Happy Monday, Ball-Knowers!

The doldrums of July have arrived in the sports world. The NBA is over, the World Cup is winding down, and football is still a few weeks away. That means, for a period of time, the WNBA is the center of the athletic universe. Sometimes that’s good, as it means more eyeballs on incredible performances and more dialogue about the actual basketball. Other times, it’s bad, as basically every news outlet looks for some type of outrage to push a news cycle and find women’s basketball a fairly target rich environment.

The perils of a growing league, I suppose.

But rest assured, there is plenty of hoops to discuss in the Monday column. We’ve got some great content coming this week including a few more special features and write-ups for the Ball-Knowers so if you haven’t yet considered subscribing to our paid tier, now is a good time to do it! And if you’re on the fence about subscribing to the free daily newsletter, consider this your sign to do that too. Just click the button below and get started!

Now, onto the column!

Andrew and Tyler dive into everything from Five Out…

The Los Angeles Sparks fired General Manager Raegan Pebley over the weekend, indicating a shift in approach after the team’s 10-11 start to the season. Kelsey Plum is hurt and, as it happens, orienting your entire team around a singular player is a pretty hefty gamble. Without their starting point guard, the Sparks look lost, incomplete and remain a complete sieve defensively. The litany of moves this franchise made after missing out on the Paige Bueckers sweepstakes range anywhere from overly reactive to downright untethered from the reality of the game.

I don’t know if this means head coach Lynne Roberts is long for this world but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was next on the chopping block. New GM’s usually don’t like to keep head coaches that aren’t their own pick. Ask Theresa Weatherspoon. While you could typically chalk this up to the same old managerial incompetence that has defined the Sparks for years at this point, some reporting by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne perked my ears up a bit.

An organizational shift can mean a lot of things. But the biggest, in this case, could mean getting away from the business-as-usual approach owner Mark Walter and his consortium of investors have employed all these years. Are the Sparks actually considering doing something other than paying older stars to always remain in contention to not be forgotten in a crowded media market in L.A.? Or is this an indicator that the franchise will double down on that approach in order to try and win a championship?

Everyone knows the women’s basketball superstar in Los Angeles (one who enjoys playing as the central fulcrum of every movement on offense, mind you) playing just down the road at USC. There’s also a bevy of elite WNBA talent on the free agency market next year. Which direction does L.A. decide to go in? Would you trade the expiring contract of Nneka Ogwumike or the long term Dearica Hamby deal to stockpile assets and draft capital, which you could then package for a shot at the top pick of this year’s draft? Are you officially giving up on the Kelsey Plum experiment for the year, regardless of her availability the rest of the season?

Shifts can mean a lot of things, but this is one that we’ll have to watch play out. I know which direction I’d like them to go in but WNBA franchises will always find a way to surprise you.

In the most Barack Obama voice I can muster…

“Let me be clear”…

I am not writing to say that I think the Indiana Fever are better without Caitlin Clark or that Clark is better without Stephanie White. But I do think it’s time for us to be willing to open up that dialogue and see where it takes us. The former Iowa superstar and third year point guard is on a minutes restriction and did the most with her time on the floor in Sunday’s blowout win over the Las Vegas Aces. When Clark hasn’t played this year, the Fever are 4-0. The statistics aren’t necessarily painting a picture of one scenario being all that much better than the other, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something to it.

It helps the Fever that Kelsey Mitchell is playing some of her best basketball right now and, even with Clark hobbled, they’re finding ways to win. They clearly have a matchup advantage against the reigning WNBA champions and the Aliyah Boston vs. A’ja Wilson battle is always must-see TV. It was easy last season to treat Indiana as a feel good story without their superstar, but what do we make of things when something about this team feels disjointed when everyone is together and fully healthy?

Ty Harris, when starting, is averaging a little over 10.5 points and 5 assists per game, while organizing the offense around Mitchell’s scoring prowess and Boston’s play in the post. The Fever look a bit slower, controlled and deliberate in the half court. All good things, mind you. But not when you have a superstar point guard who loves to push the pace and get out in transition.

I’m not sure how many more data points we need but it sure feels like we’re entering enough to ask “is this thing a legitimate fit that makes everyone happy?” I’m less interested in what this all means for the Fever as an organization, or Clark’s star power and why these moves all matter in context. Obviously there are things to consider that go far beyond the sheer basketball of it all. But when you’re isolating the play on the floor and stripping away all the other artifice, I’m getting closer and closer to making a determination on if this thing is really built to win in the long term, or if the organization has to make a choice between their star or a system.

I simply don’t know what to make of this Liberty team. New York is 3-7 in their last ten matchups after a stretch run (without Sabrina Ionescu, it should be noted) earlier in the spring in which they looked like the best team in the WNBA. Three of those seven losses, it should be noted, came by a possession or less so it’s not like we need to push the panic button on the 2024 WNBA champions yet.

But it seems like this is another year of a coach not quite able to figure out how to make the trio of Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu work flawlessly. While Sandy Brondello, now the head coach of the Toronto Tempo, managed to make the engine go, the Liberty did have stretches last season where they looked this kind of streaky as well. Is that purely because of Ionescu, whose inconsistent-yet-usually-clutch shooting performances can make or break a team? Possibly.

But it’s pretty clear why New York needs her in the lineup. Breanna Stewart remains consistent and even is seeing a small uptick in her three point shooting. Jonquel Jones also has days when you remember that she was an MVP but, as Tyler noted on Five Out on YouTube this week, is still playing way too little in the paint to re-capture some of the essence of what made her that level of star. All that happening, mind you, while Satou Sabally balances her health, minutes and consistency.

When they’re playing well, the Liberty are one of the biggest, tallest, longest and most versatile rosters in the WNBA. But it seems odd that they are as inconsistent as the Fever despite having similar, if not higher, expectations without getting nearly the coverage befitting a recent championship in the biggest media market in the country. They’re mercurial, if nothing else, and that should make them interesting to talk about.

Chennedy Carter was waived last week by the Las Vegas Aces and now turns the page on her fourth WNBA franchise in the last half decade. The former Texas A&M superstar, who is one of the most talented offensive players we’ve seen in women’s basketball in the last 15 plus years, simply has trouble sticking around on WNBA rosters and at some point it can’t keep being everyone else’s fault.

At the same time, I think the constant search for a reality TV-style singular crashout or dramatic moment as the reason for her departure is misguided. While the Aces have had some problems in the past when it comes to handling roster decisions, I don’t think this is a situation of head coach Becky Hammon and team president Nikki Fargas acting in an untoward manner. The reality with Carter is something likely more mundane than a locker room brawl or some type of issue with the Aces superstar core.

It’s significantly more likely, based on past stops and conversations around the league, that Carter is, in a word, a lot. Much like her game, she can run hot-and-cold, taking an organization and/or locker room on a journey that can either be good or bad depending on the day and context. If you’ve ever worked with one of these people (or been one of these people in a workplace), you know that sometimes it can just be exhausting to be in close proximity to someone that lives and dies on whatever is happening in their life. In spite of the immense talent, that drain of energy in other areas isn’t worth the headache even if it’s generally benign in the grand scheme of things.

All that to say that I hope Carter manages to find a world in which the highs and lows can be moderated just a bit so that she can have a consistent home in the WNBA. At this point, and after wrapping up with this franchise (who have lately become synonymous with rehabilitating players’ images), I’m just not sure if there are any more teams willing to take the gamble. It’s a shame, because Chennedy Carter is must-see TV anytime she plays. But basketball is still a team sport at the end of the day, and no matter how many stans and individual player might have, you still have to play a role in order to compete for the ultimate prize.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert once again made headlines after agreeing-to-then-backing-out of an interview with radio host Dan Patrick. Generally, I bristle at larger media personalities like Patrick, who usually only bring up women’s basketball when it’s time to opine on Caitlin Clark in some way, shape or form. But in this case, he’s got a point. Don’t agree to an interview, keep the bookers waiting for a few hours and then bail.

It may not make the league unserious but it surely makes Cathy Engelbert look that way.

At this point, I’m not really sure what to do with the leading figure of this league. It feels like a cop-out to say that Engelbert is merely a figure head, operating at the leisure of her ownership partners. There are absolutely owners in the WNBA who don’t love how she’s representing their investment either. Whether people like it or not, the Commissioner is the person in the room for TV rights negotiations, at the table against the players fighting for a CBA and the leader handing out the trophy for major events. She’s more than just a puppet for the owners.

It’s for that reason that I think there has to be a serious question asked at All-Star weekend in Chicago this year. Simple and direct.

“Why do you feel like you should continue to run this league?”

Engelbert would point to the financial success, which could be thoroughly picked apart by anyone who actually knows the market value of things like TV deals and sponsorships. She might point to the increased profile of her superstars, which is more a function of NIL than anything else. Or the amount of time people spend talking about her league, which is obscured by the amount of culture war column inches used advocating for Caitlin Clark to get a free run to the rim every time she steps on the floor.

There is an element of unseriousness in the WNBA. It’s a growing league, so of course there will be pains. But it’s on the Commissioner to contextualize those things and, when needed, vociferously fight against them. The W right now is a startup just getting out of its seed rounds. Cathy Engelbert wants to run it like it’s already a Fortune 100 company. At some point, either she needs to adjust or someone else has to be brought in to do things properly.

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Los Angeles Sparks (10-11) vs. Atlanta Dream (13-10): 7:00 PM ET, USA Network

Angel Reese is questionable for tonight’s game and I would be surprised if we saw her on the floor tonight. At the same time, this feels like the kind of matchup the Dream have to win. L.A. is without their star guard and in the middle of a leadership transition. For all of the struggles Atlanta has had so far, the Sparks are unquestionably dealing with more, on and off the floor. It wouldn’t surprise me if we got heavy doses of Madina Okot and another potentially solid performance against a leaky Sparks frontcourt defense.

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