Five Out: The Liberty are on top, the Chennedy Carter press conference, and the A'ja Wilson G.O.A.T run
A big Liberty week, the Sun shine bright and some media critique after a weird weekend in the WNBA.
Happy Monday, folks. A lot to get to this week. Caitlin Clark, Chennedy Carter and a whole postgame mess, A’ja Wilson is on a G.O.A.T run, Sabrina Ionescu’s usage rate and so much more…
The beginning of June means an unofficial start of Summer and a lot of extremely cool content coming from No Cap Space. First up, our newest Luxury Tax episode. Fresh off her WNBA debut and coming off a whirlwind handful of months which included a national championship and draft selection, Kamilla Cardoso joins the crew.You can find that episode here and download or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
We also have some bigger projects aimed at bridging what’s looking like a seemingly unfixable gap between old fans and new ones. Five Out welcomes all comers with the intent of giving you some good topics and takes to bring with you into the week. While last week I said that I’d stay off some of the more macro league talk, I do want to come to the defense of some media colleagues at the end of this column. In the meantime…let’s talk ball.
1. The Sun are dominant. Are they peaking too early?
Death, taxes and the Connecticut Sun being really good while flying under the radar. Some of that can be chalked up to a team playing out of a casino in Uncasville (I’m still curious who a season ticket holder is there). But the rest is really just about what Connecticut’s ethos is. They just play good balanced basketball, limit mistakes and stifle you defensively. Alyssa Thomas picked up right where she left off last year in a top three MVP campaign and is averaging nearly 15-10-10 through 8 games this season. DeWanna Bonner’s scoring is as consistent as always and even on somewhat quieter days is affecting the game on the defensive end.
Brionna Jones is the real x-factor that’s made a huge difference. She tore her Achilles last year and is still working her way back into full playing shape. Against Dallas on Friday she logged her heaviest workload of the year with 30 minutes. The result? 22 points on 71.4% shooting and 4 rebounds. It’s worth noting that Jones hasn’t played a full season where she was a consistent starter since 2021. While dealing with injuries, she’s clearly made the most of her rehab and looks rejuvenated on a Sun team that boasts some great depth in Ty Harris and DiJonai Carrington, who is a success story we don’t talk enough about. In a league with so few spots, it’s rare for second or third round picks to keep a roster spot. Of the 36 players picked in the 2021 WNBA Draft, 9 are still in the league. Carrington is the lowest selected player who is still on a roster. And she’s not just a seat filler either.
The big question is if the Sun can keep this level of play going for the rest of the year. As Greer noted on one of our Playback Postgame Streams, you don’t want to be a team that peaks too early. And it’s also worth noting that the Sun will see the Liberty for the first time this week and won’t see Las Vegas and Seattle until the end of the month. Let’s see how it shakes out.
2. Sabrina Ionescu is leading the Liberty on a three game win streak. Is that sustainable?
Speaking of something being potentially unsustainable, Sabrina Ionescu spent this week as the Liberty’s leading scorer in midweek wins over Phoenix and Washington before a complete burial of the Indiana Fever on Sunday night. While her three point shooting hasn’t caught up to her 2023 clip (she’s 32.8% from 3PT so far compared to 44.8% over the season last year) there’s other aspects of her game that I’ve been impressed with. Her on-ball defense possession to possession has improved and so far she’s posted a career best in defensive rating (97.4) . That said, she does still get caught under screens far too much and in the Liberty’s two losses the Lynx and Sky made her pay for it.
This team is always hard to assess when it comes to whose team it really is. Sabrina was always billed as the number one option and the way Sandy Brondello coaches and schemes it’s clear she feels that way. But there’s a one-time face of the league still in her prime, another MVP still in her prime and a hall-of-fame PG on the tail end of her career. Can you really make the pieces work around a player whose usage rate this year (24.9%) is creeping back up towards the pre ‘Big 3’ years? I guess this might be the year where we find out where she stands on the role player vs. star vs. superstar debate.
3. At last, the Seattle Storm are putting it all together.
It took a second but now that the Seattle Storm are all healthy and have had some time on the floor together, the product is looking pretty good. HOWEVER! It is worth noting that the four game win streak for the Storm consists of two wins against the Indiana Fever and one against the still-winless Washington Mystics. A 77-68 win on the road against Chicago is encouraging as Seattle heads into the meat of their June schedule with games against Phoenix, Las Vegas and Minnesota in the next week. While I don’t expect them to be in any type of deep playoff run conversation, it does feel like the long term outlook for the Storm feels pretty good right now.
The core four of Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Nneka Ogwumike and Ezi Magbegor are going to be the engines of this team at all times. Ezi, in particular, continues to be a defensive player of the year candidate and is continuing to show the offensive improvements that she displayed last year in her fourth season in the league. What’s going to be a big question is how much the frontcourt depth pieces can continue while Magbegor and Ogwumike are off the floor. Right now, the two average about 32 minutes a game each. Ditto Loyd and Diggins-Smith. That’s some serious mileage when you factor that in over a full season. Jordan Horston is starting to show up as a decent bench option but all eyes, at least for me, should be on Mercedes Russell. The veteran post presence is going to have to be a huge part of the bench effort if the Storm are to shake anyone in the top tier of the league this season. But, if nothing else, Seattle looks like their starters are getting a feel for one another on the floor. Which is a nice sign for one of the more interesting on-paper rosters in the WNBA.
4. It’s A’ja Wilson’s world and we’re living in it.
So….about that column last week where I said Napheesa Collier was making a bit of an early MVP run? Well, it turns out Phee won the Kenny Trill Week 1 Heisman award. Because once the Lynx and Aces tipped off it was clear who the best player on the floor was. Here’s what’s crazy: Phee played well! But A’ja Wilson is entering a tier of all-time-great where it’s her and everyone else in the league. And, without being too hyperbolic, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen this type of dominance from a player in this league before. Through six games …the numbers are absurd…
26.5 points per game, 12.5 rebounds per game, 2.8 blocks per game, a 93.5 defensive rating and a career high 32.5% usage rate. She’s the only player in WNBA history with 100+ points and 50+ rebounds in her first five games. The mid-range game is almost automatic. Her footwork in the lane is impeccable. She sweeps the boards and over the last week has been a menace as a rim protector. While a lot of fans came in the WNBA to see Caitlin Clark, they’re doing themselves a mighty disservice by not watching Wilson whenever the Aces play.
The South Carolina superstar came into the league a top 15 player almost immediately but it’s becoming hard to believe that there was a time when the Aces were something of a bridesmaid-never-the-bride in the Western Conference. Wilson herself has a bit of an origin story, being met at the rim by Brittney Griner with .7 seconds to play with a trip to the 2021 WNBA Finals on the line. While she’s the face of the league now, I think back on that moment a lot and how some of the revisionism about Wilson’s status in the league can sometimes feel like a bit of a disservice to her work. She had to get here and had to get through other great teams and players to do so. It hasn’t always been pre-ordained. And that’s what makes her status as face of the league all the more satisfying now.
5. In defense of the beat reporters…
I was initially really hesitant to write about what happened on Saturday in the WNBA. Multiple things can be true…
Elbows and rough play happen. It’s basketball.
Caitlin Clark needs some teammates to come to her defense if she’s gonna continue to get the league welcome treatment.
Chennedy Carter doesn’t have to answer any questions she doesn’t want to.
Asking questions is a part of a reporters job.
The actual incident was, quite frankly, completely overblown. Much like the Victoria Vivians dust-up, it looks like Clark isn’t afraid to speak her piece and veterans are giving her a piece of theirs. The idea that she needs to be treated with kid gloves because she’s bringing a new audience is so preposterous that we shouldn’t even dignify that take with a response. At the same time, if you’re going to act certain ways on the court, I think it’s completely fair game to be asked about it. Below is the transcription of the press conference interaction where Carter was asked about the tiff with Clark…
Reporter: Chennedy on the play before bumping in with Caitlin it looked like she turned to you a little bit —
Carter: Yeah
Reporter: — After the Fever scored—
Carter: I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions.
Reporter: Did she say anything to you?
Carter: I don’t know what she said.
Reporter: What did you say to her?
Carter: I didn’t say anything to her.
Teresa Weatherspoon: That’s enough.
Reporter: Okay.
What I find so fascinating about the interaction is that the initial question actually leads Clark as the perpetrator of the scuffle and not Carter. For so many people in the W media sphere, very good reporters that are not new to this, to go after a colleague here is completely bizarre. Follow up questions are the nature of the business. On paper, there’s nothing here that should lead to a credential revocation or even a reprimand. Carter was asked right off the top of the presser about the scuffle and gave a ‘next question’. A few minutes later came the back-and-forth in question.
Carter doesn’t owe us anything, I think it’s important to note that. Athletes have it in their power to not answer questions if they don’t want to. But we also have to address an elephant in the room here: most press conference questions suck and only serve to fill copy in a gamer or a quick engagement bump. Just look at how Teresa Weatherspoon answered some of the questions in that presser after the players left.
This question was a legitimate one. Everyone is talking about this one particular interaction and the Sky send out one of the two people involved. Why on earth wouldn’t you ask about it? Asking Carter what happened there doesn’t dehumanize her. I’d argue the framing of the question is very careful to not make her out to be the villain and give her the ability to speak in her own defense.
For years, longtime fans in the WNBA have complained that reporters in the league are too concerned with losing their access to get questions that people want answers to. Chennedy Carter was at the very center of it years ago when Renee Montgomery, a newly minted minority owner of the Atlanta Dream at the time, got to sit on the ESPN desk and dance around tepid questions about why Carter wasn’t playing. There was more than a bit of outrage as to why Montgomery seemingly was able to get away with it.
The inconsistency of when reporters are allowed to ask tough questions, who is allowed to ask them and how is a constantly moving target. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news: but reporters are always going to be here. This isn’t the music industry. If you don’t see a need for press at all then it’s a different discussion. But if you think there’s a utility for media to be around these games and building discussion and stories around it (especially if you’re someone that works in it) then the conversation has to be approached with more nuance. Unfortunately, that doesn’t sell on the Bird App.