Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're all
Speaker 1: Hoopers and Hotties.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, April thirtieth, and on today's show, we're going
Speaker 1: to continue introducing you to some of the other fantastic
Speaker 1: podcasts on the iHeart Women's Sports Network. Today's new frontier
Speaker 1: is Full Circle with Lexi Brown and Mariah Rose. We
Speaker 1: mentioned their pod back in January as they got ready
Speaker 1: to launch. You heard my live show with Lexi at
Speaker 1: south By Southwest on our March eleventh episode, and she
Speaker 1: and I got to hang out again at the Final four.
Speaker 1: But we wanted to celebrate their show this week by
Speaker 1: bringing you a full episode here in our feed.
Speaker 3: Lexi is a.
Speaker 1: WNBA champ and hooper for the league Seattle Storm, and
Speaker 1: Mariah is the sports media personality behind Hoops for Hotties,
Speaker 1: aimed at teaching the girls, gays days, and substraight guys
Speaker 1: too about sports. To get you prepped, Mariah was kind
Speaker 1: enough to send us a brief rundown of what their
Speaker 1: show is all about.
Speaker 2: Take a listen.
Speaker 4: Tired of men dominating the conversation around women's sports, Well
Speaker 4: so are we. That's why I'm Mariah Rose, Sports Media
Speaker 4: personality and WNBA star Lexi Brown have teamed up for
Speaker 4: Full Circle, a show dedicated to all things women's basketball.
Speaker 4: After growing up surrounded by men talking about women's hoops,
Speaker 4: me and Lexi are flipping the script. We're here to
Speaker 4: deliver the latest news, bold takes, and behind the scenes
Speaker 4: buzz from the women's basketball world, no filter, all facts.
Speaker 1: Today you'll hear Full Circles April twenty third episode, and
Speaker 1: Lexi gave us a little preview of what to expect.
Speaker 2: In this week's episode.
Speaker 5: We are talking about my first impressions of being in Seattle,
Speaker 5: talking about the shift of coaching culture in the WNBA,
Speaker 5: and we're going to give y'all a very analytical, stat
Speaker 5: based preview of what we'd consider the Eastern Conference in
Speaker 5: the WNBA. We hope that you guys enjoy this episode,
Speaker 5: like and subscribe and tune into Full Circle podcast.
Speaker 3: All right, slices.
Speaker 1: We're stoked to shine some light on Full Circle, and
Speaker 1: we hope you're excited to listen that episode. But Lexi
Speaker 1: and Mariah is coming up right after this.
Speaker 4: Full Circle is an iheartwoman's sports production and partner with
Speaker 4: Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on
Speaker 4: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5: Hi, everybody from Seattle.
Speaker 2: I'm in Seattle, guys, welcome to another episode of Bee
Speaker 2: Full Circle Podcast. I'm Lexi Brown. I'm here with my girl,
Speaker 2: Mariah Rose. How are you doing.
Speaker 3: I'm so good, Lexi? How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 5: The vibes are just very immaculate right now. I feel
Speaker 5: it through the screen. What's going on?
Speaker 2: How is your weekend?
Speaker 5: Like? What?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 4: I think I'm just I think I'm just happy that
Speaker 4: I had a weekend at home because I have been
Speaker 4: traveling so much that I try in la the apartment.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, but for a day.
Speaker 4: I got home on Friday, so technically I was in
Speaker 4: Atlanta for the weekend.
Speaker 5: Okay, and it was the last time you spent a
Speaker 5: whole weekend in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: Girl, I don't even know.
Speaker 4: But but I'm happy because I feel like I got
Speaker 4: to I'm cleaning my apartment, I'm getting my life together.
Speaker 4: I'm a person again. How are you settling in in Seattle?
Speaker 2: Well, I just got here last night, and so far,
Speaker 2: so good.
Speaker 5: It's energy here is amazing, Like it's actually probably the
Speaker 5: best first twenty four hours I've had in any city
Speaker 5: I've played in. Honestly, like the communication is on point.
Speaker 5: They've picked me up at the airport. They didn't have
Speaker 5: me waiting. All my stuff in my apartment was just
Speaker 5: all set up and ready got They had a rental
Speaker 5: cart waiting for me.
Speaker 2: Today. I get to go to the facility tomorrow, so.
Speaker 5: I actually might go tonight and go just take it
Speaker 5: all in before everyone else is there, So I might
Speaker 5: go go get some shots up tonight on the shooting machine,
Speaker 5: which like the fact that I can do that now,
Speaker 5: like I literally can't believe.
Speaker 2: It, Like, isn't that horrible?
Speaker 5: Though, Like this is year eight, and I'm excited to
Speaker 5: have a shooting machine.
Speaker 3: That I can to be able to go to the
Speaker 3: gym at night, like.
Speaker 5: And you think about it, and it's just like we
Speaker 5: should all have a gym to be able to go
Speaker 5: to that night time. And yeah, now it's becoming like
Speaker 5: a joke or whatever, like the players are like, oh,
Speaker 5: we deserve better, and then they just ship you away.
Speaker 5: Because I posted a TikTok yesterday. Actually I was gonna
Speaker 5: bring that up, but you know what's funny, Sato commented
Speaker 5: on it. And I went on her page and she
Speaker 5: like literally posted like the same exact video like a
Speaker 5: few weeks ago when she was in the hot tib At,
Speaker 5: I think at her new facilities. I saw that one too,
Speaker 5: but I didn't see that, so I went on there
Speaker 5: and I commented last night, I said, God, don't even
Speaker 5: see that you posted this. That's so funny that like
Speaker 5: collectively were all feeling the same way about demanding more
Speaker 5: and if your team just can't provide it for you,
Speaker 5: yor just send you to a team that will. So
Speaker 5: thank you La Sparks for sending me somewhere that will
Speaker 5: take care of me. But it should be the norm
Speaker 5: across the board that everybody should have facilities. And I
Speaker 5: think we're getting there, slowly but surely, but we're getting there.
Speaker 5: Speaking of TikTok, have you been reading any of the
Speaker 5: comments of the last video I posted of us talking
Speaker 5: about the international players?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, well I.
Speaker 3: Would like to know what they're saying about us, Lexi.
Speaker 2: It's not even bad about us.
Speaker 5: I just feel like, first thing about social media since
Speaker 5: I've been off X, like everything has just been rainbows,
Speaker 5: butterflies and sunshines. I've been so much happier and my
Speaker 5: mind is clearer, so.
Speaker 2: We'll start there.
Speaker 5: So when I bring these conversations to TikTok and I'm
Speaker 5: just reading through the comments and people argue with each other,
Speaker 5: I want everyone to collectively take a deep breath and
Speaker 5: stop arguing so much under other people's posts. It's getting
Speaker 5: out of control, especially when I can tell that neither
Speaker 5: one of the parties involved are really understanding what's being said,
Speaker 5: and then the plot gets lost. And so I do
Speaker 5: want to clear up something that I think is like
Speaker 5: being misconstrued. That conversation we had about the international players
Speaker 5: and the rule change, the age change, So one of
Speaker 5: the weirdest comments I saw was that the WNBA is
Speaker 5: trying to bring European players because they want the league
Speaker 5: to be more whitewashed. And I was like, do y'all
Speaker 5: know there are not only white people that play and
Speaker 5: live in Europe. We just drafted o European player that
Speaker 5: is very much a black person.
Speaker 2: So that comment came.
Speaker 5: Up a few times, which I thought was odd because
Speaker 5: I was like, this has nothing to do with race whatsoever,
Speaker 5: nothing at all. And then it was a back and
Speaker 5: forth about you know how we're always just like oh,
Speaker 5: everyone needs to stay in school. But then everyone's like, no,
Speaker 5: they need to lower the age, and then it's like
Speaker 5: people can't really pick a side. But I'm like, just
Speaker 5: because the rule gets changed doesn't mean people have to
Speaker 5: like leave.
Speaker 2: We were just saying that the option should be there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if anybody does want to leave, because that's it.
Speaker 5: But I just like, I was reading the comments and
Speaker 5: I'm like, are you guys even understanding what we're trying
Speaker 5: to say. And then they're like, well, they put a
Speaker 5: cap on Americans in Europe, so we should put a
Speaker 5: cap on Europeans here.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 5: I don't think that's the solution either, but it's it's
Speaker 5: just like I'm always shocked at the lack of comprehension.
Speaker 2: Online.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm seeing them.
Speaker 4: I had to go look it up, and the main
Speaker 4: thing I see is this conversation about it doesn't benefit
Speaker 4: college players to come out and go to the w
Speaker 4: early because of an il and blah blah blah blah,
Speaker 4: And like you said, I think they're misunderstanding the whole
Speaker 4: point of what we were trying to say. That is
Speaker 4: just that the option should be there as far as
Speaker 4: age and everything is concerned, and the amount of professionalism
Speaker 4: that is occurring overseas in order for us to be
Speaker 4: able to keep up with that on a basketball level,
Speaker 4: because I think people forget that that part still exists.
Speaker 4: I know about an IL, and I know that that's
Speaker 4: an option, and I know that it makes sense.
Speaker 3: We've just had a million times it makes more sense
Speaker 3: for them to stay longer.
Speaker 4: But basketball wise, and I think Sedona made us talk
Speaker 4: about this age wise, Like we're talking about how like
Speaker 4: if your people are younger, they're going to take people
Speaker 4: who are younger with a better skill set over somebody
Speaker 4: who's older, and it.
Speaker 3: Might be riskier. Like that makes perfect sense.
Speaker 5: It's actually crazy how much of the conversation surrounding college
Speaker 5: players now is anile based. We like very rarely hear
Speaker 5: people getting into like real basketball talk when it comes
Speaker 5: to these players in college. And I think, you know,
Speaker 5: during this w season, obviously we don't have NIO. We're professionals,
Speaker 5: so we'll be able to get into more like basketball
Speaker 5: and analytic talk, which is what we're going to do
Speaker 5: in a little bit when I introduce what we're going
Speaker 5: to talk about later, but for next college season when
Speaker 5: we're doing our show, Like I really want to get
Speaker 5: into more like actual basketball talk.
Speaker 2: Like speaking of nil and transferring.
Speaker 5: I think Jeniah Baker just committed to Tennessee. I saw
Speaker 5: that today, which again further validates our point that everybody
Speaker 5: going to the SEC. I'm very nervous for the ACC
Speaker 5: and the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: I'm super concerned about the ACC.
Speaker 5: I think the Big Ten will be okay, the Big twelve,
Speaker 5: they'll have a few, but as far as the ACC, like,
Speaker 5: I'm just I don't know what they're gonna do. But
Speaker 5: like do I don't know much about like how the
Speaker 5: money and all.
Speaker 2: That stuff works.
Speaker 5: But it's just like y'all got to find some money somewhere.
Speaker 2: Find it.
Speaker 5: I watched an interview with Coach Yo on Dejah Kelly's podcast.
Speaker 5: She dropped a clip today and Coach Yo's is now
Speaker 5: saying that the first thing she's asking her players is.
Speaker 2: How much money do you want? Dang.
Speaker 5: I can't believe this, and I know it's so it's
Speaker 5: now I'm so beyond conflicted with this nil stuff now,
Speaker 5: because how much money do you want? Like you average
Speaker 5: three points a game, you should get twenty dollars?
Speaker 2: Like what do we?
Speaker 5: And I talked about it with Eric Wheeler when I
Speaker 5: was with her, Like, it's not teaching these kids how
Speaker 5: to like earn anything, battle through adversity, figure your shit out, Like,
Speaker 5: unless you really are in a horrible situation at your school,
Speaker 5: like you should, you should be encouraged and motivated enough
Speaker 5: to try figure it out. I'm gonna die on this
Speaker 5: new hill every every day. I'm building a new hill
Speaker 5: to die on. Bring back that sit out rule unless
Speaker 5: your coaches change or leave. If you leave and your
Speaker 5: coaching staff is the same, you need to sit out.
Speaker 5: Like it's getting ridiculous at this point. And now you
Speaker 5: have players moving from team to team, and we always
Speaker 5: talk about.
Speaker 2: The high school kids, but like, what about the kids
Speaker 2: that are already on the team.
Speaker 5: Mm hmm, Like you got a new player who obviously
Speaker 5: wants to come in and is obviously probably getting money
Speaker 5: and promises, and they gonna come in and stomp all
Speaker 5: over something that you've been building yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm not really here for that at all.
Speaker 4: So again, my concern with NIL and the transfer rules
Speaker 4: and all of this stuff. The SEC about to become
Speaker 4: the most dominant conference in basketball. My concern mainly is
Speaker 4: with the level of play, because again, if the basketball
Speaker 4: itself isn't good. You talk about all the time. The
Speaker 4: shooting isn't the same in college anymore. These players are
Speaker 4: going to be They're very young, they're not professionals yet.
Speaker 4: It's going to get to a point where it's like
Speaker 4: all of the talent's going to be concentrated in just
Speaker 4: a couple of places. Everybody's just kind of playing around.
Speaker 4: It's feeling very unserious, and like you said about I
Speaker 4: want them to make their money. Like I don't even
Speaker 4: want to sound like a hater. I think most people
Speaker 4: are smart enough to comprehend that. We're not saying that
Speaker 4: they don't deserve to make their money, but there needs
Speaker 4: to be balanced there because at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: the most important thing should not be going to the
Speaker 4: school where I'm going to make the most money, and
Speaker 4: if that opportunity is there, obviously they're going to go
Speaker 4: to the school that's going to make them the most money.
Speaker 4: As a fan of basketball, we need to start having
Speaker 4: basketball conversations again, like you said, Lexi, next season obviously
Speaker 4: we'll get very much into that and through w season
Speaker 4: and everything. That's the whole point of us doing this.
Speaker 4: But it's just unfortunate because those conversations are dominating the
Speaker 4: media and dominating the actual college basketball landscape because everything
Speaker 4: changes every year because everybody can move, right.
Speaker 5: So you can't even like build on anything that you
Speaker 5: were talking about the year prior because that player is
Speaker 5: not that school anymore. They're at a new school, and
Speaker 5: then whoever was on that team, they had a new school.
Speaker 5: So it's like, how do we even put together conversations
Speaker 5: and meaningful dialogue when everyone is just bouncing around. And
Speaker 5: that's the problem that was happening in the men's side,
Speaker 5: and now it's slowly happening on the women's side, and
Speaker 5: that is a little bit concerning for me for the
Speaker 5: future of women's basketball because we're at this like tip
Speaker 5: top of the mountain of momentum right now, and there
Speaker 5: are decisions being made right now that could ruin the
Speaker 5: momentum long term because now we're going to have the
Speaker 5: same problem as the men's Nobody knows where anybody is
Speaker 5: at school anymore. You can't grow and build with the
Speaker 5: player because every year there at a new school, you know,
Speaker 5: there's gonna be conversations that come out about this player
Speaker 5: wanting money, this player is selfish and greedy, like it's
Speaker 5: already happening with football, it's already happening with men's basketball.
Speaker 5: So I hope that we're able to reel it in
Speaker 5: a little bit for the sake of the future of
Speaker 5: women's basketball, because because the thing that has made this
Speaker 5: momentum happen is because for so many years there's been
Speaker 5: like loyalty and growth and consistency, and now it's like
Speaker 5: it's gone, Like all of those things are just gone now.
Speaker 2: And that's what people love about women's sports.
Speaker 5: And yes, make money, I love it whatever, but like
Speaker 5: we still are not making that much money for us
Speaker 5: to overcome the dark side of what all this is.
Speaker 4: If that makes sense, I think the solution to this
Speaker 4: issue is I think that women are victims to the
Speaker 4: fact that we aren't making enough money. We I am
Speaker 4: not a professional athlete, but y'all are made enough money
Speaker 4: off of what you do on the court in order
Speaker 4: for that other stuff not to matter so exactly. Of course,
Speaker 4: and Olivia Miles might chase the situation where she's going
Speaker 4: to be the girl and the main person on the
Speaker 4: team when that Hailey vanleth is gone, because imagine how
Speaker 4: much money you can make when they come to do
Speaker 4: the Adidas commercial. Guess what, you're not sharing your salary
Speaker 4: with somebody else. We have to kind of make these
Speaker 4: decisions because at this point, these college kids could bring
Speaker 4: in generational type of wealth and they're not going to
Speaker 4: turn that down when let's be real, the salary in
Speaker 4: the W is it alone? Is it going to allow
Speaker 4: them to do that? And on top of that, then
Speaker 4: you have to go and do all of this extra
Speaker 4: stuff in pr and commercials and social media and all
Speaker 4: of these things that are taking away from the actual
Speaker 4: basketball being played, which is what we really should be prioritizing, right.
Speaker 4: And it's not just basketball either, it's all women's sports
Speaker 4: because most women in sports are making most of their money,
Speaker 4: you know this, off the court, and so the more
Speaker 4: you're putting into stuff off the court, the less you're
Speaker 4: putting into on the court stuff. And so if they
Speaker 4: want that level of competition to continue the way it
Speaker 4: has been, then the money for actually playing basketball needs
Speaker 4: to rise or else.
Speaker 2: I mean, and it is about to.
Speaker 5: But the thing about it is you don't get paid
Speaker 5: for your performance on the court in college. So I mean,
Speaker 5: assuming best case scenario with our new CBA, that money
Speaker 5: goes up then I feel like some of those problems
Speaker 5: will be resolved. Again, I don't think that's ever going
Speaker 5: to change about women's sports. Is doing all the extra
Speaker 5: stuff off the court. I think that's just reality. But
Speaker 5: like also I think women are just more marketable. It
Speaker 5: might be more fun to work with. Even like when
Speaker 5: I'm working with companies and brands, like almost everybody that
Speaker 5: I've worked with on content and commercials and photos, it's
Speaker 5: all women. Like I don't know if that's because like
Speaker 5: I'm a woman, so they bring women in and as
Speaker 5: vice versa. But it's like women are truly dominating this
Speaker 5: space right now. So I don't think that's ever going
Speaker 5: to change. But like you said, like you have to
Speaker 5: still put the time in on the court, like the
Speaker 5: main thing is the main thing, if that's what you
Speaker 5: want to do. Yes, they're probably a good amount of
Speaker 5: girls that probably do not want to be in the WNBA,
Speaker 5: and that's fine, but like the ones that do, like
Speaker 5: y'all still gotta fine time to get that extra work
Speaker 5: in because there is a whole bunch of other girls
Speaker 5: maybe not doing as much as you off the court,
Speaker 5: but are putting that time in in the gym and
Speaker 5: when it comes to be a professional.
Speaker 2: It's about putting the ball in the basket.
Speaker 5: Like, yeah, it's marketable if you have followers, dah da dah,
Speaker 5: that's all great. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 5: can you put the ball in the basket? Can you
Speaker 5: help the team win? And that's what it comes down
Speaker 5: to at the pro level, And I hope and I
Speaker 5: don't want to have situations every year where you have
Speaker 5: these popular players not getting an opportunity or not making
Speaker 5: teams because they're not ready because they didn't put.
Speaker 2: Enough time in the gym.
Speaker 5: So I just don't want that to happen because I
Speaker 5: feel like we're finally getting like a balance of like
Speaker 5: popular players with good brands, but they're also very talented
Speaker 5: and ready to go.
Speaker 2: So I just hope that we don't lose.
Speaker 5: That because it is it is a very violent jump
Speaker 5: from college to w like extremely violent, and women are
Speaker 5: in like you're with grown as women now like fighting
Speaker 5: for their livelihood and like this is our jobs. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean, I wish them the best. I do sometimes
Speaker 5: feel bad for the coaches in college right now, and
Speaker 5: like I don't know how they are doing their jobs
Speaker 5: right now.
Speaker 2: With all of this movie.
Speaker 4: I feel bad for coaches in sports in general. Recently,
Speaker 4: I feel like coaches don't at least like a high
Speaker 4: school I feel like your coaches everything, they run everything,
Speaker 4: they can tell you what to do, they say run,
Speaker 4: you say how fast whatever.
Speaker 3: I feel like as.
Speaker 4: Of recently, the coaches are just they're change over, disposable.
Speaker 4: The w fired half half of the coaches at the
Speaker 4: end of last season.
Speaker 5: And NBA coaches are fire of them grateful for playoffs.
Speaker 5: Like what I think is starting to happen with coaching.
Speaker 5: I personally never ever wanted to be a coach in
Speaker 5: my life, but what I'm seeing based on my experiences
Speaker 5: with coaches and now how the game is played now
Speaker 5: and like everybody got a trainer.
Speaker 2: Everybody's a trainer.
Speaker 5: You have access to all these videos and analytics and stuff.
Speaker 2: You can really do like almost anything. You're at this point.
Speaker 5: What I'm saying now that coaching is going to transition
Speaker 5: to is I think at some point the WNBA in
Speaker 5: the NBA is going to be at least like eighty
Speaker 5: percent former players as head coaches. And I feel that
Speaker 5: way because we don't have to depend on these older
Speaker 5: people that have never played before. But because there's well,
Speaker 5: we we're so knowledgeable. We've been around this, we've been
Speaker 5: around that, Like okay, well now we all have access
Speaker 5: to everything, Like there's really nothing that these older coaches
Speaker 5: can teach us that we can't find on our own
Speaker 5: at this point. Also the style, the communication style, mental health,
Speaker 5: all those things.
Speaker 2: They don't know what to do with any of that.
Speaker 5: Like all they want to do is scream at us
Speaker 5: and yell at us and not communicate with us like.
Speaker 2: Adults and like as equals.
Speaker 5: Like that's really the main thing is, like these leagues
Speaker 5: are transforming into like more player led and like player centered.
Speaker 5: So I'm like slowly seeing like these older coaches like
Speaker 5: getting phased out, like one at a time, you and
Speaker 5: the NBA, And.
Speaker 2: It's very interesting to me.
Speaker 5: I've never had a former coach, as I mean a
Speaker 5: former player as a coach before, so this will be
Speaker 5: my first time playing for a former WNBA player. So
Speaker 5: I'm really excited about that because I'm such a nerd
Speaker 5: when it comes to basketball. I love film, I love learning,
Speaker 5: and I just have never had a coach that hasn't
Speaker 5: been like offended by that.
Speaker 2: Like, yes, I might know a little bit more than you,
Speaker 2: so you're still my coach.
Speaker 5: I respect you, but respect but respect me back, and
Speaker 5: don't be mad that I have a question about something
Speaker 5: or I have a suggestion about something. Like It's never
Speaker 5: been malicious or disrespectful, but my entire career, I've always
Speaker 5: butted heads with my coaches because I want to I
Speaker 5: always want to learn, but.
Speaker 2: They come, be a sponge. Be a sponge.
Speaker 5: Oh I'm trying to be a sponge, and then you
Speaker 5: don't want me to be one. So, from a spectator standpoint, like,
Speaker 5: can you tell the difference between how coaches coach that
Speaker 5: are former players versus like just coaches, Like can y'all
Speaker 5: even like tell the difference?
Speaker 4: I feel like there's a noticeable difference when the players
Speaker 4: are buying into the system that the coach is implementing,
Speaker 4: if that makes sense. I don't know if it's more
Speaker 4: so whether you played professionally before or not.
Speaker 2: Thing.
Speaker 4: I feel like it's a case by case basis with
Speaker 4: coaches and how much they can connect with their players.
Speaker 4: But it's very obvious when you have a situation where
Speaker 4: the players are not buying into the system and they're
Speaker 4: kind of doing their own thing, and it's obvious that
Speaker 4: they're butting heads with what they're supposed to be doing
Speaker 4: on the court and a team where everybody's buying in
Speaker 4: because it's all about culture in a locker room and
Speaker 4: on the court, right. So I don't know if that
Speaker 4: has to do with your star player. If your star
Speaker 4: player doesn't want to listen to the coach and isn't
Speaker 4: abiding by what the coach is doing, then nobody really
Speaker 4: is able to If the coach nobody really takes them seriously,
Speaker 4: nobody's really going to listen.
Speaker 3: So I feel like that's a mess.
Speaker 4: I was curious for you as far as a player,
Speaker 4: because for me as a fan, a lot of times
Speaker 4: when I see a coach getting fired or whatever, usually
Speaker 4: the first thing that comes to mind for me is
Speaker 4: the coach is kind of being scapegoaded.
Speaker 3: They're not actually the.
Speaker 4: One playing once, Like, they can tell you what to
Speaker 4: do all they want, but they're not out there playing.
Speaker 4: But I'm curious, from a spectator's standpoint, what role does
Speaker 4: a coach play in the team's success or lack they're are?
Speaker 4: How important do you feel like the coach really is.
Speaker 5: I think for me, since I've been on like so
Speaker 5: many different teams with so many different dynamics. Like I'll
Speaker 5: actually like give like full blown examples. So when I
Speaker 5: was in Connecticut, you know, I kind of just wasn't
Speaker 5: like involved at all with like anything that was going on.
Speaker 5: Like I just like would show up to practice and leave,
Speaker 5: Like I just I literally was like I don't know
Speaker 5: what's going on here. And then you fast forward to
Speaker 5: the season before they made the coaching change. Like remember
Speaker 5: in the finals or the playoffs when Kurt was in
Speaker 5: the huddle and he was like, I'm gonna lose my
Speaker 5: job if you guys don't make layups, like and that
Speaker 5: clip like went viral because they got it on the mic.
Speaker 5: Then he was just like I'm gonna get fired because
Speaker 5: y'all can't make layups. And it's like at that moment,
Speaker 5: like everybody knew like he had lost the team. Like
Speaker 5: I agree with you, like you can tell when a
Speaker 5: team is like off the coach and like like a mutiny,
Speaker 5: damn near. And that's kind of what happened in Connecticut
Speaker 5: and that's why he got fired. But like I was
Speaker 5: there at the very beginning of that, and it was
Speaker 5: just like so I wasn't necessarily surprised when that happened
Speaker 5: in Connecticut, and then I'll talk about when I was
Speaker 5: in Chicago.
Speaker 2: You have a team full of Vets ready to win.
Speaker 5: You know, the season didn't really start off very well
Speaker 5: for us at that time.
Speaker 2: I wasn't on the team at that rough patch.
Speaker 5: But you have two players, brilliant players and Cannas Parker
Speaker 5: and Courtney vanderslout right, So their minds are always turning,
Speaker 5: They're always having conversations, they're always talking to coach, They're
Speaker 5: always talking to each other, they're always talking to us.
Speaker 5: So that there was like a power struggle there for
Speaker 5: a little bit of like, okay, sloopmin with Chicago for
Speaker 5: X min years. Candace just got to Chicago. Everyone is
Speaker 5: expecting a championship, and then you have the coach balancing
Speaker 5: to the big Hall of famers, So that dynamic takes time.
Speaker 5: And then you know, we got to the playoffs and
Speaker 5: I don't want to say James like relinquished his power
Speaker 5: to us, like the team, I mean, but he kind
Speaker 5: of was like, all right, like we made it to
Speaker 5: the playoffs barely. I'm gonna let y'all rock and we
Speaker 5: gonna we're gonna roll with what y'all want. To do. Basically,
Speaker 5: we have like this meeting and it was like a
Speaker 5: great meeting, but like basically he was just like, like,
Speaker 5: we can win, but we gotta like we got to
Speaker 5: meet in the middle. But it was more like he
Speaker 5: met us like the majority of the way, and then
Speaker 5: we met him a little bit and then we ended
Speaker 5: up winning. So really it's like, how good of a
Speaker 5: relationship do your star players? How with your coaches and
Speaker 5: your coach's coaching staff, and that it matters like and
Speaker 5: then you're basically people say like your point guard is
Speaker 5: the extension of your coach, which yeah, that's true, but
Speaker 5: I also think like your superstar is also an extension
Speaker 5: of your coach. So you have to be able to
Speaker 5: communicate things that maybe they don't know how to communicate things,
Speaker 5: maybe they don't feel like they need to communicate. Some
Speaker 5: conversations need to be had amongst teammates privately or in
Speaker 5: front of everybody, whatever you want to do. But those
Speaker 5: conversations in that relationship I think is the biggest part
Speaker 5: of building a successful team and building a winning culture,
Speaker 5: Which is why I couldn't figure my shit out in
Speaker 5: LA because every year it was a new coach that
Speaker 5: I was trying to build a relationship with, and then
Speaker 5: a whole new group of players that I was trying
Speaker 5: to build a relationship with, and that's not like the
Speaker 5: recipe to be successful. So as much as I would
Speaker 5: never want to be a coach, I respect the hell
Speaker 5: out of them.
Speaker 2: I think they're necessary to win games.
Speaker 5: Sometimes you're like, oh, this team is like coaching themselves,
Speaker 5: but like, yeah, like, but a good coach puts a
Speaker 5: team in a situation to be able to just like
Speaker 5: run on autopilot.
Speaker 2: So I do think coaches are important.
Speaker 5: I'm very excited to be coached by a former player
Speaker 5: because we just think differently.
Speaker 2: And some of these coaches like, oh, yeah I played,
Speaker 2: who know, No, you did it. I don't believe you.
Speaker 2: I don't believe in it. Coaches that were like yeah
Speaker 2: when I was, you know, and I know that was
Speaker 2: like a thousand years ago. I don't want to hear it.
Speaker 4: I'd like what you said about star players and coaches
Speaker 4: because they are an extension of the coach, because they
Speaker 4: are they set the culture in the locker room when
Speaker 4: the coaches around, when the coaches around, Really, I feel like,
Speaker 4: especially younger players are looking to the star player more
Speaker 4: than they're looking at a coach. And I feel like
Speaker 4: organizations they see their star players as anchors and their franchises,
Speaker 4: and they see coaches as disposedball. Like you talked about
Speaker 4: your situation in LA, I feel like, what's it like
Speaker 4: when y'all know the coaches about to get fired?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 3: What's that Like's that like?
Speaker 2: Listen? I will tell another story about LA.
Speaker 5: So my first year in LA, when Derek Fisher was
Speaker 5: still the coach, I forgot where we were, but we
Speaker 5: had just lost a game that we probably shouldn't have lost.
Speaker 5: And it's just not funny, because coaches getting fired is
Speaker 5: not funny, guys. But it's just like the way that
Speaker 5: professional sports just operates at times is very unserious and
Speaker 5: if any other I mean, I feel like maybe some
Speaker 5: people get like blindsided when they get fired.
Speaker 2: From their jobs or whatever. But like the way, the time,
Speaker 2: the energy.
Speaker 5: The relationships you have to build in these professional sports
Speaker 5: and the way that they're just like get out is
Speaker 5: so crazy to me.
Speaker 2: So I think we end up we lost the game.
Speaker 5: I can't remember if we were on the road or not,
Speaker 5: but we're in the locker room dead silent fish walks
Speaker 5: in doesn't say anything, just brings us in for the
Speaker 5: huddle and just like walks out of the locker room.
Speaker 2: And that was it. And then I was like the
Speaker 2: last time we.
Speaker 4: Saw it, so he there was no I'm not coming back.
Speaker 3: It just just break.
Speaker 5: He just walked in, he said bring it in. He
Speaker 5: was like, this works, and then left and then boom fired.
Speaker 3: That's so awkward.
Speaker 4: And then after your coach is fired and they bring
Speaker 4: in an interim or whatever.
Speaker 5: So the assistant just moves up to place. And then
Speaker 5: at that point you're just kind of like that, like
Speaker 5: no one ever talks about that coaching time period because
Speaker 5: you're in such an awkward situation and the team is
Speaker 5: in such an awkward situation, like someone just lost their
Speaker 5: job and now you're just like filling in for them,
Speaker 5: Like do you implement your own offense defense? Like how
Speaker 5: much time of the season is left? Like am I
Speaker 5: interviewing for the head coaching job right now? Or is
Speaker 5: this just temporary? So do I want to show all
Speaker 5: my cards just for them to not keep me anyway,
Speaker 5: which is what happened in LA.
Speaker 2: They ended up not keeping.
Speaker 5: Fred as our head coach after he actually did a
Speaker 5: pretty good job considering all the nonsense we were dealing
Speaker 5: with that season. But it's like that's like a very
Speaker 5: unspoken about process for coaching staffs and players. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 5: your head coach just got fired, but like, okay, now
Speaker 5: you got to listen to this new person, and god forbid,
Speaker 5: you don't have a good relationship.
Speaker 2: With that assistant coach.
Speaker 5: Thankfully I did, but there was some players on the
Speaker 5: team that like didn't.
Speaker 2: Then now they're in Yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm wondering that right now watching the NBA playoffs are
Speaker 4: on right now and thinking about Denver and Memphis. Your
Speaker 4: coaches just got fired and you're in the most important
Speaker 4: part of the season, Like yeah, I feel like that's
Speaker 4: really important.
Speaker 5: It's crazy, and then you just have to like go
Speaker 5: about per usual, be the professional that you are the
Speaker 5: whole time. You really still like because nobody ever comes
Speaker 5: in and sits the team down and lays out, Okay,
Speaker 5: this is what he was doing right, or this is
Speaker 5: what she was doing right, this is what she or
Speaker 5: he was doing wrong, and this is what y'all are
Speaker 5: doing right, what y'all are doing wrong. There's no conversation
Speaker 5: about anything.
Speaker 2: You just have to move on. At least not in
Speaker 2: my experiences.
Speaker 5: That could be different for other players' experiences, but I
Speaker 5: just feel like it would benefit to have some type
Speaker 5: of meeting or conversation to lay out what led to
Speaker 5: this decision instead of just being like, this is the
Speaker 5: decision we made and just get over y'all selves. So
Speaker 5: it's always extremely interesting that power struggle of coaching in
Speaker 5: front offices, which is why I also think that leagues
Speaker 5: like athletes are limited and unrivaled everyone loves so much
Speaker 5: because that that dynamic is gone, Like you don't deal
Speaker 5: with that at all. Like athletes unlimited, we don't even
Speaker 5: have coaches. We don't have coaches at all. We have
Speaker 5: facilitators who are like many coaches, but there's no coach's
Speaker 5: favorite coaches yelling at you.
Speaker 2: We don't got a GM.
Speaker 5: Play this person, don't play that personal were trying to
Speaker 5: trade this person? Like there's none of that going on.
Speaker 5: Athletesulimited unrivaled is a little bit different because they do
Speaker 5: have coaches, but like, you're not gonna.
Speaker 2: Get fired in the middle of the unrivaled season.
Speaker 5: There's no GM, like your team is what it is,
Speaker 5: and like the environment is just completely different. So I
Speaker 5: feel like that is also why fans and players have
Speaker 5: found like more enjoyment in the off season leagues because
Speaker 5: that whole political negative side of bowing down to the
Speaker 5: front office has been removed. And I hope like the
Speaker 5: w NBA is watching these two leagues and they're seeing
Speaker 5: like how the players are interacting with each other and
Speaker 5: how the level of play is elevated. Like I think
Speaker 5: there is a direct correlation between like happiness and playing well,
Speaker 5: like you know, like look good, play good. It's like,
Speaker 5: so I'm hoping like we're going to implement, you know,
Speaker 5: a less toxic environment in professional sports, but like I
Speaker 5: don't know, I don't know if that's possible with the
Speaker 5: people in charge unfortunately, because they don't understand what it's
Speaker 5: like to be in these situations.
Speaker 4: Why do you feel like there was so much turnaround
Speaker 4: with coaching last season in the W Yes.
Speaker 5: Well, I think that there's more eyes, which led to
Speaker 5: like more criticisms, which I remember literally telling our GM
Speaker 5: and coach last season to get off Twitter because I
Speaker 5: could tell that they was looking on it. Like I
Speaker 5: was like, y'all need to get off the internet, like enough,
Speaker 5: because I remember Kurt like got himself in trouble tweeting
Speaker 5: about some like you don't oh these.
Speaker 2: People on an explanation, You're the coach.
Speaker 5: So it was like we would wake I would wake
Speaker 5: up and obviously a tweet so look good. He tweeted,
Speaker 5: like why are you tweeting responding to what people are
Speaker 5: saying online? And like that's something that I had to
Speaker 5: learn myself, and like it was like I was like funny,
Speaker 5: ha ha, like get off Twitter, But I like Loki
Speaker 5: was dead ass serious, because why are y'all doing that,
Speaker 5: Like y'all are in the positions y'all are in because
Speaker 5: y'all are qualified and y'all earned it, and that's what
Speaker 5: y'all want to do. Like why are you looking at
Speaker 5: what anybody is saying on the internet.
Speaker 2: So I think that had a huge part of it.
Speaker 2: It's like you had more eyes.
Speaker 5: So people were like very critical of what was going on.
Speaker 5: And I think everyone is just kind of like gearing
Speaker 5: up for this new era of WNBA and you have
Speaker 5: to put the right people in the right places. You know,
Speaker 5: these teams, like I said, drafting intentionally. Free agency was
Speaker 5: very intentional. So I think they were just putting the
Speaker 5: right coaches and the right situations, and then gearing up
Speaker 5: for potential changes, like we're talking about the more European
Speaker 5: players possibly coming over a lockout. Hopefully not, but like,
Speaker 5: there's just a lot of moving pieces, and I think
Speaker 5: the best time to make like massive changes was right now.
Speaker 2: I remember being in the league eight years now.
Speaker 5: It's been like a carousel of the same coaches bouncing
Speaker 5: around from this team to this team. And this team
Speaker 5: you have a losing season, Oh, who cares, We're gonna
Speaker 5: hire you over here.
Speaker 2: Oh your whole team turned against you.
Speaker 5: Cool, we're gonna hire you and Steve, you can do
Speaker 5: something different on this team. So it's been nice to
Speaker 5: see new people being hired, especially from like the NBA side.
Speaker 5: I love that some college coaches have come up, because
Speaker 5: you know, everyone is like up in arms that Don
Speaker 5: Staley won't leave South Carolina, But I'm like, but there's
Speaker 5: other coaches that will leave their colleges to come be
Speaker 5: in the w So I'm happy that a few of
Speaker 5: those coaches have come to coach in the WNBA. So
Speaker 5: I'm actually really excited about this season because there's so
Speaker 5: much change, Like every team is different except for the
Speaker 5: Minnesota Links.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I used to go team, which makes sense.
Speaker 4: You know how I feel about going to the finals
Speaker 4: and changing your whole team up because you lost.
Speaker 3: I know, I hate that.
Speaker 4: What are you looking forward to the most? And I'm
Speaker 4: curious because I know if it were me. I know
Speaker 4: when I was in high school the last time I
Speaker 4: was an athlete, every season I had a game circle.
Speaker 3: You got any game circle?
Speaker 2: You know what game I have circled? Riah, do you
Speaker 2: already know?
Speaker 5: But what I did find out yesterday is we have
Speaker 5: a close scrimmage in La early May, so I can
Speaker 5: get all that bad you do out in private.
Speaker 2: So when we have the real game, it'll be.
Speaker 3: All just fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be all shits and gigs.
Speaker 5: Actually, this is how I wanted to kind of break
Speaker 5: down the W season these next two episodes. This episode,
Speaker 5: I want to talk about the East Conference teams, even
Speaker 5: though we technically don't have conferences anymore, but this is
Speaker 5: the easiest way to break them up, and then next
Speaker 5: week we can get into the West.
Speaker 2: Is that cool?
Speaker 3: I'm excited?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Okay, all right, in the Eastern Conference. If you guys
Speaker 5: don't know, let's give the listeners a little history lesson.
Speaker 5: There was a time where the WNBA operated Eastern and
Speaker 5: Western Conference in playoffs.
Speaker 2: Okay, that used to be a thing.
Speaker 5: I think that the Western Conference became too dominant, I
Speaker 5: want to say, which is kind of what we're seeing
Speaker 5: in the NBA. I wonder if they'll ever pivot out
Speaker 5: of the Eastern versus Western and just go one through.
Speaker 3: They copy y'all with the Ncson Tournament too.
Speaker 5: So okay, back to the WNBA and the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 5: We have the liberty, the fever, the dream, the sun,
Speaker 5: the sky, and the mystics. Okay, So this is how
Speaker 5: we're going to have this conversation. We're going to go
Speaker 5: through if they had a coaching change or not, any
Speaker 5: of their major personnel changes, not including the rookies. Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm not really gonna we talked about the rookies last week.
Speaker 2: I don't really know enough about them all yet.
Speaker 5: So we're going to acknowledge that they got rookies, but
Speaker 5: we're going to talk more about their returners, cool potential
Speaker 5: play style changes, and then as far as my basketball
Speaker 5: nerds like me, I'm going to use three stats that
Speaker 5: I looked up on the WNBA page. Which is effective
Speaker 5: field goal percentage, which is your field goal percentage, and
Speaker 5: it calculates it a little differently because it includes three
Speaker 5: point percentages, and it like weighs it a little bit
Speaker 5: higher because they're worth more points. Their pace, which is
Speaker 5: how fast you play, and then their net rating, which
Speaker 5: is your offensive rating minus your defensive rating, which is
Speaker 5: like you basically will be like your point differential.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, everybody keep up.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited.
Speaker 5: First team we'll talk about is Indiana Fever. They were
Speaker 5: first in effective field goal percentage, second in pace, and
Speaker 5: sixth in net rating. New coach Stephanie White, who came
Speaker 5: from the Connecticut Sun, and some notable personal changes is
Speaker 5: the additions of Natasha Howard, Sophie Cunningham, Breonna Turner, Dawanna Bonner,
Speaker 5: and Sidney Coulson.
Speaker 4: Thoughts, Mariah, Well, we've talked in length about the Indiana
Speaker 4: Fever and what they did in the offseason, but I
Speaker 4: think they obviously are taking winning and capitalizing all of
Speaker 4: this Caitlin Clark moment.
Speaker 3: They have going very.
Speaker 4: Seriously and I feel like this is exactly how you
Speaker 4: are You're supposed to react to having a star like her,
Speaker 4: and they made the playoffs. She was rookie of the
Speaker 4: year she had a great year, Like this all makes sense.
Speaker 4: I'm excited for them. The coaching change, I think is
Speaker 4: going to be really big. Poor Connecticut.
Speaker 3: There in the East, we'll get there in the Sea,
Speaker 3: We'll get to them. Yes, but I think that it's
Speaker 3: going to be really exciting.
Speaker 4: I don't I'm not going to call them championship contenders
Speaker 4: or anything.
Speaker 3: Like that, but I think that it's going to be.
Speaker 3: You think that they're.
Speaker 2: Contenders, Yes, I do. I'll tell you why.
Speaker 4: Wait wait, wait, wait, let's talk about this for a second.
Speaker 4: When I say championship contender, I mean I would bet
Speaker 4: my own personal funds that they are going to win
Speaker 4: a championship. I guess contending means they could. But like
Speaker 4: I call, I think a contender is like, I will
Speaker 4: put you in there right now today, I think you
Speaker 4: will win.
Speaker 2: I guess my contenter means get to the finals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, get to the finals. Gets to the
Speaker 3: finals is a ya.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you why.
Speaker 5: I think that there was a lot of misconception about
Speaker 5: Kaitlyn Clark's overall game. I think that people got so
Speaker 5: caught up in her scoring that they didn't realize how
Speaker 5: good of a point guards she was in college, so
Speaker 5: I think that.
Speaker 4: Well, not to interrupt to but she didn't get the
Speaker 4: opportunity to show that as much in college because that's
Speaker 4: much exactly.
Speaker 5: But the plays that she was making still despite all that,
Speaker 5: was like insane. But like people were so caught up
Speaker 5: in the logo threes and the twenty three point attempts
Speaker 5: per game, which absolutely I understand that, Like it was
Speaker 5: so much fun to watch. But I always said she
Speaker 5: could potentially be one of the best point guards to
Speaker 5: ever play in the WNBA, and everyone was like, shut up, Lexi,
Speaker 5: and I was like, all right, led the league and
Speaker 5: assists last year as a rookie, which is incredible. So
Speaker 5: I think after you know, they take the inventory of
Speaker 5: this season, you look at what you have, they said,
Speaker 5: we need to give her a more elite supporting cast
Speaker 5: and potentially not as many players that need to be
Speaker 5: spoon fed buckets.
Speaker 2: So that's no disrespect to anybody that was on her
Speaker 2: team last year.
Speaker 5: Like obviously they made the playoffs, they'd had a great season,
Speaker 5: but you have a Natasha Howard and a Dewana Bonner
Speaker 5: that can just straight up go get their own bucket,
Speaker 5: and they're huge Okay, these are tall people. Okay, guys,
Speaker 5: I think they're both like six three and sixty four, right,
Speaker 5: so matchup nightmare. Sophie Cunningham has been playing out of
Speaker 5: position in Phoenix for like three years, so she probably
Speaker 5: will get to go play the three again. She's a
Speaker 5: very underrated defender, and now you have very elite rimt
Speaker 5: protection and breed turner. So now you go keep a
Speaker 5: Leah Boston out of foul trouble, which means she's gonna
Speaker 5: be at to stale on the court.
Speaker 2: So do I think that they are contender? Yes? I do.
Speaker 5: Then you throw in Sid Coulson, who is a very
Speaker 5: very very very solid backup point guard and she plays defense,
Speaker 5: so you can even.
Speaker 2: Throw her out there with Caitln.
Speaker 5: Kayln can chill on defense for the most part, because
Speaker 5: defending the one is not easy.
Speaker 2: And it's not.
Speaker 5: Because you can't stay in front of people. It's because
Speaker 5: all they do is get freaking high ball screens constantly
Speaker 5: and it's hard to navigate those at times, especially when
Speaker 5: the screener is six five. So yes, I do think
Speaker 5: they're a contender because they strategically gave Caitlyn Clark a
Speaker 5: very very very well balanced team where she won't have
Speaker 5: to carry as much as the load I don't think,
Speaker 5: and she can fish. She'll probably end up facilitating even
Speaker 5: more than last season. And then I didn't even talk
Speaker 5: about I didn't even mention Kelsey Mitchell. I can't believe
Speaker 5: I forgot to mention Kelsey Mitton. All I do is
Speaker 5: talk about her constantly. I have my notes right here.
Speaker 5: I didn't even put Kelsey Miss's name on there, Like,
Speaker 5: I'm so sorry, Kelsey.
Speaker 2: She might be the most important returner.
Speaker 4: I also, you make a really good point about defense
Speaker 4: and Caitlin being able to preserve herself on that side
Speaker 4: of the court, because that is really really dangerous because
Speaker 4: one I don't think she's ever had that ever, and
Speaker 4: two they also have to protect her as far as
Speaker 4: staying healthy.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Exactly? Have I convinced you you.
Speaker 3: Make great points, really make great points. But we shall go.
Speaker 3: We shall continue on.
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, speaking of contenders, we're gonna talk about the
Speaker 5: current WNBA.
Speaker 2: Champs, the Liberty.
Speaker 5: They were third in effective field goal percentage, seventh in pace,
Speaker 5: and first in net rating.
Speaker 2: And don't let.
Speaker 5: That confuse you, because every time we played the Liberty,
Speaker 5: Like we were like they don't really like.
Speaker 2: Playing defense like that, which they don't.
Speaker 5: They just scored way more points than everybody, so yes,
Speaker 5: they have the number one net rating, but like, let's
Speaker 5: not get it confused, like they're not locking up.
Speaker 2: They wasn't locking up on defense.
Speaker 5: Which with that being said, the additions that they have
Speaker 5: added might have them us. Yes, so they didn't make
Speaker 5: a coaching change. They added Natasha Cloud, Isabelle Harrison, and
Speaker 5: Marine Johannes decided to come and play, which is so
Speaker 5: fun for all of us to chase that girl around.
Speaker 2: And and someone that.
Speaker 5: Probably everyone has forgotten about is Rebecca Gardner. She's been
Speaker 5: out with injury. She was on the Chicago Sky now
Speaker 5: she's on the Liberty. She, if everybody remembers, was the
Speaker 5: oldest rookie ever. Everyone just reminded us constantly how old
Speaker 5: she was a rookie.
Speaker 2: So love that for her. We played together in Israel.
Speaker 5: She's a very smooth player, she's a great defender, she's
Speaker 5: super athletic, very underrated. So them adding Rebecca as well
Speaker 5: is huge for them, especially defensively.
Speaker 2: But I'm interested to see how Tash.
Speaker 5: Intermingles with this group. We watched Tash and Sabrina play
Speaker 5: pretty well together and unrivaled, because I remember we mentioned
Speaker 5: that a lot while ago that tashould probably try to
Speaker 5: get on the Liberty because her and Sabrina got a
Speaker 5: good little thing going on.
Speaker 4: I can't believe, like we call that that literally and
Speaker 4: it took a minute for it to happen.
Speaker 3: But I'm happy for her.
Speaker 5: So am I and I know that, Like remember we
Speaker 5: would always talk about like the Liberty, like as good
Speaker 5: as they were, they kind of like lacked like a
Speaker 5: real personsonality And that's why they made Ellie like the
Speaker 5: face of the Liberty. Ellie is their mascot, guys, by
Speaker 5: the way, which she is amazing and has been actually
Speaker 5: so great for the Liberty and the WNBA.
Speaker 2: But I don't like that.
Speaker 5: Their forward facing thing is their mascot and not one
Speaker 5: of their players. I've always thought that was interesting to me.
Speaker 4: I kind of love that for them, especially being in
Speaker 4: a franchise like New York and it's so forward facing
Speaker 4: and it could be so marquee and this that and
Speaker 4: the third they.
Speaker 3: Just want to hoop like they're not.
Speaker 4: I see that they're not stressing all that other stuff.
Speaker 2: They really just get to chill and play basketball.
Speaker 4: Right, They're like, let let Ellie go do the press
Speaker 4: tour and go.
Speaker 5: I never thought about it that way, like the fact
Speaker 5: Ellie like, yeah, I used to think it was weird,
Speaker 5: But I'm like maybe they liked, like maybe they asked
Speaker 5: for it to be like that, Like that wouldn't actually
Speaker 5: surprise me considering who's on the team, Like they are
Speaker 5: a very marketable.
Speaker 3: Group Stewie signature shoe.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they already are doing their thing, They're making their
Speaker 6: money on and off the court, and they still get
Speaker 6: to just hoop and kind of stay out of having
Speaker 6: to do all that face the franchise extronists and just
Speaker 6: and go win the championship.
Speaker 3: I would have preferred that.
Speaker 2: That's actually a great point, especially in New York.
Speaker 5: Okay, all right, Mariah, you you have turned me because
Speaker 5: I used to kind of have an attitude because I
Speaker 5: was like, why do we see the elephant one of
Speaker 5: the players. But that makes sense and that's why they
Speaker 5: probably freaking we.
Speaker 4: Still the players just enough at the parade.
Speaker 5: Facts with their championships and everything. I think that Tash
Speaker 5: is going to be a great addition. She's going to bring,
Speaker 5: you know, a different type of personality, a toughness, and
Speaker 5: I think that I always said Sabrina plays well with
Speaker 5: an elite point guard. So going from one elite point
Speaker 5: guard to the next, and from Cody Matter, salute to
Speaker 5: Natasha Cloud. So I'm excited about the Liberty. I'm very
Speaker 5: excited for Natasha and let's see if they can defend
Speaker 5: that title. Next we have the dream At Yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 5: this is your team. Well technically mine too, but they
Speaker 5: were last in effective field goal percentage, eleventh in pace,
Speaker 5: and seventh in net rating. I we lost to the Dreams.
Speaker 5: I think every time we played them, which I was like, how, like, well,
Speaker 5: I don't know, like they had our number for some reason,
Speaker 5: like it was crazy. New coach coach Smessko. I want
Speaker 5: to say, his last name is Believe. He's from Florida
Speaker 5: Golf Coast and if I remember watching any type of
Speaker 5: Florida Golf Coast, they like to run running gun, which
Speaker 5: will fix their pace problem. Their major additions were Bree Jones,
Speaker 5: Tory Walker, kimbro and Brittan Grinder. So my only question
Speaker 5: is what type of play style are they going to run?
Speaker 5: Because you have two very dynamic scores and Ryan Howard
Speaker 5: and Alisha Gray. You have a point guard that wants
Speaker 5: to push pace in Jordan Canada, and now you add
Speaker 5: these ginormous players that are pretty limited, not in like
Speaker 5: skill set obviously, but like traditionally, they're very limited. They
Speaker 5: neither one of them really shoot threes. They don't handle
Speaker 5: the ball, which is basically what those positions are transforming to,
Speaker 5: slowly but surely.
Speaker 2: So I'm very interested to see where they.
Speaker 3: Land, what the identity is gonna be.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because we watched and we'll talk about Dallas next week,
Speaker 5: we watched that double big experiment in Dallas fail miserably.
Speaker 5: So I don't know if they're going to do the
Speaker 5: double big thing in Atlanta or if they're going to
Speaker 5: play them one at a time. I'm talking about Big
Speaker 5: and bri Those are two players that typically have been
Speaker 5: one of the focal points of an offense, and I
Speaker 5: can see them being like the third or fourth option
Speaker 5: on this team. So Bigi's used to playing with the
Speaker 5: dynamic score and Diana Tarassi as far as like outside shooting,
Speaker 5: Bree not so much. That's always what Connecticut's Achilles Hill
Speaker 5: was their lack of perimeter consistent three point shooting.
Speaker 2: So maybe it will benefit Bree having.
Speaker 5: A completely change of scenery as far as personnel and
Speaker 5: play style. I mean, I think Beg's going to be fine,
Speaker 5: like she's BG. But they surprised me last year. I
Speaker 5: thought they were going to be better than they were.
Speaker 5: I think they were right there at the playoffs. They
Speaker 5: almost made playoffs.
Speaker 4: I will say, as we spoke about earlier, we saw
Speaker 4: this in the MMBA with the Pistons. A coaching change
Speaker 4: at the right time to build a new culture.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying might be.
Speaker 2: The move I believe.
Speaker 5: I mean, I believe in them, and I love playing
Speaker 5: in Atlanta even though they're like we have the most
Speaker 5: sold out games in the league. Well yeah, because your
Speaker 5: arena holds twelve people. So like their games are lit
Speaker 5: because I remember growing up they played in the big
Speaker 5: arena where the Hawks played, and those games were.
Speaker 2: Lit, and they had.
Speaker 5: Like a down time where the games were in that
Speaker 5: smaller arena and nobody was in there. And now it's
Speaker 5: packed out every night, which I think is amazing, and
Speaker 5: the energy is very Atlanta, like it's Atlanta down in there, Like.
Speaker 2: It's so funny.
Speaker 3: You know, it sucks and this is it. I'm not
Speaker 3: even come for the Dream. I see.
Speaker 4: I see beautiful things for them this season. But I
Speaker 4: was going to respond to all those things you said,
Speaker 4: was I feel like this mystery of there's all these
Speaker 4: options of what they could do and who the focal
Speaker 4: point could be and what could possibly happen, just means
Speaker 4: that we'll have options Lexi.
Speaker 2: Yeah, lots and lots of pop shots.
Speaker 4: It is really unfortunate in Atlanta as far as being
Speaker 4: a sports city that we have every professional sport. We
Speaker 4: have so many sports teams and we have the fan
Speaker 4: base here and we just don't have winning.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna need the Dream.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be dedicating myself this season full time. When
Speaker 4: I'm not being a dedicated Lexi fan, when I'm there,
Speaker 4: when I'm there when you play the Dream, I'll be
Speaker 4: supporting you, of course, but I feel like I've dedicated
Speaker 4: myself to hopefully the Dream being that kind of like
Speaker 4: Vegas brought Vegas their first professional sports championship.
Speaker 3: We need that with the Dream. So it's time.
Speaker 5: I mean, I have I'm very positive about what they
Speaker 5: got going on there, like even the addition of Chator.
Speaker 5: I didn't talk about her much like she is a
Speaker 5: consistent scoring option. She plays defense, and she's like a
Speaker 5: great teammate because I played with her at Maryland, so
Speaker 5: I know her personally and she's great and I'm glad that,
Speaker 5: like she also is getting a change of scenery. But
Speaker 5: it's gonna be interesting, what like if they're gonna just
Speaker 5: completely change their offense, because it's different when you bring
Speaker 5: a new player. You bring in not even new players,
Speaker 5: you bring in stars. These are two all stars you're
Speaker 5: bringing in, and then someone who knows how to win,
Speaker 5: like Stories won championship.
Speaker 2: She won championships in college, Like, she's a winner.
Speaker 5: So you bring in three players like that, you're obviously.
Speaker 2: Trying to make a culture change.
Speaker 5: So what is that dream team gonna look like this season?
Speaker 5: Because they had such a disappointing year last year. So
Speaker 5: shout out to the dream I'm excited for them. One
Speaker 5: of my favorite cities to play in and they have
Speaker 5: I have my favorite jerseys. Looky, playoffs, We playoffs, all right,
Speaker 5: we stamp it.
Speaker 2: All right, next stuff, we have the Connecticut son.
Speaker 5: I'm going to read off these stats, but like they
Speaker 5: really don't matter because nobody is nobody on the team.
Speaker 2: Last year is even on the team.
Speaker 5: But I'm still gonna read the stats anyway because we're
Speaker 5: going to keep it consistent. Eighth and affective field goal percentage,
Speaker 5: last in pace and second in net rating. So new coach,
Speaker 5: the European coach came over Key Editions, Diamond Deshields, Marina Maybury,
Speaker 5: J C. Sheldon, Yvonne Anderson, Lindsay Allen. Tina Charles was
Speaker 5: the biggest surprise signing for me because I'm not going
Speaker 5: to be an agist. I'm not because I'm creeping up
Speaker 5: there as well. I don't want people to do this
Speaker 5: to me. But I'm like very surprised at like she's
Speaker 5: still playing like and I think it's like I think
Speaker 5: she just won to win like she I can't imagine
Speaker 5: going that is she.
Speaker 3: Doing in Connecticut.
Speaker 5: Well, I feel like nobody else wanted to give her
Speaker 5: a chance to win, like And I don't know Tina
Speaker 5: Charles personally. I'm pretty sure she was overseas playing like
Speaker 5: the She doesn't get enough credit in my opinion for
Speaker 5: her longevity. She might be right behind DT and scoring. Yeah,
Speaker 5: she's the second leading scorer behind Diana Tarassi. Yes, she's
Speaker 5: over two thousand points. Behind Diana Tarassi, but she's still second,
Speaker 5: and because she hasn't one, people put her in this
Speaker 5: like box, which unfortunately, that's the reality of sports as
Speaker 5: a certain point winning if you're a good enough player
Speaker 5: winning there is an expectation to win, and she just hasn't.
Speaker 2: But she's also the all time leading rebounder.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing I see.
Speaker 4: I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to be
Speaker 4: that person. I think that they should just they should
Speaker 4: just go out there and have fun and try their best.
Speaker 3: That's what I see.
Speaker 5: But remember when Diamond was on here, she said she's like,
Speaker 5: y'all are sleep on us, and I believe her. It
Speaker 5: doesn't help that one of your star players demanded a trade,
Speaker 5: but two of them said. One actually got it and
Speaker 5: the other one did not get it. So that's probably
Speaker 5: not the greatest I would say. Brina does not want
Speaker 5: to be there. Yeah, that's probably not the best energy
Speaker 5: to have starting a season. But I'm hoping that the
Speaker 5: rest of the team can like override that and make
Speaker 5: her feel comfortable and make her feel like she can
Speaker 5: help them win games.
Speaker 2: And she needs to stay there because she's not getting traded. Yeah,
Speaker 2: be serious. She's not.
Speaker 5: You demanded the trade last year, it's not going to happen,
Speaker 5: and then they traded.
Speaker 2: Tash, so I think they were like, Okay, we'll get
Speaker 2: rid of one of y'all. So I mean, I want
Speaker 2: them to have.
Speaker 5: As good of a seat, Like I don't know what
Speaker 5: they're ceiling is, but I want them to get there.
Speaker 5: I would like to see them get there because Diamond
Speaker 5: is my best friend.
Speaker 2: I want her to be successful.
Speaker 5: So yes, this is a very biased opinion on the
Speaker 5: success I want for Connecticut because I want her to
Speaker 5: feel success for herself.
Speaker 2: They have some rookies coming. I know we were going
Speaker 2: to talk about the rookies.
Speaker 5: But it's like you're starting from scratch. Like for me,
Speaker 5: I'm like, this is fun.
Speaker 2: Like I know you're in.
Speaker 5: Connecticut and like, no, that's not fun, but like that's
Speaker 5: beside the point, Like you are starting completely over, Like
Speaker 5: for me, I would love that.
Speaker 2: Don't send me there, but I'm I'm having given.
Speaker 4: By unbiased synopsis. Okay, for those who don't know, correct
Speaker 4: me if I'm wrong. LEXI not a starter from last season.
Speaker 4: It's still there.
Speaker 2: No, they all love every single one.
Speaker 4: Okay, your entire starting vibe is gone. I knew that,
Speaker 4: but I just wanted to hear you say it.
Speaker 3: You don't.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: The point is I feel like when you're in a
Speaker 4: situation like that, where really your whole culture, like we
Speaker 4: talked about with the coaches, star players, everything, Your coach
Speaker 4: is gone, your star player's gone. You're starting completely from scratch.
Speaker 4: My pow for Diamond, I will say, is being in
Speaker 4: that kind of situation is very low pressure and gives
Speaker 4: you an opportunity to shine.
Speaker 3: And I hope she finds that success for herself.
Speaker 4: But that organization needs to figure it out low key
Speaker 4: because there's some crazy stat.
Speaker 3: About they've been to the playoffs the most times.
Speaker 5: Yeah, most playoff wins, most playoff wins a championship.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you, most playoff wins that championship. That don't
Speaker 4: make no sense. And to have that and then to
Speaker 4: get rid of everybody is like. But I will say,
Speaker 4: I will say that it is important for organizations to
Speaker 4: know what they're ceiling is and know, Okay, we're not
Speaker 4: going to get that far with this group. So maybe
Speaker 4: that is a positive for them that they realized they
Speaker 4: weren't going to get to the mountaintop with that group
Speaker 4: and they got well they did not technically bad choice,
Speaker 4: but that group is gone, so maybe this is an
Speaker 4: opportunity for some new fresh blood. But if I'm categorizing these.
Speaker 3: Teams as you go along, this is probably what I
Speaker 3: will do.
Speaker 4: Between contenders and pretenders, they're pretenders, they're they're not.
Speaker 2: That's fair.
Speaker 5: I would say the only two real contenders so far
Speaker 5: Indiana and New York.
Speaker 3: Indiana and New York for sure.
Speaker 5: Yeah, next week you have the Sky eleventh in effective
Speaker 5: field goal percentage, ninth in pace, and tenth in net rating.
Speaker 2: So yeah, not very good. New coach coach marsh from
Speaker 2: the Aces, which I thought was a great hire.
Speaker 5: Key additions Cordy Vandor Slut and Ariel Atkins, so I'm interested.
Speaker 2: This group is going to be interesting.
Speaker 5: I'm interested that Slute decided to go back to Chicago
Speaker 5: after winning a championship.
Speaker 2: That was an interesting move to me.
Speaker 5: And I was surprised to see Ariel leave the Mystics.
Speaker 5: I don't know why she left the mistake. I don't
Speaker 5: know what they got going on over there, either, But
Speaker 5: some players don't want to be part of a rebuild,
Speaker 5: and that's completely valid and fair.
Speaker 2: Like I wouldn't. You're not for always my primeier is
Speaker 2: on a rebuild.
Speaker 4: I would love that as a rookie though, Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 4: I would love that as a rookie being able to
Speaker 4: play it not a high stakes environment, but you're still
Speaker 4: playing professionally against the best of the best and learning
Speaker 4: and getting your foot in without somebody being like, Okay,
Speaker 4: we're going to trade you if this don't work out.
Speaker 5: So, I mean, but Chicago kind of like kind of
Speaker 5: rebuilding right now too. Yeah, their core players will probably
Speaker 5: be Angel Camilla and Haley, so babies, babies, right. I'm
Speaker 5: very interested to see what type of offense is implemented
Speaker 5: because they brought in some scoring, some outside scoring which
Speaker 5: they were severely lacking last year, and new coaching, new culture,
Speaker 5: coming from a championship culture at that so I don't
Speaker 5: foresee them trying to do that high low stuff again,
Speaker 5: the double big thing. Like, I'm very interested to see
Speaker 5: what teams that have that personnel actually try to do
Speaker 5: that double big thing. Because the thing about when you
Speaker 5: do double big lineups.
Speaker 2: At least one of them has to be versatile.
Speaker 5: They have to be able to bring the ball up,
Speaker 5: they got to be able to pass and they got
Speaker 5: to be able to shoot.
Speaker 2: So you don't have.
Speaker 5: That in any of the bigs in Chicago, respectfully, Like
Speaker 5: that's not a knock on them, it's just true. Camilla,
Speaker 5: Angel and Elizabeth are very interior post players, which is
Speaker 5: very important, but very hard to play a certain style
Speaker 5: with both of them on the court at the same time.
Speaker 4: Lexi, for our other basketball nerds listening, I'm curious because Angel, Camilla, Haley,
Speaker 4: those are going to be big ticket names as we
Speaker 4: go through the season and as they go through their careers.
Speaker 4: But as far as on the court, they're actual fit.
Speaker 4: What you see coming out of that little trio. How
Speaker 4: is that going to look on the basketball court?
Speaker 5: I honestly think whoever plays best with Haley is going
Speaker 5: to play more. Haley said in her press she does
Speaker 5: like I love playing with big players.
Speaker 4: Well, do you think that Angel has an advantage because
Speaker 4: they played with Obviously it was only one year, and
Speaker 4: that year, I mean, everybody points to it and says
Speaker 4: that you're terribly it didn't really work out, but they
Speaker 4: still they still.
Speaker 2: Did, They still want Yeah.
Speaker 4: So do you feel like Angel has an advantage in
Speaker 4: that way because she has played with Haley before?
Speaker 5: Or I feel like people didn't even bring that up.
Speaker 5: It's a completely different environment. It's a completely different situation,
Speaker 5: and they're both very different players than they were.
Speaker 2: Two years was it two years ago?
Speaker 3: Two years ago?
Speaker 5: You know, Hayley got her confidence back, Angel got her
Speaker 5: swag in the w Like, it's going to be a
Speaker 5: completely new experience for them playing and now you're playing
Speaker 5: for something different like this is the pros now like
Speaker 5: this in college like these aren't you not playing against
Speaker 5: little girls? No?
Speaker 2: More like you're playing against grown women.
Speaker 5: But again, Tyler, he's he's used to this very fast paced,
Speaker 5: running gun elite offense and style of play. So them
Speaker 5: being able to implement that with that group, like would
Speaker 5: be really cool to see because I do feel like
Speaker 5: a lot of people think that like that group is
Speaker 5: going to be very limited, and I feel like if
Speaker 5: they're open to learning and developing, that that group can
Speaker 5: be very special on both ends of the floor. I
Speaker 5: mean we didn't even get to the defensive side. I
Speaker 5: think defensively they could be a nightmare to play against.
Speaker 5: But you know, you got to score the ball to win,
Speaker 5: So it's gonna be like who's who's gonna have to ball?
Speaker 2: The most is gonna be the real question.
Speaker 5: Obviously, Ariel and Salute together like that's gonna be a
Speaker 5: one to two punch that I'm very looking forward to see,
Speaker 5: because playing with anybody that plays with Slute automatically is
Speaker 5: gonna be in a better situation on the floor at
Speaker 5: all positions because she's such a great point guard and
Speaker 5: she has such a feel for the game. And I
Speaker 5: think that's something that Chicago lacked last year, is they
Speaker 5: didn't have somebody that could just like control the game,
Speaker 5: like if it was getting a little out of control.
Speaker 5: They didn't have someone to be like, all right, let's
Speaker 5: chill out for a second, or we need this type
Speaker 5: of bucket, let's get this bucket, let's do this, let's
Speaker 5: do this. And I think Slut will bring that calmness
Speaker 5: to the to the group, which will be good because
Speaker 5: they're so young, and then Ariel can like she can
Speaker 5: give you thirty.
Speaker 2: At any given night. So I mean, I think they're
Speaker 2: gonna be better than they were last year. I think so.
Speaker 4: A lot of the discourse surrounding Angel specifically was double
Speaker 4: double queen, rebounds, rebounds, rebounds, rebounds, rebounds, and obviously, as
Speaker 4: a fan of angel that wants to be great and
Speaker 4: don't want anybody to talk about her. I will say
Speaker 4: I want to see her finishing more as far as
Speaker 4: looking at her off season, and obviously y'all are only
Speaker 4: going to post the best parts of your workouts. But
Speaker 4: it seems like that's something that she's been really working on,
Speaker 4: so hopefully that improves.
Speaker 3: But that's something that I would like to a little
Speaker 3: nugget I would like to give this guy. I would
Speaker 3: like to see that.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I mean they were second to last and
Speaker 5: field goal percentage, Like that's not like that's a stat
Speaker 5: that is literally a statistic on the internet. They were
Speaker 5: second to last and affective field goal percentage, which is
Speaker 5: a combination of twos and threes, so they barely shot
Speaker 5: any threes. So that means you were very poor shooting twos.
Speaker 2: That's not good.
Speaker 5: You're not gonna win very many games being poor at both.
Speaker 5: So I think that her rebounding is still something that
Speaker 5: is like next level, very elite, like not a lot
Speaker 5: of people can do that. But will her rebounds potentially
Speaker 5: go down if she finishes a little bit better, maybe
Speaker 5: they might, but that's not going to be like she's
Speaker 5: not going to be like, I just hope the conversation
Speaker 5: doesn't heard. Oh look, she's not Like, I just hope
Speaker 5: it doesn't have to be a negative thing. If you
Speaker 5: see improvement in her game, you see improvement in her game.
Speaker 5: But we don't know what that is going to look
Speaker 5: like necessarily, but there is going to have to be
Speaker 5: an improvement as far as like finishing around.
Speaker 3: The basket exactly.
Speaker 4: And I feel like one thing that you always say
Speaker 4: is obviously the double double stuff, and her rebounding is
Speaker 4: super early, and that's great, but if you're not putting
Speaker 4: the ball in the hoop, you're not going.
Speaker 2: On games exactly.
Speaker 5: So I mean, I'm really looking forward to to this guy.
Speaker 5: You know, they're another team that kind of like cleaned
Speaker 5: house with it. Their whole team basically gone. So I'm
Speaker 5: really excited for them too. I'm always excited for a
Speaker 5: new coach, especially if new black coach.
Speaker 2: I know, that's right, always excited for that.
Speaker 4: Angel was hurt about their coaching change though, and so
Speaker 4: I feel like they had to bring somebody in.
Speaker 5: Yeah that could at least give them like confidence that
Speaker 5: like okay, like we're still we still got Fai, but
Speaker 5: he has you know, an incredible background and one championships
Speaker 5: and has a really good reputation, so I think they're
Speaker 5: going to be better.
Speaker 4: One thing I want to clarify though, for those listening
Speaker 4: is we have said very similar things about you're gonna
Speaker 4: hate me about Connecticut in Chicago as far.
Speaker 3: As they cleaned house and blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: But Connecticut they're not as young.
Speaker 2: No, they're not as young.
Speaker 3: So it's not the same thing. This is a true rebuild.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, Connecticut is like out with the old day
Speaker 5: with the new like rip the band aid off. Chicago
Speaker 5: was like, I mean, it's hard to believe that we
Speaker 5: won a championship like three years ago. That is that
Speaker 5: is insane, Like it's like it happened, and then everyone's
Speaker 5: like whatever, who cares.
Speaker 4: But as you mentioned, the culture there when you want
Speaker 4: a championship was very It was vets trying to win literally,
Speaker 4: so it was kind of like, Okay, you got yours,
Speaker 4: and now we're planting this new seed and watering it
Speaker 4: so that we can have another.
Speaker 3: Group of vets that want to win, that are ready
Speaker 3: for that.
Speaker 5: It's like basically what it was, and that's kind of
Speaker 5: basically what all the teams are doing right now is
Speaker 5: similar to what Chicago did that one year, was like,
Speaker 5: we're finna win now and then we can figure everything
Speaker 5: else out. Okay, so Sky, I foresee them having a
Speaker 5: much better season than they did last year.
Speaker 4: But they're still in my pretender's bucket. Sorry Chicago, That's okay,
Speaker 4: all right.
Speaker 5: Last, but not least, we have the Mystics fifth in
Speaker 5: affective field goal percentage, ninth in pace, tenth in net rating.
Speaker 2: New coach knew a lot of things. I think.
Speaker 5: I don't think they signed anybody in free agency, and
Speaker 5: then they have the seven million rookies that they drafted.
Speaker 4: Let say shout out to my girl, Kei Ky you
Speaker 4: ate that dress up eight down that you're in the house, honey.
Speaker 5: So honestly, I think the key returners I guess we
Speaker 5: could just talk about step Dawson, Brittany Sykes, Shakira Austin
Speaker 5: which Shakira Sykes. They both have been dealing with like
Speaker 5: injuries a lot the last like one or two seasons,
Speaker 5: so I'm excited to see both of them healthy. They
Speaker 5: both played and unrivaled, Both looked really good and unrivaled. Oh,
Speaker 5: Steph played in Unrivaled too, So yeah, they've all been
Speaker 5: playing in the off season. I think they are ready
Speaker 5: to win again. You know, the Mystics used to run
Speaker 5: the table for a little bit. Finally they can let
Speaker 5: Elena deladn go because she officially announced her retirement, because
Speaker 5: I know that there was a part of their organization
Speaker 5: like she.
Speaker 2: Might come back, she might come back.
Speaker 5: So now they can officially like just move on, which
Speaker 5: I think is good, especially with this new group of
Speaker 5: rookies coming in, Like they might be the most rebuilding
Speaker 5: rebuild team right now.
Speaker 2: For sure, like by a long sure. Sure.
Speaker 4: And I interviewed Kicky and she talked about that they're
Speaker 4: not they're expecting to be in a rebuilding kind of situation.
Speaker 5: It's not yeah, win now mode, because even their vets
Speaker 5: are pretty young, like I mean, I would say Steph
Speaker 5: isn't considered super young, but like her psych Shakira, like
Speaker 5: they still like are.
Speaker 2: On the young vet side, I feel like.
Speaker 4: So I just also want to note that it's interesting
Speaker 4: that we started off this conversation by talking about the
Speaker 4: East West Conferences elimination in the W because if that
Speaker 4: were the case, if it was East West, I mean, damn,
Speaker 4: like the West is significantly stronger.
Speaker 5: Yeah, which is weird because like, how does that keep happening.
Speaker 5: It's happened in the NBA and the w significantly stronger.
Speaker 4: And if that were the case, I would consider Indiana
Speaker 4: a real contender if it were East West, because they
Speaker 4: wouldn't really they'll.
Speaker 3: Be able to kind of clean the East up.
Speaker 5: I feel like I feel like I might agree with
Speaker 5: you there, but I think that DC is kind of
Speaker 5: in a similar situation as Connecticut, Like y'all have opportunity
Speaker 5: to build a new culture, new era, new style, new everything,
Speaker 5: and they do have some key vets that have played
Speaker 5: a few seasons together to like hold everything down.
Speaker 3: So it'll be awesome for the rookies.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And again, like I'm excited for the like this
Speaker 5: rookie group, like they can like grow together.
Speaker 2: Like we just don't.
Speaker 5: See that in the WNBA, Like we don't see like two, three,
Speaker 5: four rookies coming in together and figuring it out together
Speaker 5: and whether it's successful or not. Like it's always nice
Speaker 5: to see a group of players like grow and together,
Speaker 5: which is again, white people love college so much. And now, yeah,
Speaker 5: you're kind of seeing it more in the NBA now,
Speaker 5: especially now that these teams are younger than some of
Speaker 5: the college teams playing Like we're looking at Houston, Okay,
Speaker 5: see who else is young?
Speaker 3: Detroit?
Speaker 5: Detroit, Like people are really invested in them because they've
Speaker 5: we've watched them like grow and learn together. Like are
Speaker 5: they gonna win championship? No, probably not, but the journey
Speaker 5: not this year, not this year, but they run at
Speaker 5: the time is ticking. And that's the thing about the
Speaker 5: W as well, is like everybody moves around so much,
Speaker 5: like and then when it comes to the time to
Speaker 5: make real decisions about salaries and contracts and salary cap like.
Speaker 2: It's all just like very random.
Speaker 5: Because by the thirty year, second or third year, you
Speaker 5: already have moved you rookie to a new team because
Speaker 5: she even give her a chance to develop or she
Speaker 5: wasn't able to keep up. But like, that's not what
Speaker 5: your pro career is about. It's about development and growing
Speaker 5: and learning. Unless something just horrible happens during the season,
Speaker 5: she must go that's different. But that's usually not the case.
Speaker 4: But I want to before we go, ask you as
Speaker 4: far as I know, in the NBA, the MNBA, I
Speaker 4: should say, they.
Speaker 2: Don't get us kissing Mariah saying that shit.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Lexi, Lexi does not I.
Speaker 5: Do not say m NBA guys, I know probably all
Speaker 5: would like me to. I'm very much an NBA fan.
Speaker 2: I love NBA. So Mariah Maria said it.
Speaker 4: I think everybody knows that I am an NBA fan.
Speaker 4: The point is, I feel like in the NBA we
Speaker 4: have seen ever since the Warriors dynasty, the formula for
Speaker 4: winning a championship became smaller. The game got more outside outside, outside, outside,
Speaker 4: and some fancying it's boring.
Speaker 3: I absolutely love it. That's my favorite. That's my favorite album.
Speaker 3: Asked wall to watch, but that's.
Speaker 4: Either here nor there in the W you mentioned double
Speaker 4: biggs in Atlanta and Chicago, that kind of situation. What
Speaker 4: do you think that the recipe for success, whether it's
Speaker 4: going to work or not, But like, what do you
Speaker 4: think that these coaches and these organizations are seeing as Okay,
Speaker 4: this is this is the style on the W that
Speaker 4: everybody's kind of implementing.
Speaker 5: I do think that more outside shooting is coming, which
Speaker 5: makes me excited and very happy because at the end
Speaker 5: of the day, threes are worth more than twos. Like
Speaker 5: what like that is what it is? From the last
Speaker 5: three or four championships, the best player.
Speaker 2: Of the team has been that four So.
Speaker 5: I think the key right now in the W is
Speaker 5: having a really versatile foreman.
Speaker 2: And versutile can mean a lot of things. That's why
Speaker 2: it's versatile.
Speaker 5: Like maybe they can shoot really well, Okay, maybe not.
Speaker 5: Maybe they can pass very well, maybe they can bring
Speaker 5: the ball up, they can initiate offense like what you
Speaker 5: would consider like a glue player, but they're like super
Speaker 5: glue because they are also scoring the ball. So I
Speaker 5: feel like, you know, you have the best players in
Speaker 5: the league right now. And if he's the Collier Ajia Wilson,
Speaker 5: Breonna Stewart, Neka Gloo McKay, I mean Natasha Howard could
Speaker 5: reinsert herself in that conversation on this Indiana team, John
Speaker 5: cul Jones like, these are what you consider like the top.
Speaker 2: Players in the league right now.
Speaker 5: And then directly under those players, I think are the
Speaker 5: perimeter players that can hit outside shots. So the Ariquees,
Speaker 5: Jewel Lloyd, Kelsey Plumb, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young me.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say Lexi Brown hello.
Speaker 5: So first I'll thank Arik because she was probably one
Speaker 5: of the first players to come out and shoot autumn
Speaker 5: damn threes off the bounce, off the like all the
Speaker 5: crazy shots. Jewel Lloyd I think has been more of
Speaker 5: like a surgical score, you know, coming off of pin
Speaker 5: Down's curls, like not as random as Arique's buckets.
Speaker 2: And then you bring in.
Speaker 5: A Kaitlyn Clark who's doing all the logo shooting off
Speaker 5: the bounce, coming off screens, pull up transition threes, like
Speaker 5: now everybody's like, okay, like this is what we can do,
Speaker 5: Like this is the style of play that's gonna win
Speaker 5: you games.
Speaker 4: But also facilitating, because it's like you're drawing so much
Speaker 4: attention to yourself that it confuses defenses, and if you
Speaker 4: can facilitate and make plays, then you're dangerous.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I mean, yes, you look at the Golden Golden
Speaker 5: State Warriors has been the formula. You have elite scores
Speaker 5: from the perimeter, and then you have your glue man.
Speaker 2: So the Draymonds of the world.
Speaker 5: But I feel like that position in the w is
Speaker 5: more offensively gifted than the Draymond what you would call
Speaker 5: the Draymonds of the NBA, which because there's so much
Speaker 5: perimeter scoring now, like that person doesn't necessarily have to score. Also,
Speaker 5: they have more time, Like there's just so many different
Speaker 5: things in the NBA that are different from the WNBA,
Speaker 5: Like we have more time to play, more people.
Speaker 2: Would be scoring.
Speaker 5: But because that position right now is so versatile and
Speaker 5: so good gifted offensively, and then just a matchup nightmare.
Speaker 5: Like they're just like kind of the key piece. So
Speaker 5: the fore man has been the key.
Speaker 2: To WNBA's success.
Speaker 5: Now there's some shoot around them. Very hard to.
Speaker 3: Guard, very hard to guard. Shout out to the.
Speaker 2: Force, Shout out to the four.
Speaker 4: Well, Lexi, I'm really excited for next week because I'm
Speaker 4: about to come with stuff to say about these lest teams.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I'll have a nice little update for our
Speaker 5: first day of training camp because it'll be the day
Speaker 5: after our camp.
Speaker 4: When are we going to have ours our a Lexi's
Speaker 4: goals show right before the season starts, like at the
Speaker 4: beginning of Bay.
Speaker 5: Yeah, right before our first actual game, not our preseason games,
Speaker 5: our first actual games, so I can actually put together
Speaker 5: a realistic list, you know, okay, because I want us
Speaker 5: to be able to check these goals off. I don't
Speaker 5: want to end the season and nothing is checked because
Speaker 5: I've made goals that didn't make any sense.
Speaker 3: I will say.
Speaker 4: When I was working for the Atlanta Hawks, I was
Speaker 4: on the social team and we did this thing where
Speaker 4: the players would write down their goals for the season
Speaker 4: on the little poolaroid to be cute to put them
Speaker 4: on our Instagram, and the whole starting five did it,
Speaker 4: and so obviously everybody put win a championship as their goal,
Speaker 4: except for Capella, who put go to the conference titles
Speaker 4: and everybody.
Speaker 3: They tore us up in the comments.
Speaker 4: Tore us he was so mad about at the social
Speaker 4: team for posting that.
Speaker 3: He was so mad, But.
Speaker 4: I was like, you say, right, I mean, and he
Speaker 4: was probably be the most realistic out of everybody.
Speaker 5: But yeah, like what y'all want them to lie about
Speaker 5: the goals just so y'all can make fun of them
Speaker 5: if they don't get the championship because they all knew
Speaker 5: they wasn't gonna get going.
Speaker 2: So so funny. That's really funny.
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, I hope y'all enjoyed our little breakdown of
Speaker 5: the Eastern Conference and the WNBA. We're really excited for
Speaker 5: next week to get into the West and this season
Speaker 5: is going to be really fun. But thank y'all for
Speaker 5: tuning in again. I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: We will see y'all next week on the Full Circle Podcast.
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to Full Circle. We'll be back next
Speaker 4: week with more basketball for the Girls by the Girls.
Speaker 4: We want to hear from you. Leave us a review
Speaker 4: on Apple par podcast and tell us what you want
Speaker 4: us to talk about. Full Circle is hosted by Lexi
Speaker 4: Brown and Mariah Rose. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz.
Speaker 4: Our supervising producer is Grace Fuz. Our producer is Zoe Danklab.
Speaker 4: Listen to Full Circle on America's number one podcast network,
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