Happy Thursday, Ball-Knowers!
After a slow start to the week, WNBA basketball returns at last. The Liberty are Commissioner’s Cup champions and now the playoff chase really gets started in earnest. For most teams, we’re somewhere between 40 and 45 percent of the way through the regular season. There’s enough sample data to have real conversations about value, positional importance and award worthiness. If there was ever a time for the league to have a hard reset and lean straight into the basketball, it’s now.
So let’s enjoy the July ahead!
In Case You Missed It (& What’s On Tap)
The All-Star starters list is here…
The Monthly Mailbag will be dropping later this evening. For those that want to have some expanded access to our features, our story archive, ask questions about basketball (or anything else, for that matter), become a Ball-Knower today!
On the free feed, Chauny and Greer revisited their breakout stars list from the WNBA preseason and dished their All-Star takes…
Tyler has his reaction to the All-Star starter announcement on YouTube as well!
Three Fevers, No Dreamers On All-Star Starter List
It was surprising to many to see Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray and Angel Reese all left off the WNBA All-Star starter list. The Indiana Fever led all teams with three starters (Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell), while the Dallas Wings (Paige Bueckers, Jess Shepard) and Minnesota Lynx (Olivia Miles, Natasha Howard) sent a pair each. The positioned nature of the ballot led to some wondering about Gabby Williams, the Golden State Valkyrie wing who got the call from WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert this week.
Is she a guard? Is her natural position a forward? Should these votes just be positionless and let the media, fans and players figure it out from there?
I generally don’t think there’s a right answer when it comes to All-Star formats. There’s never going to be a consensus especially in a case like this. Pretty much everyone on the list has a case. The most controversial selections here, in my opinion, would probably be Shepard, Mitchell and Williams. It feels a little surprising that a top four team in the WNBA doesn’t have a single all-star starter, but ultimately it’s not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. With that being said, a savvy coach would be using that list as a means to galvanize their team for the rest of the season as a “no one believed we had stars” campaign. Karl Smesko, channel your inner Dawn Staley.
Let’s Talk About The Voting…
I wish there was a better system for how to do this, but I don’t have a good answer. I can’t, in all good conscience, rip the ranking and weighting apart if I don’t have a good alternative to propose here. There’s a piece of me that wonders if devaluing the fan vote from 50 percent down to something more equitable will stop these conversations from happening.
If you do that then you run the risk of emboldening fans to further criticize players for how they vote. Then you have the media, who I don’t think should have substantial voting powers on anything that can alter people’s contracts. I just don’t think we should have all that power without inviting personal agendas and outcomes (see; Baseball Hall of Fame voting).
There’s something kind of fun about all of this. After the weight of the last seven to ten days of discourse in this league it feels sort of light to argue over things as trivial as WNBA All-Star starter. It’s not a major contract incentive, we probably won’t remember the starters ten years from now and absolutely no one is using the amount of All-Star starts as a legacy argument. As long as we can keep the conversation between the lines, I think this might be the kind of thing we can performatively rage and embrace as the sports banter it’s all meant to be.
The Ball-Knower’s Game of the Night
Seattle Storm (5-15) vs. Phoenix Mercury (7-13): 10:00 PM, League Pass
I’m really interested in watching this one. Both Seattle and Phoenix appear to be turning a bit of a corner, and Alyssa Thomas will be back in the lineup for the Mercury. Dominique Malonga and Awa Fam are rounding into form and, along with Flau’jae Johnson, are presenting an exciting new vision for the Storm. Phoenix has won three of their last four and have the next three at home before a huge road trip to Las Vegas and Minnesota. Even this far down the standings, the games still carry some weight. The nightcap might be the best of the evening.
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