The usual analysis of Sunday’s games and previews of Tuesday’s will be up sometime Tuesday afternoon, but until then something a little different. The usual WNBAlien detail, depth and disdain, but over at Hoop365 this time, as I take a look at who should be going to Phoenix for the WNBA All-Star Game this weekend.
Just follow this link to take a look: http://www.hoop365.com/nba/western-conference/2014-wnba-all-star-game-who-should-play/
As you can probably tell from the length of time it took for this coverage to appear, detailing the WNBA All-Star Game wasn’t high on my list of priorities. The ins and outs of who makes it to the game or who goes overlooked is generally far more interesting than the game itself, which is a meaningless exhibition, usually filled with terrible basketball. This year at least, it did turn out to be reasonably entertaining. And if you’re going to cover 204 regular season games, a few minutes taking a look at the showpiece midseason event seems only right. So let’s take a look at a few of the highlights.
My appearance on the Dishin’ & Swishin’ podcast is now live HERE. Yes, that really is my accent. We talked All-Star ahead of Saturday’s game, discussing who deserved to be there, whether the fans and coaches had chosen correctly, and other aspects of the first half of the season. If the audio merely whets your appetite, you can read more about my All-Star choices in the feature that went up earlier this week here.
Normal, text-based WNBA coverage will continue later tonight.
The WNBA community did a pretty solid job of selecting the All-Star starters this year. Not perfect (we’ll get into that in a minute), but we’ve seen some bizarre names voted in by the fans in previous years (Jayne Appel and Anna DeForge spring to mind). There was no one in that category this time around. But you know what? One of the benefits of deciding your own hypothetical All-Star rosters is that you can blithely ignore the voting public anyway. So before the results of the coaches’ votes for the reserves are released tonight, let’s decide who deserves to be heading to Connecticut for the big game on Saturday afternoon.
East
Guards
The fans had to vote for two guards and three frontcourt players, then the coaches had to provide two guards, three frontcourt, and one wildcard extra. So we’re looking to fill all of those, and because I like to ease into these things, we’re starting with the Eastern Conference. It’s easier in the East, because there simply aren’t that many players worth considering. Perusing the backcourt players available, our options are severely limited. Herrington, Bentley, Thomas and Hayes all seem like reaches from Atlanta, so there are zero candidates from the team that led the East for most of the first half of the season. Injuries or poor performance has knocked out Douglas, January and Phillips from last year’s conference champs. And even the hosts for the All-Star game have played so poorly this year that you can argue over whether they have deserving candidates.
So by my count we have seven vaguely viable possibilities. Epiphanny Prince and maybe Courtney Vandersloot in Chicago; Shavonte Zellous in Indiana; Ivory Latta in Washington; Cappie Pondexter in New York; and Kara Lawson or Allison Hightower in Connecticut. Lawson’s typically the Sun’s best perimeter player, but she’s missed 40% of their games through injury so far this season. It’s hard to overlook that without supreme performance when available, and she’s been good but not great. Latta and Prince both started the season strongly but have tailed off a little as it’s progressed (Prince also missed a few games through a combination of an ankle sprain and representing Russia at EuroBasket Women). Hightower’s improvement has been impressive, but she’s still the best of a bunch in Connecticut that have been awful as a whole. Pondexter continues to rank highly in raw scoring averages, but her percentages and efficiency have been terrible, she started the year playing no defense whatsoever, and she’s the central part of a team setting a record-breaking turnover pace.
So it’s not a great list. Pondexter’s an interesting case. She’s clearly been voted in more because of her superstar status and reputation than her performance this season. But she is still a star and carrying a heavy load on a team that expects her to generate a large percentage of their offense. To me it comes down to five – Prince, Zellous, Latta, Pondexter and Hightower – and it’s a matter of how you want to order them. And now that I’m trying to do this, maybe the East isn’t so easy after all.
All-Star Game day today, and considering it was on in the middle of the afternoon it seemed sensible to cover it in today’s column rather than wait for tomorrow. Bear in mind, however, that it’s essentially impossible to cover an exhibition game like this as if it’s a real game of basketball. I can’t analyse the defense, because no one played any all afternoon. I can’t break down the offensive sets because much as Brian Agler seemed to be trying to draw up plays in his huddles, the teams basically don’t run anything. Still, as all-star games go, this one was a pretty entertaining affair, so let’s take a look at how the event played out.
It was the first time I can remember ever being honestly entertained by WNBA All-Star Game introductions, so well done to the league and San Antonio’s organisers. The starters, all donning cowboy hats, were introduced one at a time framed in silhouette behind a white screen. Most of them took the opportunity to show off their dance moves, although Diana Taurasi refrained, and declared in a subsequent pre-game interview “I don’t dance for free”. Which does make you wonder what she’d pull out if someone offered to compensate her for her efforts. Sue Bird eschewed the dancing in favour of lassoing a guy in true Texan style. All very amusing.
Once the game tipped off, everything developed just as we’d expected. No defense, lots of threes, and the occasional highlight-reel move. Continue reading
So after the fans did a reasonable job picking their starters for the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday, the coaches are left to select the remaining six players in either conference. Because I can never resist the temptation to tell a WNBA coach what he or she should’ve done, it’s time for me to select my reserves just before the official announcement later tonight. The rules say that the coaches have to name six players including at least two guards, two forwards, and a center, so that’s what I’ll be sticking to as well.
Bear in mind along the way that these are my picks for who I feel deserves to be named – not necessarily who I expect the coaches to send to the game, or who I’d pick if I was simply trying to make the game entertaining. If you fancy reminding yourself who I selected as my choices to start the game, you can find that here.
West Guards
Starters: Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi
Okay, first off, I made a list of everyone who isn’t already starting that could even remotely be considered an All-Star candidate. In the West, across every position, I ended up with 16 names (and yes, several of those were a reach). Only five are guards, so I’m already down to a pretty short list, and in fact it’s damn easy to select the first two. Continue reading
Seeing as we’re going through yet another couple of days with no WNBA games (seriously league, four games in six days? Are you kidding me?), and there are only four days left to get your votes in, I thought it was about time I finally picked my All-Star starters. I hate that we have to do this so early in this league – not that there’s any good reason to start quite as early as the WNBA begins the voting every year – but the clock’s running out. The game’s in just over two weeks. At least everyone’s played nine or ten games by now, so I don’t feel completely ridiculous making choices based on 2011 performance. Candidates will be examined for their candidacy in their position as they appear on the ballot. So while you and I know, for example, that something contrived is going to happen at center in the West, for now we’re sticking to the rules. I’m allowed a write-in vote for someone who isn’t named in a specific position on the form, though, if I so choose. Got to have a little leeway.
West Guards
First, let’s cut off everyone who’s ridiculous. Okay, I’m down to five. Jia Perkins has had a nice few games, but let’s face it, she’s not really in this argument. Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Becky Hammon, Lindsay Whalen, and Seimone Augustus are my shortlist. While obviously everyone likes to vote for their favourites in these things, and I have no problem with that whatsoever, what I’m trying to do here is decide who actually deserves to be starting in San Antonio on the 23rd. Not who’s the cutest or was once really nice when she gave you an autograph. I can’t truly see any other West guard (or ‘guard’, seeing as DeWanna Bonner’s an option on the ballot) entering the discussion with those five. Continue reading
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