Where the Mind Wanders

01Mercury at Dream

Mercury @ Dream

I really like Sherrod in the rotation. I remember her on the Liberty a few years ago, and you could always tell she had some juice but needed to rein in her skills a little bit. Her ceiling in my opinion, is similar to a teammate she resembles and backs up, and that is Jordin Canada. They both have great speed, tenacity, and have a little meanness to them. She’s a great add to the rotation because, despite the Dream having a lot of talent, their only true PG was Canada, so this adds some necessary depth.

Also, It’s nice to watch Kelsey Plum play basketball. I especially love her driving package. She has the decel and euro step down to a science, and on top of that she’s insanely physical. I see some shades of Jaylen Brown in the tenacity she plays with and then Kyrie in regards to relative pedigree and skill level. Regardless, I see what the Mercury are trying to do with this trade. From their perspective, it gets them to a similar position as the Lakers have been the past few years, where they're capped as a puncher's-chance team. I think the Mercury overreacted to the championship loss hangover and made a big gamble. I’d say this isn’t inherently a bad trade, but it is a risk. The Mercury, as thin as they already are with the age of the assets they have, still decided to push their chips in the middle for an older player who has a decent chance to leave in the offseason. So I get it, and if they have any level of success, they’ll be able to justify the move, but if they’re one-and-done or, God forbid, miss the playoffs, then some jobs will have to be audited.

And for Plum, if she did want this, I don’t entirely understand it. I know the Sparks did some pretty dumb s*** during the offseason and the team hasn’t entirely matched your level of effort at all times, but the Sparks next few years look much brighter than the Mercury’s. I’d rather hitch my wagon to players like Cam Brink and Rae Burrell with much more flexibility and options to bring in additional talent, than the desperate Mercury. I think Plum would have just as good of a chance with the Sparks, and I feel like that uncomfortable truth reared its head even this game.

02Storm at Liberty

I have a variety of thoughts regarding this game. First, can we please bring Awa Fam back into the starting lineup and give her the minutes? I could see no reason, unless you’re genuinely trying to lose, for replacing Awa and Ezi in minutes and lineup. My first year watching the WNBA, Ezi had a very good year, and I think she’s very well-spoken and probably pretty nice, but she’s still playing her way back. I was going to say at first that she might be shot and not have much left, but watching Alanna Smith’s comfort level and mobility slowly return has given me some optimism that Ezi just needs some more controlled playing time. However, she was just not good enough tonight in her rim protection or rebounding, which is essential from one of your bigs. She has always been more known for her offensive skills, but if she’s not shooting very well and getting easy looks, at least for the moment, she needs to be providing value elsewhere. I’m not going to say she singlehandedly lost them the game because they probably aren’t trying to win games, but Awa has such a high ceiling and needs to be getting all the experience and reps she can during this tank year. Last thing on this, I’m not sure why Ezi is wearing a mask, but I think it’s actually impacting her play. I think you should have to be a certain caliber player in all of basketball to get granted “Mask Status.” For mid players or, honestly, players with more laid-back personalities should not just be allowed to wear a mask. There should be some level of exclusivity for a training staff to be able to give you a mask to play in. If you’re not good enough or memorable enough, then just sit out until your face is better. This will connect to a rant I have later tonight, where it's so comedic to see players put so much into their pregame outfits just to play like s***.

Next on the docket, Marine Fauthoux, I was not familiar with your game. The Liberty each year seem to pull rabbits out of hats and get these elite-level role players. I mean, seriously, to get 2 undrafted rookies into your rotation as the New York Liberty is very impressive. Astier is even in the starting lineup for now. I know all of it will get shuffled as Sabally and Fiebich come back, and it will happen unintentionally, but both of their minutes will be cut a bit so we just have to enjoy what we’re getting from them now. I say that hoping we see them a lot during the playoffs, but the Liberty are going to have some first-world, but still important rotational decisions to make.

Next is Dominique Malonga, who could have a Giannis-esque start to her career. It’s unfair to say the start of her career has been underwhelming because she was an all-star this year and last year was stuck in a very cluttered frontcourt with spacing issues. I say she has so far underachieved solely because of how unstoppable and dominant she actually can become. She has a real “freakiness” to her (pleaseee relax) in the same way Giannis did. Giannis at times looked like a man among boys, or like he was cheating. For a few years, Giannis was doing superhuman, terrifying things on the basketball court. He lived up to his nickname and, unless he kind of rejuvenates his career, will be remembered for the few years of complete dominance. People hated playing against him, and Malonga has a chance to impact the WNBA at an even higher level. Giannis’s athleticism in relation to his peers is an even smaller gap than Dominique’s and her peers. She, in a lot of ways, can be compared to Wemby, but I hope her style ends up close to Giannis. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for next year to see any true results, but to continue the Wemby comp, the very first year his team was trying to win and make the playoffs, they made it all the way to the championship on his back. The Storm already have their Stephon Castle in Flaujae Johnson, and will be just as terrifying as the Spurs if they can find their third banana. I’ll give them credit that a culture and identity are being born in front of our eyes. I hate Sonia Raman to start the season, but it's entirely unfair to not give her props for the flashes of encouragement. They have all of the signs of a team looking to take a surprisingly big leap, and I just hope that manifests down the road.

04A few unrelated thoughts

I was listening to Zach Lowe’s podcast today with him talking about the Indiana Pacers, and as he was recapping their infamous playoff run last year, I had a similar sensation to when I was watching Naruto, and they would talk about old Hokage. Since we didn’t see anything real from this year with Hali out, they have this mystique and folklore to their identity now that reminds me of Naruto character development. We did eventually get to see the Hokage reincarnated in Naruto, and this year we will also get to see this Pacers team (granted slightly different look) reclaim their spot. I just thought it was funny how in awe Lowe and Goldsberry sounded, and it also reminded me of how old people talk about Michael Jordan. Once you start saying s*** like “you just had to be there,” you know some unicorn-level events took place.

Also, I’m an advocate (I guess) for WNBA players embracing fashion and putting a lot of effort into their looks, but outside of that context, some of these players just look a little silly. Like, especially players who aren’t suiting up, showing up in designer looks, and kind of their fashion styles look almost Halloweenish, but only one person is dressing up. And for the players that put all that effort in, just to go and change into their uniforms and actually play, I might be more confused by you. These women are showing up like runway models. It pisses me off so much to see a player look totally dressed to the 9s pregame, and then see her f***ing suck during the games. I’ll admit I’m a big Patriots dynasty fan, so I know Belichick would be sick if any of his players prioritized their outfit over the game. I’m not asking for you women not to care about how you look, and I think some of these players are sponsored by the brands of the clothes they’re wearing, so make your bag, but please be aware, when surrounded by thousands of regular dressed people, you look a little foolish.

05Sparks vs. Sky

I initially was going to skip commenting on this game because I thought it was an easy win for me. I had Sky -2.5, and for the first half, I was absolutely loving it and feeling myself. However, they lost the lead going into the fourth, and I began to realize this game has some interesting things to talk about. Just when I was out… they pulled me right back in. Just for it to end relatively anticlimactically. I’ll keep these thoughts strictly to apologies, which I just love to give out. Actually, as a self-proclaimed deliverer of accountability and devout follower of the laws of the land, I do like to apologize when the shoe fits. So, sorry to Elizabeth Williams and Rachel Banham. They're two players I have had mental breakdowns watching due to some of their mistakes, but tonight, I’ll admit they played great. When Banham is making her shots, it's acceptable to have her on the court, but tonight she played with some extra juice that really made my night. I hear such positive things about her in the media and from other players, so it sucks when that doesn’t always translate to on-court success. Contrary to popular belief, I actually am rooting for the WNBA and individual player success, but in my official role as the unofficial spokesman of the WNBA, I just have to relay my judgment via HoopHub. However, I can do nothing but smile when some of these players perform and shut me the h*** up.