Five Out: Brittney Griner is back, a glimpse of the real Caitlin Clark and a Storm in Las Vegas

A glimpse into a Fever Future, the Storm might be built to challenge the Aces, Brittney Griner is back and more. Andrew's thoughts on the world of women's basketball for the week of June 10th, 2024.

After this week’s edition of “sports media brain rot” I really wondered if we had finally reached rock bottom. Part of me wants to believe that we finally crossed into crazy town and now that we’re here things will cool down for a bit. While drama is good for the storylines, I can’t imagine Cathy Engelbert loved what she saw transpire this week. The optimist in me feels that we hit the worst of the crazy discourse, everyone said ‘well this is dumb’ and we may retreat back to our corners for a little while save for the trolls and bots inflaming tensions in an election year. But man, if it still has the capacity to get worse, then an international break can’t come soon enough.

Now to the column…

1. Is Eric Thibault just WNBA Kendall Roy?

The HBO smash hit Succession opens with Kendall Roy, the brash second-oldest son of media mogul and billionaire Logan Roy, overpaying for a website to get a deal to bring home to his father. In the second season, as a means of driving the knife further into his son’s ego, Logan forces Kendall, a shell of himself by this point in the show, to gut his crown jewel completely. While watching the Washington Mystics, I couldn’t help but wonder if Eric Thibault ever had a Kendall Roy reaction to what his roster looks like…

“This was your team Eric, why did you gut a fringe playoff squad for…this?”

“Because my Dad told me to.”

Cue piano. Flash old family photos on screen.

Thibault is 36 years old and in his second year as the head coach. With his father, 73 year old and 2019 WNBA champion head coach Mike Thibault, as General Manager, things are looking a little precarious for the eldest boy. Adding to the Succession metaphor is that Eric’s sister, Carly Thibault-DuDonis (not in the family business of the WNBA), is currently one of the hottest rising coaches in NCAA women’s basketball. But Carly and Blake are much, much better people than Shiv and Tom let’s be clear.

It’s tough to see Shakira Austin hurt. I’m sure if she and Brittney Sykes were available this season looks a lot different. It is, however, great to see how quickly Aaliyah Edwards is adapting to being a WNBA player. Lost in the Mystics being musty is the fact that AE might end up being one of the better players to come out of a potentially historic draft class. But we’re not focusing enough on that because…well…0-12.

I feel for Eric because the talent disparity on this roster is apparent. They fight hard and compete but are consistently running out of gas late. That said, for a league with just 144 spots and 12 teams, where the talent floor is higher than it’s ever been, to be 0-12 is indicative of a structural problem with either the staff or the roster construction. Does it mean we have to play Boar on the Floor to figure out who the next coach is going to be? Probably not. But something has to change and soon.

2. We finally got a glimpse of what the Caitlin Clark experience may look like in the WNBA.

Now, it’s important to preface that all this happened against the aforementioned Mystics. However Max Kellerman! The statline is the statline and the impact is the impact. For the first time this season, Clark and the Indiana Fever had more than three days off between games and the fresh legs were obvious. After shooting a combined 3-16 from 3 point range in her final two matchups of nearly three straight weeks of games, CC stepped out against Washington shooting 7-13. While the turnover numbers are unsustainably big — she gave it away 8 times on Saturday — we got to see Caitlin Clark the scorer, the distributor and as a bit of a defensive presence.

It’s pretty clear that she spent some time watching the tape and working on her game with the days off. While she was able to get to her spot — stepping back to her left from about 26 feet out — we saw her play off screens and use other moves to gain separation. It may take a season or two to incorporate a floater or mid-range into her game but the early returns are encouraging.

One interesting thing I’ve noticed is her being more pass-first with this team than people think. A turnover occurred in the 2nd quarter where Clark looked like she had beaten her assignment with Aliyah Boston cutting to the basket. Boston actually looked like she thought Clark would take it to the cup but Clark passed it to an unsuspecting Boston and causing a missed opportunity. It was a small timing issue play but one that stuck out to me as Clark being 80% of the way there but not fully in sync with her teammates. Whether it means we need to see Clark finishing *more* at the rim or anticipating that pass earlier is up to interpretation. But the game itself was extremely encouraging for what Caitlin Clark can regularly look like in this league.

Side note: If you want reaction to Caitlin Clark expected to not be selected to Team USA’s 2024 Olympic roster, CLICK HERE.

3. Welcome back, Brittney Griner!

Who is happier Brittney Griner is back? Nate Tibbets or those that took Griner early in their fantasy drafts? The answer is probably both. After rehabbing a toe fracture she picked up in the preseason, Griner returned to the starting lineup on Friday and promptly contributed, scoring 11 points and grabbing 4 rebounds. The following night, with a little bit of a limp in her step, BG turned in a vintage performance scoring 24 points on 11/16 shooting to go along with 9 boards. While the Mercury have managed to get on without her and keep their heads above water in the western conference, her impact on the floor was apparent from the moment she left her feet for the jump ball.

Even though at times she made her way up the floor gingerly, Griner’s presence down low changes so much of how the Mercury play. On the defensive end, she’s a clear and obvious upgrade over Natasha Mack, who admirably stepped up to the task but isn’t an All-WNBA player like BG is. On the other side, the attention she draws inside is what allows Phoenix’s shooters to get open. Even on early possessions, you could see Griners’ distribution out of the post, passing out of doubles and allowing Kahleah Copper and Diana Taurasi more space to operate.

There are still some holes on this Mercury team and the minutes where BG is off the floor are still going to be tumultuous but with her back in the lineup it puts Phoenix in a different tier of team. Right now, the western conference looks like the following…

Title Contenders — Las Vegas Aces

Aces challengers — Seattle Storm

A robust middle tier — Phoenix Mercury, Minnesota Lynx

A piece away — Dallas Wings

Tank for Paige/Play Rickea More — Los Angeles Sparks

For reference, the Mercury were in the ‘Piece Away’ tier without BG. With her, they may find their way into the ‘Aces Challengers’ tier. We’ll find out on Thursday.

4. The Storm might be built to beat the Aces…but are they built to win a title?

This year in the NBA (or MNBA, depending on how you like to label) playoffs the Denver Nuggets fell to the upstart Minnesota Timberwolves in seven games. The game within the game, beyond everybody hating Rudy Gobert, is T-Wolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly essentially destroying the team he created. After building the Nuggets core that won the 2023 NBA Finals, Connelly turned around and built a team designed specifically to beat them. But what came next was a team they weren’t built to beat in the Dallas Mavericks. We all saw what happened next.

I use this anecdote because it feels like the Seattle Storm might be following a similar blueprint without the intrigue of a former PBO building the roster. But the Storm feel uniquely suited to match up effectively against the back-to-back defending champion Las Vegas Aces, at least until Chelsea Gray returns to action. With the best player in the league as a front court anchor and an elite backcourt, the only place you can really attack the Aces is at their 4 spot where Kiah Stokes starts. It’s tough for teams to attack her because there is a typically a matchup disparity at another position.

But the Storm, with Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Victoria Vivians occupying positions 1 through 3 don’t seem to have that problem when you matchup five against five. Ezi Magbegor is an All-WNBA caliber defender and while you can only hope to contain A’ja Wilson, Ezi’s development on the other side of the ball makes her a threat on both ends. So that leaves Stokes and…Nneka Ogwumike. At 33, Nneka is still an elite player on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Her versatility can create issues with switches and she can handle Stokes or whoever the Aces try to throw at her one on one.

Now does this mean the Aces are cooked? Absolutely not. We’ve already seen that Wilson is on a potential G.O.A.T run this season and Chelsea Gray still has to return to the lineup. It should go without saying but the Aces are a very different team when Point Gawd is on the floor and that they are the team to beat in the WNBA. But Friday’s win for Seattle is definitely in the ‘games that make you raise your eyebrow and could challenge your preconceived notions’ category. The Aces also haven’t looked like themselves lately but they’ll figure it out. But the Storm may be a case of a team built to beat one opponent and ill-equipped to beat others.

5. A note to the men, from a man that’s been here awhile…

I want to stress that this note isn’t just for the men in media new to the women’s game. Some of my male colleagues that have been in this for awhile haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory either as of late. But this week was pretty much the nightmare that many in the women’s basketball space had feared. Much like Columbus landing on Hispaniola and thinking he had found India, sports media members (men and women) who had ignored, rejected or openly mocked the WNBA as recently as six months ago showed up on our shores and announced they had always been there.

Stephen A. Smith and Monica McNutt had a particularly stunning back and forth on ESPN' First Take where Smith tried to frame a 40 minute commercial free discussion (utterly unheard of in the television world) on Caitlin Clark as more evidence that First Take was always an advocate for the game. A shoutout to McNutt who, in the face of a man making tens of millions of dollars a year and can make or break careers at the four letters, stood firm and called him out by saying in less words that advocacy is a proactive behavior and not a reactive action meant to be met with subservience and unending gratitude.

How the two male hosts of First Take decided to spend their evenings that night was a lesson on how to be as a media member new to this space and how not to be. While Smith headed to his podcast to essentially call himself a queen maker for women in media and that’s why he will not be critiqued on where his blind spots are, Shannon Sharpe brought McNutt onto his Nightcap show with Chad Ochocinco. Initially, I anticipated disaster. But what we ended up getting was a halfway decent conversation between former elite athletes and how to interpret a rookie that brings an army of people demanding she be treated as a golden goose (as we said last week, a take so preposterous it doesn’t merit response). McNutt later joined Bomani Jones, who I think has done a solid job owning up to his blind spots while still balancing his analysis as a new face to the game, and it turned out to be a really enjoyable listen.

The lesson here is this: However well-intentioned it may be, most moves we as men make in this space center ourselves in the discussion. Even when trying to be ‘one of the good ones’, our acknowledgement of being a man covering a women’s game, how lucky we are and more is still putting *us* at the center of the discussion. The work should be more about being a conduit to connecting fans to those in the league and less about framing oneself as the good man and good ally (which is a term that should be rejected entirely if we’re keeping it a buck. We don’t need pat on the head labels for doing the morally right thing).

So listen to the women. Especially the ones who have played the game, coached the game, been a part of the game for a long time. Bring them on your shows, elevate their channels, don’t make it about us as men and us as an audience, appreciate those that are here and be willing to hear that you might be wrong about some stuff.

We can disagree, we can debate but I need my XY brethren to stop treating their presence as a present here. While there’s a discussion on a macro scale to be made about some of the W space — from players to media to fans — wanting all the benefits of attention and seemingly none of its drawbacks, advocacy is action based. If you genuinely care about the league, then you’ll watch more than Caitlin Clark. You won’t espouse the ridiculous golden goose theory. You own your blind spots (and we all have them, even those of us that have been here a long time). Do some homework, listen to others, and don’t be sensitive when your opinion gets challenged.

Hopefully it gets better and this past week was the peak of the crazy talk bell curve. Otherwise, we‘re in for a long summer.