Well the season is almost complete and now it's time to hand out those post season awards before the playoffs. I'll start with All-WNBA teams because I haven't done those before...and they will get me a step closer to figuring out my MVP candidates.
When I look back at the past All-WNBA teams I don't see any positional requirements so this is truly my top 10 players from the season, plus an honorable mention third team.
I'm going to use statistics to justify, but not determine, my choices. I'd be interested in seeing other people's picks and their justifications as well. The three statistics I looked at were Model Estimated Value, plus/minus, and efficiency rating. Rather than going strictly by the rankings, I just used these to sort out who deserved to make the cut.
** The plus/minus numbers used here are from games through September 7th.
All-WNBA Second Team
Deanna Nolan
There should be no doubt that Nolan deserves All-WNBA recognition. Even though I'm not a big fan of the Shock, I really enjoy watching Nolan play. She's one of those players that goes about the game in an almost business-like fashion just doing what she has to do to help her team win, whether that be scoring or distributing the ball.
She didn't put up particularly gaudy statistics this season -- statistically, Jia Perkins had a better season. But she was right within range of the top players in every category. One thing does stand out however -- she shot 46% from the field. That's phenomenal for a guard who takes as many contested jump shots as Nolan does.
The reason I put Nolan on my team is that I don't think you can disregard the intangibles she brings to the Shock in terms of leadership and consistency. It comes down to this question -- if it comes down to one shot at the end of the game, who am I going to trust with the ball? Nolan can create her own shot off the dribble from anywhere on the court, make smart decisions with the ball, and make the right pass if she can't get off a shot.
Janel McCarville
As I've written before, it's hard not to like McCarville's game. She's tough inside, she's smart, and she's shown the ability to face up her defender and take her to the basket. She ranked 9th in MEV and 9th in efficiency rating which pretty much sealed the deal for me. She's also consistently been one of the best defensive post players statistically.
What I like best about her though is her passing ability. Having a post player that can make good decisions with the ball and be a central element of the offense is a huge asset. She's first among centers in assists per 40 minutes which means she is doing a relatively good job of finding others from the post. And again, you can't disregard the intangibles -- the fire and passion she brings to the court has been invaluable on a number of occasions. She's just a great player.
Sue Bird
For all the talk about her late season rise, she's consistently been at the top of the plus/minus rankings all season. And with Lauren Jackson out after the Olympic break she just picked it up a notch. Through last week, her plus/minus rating was +20.7.
Bird is a combo guard in the true sense of the word who can easily shift between scoring and distributing depending on what her team needs. It's been impressive to see how well she made the switch from a pure distributor to a scorer in Lauren Jackson's absence.
She could easily be the most dominant player in the league with her skill set, but instead chooses to pick her spots and make her teammates better. Perhaps Jackson's injury was just a nice little reminder of just how good she is.
Ashja Jones
The best way to describe Jones: dominant post player. She has an array of post moves and seems to score almost any way she chooses to. She had the 7th highest plus/minus rating and the 9th highest efficiency rating.
I didn't really take notice of Jones till the second half of the season, possibly because I was always so focused on Lindsay Whalen. But while Whalen has been described as the engine that makes the team go by Mike Thibault, it's quite clear to me that they would not be where they are without Jones.
Lisa Leslie
Leslie is in my mind the Defensive Player of the Year. She anchors LA's defense which has been one of the best in the league all year and when she leaves the game there's a noticeable difference. But she's also been huge offensively combining with Candace Parker to create a deadly high-low post game.
Statistically, she was 8th in MEV ratings and 4th in efficiency rating. It's hard to keep her off the first team, but there are so many great players there, that Leslie fell to second
All-WNBA First Team
Lindsay Whalen
If it weren't for Sue Bird's second half performance, Whalen would be by far the best point guard in the WNBA this season. She does everything -- she can score, distribute, rebound, and plays the angles so well that she's hard to stop. Like Bird, she tends to spend a lot of time trying to set up teammates which makes her appear passive, but as a point guard, that's a valuable asset.
In terms of the numbers, she's 4th in MEV and 5th in efficiency, making her the most productive point guard in the league. In my opinion, she could be putting up better numbers but in Connecticut's system individual performance seems to be subordinated to team performance so she often just comes down the court and gets her team into the offense rather than trying to immediately make a play. Like Bird though, it's not a bad thing -- she just has the ability to shift from a distributor to scorer whenever she needs to do so.
Seimone Augustus
She's a scorer who seems to be able to get to wherever she wants on the court. Any shooting guard who can score 19 points per game on 47% shooting is impressive. And like Nolan, those are mostly contested jump shots.
But what's most impressive is that for a player who is such a volume scorer, she can also defend and make her teammates better. Her plus/minus rating of +18.4 is second only to Sue Bird. She also ranks 10th in efficiency rating and 12th in MEV. She's quickly becoming one of the best all-around players in the league.
Sophia Young
Easily one of my top MVP candidates, she's a player who gets the job done quietly, but does so as one of the most efficient and productive players in the league. She ranks high in MEV, plus/minus, and efficiency rating. She's an athletic inside-out post threat who can also defend well, although she's occasionally giving up a few inches to her opponent. It's difficult not to like what Young has done this season really.
Diana Taurasi
Love her game. I have already written about why I think she's arguably the best player in the league here.
Candace Parker
Duh.
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My All-WNBA Teams
Olympic Break All-Defensive Teams Yield Surprises: A Vet and A Rookie Sleeper
I didn’t know a whole lot about Morenike Atunrase before I found her name leading all guards in blocks per 40 minutes the other day.
Apparently, Atunrase is not just one of those bench players who puts up inflated per minute stats in limited garbage minutes either – she’s an important part of the San Antonio Silver Stars. From the Express-News:
She’s only averaging 2.5 points and 11 minutes a game, but she’s flashed that potential in several key moments.Similarly, Sheryl Swoopes has demonstrated defensive smarts with the Seattle Storm, although she’s at the opposite end of her career. There may be some doubts about Swoopes’ defense given her age and health, but if you’ve watched her this season, she still plays good position defense and plays well within a team defense concept. From the Seattle Storm website earlier this year:
The 5-foot-10 Atunrase has had the task of guarding Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter, Detroit’s Deanna Nolan and Atlanta’s Betty Lennox, some of the WNBA’s top scorers.
“They’re good, but I really don’t look at their name on their jersey,” Atunrase said. “I just go out and defend, and that’s something I’ve always taken pride in.
“You just really have to be smart and know how to play them.”
"It's going to be nice to be on her team," Agler said. "I've been on the opposite side, watching her play and disrupt offenses for her whole career. She has great instincts defensively, both on the ball and away from the ball, which not many people have. To incorporate her abilities into what we want to do is going to be exciting for me as a coach."The core defensive qualities that Swoopes and Atunrase possess – anticipation, effort, footwork, and instincts – are tough to capture statistically. That’s not to mention the role that pure strength and position have in interior defense. Add to that the fact that the television cameras rarely focus on off the ball defensive effort and it’s especially difficult for fans to evaluate players defensively.
However, when I went through the process of trying to identify the league’s best defensive players these two came up near the top of the list. Surprised? I was too…but I think either could make a sound argument for making the WNBA All-Defensive team this year using a few statistics that go beyond blocks, rebounds, and steals per game.
So here’s an attempt to put those numbers together and present the leading candidates for the WNBA All-Defensive teams and the Defensive Player of the Year.
(To see the final rankings, skip down to the section titled "The All-Defensive Teams and Nominees for Defensive Player of the Year" at the bottom)
In search of the best defenders
Similar to the rankings I’ve done previously on point guards and rookies, the goal here is to construct informed arguments for the strongest defensive players at each position rather than just choosing the best overall. However it is a bit more difficult considering the dearth of defensive stats…even just choosing the candidates.
To identify potential candidates, I borrowed selection criteria that David Nelson and Damien Walker used to select the NBA Defensive Player of the Year. In particular, I looked at previous defensive award winners and the defensive reputation of players based on Rebkell posts and media reports.
Next I went to the statistics. I identified players who ranked in the top 5 at their position in blocks, rebounds, or steals per 40 minutes, as listed on WNBA.com. Then I looked at defensive plus/minus leaders as posted by p_d_swanson at Rebkell. To choose players, I looked for those that were dominant (leaders in a statistical category) or versatile (players ranked in the top 5 in more than one category) and picked them as finalists.
Finally, I divided those players into four position types: point guard, wing (shooting guard + small forward), power forwards, and centers. I then added additional players who only appeared in one category to fill out the list and bring it to about 40. To narrow them down I looked to additional statistics.
Percentage Statistics
It seems that percentage statistics say a lot more about defense than a player’s average numbers. Block percentage, rebound percentage, and steal percentage tell us how often a player makes a defensive play when they are on the court. I like to think of these statistics as a measure of how disruptive a player is on the defensive end.
So after using averages to select the initial list, I used percentages to narrow it down. To keep the list balanced, I wanted to have at least five point guards, 10 wings, five power forwards, and five centers to make an initial list of 25. Players that clearly had no chance of being in the top 3 at their position were dropped. Then I used another five spots to include players based on reputation or previous awards to bring the total to 30: 10 wings, 8 centers, 7 power forwards, and 5 point guards.
So after all that, I was finally ready to figure out who the best defenders are.
Four statistical categories: Some established, some invented
The statistical categories I used are designed to capture as many elements of individual defense as possible.
Defensive plus/minus tells us how well the team’s opponent did when a given player was on the court and off the court. It’s a way to approximate a player’s defensive impact. A positive number would indicate that her team did better with her on the court.
Personal foul efficiency is an expanded version of the stl/pf and blk/pf stats available at WNBA.com looking at (steals+blocks)/personal fouls. Since we’re looking at players who are adept at getting steals and blocks, it’s nice to know if they can do so without fouling.
Defensive versatility: This is a “made up” statistic, but is derived from John Hollinger’s versatility statistic that looks at the cube root of points x rebounds x assists. Instead, I look here at the cube root of block% x rebound% x steal %. The results end up being almost identical to what they would be if you just ranked players in all three categories. It’s just helpful to have one number to look at.
Defensive contribution: This is completely made up but designed to give additional credit to players who contribute to the success of good defensive teams, even if their stats are a little lower. The goal is to get a (very) rough estimate of the player’s contribution to their team’s defensive success per minute.
First, I took the percentage of team minutes that each player played. Second, I (and Excel) looked at their team’s defensive rating and figured out how many points above average it was – a below average team got negative points to help create a hierarchy of contributions. So then I (er, Excel) multiplied the percentage of team minutes by the points above/below average to get a player’s contribution to their team’s defensive rating. It’s not perfect – certain players are playing big minutes because of their offensive prowess. However, combined with defensive plus/minus, you get a sense of how much they played and how effective they were doing it.
The Rankings
Each measure has it limitations, but overall, I think the results bring us closer to identifying the league’s best defensive players than the standard practice of using subjective combinations of rebounds, steals, and assists. So here are the top players in each category, as well as the leaders in the percentage stats (which compose the defensive versatility statistic).
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The All-Defensive Teams and Nominees for Defensive Player of the Year
Point guards
Honorable mention: Vickie Johnson (49)
Second team: Ticha Penicheiro (49)
First team: Tully Bevilaqua (60)
Point guards didn’t fare well in these rankings as rebounds and blocks are statistics for bigger players, so it’s interesting that all three of these players are veterans with a positive defensive plus/minus. I separated them from the wings because generally point guards are guarding players who are good ball handlers and mostly initiate the offense meaning the opportunity for gaudy box score statistics decreases. Some of the most effective point guard defense comes from just pressuring the ball and forcing opponents to use up shot clock (the classic example to me is when Scottie Pippen guarded point guard Mark Jackson in the 1998 playoffs and completely shut him down). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhSBTI-txak&fmt=18
Vickie Johnson is another player having a surprisingly good year defensively. She’s second among point guards in defensive rebounding and she doesn’t foul very often. But what consistently impresses me about Johnson is her toughness and aggression on both ends of the floor. She’s quick and knows how to play the game.
Penicheiro makes the cut on the strength of a strong steal percentage and she also does so while keeping the fouls to a minimum. But like Johnson and Bevilaqua, the key for Penicheiro’s defense is her basketball intelligence and playing smart defense rather than physically dominating her opponent.
Wing players
Honorable mention: Seimone Augustus (55) and Morenike Atunrase (93)
Second team: Alexis Hornbuckle (62) and Tamika Catchings (63)
First team: Katie Douglas (67) and Sheryl Swoopes (91)
Whoa – that’s right…that 93 next to Atunrase’s name is not a typo. But the reason I put her as honorable mention is that she only plays 10 minutes per game, usually to lock down the other team’s best player. If you’ve watched her play, you might know why she made the list – she plays with tons of energy and is an impressive stopper for a rookie.
Her energy on the defensive end is perhaps what helped her earn a defensive plus/minus of +6.0, which ranked 3rd among defensive candidates. I didn’t expect this, but she is almost definitely a defensive diamond in the rough and if she keeps it up, she might be a perennial first team candidate.
The other two surprising players for me were Sheryl Swoopes and Seimone Augustus. Augustus is known for her offensive skill, but she’s also becoming an excellent defender as she has prepared for the Olympics.
http://www.sportsline.com/worldsports/story/10913209/rss
"Everyone knows what I can do on the offensive end, so defense is key to my role on this team," said Augustus, fourth in the WNBA with nearly 20 points per game. "We have enough people who can score, I just know when my number is called that I need to be able to stop someone."
She doesn’t put up big box score numbers defensively, but like Swoopes she does play excellent position defense. She gets in a good defensive stance, moves her feet well and does a good job of preventing her opponent from beating her to the basket. That is probably why her defensive plus/minus is currently at a +5.2. She’s a perfect example of how box score statistics only tell half the truth and she’s not the only one.
Against the Lynx on July 27th, Sheryl Swoopes matched up with Augustus and was primarily responsible for keeping Augustus scoreless in the first half (Swoopes then left the game due to injury). It was a great example of how defense is as much about basketball intelligence as physical ability. Swoopes missed the All-Defensive team last year, but perhaps there Seattle’s system – as well as the presence of Yolanda Griffith (5th ranked center) and Lauren Jackson – allow a smart defender like Swoopes to stand out even more.
Watching Augustus and Swoopes go at it defensively was one of the best silent battles you’ll see. If Augustus got the ball, Swoopes just didn’t let her go anywhere. Every time Augustus shot the ball, there was a hand in her face. And vice versa when Swoopes was on offense. In fact, neither even got a clean shot off unless someone else was guarding them.
Power Forwards
Honorable mention: Sancho Lyttle (80)
Second team: Candace Parker (80)
First team: Lauren Jackson (97)
Again, two surprises here. Lyttle is rarely discussed as a great defensive player, but the stats tell a different story. She was the most versatile player among defensive candidates, but does so in limited minutes meaning she doesn’t show up on the per game leader boards very often. What I particularly like about Lyttle is her energy on defense – she’s active and had the highest defensive rebounding percentage among forwards and the second highest block percentage.
Parker offense and dunking gets all the attention, but her defense might be underrated. She could become the best help defender in the league within a couple of years, if not already. That’s high praise for a player that could simply rest on her offensive laurels. She’s not quite as versatile as Lyttle, but with Leslie and DeLisha Milton-Jones also grabbing rebounds, there’s not as much opportunity for her – yet she still ranks 1st in defensive rebounds per game and 2nd in blocks…behind Leslie. Parker doesn’t get many steals and has a negative defensive plus/minus, but she clearly has promise as a defender.
Centers
Honorable mention: Ann Wauters (77)
Second team: Janel McCarville (83)
First team: Lisa Leslie (98)
Other than Leslie, the centers surprised me – I definitely would have expected Sutton-Brown (4th among centers) or Nicky Anosike (6th among centers) to be in this group. But when you look at the numbers, Wauters and McCarville are having very good seasons on above average defensive teams. It would also seem that both are also able to take up space in the paint, which helps defensively.
Wauters is fourth in the league in blocks per game and 10th in defensive rebounds per game, which makes her a versatile defensive player. Most importantly, she’s able to block those shots while keeping the fouls relatively low with a personal foul efficiency of 1.00.
McCarville is less dominant defensively, but more versatile her defensive rebound, block, and steal percentages were all in the top 10 among defensive candidates. She’s 10th in the WNBA in steals and like Wauters, she keeps the fouls low with an efficiency rating of .98. But what sets McCarville apart from the other top centers is her defensive plus/minus rating of +5.8 – that’s among the best in the WNBA and 4th among the defensive candidates. It would seem that McCarville has the intangibles and basketball intelligence that make her a solid defender.
Defensive Player of the Year
So we now have five nominees for defensive player of the year, by position: Bevilaqua, Douglas, Jackson, Leslie, and Swoopes. As it turns out, Leslie, Jackson, and Swoopes are the three highest rated players (not including Atunrase, who is third ahead of Swoopes). Leslie and Jackson are separated by one point right now for the top spot and it’s hard to say who might be on top by the end of the season.
On the one hand, Jackson was out five games and the defensive contribution statistic was not done on a per game basis, but total minutes (it’s hard to say you’ve contributed if you missed games). That is of course unfair to Jackson as she missed games to represent her country. So with one point separating them, one could say Jackson deserves the top spot because she would be #1 had she not missed games.
However, I don't think awards should be given based upon hypotheticals. At this moment, Leslie is not only #1 right now, but she is also the backbone of the Sparks’ defense. I described this in a summary of the Sparks' home game against the Liberty how there was an 18 point swing when Leslie fouled out of the game. Leslie is also more versatile defensively, but fouls less.
So until the season ends, we’re left with a bunch of questions that will be fun to answer over the next few games or so: is Jackson or Leslie the DPOY? Should Morenike Atunrase get consideration for the All-Defensive team? How good can players like Lyttle and Atunrase become defensively? Are players like Deanna Nolan and Chelsea Newton having poor defensive years or just bad statistical years?
Transition points (added):
I would also have to nominate Sancho Lyttle for the Most Improved Player award (which I am not going to examine). A lot of times these most improved awards go to players who got an increase in minutes but had already displayed considerable skill (McCarville, for example, won the award after being traded and seeing an increase in minutes). Lyttle is one of those rare cases where it’s clear that her game actually improved rather than just getting more minutes. I think that makes it a tough award to hand out…and a firm handle on the stats really helps.
I had Deanna Nolan in my sights, but there was no statistical reason to keep her on this list. Her steal percentage is currently close to a career low (1.9%) and it has been dropping for each of the last 3 seasons. Furthermore, last year she had a 6.6 defensive plus/minus rating and this year she has a -4.6. So all in all, it seems Nolan is having an off year defensively.
This approach is unfair to DeLisha Milton-Jones. She’s not going to put up good defensive numbers playing next to Parker and Leslie. And she’s guarding perimeter players, which to my knowledge is not her strength. But then that’s part of the point of doing rankings this way -- it highlights some of these things.
Diana Taurasi deserves credit for role in the rover defense. When she turns up the pressure on the opposing ball handlers and picks them up above the three point line, it’s one of the best defenses in the league. The whole system completely falls apart when she’s out…but then again, it hasn’t worked so well when she’s in either.
Tammy Sutton-Brown is a very good defensive center and is next in line for an honorable mention behind Wauters. There are two reasons she isn’t ranked higher – first, her personal foul efficiency is lower than Leslie, McCarville and Wauters. Second, Leslie, McCarville, and Wauters are all more versatile defensively than Sutton-Brown – they all rank among the top 25 in steal percentage.
References:
I borrowed some ideas (and some HTML code) from the Nelson and Walker article at 82games.com.
All plus/minus statistics were gathered from the Lynx plus/minus site and a Rebkell post by p_d_swanson.
Defensive ratings were taken from the Storm Tracker site.
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Guts and Determination: Can the Liberty Really Take First Place in the East?
At the beginning of the season I didn’t know one player on the Liberty although I had some vague recollection of Janel McCarville’s name.
So forgive me if I’m shocked that in beating the Sparks 69-68 in a heart stopping thriller, the Liberty are within one game of first place in the Eastern Conference.
There’s nothing like a gritty New York-Los Angeles competition to help a league move past a week filled with distraction. In fact, it addressed some of the things that critics think the WNBA needs – it was the perfect example of how competitive, passionate, and physical women’s basketball players can be…even without starting a melee.
So while people spent most of the week talking about how a Detroit-LA rematch would make for an exciting (and highly rated) finals series, why not talk up the possibility of a New York-LA matchup?
With Connecticut and Detroit floundering could the Liberty really take first place and make a run at the WNBA finals? If they keep playing with the energy and toughness they displayed last night against LA, then why not?
A New York - LA finals would be great for the league: major media markets, competitive games, and match of the pre-season favorite vs. the consummate underdog. It might not create quite the buzz a Detroit-LA rematch would, but the basketball could be just as good.
Now of course I’m biased – I like the Liberty. And the world certainly doesn’t need another biased New York sports team fan (though I think I might help bolster the Californian Liberty fan demographic). But if you put aside the Outdoor Calamity from last week, the Liberty have won 6 straight home games and 7 of 9 in July, beating LA twice.
As counter-intuitive as it might seem, it’s the Sparks who might ruin this intriguing scenario because their ever elusive team chemistry might keep them from even making the playoffs. Nevertheless, the depth and toughness that the Liberty showed last night might be enough to make them a legitimate contender and give them a shot at the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
J-Mac’s Toughness
I really cannot say enough about Janel McCarville’s game. She’s a fearless and well rounded player who doesn’t really put up gaudy statistics, but just gets the job done. And she does it with attitude.
What people will remember about the game is Janel McCarville’s driving layup over the outstretched arms of Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker that ended up being the game winner. What may be forgotten is McCarville’s tough play on both ends of the floor throughout the game that prevented the Sparks from finding their ever-elusive offensive rhythm.
Although it seemed to be a bizarre strategy at first, the Liberty repeatedly looked to McCarville in the post not only to score, but also create opportunities for others. Defensively, McCarville and whoever else was around collapsed on Leslie and Parker whenever they got the ball and contesting almost every shot. They made life difficult for an LA team that has already been consistently inconsistent on offense his year.
She didn’t have a perfect game, but I thought it was a gutsy and effective strategy that demonstrated how much faith Pat Coyle has in McCarville. LA has the ability to completely neutralize interior players so to go right at their strength seemed counter-intuitive. But McCarville has such a high basketball IQ that she picked her spots perfectly. She played an effective inside and out game punctuated by the driving layup at the end.
However, she doesn’t deserve all the credit.
The bench should get the game ball for this one
Another interesting storyline was the outstanding play of the Liberty bench, which outscored the Sparks’ bench 24-12. In fact, it was a lineup of bench players late in the third quarter and early in the fourth that built the lead for the Liberty. They entered the game up 5 points and exited up 9 to an ovation from the crowd and tons of momentum.
That five minute stretch brought up an interesting coaching dilemma: if your bench players have found a rhythm and extended the lead, do you stick with them or put the starters back in to bring home the victory?
Pat Coyle chose to return to her starters with 7:53 left in the fourth while the bench was one a role. As might be obvious now, they looked completely out of sync, and started settling for three pointers instead of moving the ball for good shots. The lead eventually evaporated, which set up McCarville’s game winning shot. Their synergy score dropped from 106 in the third quarter to 54 in the 4th -- they stopped moving the ball and shot only 33% from the field.
If I were to pinpoint one thing that shifted when the starters came back in, it was the difference between Leilani Mitchell and Loree Moore, the same thing that beat LA the first time. Mitchell’s quickness helped her make plays defensively and offensively that kept the energy level high and established a great rhythm. When she left the game they just seemed deflated and settling for threes is a reliable indicator of problems on offense.
Something else I thought about is whether the wholesale substitutions that Coyle tends to make are effective. In this case, putting 3 fresh players in the game may have disrupted the chemistry as much if not more than the change at point guard. Had she staggered the substitutions might they have kept the momentum going?
The view from hindsight is still hazy…
It’s hard to say whether it was Coyle’s decision to replace the bench players or LA’s increased intensity down the stretch that lost the lead. But given how effective Leilani Mitchell has been in her two games against the Sparks, it’s reasonable to say that Coyle should have left her in a little bit longer while she was driving the momentum.
Sometimes a coach makes the decision to go with the bench and the team falls apart under the pressure of closing out a game. Other times, things just seem to be clicking on all cylinders and the starters disrupt the chemistry. But it does call into question the effectiveness of whole sale substitutions.
Regardless, this team is built for a playoff run because of their depth and the fact that you cannot really key in on one player to shut them down. They just seem to keep coming at their opponents with different pieces and if one person isn’t playing well, there seems to be someone else to pick up the slack (as long as they play indoors). On paper, they may not strike anyone as a championship contender, but this may be a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Transition Points:
The Liberty's next five games give them a real chance to make up some ground -- they have Atlanta twice, Chicago at home, and Detroit on the road. At this point, every game is important, but this seems to work in their favor.
Loree Moore didn't seem to have a good game statistically, but if you watched closely, she had a huge impact (before the fourth quarter). I often take notes on a few players while watching games and keep track of things like early shot attempts, contested shots, and lost assists (where she would have gotten an assist had her teammate made the shot). Moore was credited with only 2 assists for the game, but I recorded 8 lost assists. This is why judging the performance of point guards is so difficult -- Moore is an outstanding distributor in terms of finding her teammates in position to score...they just don't make the shots.
There's not much more to say about the Sparks strategy-wise, but I think they really missed Bobbitt's energy last night. Although she's a rookie and makes plenty of mistakes, she seems to be the glue that holds their offense together at times.
Relevant Links:
July 25th, 2008: Los Angeles at New York
http://gamenotesofdoom.blogspot.com/2008/07/july-25th-2008-los-angeles-at-new-york.html
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McCarville, Mitchell & Moore Make It Easy To Root For the Liberty
I never really write about the Liberty directly, but they’re always lingering somewhere in the periphery of my basketball consciousness.
I usually end up referring to them when their play ends up exposing some fatal flaw in an opponent.
As a new fan, I'm always trying to find a team to root for, which is difficult because I have no home team that I have any real affinity to. Although, the Liberty never really end up being the focal point of my thinking, the other day I realized that I actually felt a tinge of excitement as I set the DVR to record their game against the Sun. It forced me to accept a harsh reality -- I might actually like a New York sports franchise.
The Liberty will probably not win a WNBA title this year. They’re not the flashiest team, by any stretch of the imagination, and sometimes their games are downright ugly. And they don’t really have any superstars to speak of, although I would argue Shameka Christon and Janel McCarville would deserve consideration if there was a game this year.
And yet every time they are broadcast, I make a point to watch them.
Last night – against the Mystics of all teams – I realized why I liked them. It’s the intangibles, the little things that won’t show up in the box score and are difficult to describe. They’re tough and they play with heart. Their seemingly endless rotation allows them to play with great energy (usually). Of all the teams in the WNBA, they seem to have the strongest collective personality.
But what I like most about them is that they seem to have a nothing-to-lose swagger. Not much was expected of them at the beginning of the season – while they were expected to make the playoffs, nobody really expected them to make much noise in the playoffs. So in a way, they are the WNBA’s consummate underdog.
And that underdog swagger seems to be embodied best by the play of three players in particular – Janel McCarville, Loree Moore, and Leilani Mitchell.
One of the most balanced teams in the WNBA?
The first thing you might notice about the Liberty in watching is that they have an extremely deep rotation. And coach Pat Coyle utilizes that depth to press and trap defensively.
They are also a well balanced team and that balance is embodied in the playing styles of their starters, based on the Sparks playing style spectrum:
Moore (distributor), Christon (scorer), Carson (scorer), Kraayeveld (interior scorer), McCarville (versatile utility player)
There is no style for “defender”, but Carson is probably already the best perimeter defender on the team.
In addition to being extremely deep and balanced, they are also the youngest team in the league. More importantly they have to rely on their young core because nobody on the team has more than 5 years of experience. Given that they’re already playoff contenders, you have to assume that they have a bright future.
But the most interesting thing about their team is that, the playing styles of their bench players also mirrors that of the starters. That’s something you don’t see very often. Here are the playing styles of their most used bench players:
Mitchell (distributor), Thorn (perimeter scorer), Willis (perimeter scorer),
Jackson (post presence), Battle (interior scorer)
The significance of this – and what may put the Liberty in a unique position – is that they are able to maintain a sense of continuity even when their bench players come in. It’s rare that you can make substitutions and not seem to lose anything from your style of play. This is also where their lack of star power oddly becomes an advantage – they can keep coming at their opponents in waves without letting up, as long as they play within their system.
Their lack of star power also means that they are extremely dependent on ball movement and playing within their system to win games. However, that also means that they can’t look to one player to carry the load when they get in trouble, unlike a team like the Silver Stars who has three of the top 20 scorers in the league. But as you can probably tell, I don’t see that as a bad thing…
Despite their reliance on team basketball and depth, it’s three individuals that stand out for me when I watch the Liberty.
J-Mac: Toughness and versatility
It may at first seem that Kraayeveld (post scorer) and McCarville’s (versatile utility player) playing style labels are backwards. But the reason for the labeling is that while the majority of Kraayeveld’s production comes from her scoring, McCarville can score, pass, and defend extremely well for a big player.
McCarville’s label is misleading as she falls in the “perimeter utility player” dimension of the spectrum. But that’s because her versatile skill set allows her to be effective from all over the court – picking up a number of assists and steals in addition to rebounding and scoring from anywhere inside the three point line.
But what seems to stand out about McCarville is her toughness. She’s probably the team’s biggest star after winning the WNBA’s Most Improved Player award last season, but she’s definitely not resting on her laurels. She comes to play and play hard every single night. She establishes position in the post well, she fights for rebounds, and never backs down from a defensive assignment…even if she’s up against Lisa Leslie.
Her physical style of play and intensity is something something that people did not necessarily expect from female athletes when the WNBA started up. She’s another one of those players who seems to defy conventional wisdom women’s basketball.
L. Mo – Pure leadership
There are no doubt more talented point guards in the league than Loree Moore. But it’s hard to find a stronger leader.
I have followed Loree Moore’s statistics quite closely this season as part of my point guard rankings, and aside from being one of the leaders in assists, there’s nothing particularly impressive about her game statistically.
But when she’s on the court, it’s clear that she’s in control of the action and responsible for setting the tone of the game. She doesn’t do anything particularly spectacular and she might still be playing through an early back injury, but her ability to make outstanding decisions allows her to have a huge impact on the game. She just plays smart basketball.
She picks her shots well. She’s not stellar defensively, but picks up a number of steals without fouling excessively. Although she rarely makes a spectacular pass or an advanced dribble move, she rarely makes a bad pass. And for a team that is so dependent on their team concept, having a player like Moore who is clearly the charismatic leader, but can also lead by example on the floor is invaluable.
Leilani Mitchell: The unassuming rookie
About a month ago, there was a thread on Rebkell about Leilani Mitchell in which people suggested that followers of Leilani Mitchell need a name. The name that seemed to have the best ring to it was the Leilanians.
Consider Rethinking Baseball a friend of the Leilanians.
Really, how can you dislike Leilani Mitchell?
Similar to Moore, she’s not the flashiest point guard. She was a second round pick in a deep 2008 rookie class and was almost cut by the Phoenix Mercury before the Liberty offered a 2009 third round draft pick for her.
Think it was worth it?
Mitchell’s combination of quickness, ball handling skill, and court vision is the perfect substitute for Moore off the bench. Over the course of the season, she’s also gotten more confident driving to the basket despite her small stature. Although her size limits her defensive impact – and may limit her to being a career backup – she’s active and is able to pressure opposing point guards into bad plays.
But what she does better than Moore is create opportunities for others. Her ability to draw the defense with penetration into the lane and kick the ball out to open scorers is essential for a team that relies so heavily on teamwork.
What’s most impressive about Mitchell’s game -- especially for a small rookie -- is her increasing efficiency. Prior to July 1st, Mitchell had the second highest turnover percentage of any rotation point guard. Since July 1st, Mitchell has racked up 22 assists and only 1 turnover. She has not had a turnover in the last 4 games, a stretch in which the Liberty have gone 3-1. That’s amazing when you consider that she spends so much time driving through traffic and making tough passes – it’s not like she’s one of those point guards who doesn’t take risks.
She’s not a game changer in the sense that she changes the way the team plays, but for a team that thrives on rhythm, she has a chance to eventually emerge as one of the top backups in the league. She allows the team to confidently rest their starters while remaining efficient.
Everything I love about basketball
In a post game interview after their victory against the Mystics last night, Mitchell said, “When we get teams down we want to keep them down. We kinda let ‘em back in…” All said with her characteristically contagious smile.
That moment more than anything represents what I like about the Liberty and probably basketball in general. It’s about competing as a team, playing with passionate toughness, but most of all enjoying the opportunity to be paid to play a game. For all those reasons, I'd say that the Liberty are probably the perfect team to represent the league in an outdoor game (the Mercury being the other...despite the blow-out they suffered in their last trip to NYC).
Players like McCarville, Mitchell, and Moore make the Liberty one of the most likeable teams in the WNBA because of the intangibles they bring to the court as well as their passion. Of course, it helps that they are also talented players. But in a game predicated on team chemistry and complementarity, the Liberty are quickly emerging as one of my favorite teams to watch.
Transition Points:
Earlier in the season, I said I liked the Sky...and I still do think they have a bright future. But the Liberty have a much better cast of characters to root for in my opinion...part of that could be the loss of Fowles. But I also like the Liberty's style of play better.
The Game Notes of Doom blog points out that Moore looks like she’s still playing hurt. And Loree? Loree is hurt. She has to be. Either that or this is a Pod Person and the real Loree is in space while aliens figure out how she got those shoulders.
I hadn’t even heard of her before this year so I don’t have much to compare her performance to, but it sounds like it will help for her to get some rest over the Olympic break.
It’s strange that I’m writing this after the Liberty beat the Mystics of all teams because they seem to be among the most dysfunctional teams in the WNBA. From the DC Basket Cases blog last night:To say that watching this game on TV wasn't much fun would be an understatement. There's a great deal more (none of it good) that could be said about how the Mystics played this evening, but it's late, so we're calling it a night.
Ouch. It’s hard to even pinpoint one thing that’s wrong with them at the moment. They just don’t play well together…at all. And body language has to count for something – it seemed that whether they were doing well or struggling everyone was walking around frowning. You almost start to feel sorry for them. In many ways, they are the polar opposite of the Liberty – they are making the game of basketball look like an unbearable burden.
A side note on the Sparks -- it's the same old story, but last night's game was especially perplexing. They just came off a game in which they won by dominating the offensive boards against the Silver Stars. The Silver Stars then dominated the Mercury inside. So wouldn't it make sense to use the same strategy they used to beat the Silver Stars against the Mercury? Especially since they previously beat the Mercury using the high-low offense? Instead, they got caught up trying to match the Mercury's transition game and lost...and only had 1 assist in the entire second half...which just seems wrong for a team with two strong post players...
Relevant Links:
Liberty Defense And Depth Overpower Mystics
http://www.spmsportspage.com/published/spmarticles/liberty-defense-and-depth.shtml
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