We’ve had quite the month here at No Cap Space. Between the playoffs, exit interviews, prepared statements and the looming shadow of the NCAA season, we’ve been busy.
But it’s been a blast and it’s allowed us to get to work on some long term projects that we make your experience as a Ball-Knower even better!
We touch on that in our regular “what your membership is powering” section just below.
Let’s get to the mailbag!
The Mailbag!
What Your Subscription Is Helping Fund This Month:
Without much travel on the horizon, we’ve been focusing inward at NCS much of the last month. There are some back end improvements that we plan on making over the next few weeks, from new graphic opens for our videos to some projects that we’re really excited to see come to fruition. Probably the biggest thing we’re working on that concerns everyone here is a pending move from Substack to Beehiiv. It won’t affect much of your experience, unless you’re a diehard app user to find our content. The newsletter will still reach your email and none of your user experience should change very much. What will change is our subscription prices, which will be dropping once we make the change in time for the NCAA season.
For us, we’ve heard the feedback about the $10/month get in price being a bit steep and we’re finally at a point where we can drop those prices down to make all the content more accessible. A lot of that is due to the economic mechanics of Substack as a platform but, generally, we know what’s going on in the world right now. We all feel it too, in some way, shape or form. And while most economic data right now is showing more concentrated spending by a smaller percentage of the American population in particular, we want to be a place that is for everyone across any end on the spectrum. So, as everything else feels like it’s getting more expensive, we’re getting cheaper. The support we receive from subscribers powers our ability to do what we do (and hopefully, over time, allows us to do it in a more full time capacity) but our mission statement is and always will be about growing the game, making the coverage equitable and accessible. There’s also the values component of Substack (a marketplace of ideas is one thing, “accidentally” sending push alerts promoting an actual Nazi newsletter is another). Generally, our belief at NCS is that we in this community can have differences of opinion and policy on how to solve the problems that we have in America. But the non-negotiable starting point is that that problem-solving has to be rooted in the idea that all people are worthy of their humanity, dignity and compassion. Ethical consumption is a seemingly impossible target to hit in our current society but we are all of the mindset here that there are limits to what you are willing to tolerate.
Over the next few weeks we’ll have some more announcements on the migration and move. But it’ll also coincide with some other cool things we’re working on. So stay tuned!
Podcast Questions:
0:00 - Show Introduction
1:25 - Ball-Knower Transparency Time!
13:50 - Elana asks…Looking (way) ahead…Any players eligible for an extra college year who you could imagine taking it explicitly to avoid any lockout drama? Now that COVID year is basically over, not sure how common that can be.
19:02 - Anna asks…Who will be this years most talked about/most desired mid major coach to fill a P4 vacancy? There was essentially a bidding war for Molly Miller and would love to know who to keep tabs on for openings next year.
25:09 - Julia asks…What parts of the CBA negotiations are being underreported/could have a big impact on the league that we aren’t aware of? What do you wish people were asking more questions about outside of $$$?
29:45 - Erica asks…Was there ever a definitive reason the previous WNBA CBA’s went away from pension/retirement benefits? That is something that needs to be on the table for the current CBA.
33:38 - Elana asks…Any good anecdotes from Luxury Tax or Cover stories that didn’t make the final piece but you want to share?
43:40 - Elana asks…Also does anybody know why Lexie Brown and Kalani Brown both signed longer contracts?
45:16 - Dakota Rae asks…Since NCAA hoops are right around the corner, after so much movement in the portal after last seasons, which college WBB player are you most intrigued to see in their new system and why?
52:31 - Music of the Month
1:08:00 - Meal of the Month
Zuppa Toscana — Recipe by Beth Moncel and Budget Bytes.
Written Questions:
Jay asks…Since the amount of hoops we get over the next month and a half will be at an unacceptable low, I’m looking to watch some of the classic games/series from W seasons past. Watched the T-Spoon shot game from the ‘99 Finals and the 2000 Finals.
Do you have any recommendations for what I need to watch, particularly prior to 2016ish? Singular player performances, great games or series. I just want to watch great hoops. Thanks!
Alright, here’s my personal Top 10 (some with full game links to YouTube) that I’d recommend. There’s a couple college games here too for good measure.
Seattle Storm vs. Phoenix Mercury WNBA Semis Game Two, 2010
Atlanta Dream vs. New York Liberty WNBA Semis Game One, 2010
L.A. Sparks vs. Minnesota Lynx WNBA Finals Game Five, 2016
Las Vegas Aces vs. Seattle Storm WNBA Playoffs Game Three, 2022
Julia asks…What’s the benefit of protecting unrestricted free agents during expansion drafts?
I guess it sort of comes down to who benefits by protecting unrestricted free agents. Owners and GM’s would not be able to stomach the idea of losing a superstar in an expansion draft, of all things. Now, that comes with a caveat that UFA’s are still UFA’s regardless of if they were drafted or not. So, in this example, if Vegas didn’t protect A’ja Wilson then she could theoretically be selected by Portland or Toronto in the expansion draft. But once we hit free agency, Wilson is back to being a UFA who can sign with whomever she chooses.
By protecting an unrestricted free agent from the expansion draft, the impact feels a bit more cosmetic than anything else but it still is important. I mean, even if you’re a UFA, how would you feel if you were a top three option and your team *didn’t* protect you? Franchises needed a mechanism to allow them to not even have to worry about losing their stars in an expansion draft. Even if a player is an unrestricted free agent, teams still have advantages via salary mechanisms like supermax contracts. Being able to protect top UFA’s preserves some degree of that advantage. Plus, if you protect and then core a top unrestricted free agent, you’ve got that star player locked in for a little while.