Hello hello! Happy Friday which is now the Tyler Takeover day on NCS! Every week I am tapping in with the Ball-Knowers to answer the pressing questions, hot takes, ethical hate, and more that comes from either the No Cap Space Hotline or the No Cap Space Discord.
Fun fact, did you know that you can get access to both of those so you can participate in Fan Friday, while also getting access to the best WBB community AND exclusive content by becoming a paid subscriber here with us at NCS? Wow. What a deal. Now let us see what the Ball-Knowers have in store for me this week!
In Case You Missed It (& What’s On Tap)
Last night’s game recap…
The video version of this article…
Our new long-form style of storytelling made its YouTube debut…
Why was Ionescu left off Team USA?
A great question from our good friend Angelo from New York aka our very own Andrew Haubner. Sometimes you have to leave the football before the football leaves you. The game hasn’t abandoned Sabrina Ionescu, but Team USA rightly has.
We have officially entered the keep up or get left behind portion of Team USA basketball. The new era has arrived, especially at the guard position. Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers will be mainstays going forward. Olivia Miles by every indication should be the heir to Chelsea Gray’s roster spot. The JuJu Watkins and Hannah Hidalgo’s of the world are on the way. Frankly, Sabrina didn’t do enough in the red, white, and blue nor improve enough in seafoam to keep up. Still an impactful player in the WNBA, but the USA standard rises by the competition.
Are Wings fans right in their frustrations?
Ball-Knower Taylor brought a great question to the NCS Hotline, essentially asking for an insanity check on the Wings fans feelings toward Jose Fernandez and his system as frustration has grown over recent games. I do think that there are understandable reasons for fans to have some annoyance in the Wings’ current form.
The PEMDAS here to me isn’t complicated. Paige Bueckers is good at basketball + good things happen when Paige Bueckers has the ball in her hands = I want Paige Bueckers to be aggressive with the ball in her hands. Adds up to me!
In July we saw Paige Bueckers in her best WNBA form yet. It was legit dominance across the board that in my eyes had her playing like the second best player in the league only behind A’ja Wilson. But why in the world would you just give me a free trial of something I want to keep forever? While other players getting rolling and having hot nights is fantastic, it should never come at the cost of Bueckers’ production. Paige should never just feel like she just generally in the mix of the game, she IS the game for Dallas.
How hot is Chris DeMarco’s seat
Our final question comes from our Discord member KB who asked if Chris DeMarco is in jeopardy of losing his job after one season.
Yes!
Oh you wanted more than just that…yeah makes sense ok lets go.
It has been a tough season for the Liberty in a lot of ways. Most notably in the win/loss columns as they engage in a fight between the Mystics at the bottom of the playoff seeding for seventh, but also injuries and continuity have been massive issues for this team. That said, what does this team do better than last year’s under Sandy Brondello? What is the identity of this team that looks like it can be built from here? The answers to these questions do not go in Chris DeMarco’s favor in my eyes. You mix that with how the Betnijah Laney-Hamilton saga has ended with a Liberty fan favorite leaving fairly unceremoniously and you absolutely could see a coach with a scorching seat by seasons end.
The Ball-Knower’s Game of the Night
Atlanta Dream (19-11) vs Washington Mystics (17-12): 7:30pm ET, ION
I love this WNBA playoff seeding battle so much. The Valkyries and Wings matchup tonight can be included in that as well but this Dream vs Mystics game is wildly intriguing to me. The Mystics sit 1.5 games behind the Dream right now. The Mystics are the 8-seed while the Dream are the 4-seed. The crunch here between these seeds is INSANE. A Mystics win here, in what should be an incredibly entertaining battle of the bigs mixed with some star wings, would put the pressure on a lot of teams labeled as potential contenders from a team who is just now arriving into the mix as a core group.
Good Reads, Curated By Us
Why the Toronto Tempo Won the WNBA Trade Deadline, by Noa Dalzell, WNBA on CLNS
How the Portland Fire are reimagining the color pink in women’s sports merchandise, by Liana Handler, The Oregonian
Fever, Liberty and teams in the WNBA with the toughest roads to the playoffs, by Emmy Spersrud. Fansided
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