Five Out: Falling Sky, Cashed Out Aces and the Malicious Competence of the Minnesota Lynx

As the WNBA season continues, clear tiers are being established among teams in the league. Who proved themselves this week and who is headed for disaster? Five Out takes a look at all of it...

The WNBA season is almost a month old and some clear tiers are starting to form. New York and Minnesota are in a two-horse race for first place while the difference between 3rd and 11th in this league is three wins or losses. What does that mean? In short, it’s the best of both worlds. Any sports league in America would tell you that, for the sake of fan interest and engagement, they would ideally want two dominant teams and a lot of parity beneath them. It allows you to spread the wealth in terms of media attention while still pushing the eventual title matchup all throughout the year.

It’s a bit reminiscent of the 2022-23 NFL season in which we had two dominant teams — the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles — coupled with a lot of exciting superstars and challengers in both conferences. The result was 50 million people watching Chiefs vs. Bills in the Divisional, the highest NFC conference championship game since 2012 and the largest AFC conference championship on record as well as the highest Super Bowl viewership in 8 years. While the WNBA probably won’t have 50 million people watching their games it’s a great case study in how to leverage your media partners to get them to build energy and enthusiasm for the playoffs by making sure everyone is aware of the greats vying for a title.

If done right, the W has a unique chance to push a potential Lynx-Liberty rematch of titans alongside a host of challengers. Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever, a star-laden Seattle Storm, the fun-as-hell Atlanta Dream, a somehow-upstart-again Phoenix Mercury and the Las Vegas Aces, who have A’ja Wilson and are thus always in the mix. A lot of ink was spilled about how this had the potential to be the most interesting and exciting WNBA season in quite some time and so far it’s lived up to the billing. So let’s celebrate that!

Now…onto the column!

1. Stanford had ‘intellectual brutality’. The Minnesota Lynx have ‘malicious competence’.

For the uninitiated, ‘intellectual brutality’ refers to a style of play used by Stanford university’s football team from around 2007 until about 2019. In the late 2000’s, Jim Harbaugh arrived on campus and completely changed the culture of a program that hadn’t been successful in decades. He went to work establishing the offensive line and a power run game that many teams in the Pac-12 were simply not used to. The phrase ‘intellectual brutality’ was coined and became shorthand for a style that won multiple Rose Bowls throughout the next decade.

I bring this up because the Minnesota Lynx feel very similar in their makeup. They don’t make mistakes, they aren’t super flashy and are a well-balanced machine that just simply wears you down over and over and over again. It may not be ‘intellectual brutality’, as that phrase was supposed to be a funny play on words about how a bunch of so-called nerds from Palo Alto were pile driving the crap out of opponents on Saturday afternoons. Instead, I like the term ‘malicious competence’ to describe the Lynx because their unrelenting ability to win is remarkable to watch.

Napheesa Collier put up another MVP level statline this Sunday (28 points on 10/19 shooting, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks) while the supporting cast continue to shoot well and limit their turnovers. In a lot of ways, they feel reminiscent of the Oklahoma City Thunder that’s currently in the NBA Finals. Both units have one singular superstar surrounded by a ton of very good star-level players, depth, and a tactically skilled coach. They may not be the flashiest team in the WNBA right now but they are a well-oiled machine and that can make for an entertaining watch in a different way.

The reason I feel compelled to put the Lynx at the top of the column is because I don’t want us as the media to become lulled to sleep by how good Minnesota is night-in and night-out. They deserve as much of your energy as the Liberty, the Fever, the Aces or any other team that we tend to give more column inches or airtime to.

2. With Courtney Vandersloot out, what does Chicago do now?

Just as it felt like the Chicago Sky were starting to figure things out, the worst happened. Courtney Vandersloot came down awkwardly on a drive to the hoop on Saturday against Indiana and tore her right ACL. The five-time All-Star point guard, who was back with Chicago this season, is done for the year. Whatever you may think about the amount of life left in Sloot’s legs, what is between her ears is still elite. To lose that on-floor leadership and ability to facilitate an offense at a high level is something the Sky simply can’t afford at this juncture. Now the Sky are left with few options. Hailey Van Lith is likely now in line for more minutes while Moriah Jefferson’s injury recovery may have to be expedited. It also opens up a question of whether or not Chicago should look for another point guard like Aari McDonald assuming the Fever have to let her go once Caitlin Clark returns.

It’s easy to discuss how much of a disaster the offseason has proven to be for the Sky organization but ultimately these are the gambles that General Managers make. Occam’s Razor would suggest that Chicago thought their two sophomore post players would make a substantial leap and that putting a bevy of veteran talent around them would allow them to contend immediately. All of the moves they made, from firing Teresa Weatherspoon to hiring Tyler Marsh, trading their picks and signing older players with championship pedigrees points to a front office that believed Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso had made jumps that they simply haven’t made yet. That’s not to say they never will but hindsight would tell us that doing all this was presumptuous.

Worst of all, the Sky are now in something of a no-man’s-land. The worst place an organization can be is in a position where they don’t know what exactly their long term vision is. They swung and missed on trying to win now but the bigger issue is that they mortgaged their future on a year that may now just be lost. How Tyler Marsh manages to salvage the locker room and keep a healthy culture this season will be key because there’s a lot of permutations in which things can go off the rails and quickly.

For Sloot, we’re hoping that her recovery goes well and that her return is sooner rather than later. For those just arriving to the game, she’s one of the greatest point guards the league has ever seen and deserves her flowers for being one of the best facilitators of the last 15 years in the WNBA.

3. Golden State has built their foundation…

If Chicago’s front office took a gamble and missed, Golden State’s threw their chips on the table and won big. I don’t blame fans of the Valkyries and those around the league for wondering what the vision was for the new franchise this year. A lot of journeywomen, some European stars, no real centerpiece additions in free agency and a draft that yielded next to nothing. As recently as the preseason, there was a lot of concern about who the Valkyries would be, how much they would win and how competent they would look.

Well, as it turns out, there was a plan and everyone is following it to the letter.

General Manager Ohemaa Nyanin clearly has an eye for talent, particularly for those playing abroad, while head coach Natalie Nakase is getting the most out of this roster. Ironically, the success of Golden State is an argument for expanded rosters and more expansion franchises. For those that watched Veronica Burton in college, it was clear that she was a well-rounded enough player to be a solid pro. She bounced around from Dallas to Connecticut and has now found a home in the Bay where she is becoming a versatile two-way guard that is every bit as talented as she was when she left the NCAA. Kayla Thornton has become a clear leader on this team while the international coalition of Janelle Salaun, Cecilia Zandalisini, Carla Leite and others have been great value adds.

It feels elementary to say but the Valkyries are an example of why building a cohesive culture matters. From day one, everyone has been on the same page and their weekend win over Las Vegas proved that the future is bright in San Francisco. It wouldn’t surprise me if they managed to steal one or two big name free agents in this upcoming offseason. While there are more games to be played, I’m liking what I’m seeing with the Valks and excited to see if Toronto, Portland and the next wave of expansion franchises enter the W with this level of initiative.

4. …And the Aces have a real deal problem on their hands…

The Aces loss to Golden State wasn’t necessarily an eye-opener because it was a loss to an expansion team. It was more *how* they lost and the fact that they’ve been done this twice in just seven games. Jewell Loyd has opened the season shooting 29.4% from the field and 38.5% from three point range, averaging 9.4 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. That is not a winning formula when the expectation was for her to be an upgrade over Kelsey Plum when she arrived. I know that Loyd’s arrival in Vegas was met with mixed reactions but the optimistic Aces fan was hoping that she’d be able to rediscover the form she had in Seattle when paired with Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart. So far, that version of her remains missing in action.

Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray have run hot and cold while the bench options haven’t proven to be all that much more effective either. Dana Evans is shooting 33.3% from the field while Tiffany Mitchell has completely fallen off a cliff to open the year. One would have to hope that eventually there’s a progression back to the mean when it comes to everyone’s typical shooting percentages but something just doesn’t feel right in Vegas right now. The frontcourt is a complete disaster as Kiah Stokes continues to be a complete zero offensively, leaving A’ja Wilson to once again shoulder the entire load. It’s worth noting that a Cheyenne Parker-Tyus return is still on the table but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to consider her the silver bullet that will fix everything that ails the Aces.

Ultimately, my fear with the Aces is how they rebound and rediscover their form. Last season, the rhetoric coming out of the organization was that they knew pretty early on that they didn’t have what they needed to compete for a title. During their two title years, they won nine of their first ten games of the year and were able to coast on good vibes and a clear goal in mind. What we haven’t seen Vegas do under Becky Hammon is struggle and then figure it out. It felt like they kind of punted on last year and now they are in a similarly precarious position. Do they have that skillset and is Hammon the type of coach that’s able to get them out of a rut? We’re about to find out because the questions are mounting and the fanbase appears to be losing patience.

5. On this weekend in Los Angeles, the fight for human rights and how it can affect women’s basketball globally…

Like many I’m sure, I watched the events in Los Angeles unfold with a mix of horror and anger. It should go without saying that what ICE is doing right now is heinous. This isn’t something we see in any developed democracy anywhere in the world. Whatever your thoughts are on illegal immigration, the idea of extrajudicially pulling people, sometimes with no criminal record, off the street and effectively disappearing them is the type of stuff you read about in authoritarian regimes in far off lands. That people — ordinary people who are just seeing what is happening and are outraged — are taking to the street is heartening because it shows that there is a clear line being crossed and that there are more of us that want to do something than there are Tom Clancy cosplayers participating in a government sanctioned Stanford Prison Experiment (rest in piss, Phil Zimbardo). The pessimist in me once believed that capitalism outflanked activism so effectively in 2020 that we’d never be able to grab the reins of social change via mass demonstration ever again. It was reassuring to know that there’s more of us that believe in putting a foot down against authoritarianism than there are those that don’t want to upset the status quo.

As I was reading updates on social media, I came across a post on Bluesky that got me thinking about this column. It effectively read ‘how on earth are you going to host a Club World Cup, FIFA World Cup and Olympics here when this is going on?’ To be completely honest, I don’t know. Logic would tell you that no administration would be vindictive enough to run out masked agents with no governmental identifiers in the middle of an international event and start plucking people off the street. But we’re operating in a space without logic and completely dependent on the whims and wishes of those who don’t seem to have a clear plan.

Where it comes into contact with this column is when you start to think about how these various travel bans, mass deportations and continued flexing of police-state muscle could have an effect on our sports landscape. The NFL is a solely American product and doesn’t rely on an international audience or a large player base. MLB is probably watching these developments closely as is Major League Soccer.

When it comes to basketball, we’re seeing the game become increasingly globalized. While the NBA’s money is such that athletes born abroad will probably put aside any concerns for a paycheck, can we say the same about the WNBA? If student visas to universities are being put on the shelf by this administration, what happens to the multitude of central and south American, African or even Asian born players that fill so many NCAA roster spots? If the European leagues offer similar wages and a safer life, do top players start to second-guess coming to the WNBA? There’s a major influx of stars from Eurobasket. Do they second-guess what’s happening in the states in favor of something a little bit more predictable?

It’s easy to look at what is happening and call any potential impact on the global basketball landscape alarmist. The issue though is that this isn’t going to stop. We’re six months into a 48 month term. The lines and the boundaries will be routinely tested and pushed to see what a democratically developed country is willing to take and accept. Women’s basketball — and basketball in general — is only just now beginning to see a wave of international development. If the rest of the world catches up while the United States government remains intent on making this country unsafe for all but a very specific subset of people, does that mean that the WNBA has to worry about other leagues capitalizing on the popularity of the sport while offering a sense of safety the U.S. may not be able to? It’s a worthwhile question and one I really hope we don’t have to find out an answer to.