Where the Mind Wanders

01The Outlet Pass Problem

Something I feel compelled to talk about today is the outlet pass in the WNBA. I see it attempted all the time, and I see it mishandled often enough that it becomes destructive and counterproductive for these teams.

In theory, the idea is good. I am a proponent of the WNBA playing a little faster, and a lot of these players are incredibly athletic. Watching them go up and down the court is very entertaining. The problem is that the execution of these outlet passes reflects negatively on the league. Casual fans, especially NBA fans the WNBA is trying to convert, are used to a cleaner product. Every badly executed outlet gives them low-hanging fruit to attack the quality of the WNBA. One simple decision can make the product look much worse to the spectator.

For the teams themselves, I have no idea why this keeps happening at the rate it does. Players attempt these passes almost like heat checks, and most of the misses I notice are overthrows rather than underthrows. That can make the player hustling down the court look responsible because she cannot catch the ball, but the decision to throw it is what should be questioned. Only a few players truly have this pass in their bag.

At a non-professional open gym, if I saw the same pass, I would assume the player got too excited or simply had not played very much. I want to give WNBA players more benefit of the doubt, so I will say they are getting excited. Still, the pass often looks like a back-shoulder fade or a deep go route. It is not a high-percentage play, and it rarely puts the receiver in a good position.

What makes it worse is that many of these attempts come when the team in transition already has a numbers advantage. A reckless decision squanders that advantage for the illusion of getting the easiest possible points.

My official comment as the unofficial spokesman of the WNBA is simple: teams should either practice these full-court and half-court outlet passes until they can execute them, or stop throwing them. Right now, they are reflecting negatively on the league.

02How Athletic Are Older People?

My next thought started while I was watching Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm. There was a scene with him in a gym, and I began wondering: exactly how athletic are older people?

For reference, I am 23 years old and in decent shape. I lift regularly, and while I am by no means super jacked, I am past the beginner stage. When I look at my grandfather, who is in his mid-70s, and my dad, who is close to 60, I have started seeing them in an almost patronizing light physically. I refuse to let my grandparents carry certain things, and I refuse to let my dad do certain chores around the house because I have this image in my head that they are going to get hurt.

I do not know whether that is incredibly ignorant or a valid estimation of what happens to the human body once someone reaches their 60s. How nimble is a person at that age? Do they lose agility, strength, or the ability to change direction? I have some of the same curiosity about mental capacity. Can we put any of this into a percentage? How much less effective does a person actually become?

LeBron James is in his early 40s, but how exactly has his athleticism declined? You could put him next to a 22-year-old, and LeBron would still clear that person in most athletic skills. He is obviously an extreme example, but that only makes the question more interesting.

I guess I am trying to understand what I should expect when I get older and what I can reasonably expect from the older people around me now. I do not want to be rude, but either assumption can become disrespectful. It might be condescending to stop an older man from doing something when he takes pride in remaining self-sufficient. It might also be inconsiderate to assume he can handle every physical task without help.

The whole thing leaves me in a huge pickle. In trying to figure out how not to be offensive, I have probably managed to sound offensive anyway. I will have to hear from several older people before I get a real sense of the answer.

03The Sydney Taylor Leg Sleeve Effect

While sweating the Chicago Sky versus Las Vegas Aces game this morning, I noticed something that genuinely put a smile on my face: the Sydney Taylor leg sleeve has caught on across the Chicago Sky.

It was easier to identify who did not have the single-leg sleeve going than who did. Jacy Sheldon and Gabriela Jaquez were the only two players I could spot without one. Everyone else seemed to be rocking the look like Sydney Taylor. I hope she is the reason, because that would be a real testament to her influence on the culture in the locker room.

Obviously, plenty of players wear the look. Angel Reese does it. Aneesah Morrow does it. I think A'ja Wilson wears a single leg sleeve from time to time. But for most of this game, it seemed like nearly everyone on the Sky had it going.

It is crazy what one true hooper can bring to a team. That is how I thought of Sydney Taylor the first time I watched her: she is simply a hooper. Put her side by side with anyone on the Chicago Sky, and she just plays basketball well. It is easy to call her more skilled or more polished, which is remarkable because so much of her development seems to have happened overseas after she went undrafted.

My admittedly simple rebuttal to anyone asking how she could be better than Skylar Diggins, or what exactly I see in her game, is that she just plays basketball well. The next time I get on the court, I might be rocking a single leg sleeve too. The look is tough. Sydney Taylor is tough, and the Chicago Sky pulled off a miraculous win to start the day.

I had Chicago plus 6.5, so I was fine with either outcome at the end of the game. Still, it is awesome to see an organization on the come-up finally begin to find some success.

04Sonia Citron Propaganda

The last thing I want to discuss is not from today's slate, but it connects directly to what made me want to write about the WNBA in the first place: spreading propaganda and giving attention to the players who need it most. Today, that means some Sonia Citron propaganda.

Sonia Citron was a player I stumbled upon last year, and I immediately saw what made her special. She is an insane athlete, which is something I will talk about more later, but she also has a very calm demeanor. She has a quiet intensity to her personality. The last piece, and something that embodies the Washington Mystics as a whole, is that she simply tries very hard.

The Mystics may not be the best team, and they may have structural flaws in the roster and its personnel, but their floor is higher because they have so many players who compete. Sometimes it feels like they are trying a little too hard. The ball does not move enough, or the offense gets lazy, and that can be frustrating. But this team is full of competitors, and it is obvious. That is one reason I believe they are going to grind out some wins. They have also been an excellent underdog against the spread this year, if you are tapped in.

Back to Citron. She has the skill and talent to be an offensive engine, but she defers too much. She lets some of her more vocal teammates take the reins when, in my opinion, it should always be her.

When I watch Citron, I see a soccer player playing basketball. If you have ever played pickup and been guarded by someone who plays soccer, you know how annoying it can be. They are always going for the ball, but they are so good at sliding their feet and reaching the right spot that you cannot call a foul. They know how to use body bumps, make everything difficult, contest every action, and stay involved. They also move with a different rhythm from the average basketball player.

Watching Citron, I think she could be a great football player or softball player, and she is already a great basketball player. She is the definition of an athlete, in my opinion, and her conditioning is out of this world.

Suffice it to say, I am a big fan. She is one of my five favorite players, and I am going to follow her career closely. One day I will do a full player ranking and see exactly where I land on her. For now, I will say she is good enough to be the best player on a serious playoff contender.

That is as far as I will take the Sonia Citron propaganda today, and it is the final official statement from the unofficial spokesman of the WNBA.