Happy Tuesday, Ball-Knowers!

Consider this Five Out a turning of the page after nearly a week of Caitlin Clark-centric discourse. It’s important for us to be honest with you, the readers, as we also engaged in the general dialogue about how we got here and why we’re still have the same league-wide discussions three years after the 2024 WNBA Draft. Those are important conversations to have, and why it felt like time to discuss the genesis of various resentments, misgivings and marketing failures and how they created the seemingly unfixable problem that lays before us now.

If you’d like to read that, you can click here or tap the links below in our ICYMI section. But if you’re here for the basketball, I wanted Five Out to remain pure this week. So this Tuesday, we did just that. Back to the basics, and the stuff that you the Ball-Knower are here for.

So the option to engage in ‘The Discourse’^TM is there if you want it. And the Main Thing gets to continue being the Main Thing.

Let’s get to it!

My column/essay on the death spiral WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has created…

Chauny and I’s conversation on that subject…

Tyler recaps Sunday’s WNBA slate with Tori Nicole…

And The Ringer WNBA Show’s Seerat Sohi joins Andrew and Chauny on this week’s Luxury Tax…

Chauny is somewhere, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. If the New York Liberty don’t beat an A’ja Wilson-less Las Vegas Aces (the superstar forward is out for tonight with an ankle injury), then you know that victory lap of Ethical Hate is going to be something for the ages. Given the way that the Liberty have been playing lately, she’s got reason to be confident in this outcome.

Sabrina Ionescu is still coming back from a back injury that cost her the first small chunk of the season but the window of ‘ramp up games’ is closing fast. The 29 year old guard has been a fixture on All-WNBA lists for the last four seasons but now is getting a coach that she seems to have advocated for, in a system where she’s the lead dog in the backcourt and with plenty of weapons around her on both sides of the ball.

So how many games will it take to regain her form? It’s somewhat noteworthy that the Liberty were on a six game win streak and looked like one of the best teams in the W before Ionescu’s return. They’ve since been 3-4 with losses coming at the ends of middle-tier or bottomfeeder teams including Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington. In her last seven games, the Liberty guard is averaging 9.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists on 36.5% shooting from the field and 25% three point shooting from deep. There’s still plenty of time to get right and a back injury is nothing to trifle with, but it’s worth being a bit concerned if you’re a fan. A lot was made this offseason by team officials about finding a system that works for Ionescu to maximize her potential. If the potential isn’t reached and the team might be better with her taking less minutes, I’m not quite sure how the front office makes that work.

If this is the vision in Seattle, consider me sold. The Storm nearly knocked off the Dallas Wings before actually beating the Liberty and Dream in back-to-back matchups. It was a stunning set of results for a 3-14 unit that looked plucky but far away from competing at a high level. Something is starting to click with this team and it’s become apparent to anyone watching ball.

The Storm have a legitimate core of the future and the league should be on notice.

In the last week, head coach Sonia Raman has unlocked Dominique Malonga and the French 20 year-old phenom is finally stepping into her greatness. When you’re matching records set by Lauren Jackson, it’s a pretty clear indicator that your ceiling is uncommonly high. Malonga’s run has unlocked Flau’jae Johnson, who is getting more free runs to the hoop and letting Awa Fam, a three level scoring forward herself, get wide open looks.

There’s going to be hiccups and by no means am I saying that this means Seattle is ready for the big time. But if there is a 2025 Connecticut Sun-like team that are just pure fun and give you an exciting vision of a future that may or may not pan out, this is the one. I’m Storm-Pilled.

Some days, I question why the Washington Mystics didn’t try to bring in a veteran point guard to help steady a young locker room and potentially give them some muscle for a deep playoff run ahead of schedule. But then there’s days like Sunday.

The Mystics and Fire played a historic four overtime game in which five total players tallied at least 25 points. Sonia Citron paced Washington while Michaela Onyenwere had a surprise 30-burger and Kiki Iriafen added another 27. Georgia Amoore, who looks like she’s been settling into the speed of the WNBA more and more of late, left the game with a non-contact injury in the second quarter and didn’t return. That opened the door for Alicia Florez who was a menace defensively while letting the scorers do their thing.

Veteran leadership would’ve been stabilizing, but I think I prefer the organic chaos of real deal growth. The Mystics are this up-and-down because we’re watching actual growth, personally and professionally, in real time. It’s pretty rare that we see a roster so thoroughly infused with youth that is, more or less, unsupervised. Onyenwere is the only player on the roster over the age of 27. You have a pair of players that know the ins-and-outs of being a WNBA player but no one here that is an elder stateswoman, so to speak.

Which is why I’m watching Washington with a refreshed set of eyes the rest of this season. It feels like a worthwhile investment of your time if you’re a women’s basketball fan. They are going to lose some head scratchers, win some classics, have players that have mystifying duds or heroic performances. But the hope is that, in the not-so-distant future, they’ll be a fully functional machine and you, the avid Ball-Knower, will feel richer for having had a front row seat to that journey.

The Portland Fire were the early season story of the WNBA. A somewhat ragtag group of players under a young coach with a relatively novel coaching method holding their own against substantially more talented teams. Things were good in the Rose City and the sub-zero expectations for the franchise felt immediately exceeded.

Oh, how fun those days were.

While they are still liable to give us some banger matchups here and there, it feels like the talent gap most saw with the Fire at the start of the year is starting to come to the fore. At the current moment they are ranked last in the WNBA in team rebounding while also allowing the second most opponent offensive rebounds. In short, teams are beating Portland for second chance points and extended possessions. Making matters worse, the Fire are 2-8 in their last ten matchups and are in danger of falling further down the standings as Seattle, Phoenix and Chicago start to string together wins of their own.

That’s not to say that things are nearing disaster in the Moda Center. Far from it, actually. Think of what’s happening as more of a regression to the mean. Some game tape is out in the ether and opponents have gotten used to the Fire’s style, speed and spirit. It was always going to happen as an expansion franchise, and I think trying to apply the Golden State standard to everyone is going to lead to a lot of overreactions in the future. It’s year zero and while it felt somewhat inevitable that this fall back down to Earth would happen, it did enough to have me keeping tabs on Portland games for the rest of the year. And that, to me, means you’re an expansion franchise success in season one.

Life is good for the Minnesota Lynx. Outside of a late loss to Washington, which was promptly avenged three days later, Cheryl Reeve’s crew are the class of the WNBA. They’re 13-2 since May 17th and Olivia Miles shook off one bad performance against Golden State and has swiftly returned to 20+ point, 5+ assist per game averages. She’s turning the ball over a little bit more and her three point shot still isn’t consistent, but it doesn’t matter. When a point guard can manipulate space the way Miles can, they can overcome any deficiencies or game-to-game variance.

The pick-and-roll combination (and chemistry) she’s built with Natasha Howard is one of the most potent in the league and an absolute nightmare for teams to try and stop. It feels like everything is coming up Lynx. So how do you find space for an MVP candidate level player? Napheesa Collier isn’t close, according to the team at least, to returning and honestly, do the Lynx even need to rush? Things are going so well it almost feels like it might disrupt the flow.

What makes that statement even more insane is the historic pace the Lynx are on. That +14 Net Rating they have as a team? Only matched one other time in franchise history. If the season were to end today, they’d be considered one of the 15 best teams of all-time by Net Rating. And keep in mind, this is without Collier. If she seamlessly integrates back into the lineup when healthy, then heaven help the WNBA. That Miles slump some wondered about after Golden State never came and it doesn’t look like the train is stopping anytime soon.

No Cap Space is proud to be a content partner with the Women’s Premier Basketball Association, bringing you coverage of the Bay Area based professional development league every Tuesday. Ball-Knowers should keep an eye on their inbox for our first spotlight feature on former Jackson State star and Richmond, CA native Angel Jackson…

This Week…

Former Mississippi State Bulldog Chandler Prater continued to lead the Bay City Blaze to their sixth straight win of the season. It’s a group comprised of some names a Ball-Knower might recognize — Koi Love and Eboni Walker among them — as they try to cement themselves as the best team in the WPBA alongside the Bay Area Phoenix.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t familiar with Jess Lawson’s game. I knew Loyola Marymount had their best year in the WCC last season but missed that the 5’7 Central Michigan transfer was the one powering it. Now, she leads a 4-2 Phoenix team in scoring and is turning in some of the best performance in the league so far.

A Name To Keep In Mind…

Kharyssa Richardson is enjoying her first stint with the WPBA and has been lights out so far, averaging 23.5 points and 9 rebounds per game.

Where To Buy Tickets…

If you’re in the Bay Area and want to catch some games, Round 5 Tickets can be found at by clicking here while Round 6 Tickets can be found here.

Commissioner’s Cup Final: Las Vegas Aces vs. New York Liberty: 7:00 PM, Prime

I’ll be honest, this championship matchup has decidedly less juice since Vegas announced this morning that A’ja Wilson would be out with an ankle injury. That makes it maybe less interesting for a casual fan, but not the Ethical Hater. Chauny’s Liberty slander may reach biblical levels if this Liberty team can’t beat an A’ja-less Aces. I’m looking at how Sabrina Ionescu does in a high stakes game amid a run of poor performances. I’m also curious about how much Chris Demarco employs his ‘Skyscraper’ lineup with Wilson in street clothes on the other side. It’s all on New York. The Aces don’t have much to lose but those saxophones will be getting louder (word to Ricky) if the Liberty falter tonight.

How Caitlin Clark became a mirror for America by Khari Thompson, WBUR

Valkyries Insider: The power of bench depth against teams full of stars by Marisa Ingemi, Valkyries Beat

Rough Notes: What the WNBA Won't Tell You with Emma Carmichael by Maya Goldberg-Safir, Rough Notes

Maya Goldberg-Safir is a longtime friend of NCS and writes a wonderful queer-focused WNBA publication called Rough Notes. I particularly enjoyed her recent discussion with Emma Carmichael, who is writing a book on the WNBA.

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