Five Out: Rookie Returns, Marvelous Mystics and A New Wave of Discourse In the W

The first weekend of the WNBA season brought us plenty to talk about, for better or worse. The Liberty still look like champs, the Mystics are fun and a note on what’s to come this season.

How are we feeling this Monday, folks? The WNBA season is officially underway and we have plenty to talk about. Let’s address the elephant in the room because obviously the dialogue around what happened in the Fever vs. Sky game is unavoidable.

The basketball discussion is going to come first here, always. Sometimes, there are situations like this weekend in which things that happen off the court lead a show or a column. But after taking some time on Sunday and watching the way the discourse evolved, we’ve decided that we want to highlight the hoops at the top going forward. On some level, the only way to deprive oxygen to the bad faith apparatus that is feasting on outrage algorithm content for is to provide a home for people that are just exhausted by it and just want to discuss basketball.

With that said, we have a clearly defined value system here at No Cap Space WBB and always have. We are never going to shy away from discussions important to our communities and advocate for causes and positions that we morally and ethically believe in. My personal adage is that the games may not be political but the sports always are. Meaning, what happens between those lines may not have a constant undertone to it but the discussion around basketball, the leagues, the labor and the media discourse all is inherently political in some way, shape or form. There will always be a time where it has to be discussed with grace and nuance and we always will. ‘Stick to Sports’ is not in our vocabulary, nor should it be. But it also shouldn’t come at the expense of the sports, since our goal here is to cover women’s basketball in a way it deserves to be covered.

Initially, the worry was that we were going to have to cross this bridge some time in the summer. But seeing as it took just one day for this stuff to boil over again, we’re setting these parameters right out of the gate for readers longtime and just arriving.

Now, let’s get to the column, talk some hoops and set a good tone for the rest of the year.

1. It’s just one game…but the new look Fever are fun as hell.

From a pure basketball standpoint, the Indiana Fever are fun as hell. They may not have the frontcourt depth to challenge a team like the Liberty to win a title but I walked away from that matchup against the Sky wondering if I needed to recalibrate my expectations of them. Aliyah Boston looks spectacular and in completely different shape than she was last year. The discussion around her last season was that her strength and conditioning program was more than likely built around her as a slower and more traditional back-to-basket big. It’s clear now that she’s worked on her quickness, elasticity and conditioning to be a more versatile and modern big. I said on Bluesky on Saturday that everyone was going to talk about the Clark - Reese thing and not enough people would be discussing that Boston might legitimately be a first team All-WNBA player if this is what we’re going to get out of her for 44 games. But it was pretty impressive to see that Caitlin Clark had a subpar game by her standards and finished with 20-10-10, putting her into the WNBA’s top three career triple-double leaders in just the first matchup of her second season. Perhaps most importantly though was the face that she finished the game with just three turnovers.

It’s only one data point but I was pleasantly surprised in how well Natasha Howard was playing into her role. In our preseason preview, the question that I had was about how she would handle going back into something of a third or fourth option role after being a primary scorer for her last few teams. It seems that she has a good understanding of what the Fever need out of her and that can be dangerous for a lot of other teams in the league. DeWanna Bonner moved up to number 3 on the WNBA’s all-time career scoring list and I was really happy to see how proactive the Fever’s social media team was in honoring the achievement. A major critique of WNBA franchises has been a less than stellar attention to detail when it comes to honoring legends. Seeing Indiana wrap their arms around DB so quickly was heartening.

There’s a lot of time left and the Sky might prove to not be the best litmus test (have you seen that guard rotation? Good lord.) but Indiana played a fantastic opening game and might give us something to think about if the first month of the season continues along this path.

2. I owe Sydney Johnson and the Washington Mystics organization an apology.

Yup, it’s been two games and I’m ready to call it.

Sydney Johnson, I was not familiar with your game.

It’s been just two games but the Washington Mystics look like they have the makings of a youth movement. For all the flack Sonia Citron took about not being athletic enough to play at this level or not having a definable feature of her game that was head and shoulders better than her peers, she sure looks the part early. The Notre Dame alum made history in her opener against the Atlanta Dream with the most efficient debut ever by a rookie, finishing with 19 points on 6-7 from the field, 2-2 from deep and 5-6 from the free throw line. She followed that up with a 15 point performance on 5-10 from the field. I’m curious to see how consistent that type of output can be especially as teams start to gameplan for her but the early returns suggest that Citron is ready for this level.

Not bad for a kid from Lee Avenue. Scarsdale, we’re claiming her.

Kiki Iriafen has also had two double digit scoring outings, putting up 14 in her debut followed by a 17 point, 14 rebound double-double on the road against Connecticut. What was particularly impressive was the fact that Iriafen did that while matching up against a WNBA legend in Tina Charles and one of the league’s up-and-coming bigs in Olivia Nelson-Ododa. It felt like Kiki took a lot of arrows last year because of her supposed drop in output at USC. But for those that have watched her for a long time, you’d know that this is who she is.

Jade Melbourne, one of the youngest players in the league at just 22 years old, looks like a potential guard of the future and that’s with Georgia Amoore out for the year rehabilitating an ACL injury. And we still haven’t gotten to see Aaliyah Edwards yet, who is still dealing with a back injury. There’s a good combination of veterans from Stef Dolson to Brittney Sykes, who has become a serious top option on this team, that can establish a positive culture here too. To be clear, Connecticut is a team in a rebuild (although they are also very fun and interesting too) and Atlanta is still a bit of a jury-out situation (we are monitoring the Rhyne Howard of it all closely). But the bar for this Mystics team was barely off the floor at the start of the year. Not only did they step over it, they have leapt by while passing their first two tests with flying colors. The nation’s capitol may have a fun basketball team again, folks.

3. The Liberty might be a juggernaut this year…

How the hell was this team allowed to get Natasha Cloud?

We all know the Liberty have an embarrassment of riches up front. What they were potentially missing the light of Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s injury was a defensive stopper and someone that could take defenders off the dribble. Like most of what we’re discussing today, it’s just one game. However! Natasha Cloud is an instant sparkplug for the Liberty. She was able to sufficiently drive inside on the Aces while providing space for others to find their shots. Defensively, she was hounding whatever Vegas guard had the misfortunate of drawing her as an assignment. While Sabrina Ionescu is still the scoring engine of the backcourt in New York, Cloud is an immediate upgrade at the point guard spot and gives the Liberty so much flexibility.

Meanwhile, you’ve got Leonie Fiebich who might as well be a cheat code. You already have Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones but then you add in 6’4 Fiebich? A big who can handle herself down low while scoring from deep and able to switch onto pretty much any defensive assignment on the floor? Yeah, this team is gonna be hard to stop. Nyara Sabally, it should also be noted, looked great in her limited minutes against the Aces as well. There’s only so much anyone can do with A’ja Wilson (I’m holding my judgment on Vegas until I see more data points) but New York just completely overwhelmed everyone else with their length and talent. That’s not to say there aren’t other contenders for the crown but the Liberty managing to make all the right moves along the fringes of this roster is pretty remarkable.

Is there anyone that can stop them when they play like they did in their opener at the Barclays Center? I guess we’ll find out.

4. This rookie class may not have a Caitlin Clark but they could be one of the deepest drafts in recent memory.

It’s still too early to tell but I’m not sure if there is anyone that has a clear Caitlin Clark wow factor in this rookie class. Whatever you think about CC’s debut last year in Indiana, the moments were there. By the end of the season, she had proved herself as a top three guard in the WNBA. It would be borderline insane to believe that we were going to get a new top three player in their position every single draft class. But while there might not be a singular player that popped out in game one, this group might be one of the deepest classes I can remember.

Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen have had a great pair of games to open their careers, Paige Bueckers was solid especially as a facilitator, while Te-Hina Paopao is a day-one starter in Atlanta. That’s with Dominique Malonga playing herself back into WNBA shape (she played limited minutes in the Storm’s opener but also needs a break after a long European season) and several other rookies like Sarah Ashlee Barker, Makayla Timpson and Aaliyah Nye working into rotational roles. We still haven’t even seen Aneesah Morrow, who is rehabbing a knee injury, who might be one of the most exciting players in the class.

Typically, each draft nets you 7-10 players that manage to hang around and make a career out of being in the WNBA. In recent years, 2024 notwithstanding, you end up with one or two players that make an All-Star or All-WNBA team. The last class that really had a deep well of high-end talent was in 2019. That group included Napheesa Collier, Arike Ogunbowale, Jackie Young and Ezi Magbegor as well as a host of other solid players from Alanna Smith to Marina Mabrey.

The 2024 Draft, for my money, will still go down as one of the best WNBA drafts in the history of the league. But this newest class may be the future backbone of more than a few contending teams. And with another great slate of talent set to come out in 2026 and 2027, the league looks to be in really good hands from a talent perspective.

5. On Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and The Mess Created on Saturday…

Well, a lack of discourse was fun while it lasted. Maybe it was always a little naïve and optimistic to think that the vitriol around Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese would simmer down and eventually stabilize for their sophomore year. But it’s clear to me now that the two are rivals. Whether or not they or their fans will admit it, this is a rivalry. They might not play the same position yet that has never really been a standard in basketball for defining who leads the box office. Lebron James vs. Steph Curry was must-see-TV for most of the mid to late 2010’s and we never wrung our hands over whether or not it was a rivalry because one was forward and the other was a guard. Clark and Reese, whatever they may or may not say publicly, clearly want to beat each other when they play. There is no harm in that, nor are these matchups going away. The WNBA isn’t going to stop scheduling these teams, no one is going to boycott Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The best that we, the rational basketball fans can do, is try to universally guide the discourse away from racially driven narratives into more hoop-centric ones.

The reality of the situation Saturday was this. Angel Reese gave a shove to Natasha Howard under the basket going for a rebound (totally normal), Caitlin Clark then fouled Reese hard in the middle of a hotly constested rivalry game (totally normal), which then prompted Reese to get up in frustration and respond (totally normal). If we’re taking it on purely basketball terms, it’s no different than anything we’ve ever seen on the hardwood. I don’t love Caitlin figuratively throwing rocks and hiding hands, to be clear. If you’re gonna foul hard, stand on business. Be Diana Taurasi. Don’t walk away and pretend as though you didn’t do anything. But that’s just me. We can agree or disagree on that component. I’m sure Reese’s reaction came as a result of frustration with the foul and the general direction the game was headed. The Sky got 30 pieced, after all. Both players wrapped their pressers with the intention to move on. It’s their fans who can’t seem to.

I’m not going to comment on the allegations about what was or wasn’t said in Indiana over the weekend. The videos circulating around don’t seem to give any real clarity and I haven’t been able to find any extensive first person accounts about any racism that happened in the arena that day. The tricky part here, and the one true Fever fans probably feel rightfully frustrated about, is the near impossible task of trying to prove a negative. “You can’t prove NO ONE said ANYTHING”. That’s a tough narrative to battle. But if there was truly something egregious that occurred there on Saturday, it’ll come up one way or another.

What I’m about to discuss is restricted to online spaces that can occasionally find its way out into the real world.

The issue at hand that a lot of Fever fans do need to reckon with is this: the fanbase has something of a reputation that precedes it.

Unfortunately, you don’t have to look far to find people who say they are fans of Indiana or Clark who espouse some truly heinous shit online. They exist in the spaces where the game is discussed. Caitlin Clark, for my money, has done her part in distancing and disavowing the behavior. Now it’s up to the fans — those that are active in the WNBA/Indiana Fever/CCFC space — to push out the bad faith actors as vociferously as they defend those that are just here to watch the games. You might not be a part of the problem but the way to truly feel confident in that is to know you’ve done the work in telling those standing with you for all the wrong reasons that they can kick rocks. If you truly don’t believe that type of animus has a place in our game, then you have to be the one to look to the person next to you — online or in person — and say “cut that shit out” if they’re crossing a line.

We have never shied away from our public value system here at No Cap Space WBB. We do not embrace bigots, sexists, misogynists or racists. Full stop. You want to talk ball here with us? Fine. You want us to coddle feelings because of a defensiveness about who else is under the tent with you, then there’s a million other creators brand new to the scene happy to take you in. If you don’t want to be lumped in with 48 year old Dave Portnoy showing up in a full Fever jersey to sit courtside and heckle a 23 year old woman whom he has proudly boasted about sicking his Stoolies on, then make an effort to police your own fanbase about where the lines are. It takes courage to do that, especially if you were to hear something untoward in an arena, but that is what is being asked of you.

The same goes for Chicago Sky fans, some of whom decided that whatever they felt was being levied at Angel Reese gave them blank check to call DeWanna Bonner and Aliyah Boston a host of disgusting names as well. Players deciding to go to Indiana shouldn’t mean they’re fair game for some of the things they were subjected to yesterday either. It betrays every single concept of equity those very same fans claim to espouse. At the end of the day, that still constitutes a bigotry and harassment towards WNBA players. And if you’re going to hold up one hand and ask the league to enforce their new policy and, on the other, engage that way towards players who you feel have betrayed you or a cause, you’re not really any more virtuous than the fans you claim came in and ruined the WNBA.

There is an understandable defensiveness around Reese, who has legitimately been on the receiving end of a ton of overtly racist invective. Keep in mind that this started over a hand gesture during the 2023 NCAA National Championship game. Typical basketball stuff. Quite literally the type of heel turn behavior in sports that we generally love. But to outright deny that a portion of the early disgust with Reese and coded language around her ‘attitude’ or ‘classlessness’ may have come from a place of racial animus is to ignore a fundamental component of living in this country. It doesn’t mean that the United States is irredeemable and everyone living within it is bigoted but it damn sure means that you can’t improve anything unless you admit there’s a problem first. You might not like Reese on totally reasonable bases, finding her shtick to be obnoxious or played up for content. And that’s fine. But if you want to carry that mindset, it means you are also responsible for telling the bigoted person using your viewpoint to cover their bigotry that you two aren’t actually in alignment.

For starters, the league can’t let Portnoy in the building anymore. This grown ass man was one of the first people to really kickstart the campaign against Reese and, even now, openly states he has no regrets about it. He can dislike her solely on sports terms but it’s clear he doesn’t seem to mind the collateral damage spawned by his behavior towards her. And it’s worth noting, the NFL doesn’t let this guy in their stadiums. The WNBA doesn’t need to either. He adds absolutely nothing to the game nor is he a person that can positively influence the league and its’ growth. He’s there to be a weirdo, to engage in the type of behavior that the British call being a ‘full kit wanker’, and push the same bad faith narratives that nearly drowned us all last year. Why the hell should he be welcomed into this fold?

From the league office perspective, I think it should be acknowledged that the WNBA was in a no-win situation. The most reasonable explanation I have is that this new AI monitoring set up by the W to track harassment towards players caught the allegations, prompting a statement and investigation. But either you put out a statement and get flack from Indiana fans saying its’ baseless or you sit on your hands and look like fools after so much fanfare about how to handle these types of issues. Bri Turner, a current member of the Fever, I think had the right opinion on it: better safe than sorry. If there’s nothing that happened, then the investigation will show it. If something did, then you stop it from happening again. I couldn’t really understand why that statement meant that Turner ‘sold out for a check’ according to some fans or that she has betrayed her new fanbase according to others. But I guess that kind of reaction is why I’m here writing about this in the first place.

The issue in the WNBA, from Fever or Sky or general fans, is that one side doesn’t want to believe that there are any racially based issues fueling the rhetoric towards players. The other end seems to trend towards believing that *any* critique is rooted in race, gender or another immutable characteristic. I’d like to believe there are enough of us that can balance both: the idea that sometimes the basketball is just the basketball *and* that there are certain definable aspects of this country that can create an undercurrent of bigoted animus. Maybe that group just needs to find its’ voice, so we can get back to what we love about this sport and this game.