defending champion Aces. So far, Collier has outplayed Stewie and Thomas in early games. The next box office matchup will be against Wilson and Vegas on May 29th. After two sub .500 seasons, this could be the breakthrough year that Collier and the Lynx have been waiting for. They’ve shot the ball at a ridiculously efficient clip to open the year. Things might look slightly different with Diamond Miller out indefinitely with a knee injury but M-V-Phee might be a chant we’ll be hearing a lot of this summer.
3. I’ve seen enough. Rickea Jackson should be a starter in L.A.
Watching the Sparks is a fascinating experience. The roster outside of Dearica Hamby, Rickea Jackson and Cameron Brink is tank-worthy. So logically, you tank and try to get the top pick. Add Paige Bueckers into the mix and you’re talking about one of the most entertaining cores in the future WNBA. But here’s the rub: Jackson and Brink are so talented that they might be able to avert a tank on their own. Brink just has to learn to stay on the floor (which we touched on in last week’s column) and Jackson has to be allowed to start.
After a semi-off rookie debut, Jackson has delivered against the Aces and Fever posting double digit scoring performances with high efficiency. She isn’t a ball stopping scorer and can play within the Sparks offense when Hamby and Brink are on the floor. Jackson’s also proved early to be a three level scorer with a pro-level first step and ability to finish at the rim. While most of the attention has been on Clark, Brink and Reese, Jackson definitely has lived up to the pre-draft belief that she was one of the most pro ready of the bunch. But she simply needs more time with the starters and chances to excel on the floor.
We’ve had a lot of discussion about who gets what airtime and how much attention is paid to which player but in Jackson’s case, I think she needs to be on the starting five graphics, to play those minutes and put more first time fans on to her game. It feels like the more minutes she plays the more likely it will be that she’ll be another centerpiece the league will push in this potentially transformational class.
4. Toronto officially is in as Canada’s first WNBA team.
Obviously, Larry Tannenbaum didn’t listen to Meet the Grahams. Clearly, Kendrick Lamar should’ve added “WNBA Toronto, keep the family away” in his virtuoso character assassination of one Aubrey Graham. At the same time, I get it. Good luck telling arguably the most famous Torontonian living that he can’t show up to a WNBA announcement because a man with a size seven shoe repeatedly stepped on his neck in full view of everyone with an internet connection. It’s just hard to be psyched for the birth of a franchise and then, of all people, BBL Drizzy shows up and everyone collectively reacts with the “brother, ewww” meme.
Anyway, very happy for the official announcement that the WNBA is going to be moving into Canada. From the sound of it, there will be special games played in Vancouver and Montreal to make this team really the franchise of the country. And if the W wants to become a global league then it’s probably smart to expand into Canada instead of allowing another league to organically form there and compete for players, fans and sponsorship money. It signals that there is a lasting interest in the league beyond putting some cash into a couple of players or specific brands.
Much like it was with Major League Soccer, all a few new-money investors need is a league that’s got some cool factor to it and all the other spots in leagues like the NFL to be filled. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert so openly stating they want to get to 16 teams by 2028 feels like she knows that investors are out there in a way they may not have been a few years ago. And for fans, that means more roster spots, more games and more opportunity for players. Just…let’s not platform Drake as your number one fan. That’s all I ask. Maybe Nav Bhatia’s got some free time in the summer.
5. A historic NCAA settlement could mean a bigger windfall for women’s college basketball. But what about UConn?
A quick hit on NCAA basketball because of this groundbreaking new settlement. With three federal antitrust cases on the docket, the NCAA and power five leagues agreed to allow schools to directly pay players. The organization will also pay out more than $2.7 billion in damages over the last decade to past and current athletes. There’s also a revenue sharing plan on the table that would allow each school to share up to around $20 million a year with athletes.
There’s all sorts of fascinating components to this as it pertains to women’s basketball. First of all, payments and revenue-sharing have some pieces in it regarding market value. Essentially, the $2.7 billion isn’t going to be doled out evenly among the 10,000 or so athletes that have competed in the power five in the last decade. So, among that group, would someone like an Arike Ogunbuwale command a higher check for her NCAA Tournament heroics vs. a Kalani Brown? Does current market value matter for someone like A’ja Wilson?
And for the actual direct payment mechanism, does this allow schools to regain control and reign in NIL spending by third parties? Does it make the portal more or less active because of the presence of money? And how much does it effectively destroy different conferences in the group of five and mid-major designation? Particularly UConn and the rest of the Big East who were not apart of the settlement?
I’m of the belief that women’s college basketball is enjoying such a successful run that any rule that could help the golden goose of college sports (football) will help women’s basketball by default. However, I’m a little weary of a continued consolidation of power at the top and what that means between the haves and have-nots. It’s a net good that we’re getting these types of rulings to allow players to finally realize their worth as athletes especially in an environment where there’s so few spots in the pros. But, as we’ve mentioned before, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. By all accounts, private equity continues to lurk in the shadows. And if they show up, then we all might as well find something new to enjoy.