WNBA Notes: Atlanta, Dallas Preseason Concerns

For reference, since this notebook comes out on Sunday, I define “this week” as the previous night from Sunday to Saturday.

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Dream of Atlanta

As someone who has watched way too many early 2010s WNBA games recently, I feel highly qualified to say that the 2024 dream is straight out of this mid-transition era.¹ playing style. They are cut from the same cloth as the 2010-11 New York Liberty, and their shot profiles will likely be similar as well.

Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, but in a league with contenders operating at modern levels of offensive efficiency, that’s not particularly good. Especially when Atlanta starts two centers who are mediocre 3-point shooters and bad rim protectors (Cheyenne Parker and Tina Charles).

A simple solution would be to return Nia Coffey to the starting lineup at her current position at power forward. Unfortunately, the Dream played Coffey at three and dragged her with the guards. This is despite the fact that Coffey is one of the best backline defenders in the league, from protecting the edge to guarding post-ups, and lacks the athletic profile to score from the small position. attacker.

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Dallas Wings

At the very least, playing guard Arike Ogunbowale, center Teaira McCowan and forward Natasha Howard for a combined 100 minutes each night should ensure a decent baseline level of play for Dallas. But the organization and flow (on the field) of the Wings in their preseason game against the Indiana Fever was far below what one would expect from a team returning 86.7% of its scores and 77, 5% of his minutes compared to last year. This problem could persist until All-Star forward Satou Sabally returns from injury, likely after the Olympic break.

When Dallas firmly established itself as the No. 4 team in the WNBA last year, it happened after the All-Star break. His offense began to take advantage of the scoring gravity of this quartet to create the spacing and pressure on defenders that most teams would get by shooting and having a point guard, things the Wings don’t have. This might not be sustainable without Sabally.

Without Sabally, they are down their best playmaker, 3-point shooter and shot creator, according to Synergy. This has downstream effects beyond just downgrading her to (probable) second-year forward Maddy Siegrist. This means defenses won’t respect Siegrist’s cuts or spacing as much as Sabally’s. That means Howard isn’t as open on his interior cuts, Ogunbowale has to finish through harder windows, and more bodies can dig into McCowan’s touches.

Without Sabally, there’s a good chance that the Wings’ offense will slow down, the looks will get tougher and there will be a cascading effect that could hurt them even more than anyone would expect. that a team is hurt by losing its best player.

The good news, beyond the extra touches for Siegrist and rookie guard Jacy Sheldon, is that Dallas has a busy schedule. He faced Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, three teams widely expected to end up in the lottery, seven times before Sabally returned. And it faces Las Vegas, New York and Seattle, the consensus top three teams in the W, five times during that span. After the break, the Wings will face the lottery trio three times and the contending trio seven times.

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Indiana fever

I wrote about Grace Berger’s midseason emergence, in part due to her strong defense, for the Fever last year. She showed footwork at the point of attack this preseason, which suggests she could be one of the best defenders in the league in her second season. Nothing for sure yet, but something to keep an eye on.

Minnesota Lynx

Recent shooting guards Minnesota has attempted to play at point guard:

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Phoenix Mercury

I was extremely confident at the time that Natasha Mack was the best center in the 2021 WNBA Draft. Three years later, Mack was projected to be on Phoenix’s Opening Day roster, while the No. 1 pick that year, center Charli Collier, did not get a contract for training camp. It is therefore a proof of concept for my support of our reconnaissance operation.

Hunter Cruse of The Next contributed reporting for this story.