To quote the venerable Steve Miller Band, ‘Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’…into the future.’
Most teams have somewhere between six and seven regular season games left on their schedule while the difference between playoff qualification and elimination is one win or loss. If that doesn’t get you out of bed and ready to watch the WNBA, I don’t know what will. Add in a couple of increasingly compelling award races and we’ve got plenty to talk about going into the postseason. All season long I’ve been wondering how long it would take for the discourse to return to (semi) normal in the W and it feels like right now there’s no think pieces, no agitation outside the usual suspects and a chance to let the basketball do the talking.
It’s kind of nice, isn’t it?
If you missed any of our Sunday wrap show on YouTube, it’s here available as a podcast. We’re also expanding our coverage with Ball Up Top on Wednesdays, a Thursday night recap and weekend preview pod on Fridays and the Wrap on Sundays. Right when you need it, we’re ramping up for the stretch run as well. So tell a friend to tell a friend so you can stay up to date on all the action as we barrel towards one of the most fun Finals chases we’ve had in the W in the last four or five years.
Now, to the column!
1. Phee vs. A’ja For MVP. Buckle Up, Folks.
Guys, it’s okay to debate about awards. We don’t need to kumbaya and treat this like everyone gets a trophy at the end of the year. It’s sports. It’s competitive. As long as things stay within the lines (a big ask, I know), we should be comfortable standing behind our faves and their on-court cases for major awards. It’s part of what makes the game fun!
To that end, the race for MVP is officially on.
After A’ja Wilson’s 36 point ,13 rebound performance against Washington I opined on Bluesky that eventually the multi-time MVP had to be taking the lead in the race if she continued to do this. It was out of Napheesa Collier’s control, being injured and all, but if another player is repeatedly putting up guady statlines in your absence we’ve gotta have the conversation at some point, right?
Well, Phee returned to the Lynx lineup after 22 days out and put up 32 points and 9 rebounds on 11/16 from the field, 2/3 from deep and 8/9 from the line.
Game on.
With just seven or so games left in the regular season, and one matchup against each other, this MVP race is shaping up to be one for the ages. To put it in historical context, we’ve had two truly close battles for the award in the last 15 years in the W. In 2023, Breanna Stewart edged out Alyssa Thomas by just seven total votes and Wilson by 13 to win. Ten years earlier, Candace Parker outlasted Maya Moore by a mere 16 votes. It wouldn’t surprise me if this season is just as close.
Wilson has been the engine of a Las Vegas Aces turnaround that no one seemed to think was possible. Since the All-Star break, the reigning MVP is averaging 24.2 points, 11.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game all while propelling the Aces to a 10 game winning streak.
Collier has been the difference between the Lynx being a very good finals team and a historically great one. She’s having her most efficient shooting year ever, is flirting with a 50-40-90 season (currently 54.3% FG, 37.8% 3PT, 90.7% FT) and still remains one of the top defensive players in the league.
You can’t really go wrong with either and if I bristled at the notion of pre-emptively awarding Wilson the MVP last season after just one month of play, I have to be consistent and say the same about Collier now. It’s a legit race and that September 4th matchup between the two may just be a Game of the Year contender.
2. Dominique Malonga For Sixth Woman of the Year? It’s Not That Crazy When You Think About It…
One of my favorite things to do is watch team social media accounts towards the end of the year. Subtly, you start to see little posts and pieces of content that range from subtly including historical context in stats to outright announcing MVP candidacies. On Saturday, Seattle Storm PR put out a curious tweet that led me to believe they’re trying to quietly push a narrative to the forefront…
Kind of interesting to make sure to include two Sixth Player of the Year winners, eh? Almost as if the wheels are turning to try and make a push for French rookie Dominique Malonga to be involved in the race. On the surface, one might think that it’s a bit late for this. I even wrote the other week in Five Out that Malonga was a lot like Rickea Jackson in that they came on extremely strong late in their rookie seasons but they hadn’t been out-front early enough to be in contention for an honor like Rookie of the Year. But when I started to dive into the Sixth Woman of the Year numbers, I realized the Storm may actually have a point.
Since the All-Star break, Malonga has averaged 12.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game on just 20.5 minutes per game. Her field goal percentage sits at around 57% from the field while she’s also become quite a prolific offensive board getter. Anyone watching her can see the potential, from her length to her defense down to the little things like her ability to reset screens and be an effective roller. When you start to find statistical equalizers, like Per 36 Minutes numbers, Malonga’s average skyrocket to 19.9 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. Compare that to Naz Hillmon, the Sixth Woman of the Year frontrunner, whose Per 36 averages come out to around 12.4 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.
I can understand the argument that arriving late to the party can take you out of contention for a seasonal award and that it can sometimes be the fault of a coach rather than a player. But Sixth Woman of the Year is one of those rare awards where minute variance may actually be somewhat acceptable. After all, it’s an honor for the best bench player in the league. You could make an argument that Malonga isn’t your normal rotational center but, as of now, she hasn’t started in a single game this year. Maybe she should be getting a little more play than we’ve given her this year?
3. Are The Liberty Too Hurt To Contend?
After a dreadful two-loss weekend, the New York Liberty have now lost four of their last five and are now in a dogfight to keep a top four seed in the playoffs. Keep in mind, the difference between No. 4 and No. 5 is home court advantage in the best-of-3 opening round. To say that it matters a bit more in the WNBA would be an understatement. For example, if you’re New York wouldn’t you rather get Phoenix or Seattle at home rather than on the road in an elimination game?
But my concern is that this has just been the year from hell in terms of injuries. I know Indiana fans can relate. The Liberty are down basically their entire bench frontcourt plus Breanna Stewart and now Sabrina Ionescu has picked up an injury that sidelined her in a pivotal Saturday matchup against Atlanta. At this point I’m genuinely not sure who else they can lose and still remain competitive.
The belief is that Ionescu’s injury isn’t long term and that Stewart is aiming to be back before the playoffs but that still doesn’t solve the issue of Nyara Sabally (knee injury) and Izzy Harrison (concussion), two vital rotational pieces for New York. You saw it against Chicago, in which Emma Meesseman and Jonquel Jones were simply outrun by the trio of Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and Elizabeth Williams. Against the best and deepest frontcourts in the league, how long can you expect to reasonably hold out before the dam breaks?
New York’s greatest asset last season was their depth and the ability to throw out talented and versatile defenders at any point in the game. They legitimately ran 8 deep with 6’1+ long defenders that could also shoot. Those players are still on the roster, the issue is that a good chunk of them are in street clothes. With just a couple weeks until the playoffs, the Liberty are caught between two hard places: they need to win games but also need to be patient with their stars to prep for a long postseason run. I don’t envy Sandy Brondello but if you dig deep and prove your championship bonafides with a skeleton crew roster, you’ll be set up well to win it all when you get everybody back.
4. The WNBA’s Treatment of the Mohegan Tribe Is As Bad Optically As It Is Economically…
I have a video coming on YouTube today that explores this more in depth but the gist of it is this: the WNBA is screwing up the Connecticut Sun deal to a point where I genuinely am wondering if the only route to true success for this league is to divest from the NBA entirely.
For those that need a quick refresher: the Sun were going to sell the team for about $325 million to a former Boston Celtics minority owner named Steve Pagliuca. His idea would be to buy the team, relocate them to Boston and play some games in Providence on the dates that conflicted at TD Garden with the Celtics and Bruins. The WNBA, more or less, spiked that deal, hoping to entice the Mohegan Tribe to sell the franchise to the league for roughly $250 million so they could relocate it to a market of their choice, preserving Boston as an expansion franchise that could fetch a hefty fee. This past week, further reporting came out that the Sun are considering taking the team completely off the market with an added revelation that the WNBA had come to the Tribe with an offer to buy the team and relocate them to Cleveland once before.
I’m no Juris Doctor but it feels like messing with someone’s business like this constitutes some type of tortious interference. If the argument is “well the Tribe aren’t owners but instead Governors of a franchise that is owned by the league thus they can set the market”, are we not talking about a monopoly?
Let’s face it: the economics here are terrible. I’ll eventually have a full column about why the W would be foolish to follow the NBA’s business practices of short-term gains at the expense of long-term fandoms but let’s focus on the Sun for now. Yes, the NBA and its existing Board of Governors comprise the majority of the WNBA’s control and voting power. But what kind of message does it send to the non-affiliated owners — Larry Gottesdiener and his group in Atlanta, the Alters in Chicago, Force 10 in Seattle or even L.A.’s consortium — and what their value to the league itself is? It’s no secret that there’s always been a schism between the non-NBA circle and the existing powers-that-be. The issue is now the shamelessness of the current cultural moment has brought that to light and now we’re seeing just how much of a ratfuck this is all turning into.
What exactly is the incentive for even billionaires like a Jimmy Haslem (the money behind the Nashville expansion bid) or the big money involved in Austin’s expansion to even try? The message being sent here is ‘we’re taking care of the NBA guys first and then we’ll talk’. And, given that the NBA has just sort of fallen upwards into its’ success on the back of a TV rights bubble that seemingly is never going to pop, is that really who you want to take your cues from? And why does every WNBA franchise have to be rooted in an NBA city? On one hand, the idea of full-year round basketball in a market carries some interest but the WNBA is also trying to establish itself as its own unique brand away from its’ male counterpart. Isn’t a market like a Nashville or Austin more interesting?
But beyond that, I have a huge issue with how this all looks. The Mohegan Tribe, as I’ve outlined before, are one of the most successful ownership groups in the WNBA’s history. None of these supposed business geniuses in the NBA managed to turn a profit for their W franchises in the early years of the league. The Tribe did. Many of the NBA owners didn’t even care to have a team, let alone take care of it. At a time when the W was on life support, the Tribe stepped up. It feels a little on-the-nose to have a collection of moneyed white dudes try to shortchange and dictate terms of ownership to one of just two Native American ownership groups in professional sports. As I’ve written before, the message is a terrible one on a bunch of different levels. Basically, you’re telling the independent owners who helped build the league to where it is that their contributions aren’t valued and that what Tilman Fertitta wants, Tilman Fertitta gets.
To be clear, I’m not naïve. This is capitalism, baby, and the way of the world as we know it. But just because things exist as they are doesn’t mean we immediately have to shrug our shoulders and bury our heads in the sand. It’s underhanded and unnecessary. My hope now is that the Tribe pulls the sale, takes the exciting core that they have and goes and wins a title with it in a few years. Make Cathy hand you that trophy with a smile on your face.
5. Paige vs. Caitlin And How To Keep Arguments Straight…
Paige Bueckers is finally receiving the Caitlin Clark treatment. After a 44 point explosion against Los Angeles late last week, the 2025 No. 1 overall pick was blitzed, double and tripled in the subsequent two games against Seattle and Golden State. While she managed to not allow that to turn into turnovers, Bueckers shot uncharacteristically bad from the field (2/7 vs. Seattle, 3/12 vs. Golden State) which brought an end to her season-long double figure scoring streak. Still, 30 games above 10 points per on average is pretty damn good.
Here’s where things get a little fuzzy and why we have to keep our arguments straight with regard to Paige and the others she’s compared to.
Yes, the Wings rookie has had a tough adjustment to the type of swarming defense Clark received all the way through her debut season. But that doesn’t necessarily matter in the Rookie of the Year race. Is Sonia Citron getting the Caitlin Clark treatment? Has she the entire year? No? Then it shouldn’t necessarily be part of the argument for Rookie of the Year. Furthermore, there is no doubt that CC managed to improve her team in her first WNBA campaign, guiding the Fever to the playoffs after a 13-27 season the year prior.
Is Paige doing that? Not particularly. But it’s worth noting the Washington Mystics are 3-7 since trading Brittney Sykes so if we’re utilizing a ‘rookie makes team better’ argument, it hasn’t really borne itself out even with Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron getting expanded roles.
This isn’t to take digs on Soni’s ROTY candidacy. Instead, it’s to try and give us all a little perspective and understanding that Paige for Rookie of the Year and Paige as the next Caitlin Clark are two separate arguments.
If you want to make the argument that CC was better than Paige is as a rookie on the above basis, then we can have that discussion. But using those points and trying to apply them to Paige vs. Sonia for Rookie of the Year is a moot point when neither player are getting the same treatment Caitlin did on a number of fronts. We can be fans, and sometimes even stans, but we gotta keep it ethical. If you’re gonna be a hater, be unabashed in your haterdom. Let everyone upfront where you’re at and where you’re coming from. But if you want to argue on ethical terms, then we have to least keep the arguments consistent across the board.
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