CC WNBA Day 1 thought

[Zstatman]

There's a reason the Fever have had the #1 pick in the draft the last two years and the #2 pick in the draft they year before that. They aren't very good. They've got to get their offense together, they need to learn how to play together. I hope the Fever have the coaches and staff in place to have the patience to know what to do and execute.

The Connecticut Sun seemed to have it together. I don't know much about them but according to the announcers they have been pretty successful the last few years, have played together as a team and expect to be a contender.

Although Megan didn't play much and Kate not at all, I was impressed with the Aces, they seemed like a well oiled machine, like a two-time defending champion ought to look.

I was also impressed by the Mercury. At the outset of their game, it looked like the Aces might blow them out. But they had an idea of what they wanted to do and started to execute and made it a game. If Brittany Griner had been availab le it might have been a different game.

 

[99topdawg]

It looks like they designed the offense last year around Boston. Slow paced because she's so big and slow. She looks really out of shape. If they keep it like that, it won't fit Clark's style of play at all. Very disappointed and worried about how Caitlin will do.

 

[Glass1/2fullguy]

It looks like they designed the offense last year around Boston. Slow paced because she's so big and slow. She looks really out of shape. If they keep it like that, it won't fit Clark's style of play at all. Very disappointed and worried about how Caitlin will do.

I agree 100% regarding Boston. She does not run very well. If u watched the aces game their bigs, including Megan, were sprinting down the floor after every play. If Boston can not figure this out they will struggle at running and pushing the pace. That said to me the fever also have a coaching issue. For the life of me I could not make sense as to what they were trying to do on offense.

 

[Bigtenchamp]

Clark always made a lot of careless passes

People didn't notice so much when she had 40 pts 12 assists and 7 turnovers.

She has 12 turnovers vs penn state last year... a couple other games in her career with double digit turnovers.

She will learn.

 

[Will C]

Looks like CC is taking over the coaching of the Fever. It would only help them if she did.

 

[Will C]

Perhaps the Fever should hire Lisa Bluder as head coach. I hate to see her give up retirement but she is one of the greatest coaches ever at Iowa.

 

[Zstatman]

Boy howdy, can Dawn Staley recruit........Boston and Wilson of the Aces.

I remember thinking during the Fever's two preseason games, is this the best shape these players can get in? They all seemed slow, I was wondering if it was a female thing or just these players? The Sun, Mercury and Aces taught me quickly last night, it's just these players or, at least some of them.

Does Boston have the athleticism to get in better shape and have more of an impact? I certainly don't know but guess we'll find out. The only thing I ever knew about was seeing a show on TV around the time we played them in the Final Four two years ago and beat them. Born in the US Virgin Island, she left home at around age 9 to move to Boson, Ma. and live with her aunt and play basketball She had quite the career at S Carolina.

I'd never really seen Wilson before last night, didn't know much about her. I had read a couple articles recently where she was saying something to the effect that the only reason CC is so popular is because she is white. I don't agree but to a certain degree I understand where she's coming from. She has been a winner at every stage of her career, high school, college, pros, Olympics, she's got it all. At 6'4" she has quite the all-around game, inside, outside on offense, good D, good rebounder, leader. She probably has reason to believe she is the best player in the WNBA right now. Maybe CC coming into the W with such popularity will help her become more popular than she is.

I truly hope CC keeps her popularity, that it isn't a passing thing. I don't think it will be. If CC can prevail it will help the whole W.

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

The Sun were definitely the better team, at both ends of the floor. The girl on Caitlin played very well defensively.

I agree about Boston looking out of shape. Perhaps that will improve, but she appeared sluggish and ineffective.

Caitlin will be just fine, but it will take awhile. Her team needs to keep getting better, and she needs to adjust to the game at this level and get used to facing athletic guards that are going to be singularly focused on stopping her night after night.

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

Also should add that those two early foul calls on her were highly questionable and no doubt got her out of sync. WNBA officiating appears worse than the NBA (if that's possible.....).

 

[eyekwah]

The Fever coach should not have Clark bring the ball up the court because she drawing a double team the entire time leaving little time to get a good shot. If she rebounds it then let her bring the ball up. Boston hasn't showed any foot speed.

 

[Grady]

CC's 1st exhibition game was a fast-paced, up-and-down affair, and even tho CC didn't shoot it well, it was her style of game. Most of last night's game was like watching a bad NBA game. Same old-fashioned pick-and-roll, blah blah blah, with the Fever missing at least 8 shots within 2 ft of the basket. Ugh.
I don't know what the Fever coach is thinking, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that CC excels when she's in the open court, fast-breaking. After watching Iowa's centers sprint the court -- even after made baskets -- for years, watching the Fever bigs run last night was like watching mud dry. No urgency after made OR missed baskets.
Which causes real problems, because their half-court offense sucks: it appears to revolve around passing it to Boston on the block, but last night she was incapable of holding her position and kept getting pushed out halfway to the sideline before catching the ball. If she was the Rookie of the Year last year, there must not have been many good rookies!
The Fever need to retool their roster to get more speed to compliment CC.
Clark was a turnover machine as a college Fr and So, so not a surprise she turned it over a lot last night vs the 2nd best defensive team in the W. What drives me crazy is when she passes up 8ft jumpshots along the baseline and tries to pass it inside for a 2 ft shot...1/2 the time resulting in turnovers. Pull up and nail the 8 fter!
It's telling that even tho she scored 0 pts in the 1st quarter, she still ended with 20 -- and could have easily had 26 if she knocked down 2 wide open treys. And this vs a VERY good defensive team.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

Agree with everyone so far. Fever are not very good nor athletic, compounded by some very questionable sets (coaching) -
i.e. Boston is a pure, back-to-basket 5. What the hell is she doing at top of key, drawing defender to easily hedge into a double-team on CC with every single handoff?? Worsened by being SO slow to roll down the lane out of any pick to receive the assist!! When she did, she immediately put the ball on the floor and back to basket rather than attack the rim. NOT impressed with AB through 3 games watched.

i.e. Sun easily forced CC to her right out top, not to mention defending her about 5 feet further out than she was used to seeing in college. While Fever did try some picks, they were very poorly set and led more to a cluster rather than freeing CC for an open shot. Sides did recognize and commented that their spacing was bad all night.

CC really couldn't get out of her head last night and, as seen when frustrated in college, she tended to drift and take herself out of the scoring option - leading to dumb passes. She settled down in the 2nd and remembered her vow to "be herself".

Good learning experience and still VERY confident she will be fine.

 

[thedukeofearl]

Caitlin certainly needs to adjust to her team and the WNBA

There are a few times when she was open bringing the ball upcourt inside the Logo and
should have released the ball then instead of dribbling attempting to find an open teammate

She is deadly shooting on the run from long range

If her teammates could score they couldn't safely double team her

 

[NCHawker]

I agree, Fever did not look well coached. Players standing around on offense. CC had the ball and they were on her and she could not find anyone to throw the ball to..for a few seconds..finally someone would run up to take a pass.

no motion, stale offense. The few minutes I saw of the late game revealed an entirely different caliber of play than Indiana

 

[PCHawk]

Boy howdy, can Dawn Staley recruit........Boston and Wilson of the Aces.

I remember thinking during the Fever's two preseason games, is this the best shape these players can get in? They all seemed slow, I was wondering if it was a female thing or just these players? The Sun, Mercury and Aces taught me quickly last night, it's just these players or, at least some of them.

Does Boston have the athleticism to get in better shape and have more of an impact? I certainly don't know but guess we'll find out. The only thing I ever knew about was seeing a show on TV around the time we played them in the Final Four two years ago and beat them. Born in the US Virgin Island, she left home at around age 9 to move to Boson, Ma. and live with her aunt and play basketball She had quite the career at S Carolina.

I'd never really seen Wilson before last night, didn't know much about her. I had read a couple articles recently where she was saying something to the effect that the only reason CC is so popular is because she is white. I don't agree but to a certain degree I understand where she's coming from. She has been a winner at every stage of her career, high school, college, pros, Olympics, she's got it all. At 6'4" she has quite the all-around game, inside, outside on offense, good D, good rebounder, leader. She probably has reason to believe she is the best player in the WNBA right now. Maybe CC coming into the W with such popularity will help her become more popular than she is.

I truly hope CC keeps her popularity, that it isn't a passing thing. I don't think it will be. If CC can prevail it will help the whole W.

Clark is popular because her game is more exciting than everyone else's with logo 3s and high risk high reward passes. Plum wasn't any more popular than anyone else when she was breaking the records. She's popular for the exact same reason Curry is. And they have opposite skin color.

This post isn't directed at you. I've just already wondered to myself if her being white was the reason. After thinking about it for a couple minutes it was obvious that it had way more to do with her playing style than her skin color. And to me the Curry example proves it.

 

[PCHawk]

Clark always made a lot of careless passes

People didn't notice so much when she had 40 pts 12 assists and 7 turnovers.

She has 12 turnovers vs penn state last year... a couple other games in her career with double digit turnovers.

She will learn.

I'm not sure she will learn. That's a huge part of her game. Some nights the passes won't go her way and she'll have 10 turnovers. Other nights they will and she will have 10+ assists. Unless by learn you mean get a better feel about which passes are too low risk to even try against these players. If that's what you mean, I completely agree. But I think she will always be a turnover machine to some extent.