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She is also just the 13th WNBA player to have a triple double in a game
https://www.espn.com/wnba/boxscore/_/gameId/401620338
She finished with 19 points, 13 assists, and 12 rebounds
A little less than 30 years but yes. Keep in mind the games are only 40 minutes vs 48 in the NBA, and they play 40 games vs 82 in the NBA (and for most of the history of the league it was a 34 game season). Also there's only 12 teams vs 30 in the NBA, so a lot fewer total games in one season.
For comparison, it's roughly the same amount of games as a typical NCAA season (where it's also 40 minutes) and the men's record is 12 career triple doubles, and second place is just 6.
NBA Regular Season *Total Games* since 1997: **32,882**
WNBA Regular Season *Total Games* since 1997: **5,880**
NBA Regular Season *Total Minutss* since 1997 (No OT): **1,381,044**
WNBA Regular Ssason *Total Minutes* since 1997 (No OT): **235,200**
NBA Regular Season Total *Triple-Douples* since 1997: **1,664**
WNBA Regular Season *Total Triple-Doubles* since 1997: **31**
**NBA Games between Triple-Doubles: 19.761**
**WNBA Games between Triple-Doubles: 189.677**
**NBA Minutes between Triple-Doubles: 829.954**
**WNBA Minutes between Triple-Doubles: 7,587.097**
For every 1 WNBA Triple-Double, there is just slightly over 9 NBA Triple-Doubles.
What if we matched the length of the WNBA games and seasons to the NBA, but kept the same amount of teams every year? It'd be an increase to 13,899 Total Games *(+236.4%)* and an increase to 583,758 Total Minutes *(+248.2%)*. We could expect the WNBA Triple-Doubles to increase to around 73 to 76 Total Triple-Doubles.
If we bumped up the WNBA teams up to match the NBA as well since 1997, this puts the WNBA at 1,381,044 Minutes *(+587.2%)* and 32,882 Games *(+559.2%)*, for an increase to around 173 to 182 Total Triple-Doubles.
Even if the WNBA were to match the Total Regular Season Games and Regular Season Minutes since 1997, they would be sitting at 11% of the NBAs Total Triple Doubles in the same time period.
I don't know why I did this. It was a huge waste of time and now I'm going to be waking up late tomorrow. The math is surely wrong in multiple spots and I'm sure some of my sources were innacurste as well. Oh well
Yeah good job trying to show a comparison, but as others state the fact that games are different lengths is going to be the biggest factor that prevents TDs from occurring at the same frequency.
What you'd need, to get anywhere close to a usable comparison is to use the stats of every WNBA player in every game and then extrapolate what the stat might have been given an extra 8 minutes (x1.2). Then use thes extrapolated counts as your basis.
Obviously this is still fraught with issues but at least it's closer to the same starting point.
Hey, I just wanted to sya thanks for doing this. I enjoyed it having some numbers to mull over.
There may still be errors, it was probably a waste of time, and you'll likely feel grumpy in the morning, but at least one person is grateful for your (ill-advised) efforts.
It would require lowering the rim from early ages. You can't just drop it and assume everyone's lifetime of shooting to a specific height will just adjust.
At gyms for earlier ages, those rims are set to default height and won't get lowered for girls games, so it won't happen at the WNBA either.
[A dude walking backwards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo) was drawing bigger crowds than basketball saw until the 80s.
Never underestimate how easily humans can be entertained.
*source: [video](https://youtu.be/kXVDv-_p6wE?si=c8hIQ4Rx2fafIqkY). Or, for podcast listeners, its episode 493 of The Dollop, “Plennie Wingo”*
They run the same time as college games.
It’s odd but a prevailing trend in women’s sports to have the same ruleset as college, and usually high school.
For example women in high school and the olympics both throw 4 kilo shot puts and 1 kilo discus. Meanwhile men throw 12 pound and 1.6 kilo in high school and 16 pound and 2 kilo in the olympics.
It’s the norm for most sports, it’s just men’s league North American sports that buck the trend, and even then not uniformly.
MLB/college is the same other than bat material and a mercy rule, and NCAA hockey uses the same rules as Canadian junior leagues and the NHL excepting no fighting in junior/college; the ice is the same and the period length.
They play 40 minute games, not 48. that alone really drops the odds.
How many triple doubles are their in the big 10 over 30 years? Because that's about the same number of teams and they play 40 minutes. I'm not sure my college team has EVER had one.
The Liberty has been the best team in the WNBA this season and was the runner-up last season, so this is very impressive.
Clark is still getting acclimated with going up against the size, athleticism, and length of professional players and scoring at this level. With time, her shot will become more consistent, and she'll shoot 40% from 3.
As is, she's already a top 5 passer in the league. The 3 point shooting is what gets her so much attention, but her passing has been special for quite some time.
Her 3pt and passing will only get better. Her number 1 trait is vision and effort. Idk if i want a better combo than that. Besides ‘shooting the lights out’
You get use to a speed and all your senses are set to that. When you step it up it takes a moment to be like “oh shit, got to be x,y,z” to do what I usually do.
I’ve watched parts of Fever games, and I feel she should have more assists than what her stats say, but her teammates either don’t shoot, or miss. Is that an accurate assessment?
One of the real problems is the coaching. The defense should not be able to get away with the defense that they play on her.
Defenses in the NBA would love to be able to crowd Curry well beyond the 3 point line for example, but Kerr is not an idiot and any defense that tried to spread out a defense that far and went as hard at him as defenses tend to go at Clark would get destroyed by a competent coach.
You simply never see that kind of defense in the NBA, despite there obviously being shooters who can shoot from that distance. It's because to be a coach in the NBA you have to be much better than that.
From the games I’ve seen, her shooting isn’t the problem. It’s the spacing and shot selection.
Defenses are blitzing her asap. She needs a better team around her so defenses can’t go all out on stopping just her.
I believe it’s only a matter of time before that’s the case. Either the Fever builds around Caitlin or her rookie contract runs out and she goes somewhere else.
If her teammates don’t stand up for her and challenge the goons coming after her than she should absolutely leave no matter what the team does. They need to sign the female Charles Oakley to regulate out there.
You probably haven't seen a recent game then, they're getting much better at moving the ball in general, and her and AB's P&R chemistry is growing. So opponents haven't been blitzing her nearly as much as early in the season. Although it's still the most in the league.
I think there's definitely some truth to this.
Early on, there didn't seem to be any flow to their offense at all. It was awful.
But I think they are starting to jell better and understand the plays and where each player works best on the court. The bigs also seem to better understand where and when to cut to the basket when Caitlyn drives.
People don't realize just how little time there is to prepare for the season. Clark had like a month after finishing the college season and the start of WNBA. In that time she had to move, establish all the usual stuff when you move, start a new job and all the things that entails, and figure out how to mesh with all new players at a professional level after being on the same team for years. AND that team is terrible.
She has so many turnovers credited to her from perfect passes that her teammates bobbled. She'd have way more assists on a better team and way better shooting percentage with less pressure on her from a better team. She really is more amazing than her very good stats. At least her teammates are starting to be a little better at being ready for amazing feeds.
Increasing the talent a bit would help, but what would really help the most would be simply getting a better coach.
With a competent coach, that defense simply would not work. There's a reason why you never see that defense in the NBA despite having players who can shoot from well beyond the 3 point line. A competent coach would have destroyed that defensive strategy a long time ago.
Please remember that she's on the team that was last last year, she is not an entire team, and her back is being broken on purpose. Her own damn teammates don't have her back. She's putting up the numbers DISPITE being actively attacked. And the WNBA has done NOTHING to address this, and it's a really bad look when most the WNBA is acting like this is high school locker rooms.
The WNBA and the Fever is dropping the ball on this whole situation. You got a star player making history and actually bringing in revenue and you do nothing to support them.
Caitlin Clark is becoming the Larry Bird of the WNBA, she’s the reason people are starting to watch
Bro look at r/wnba. They fucking hate Clark over there.
The WNBA is a bunch of mean girls. Caitlin overnight made the league somewhat relevant. She did more for women’s basketball than all her peers in history before her combined. And the players know that. And they’re jealous bitches.
Taurasi I remember in college. She can’t market shit. Sorry. But she led the charge being salty before Clark even hit the league.
I would hope so. It’s a fucking achievement.
I think they’re just getting called out as a sub more and more for mirroring the same weird hate she’s getting.
Like we get there have been hundreds of players before her.
They all failed to make the WNBA anything more than a PR expense.
They should be kissing Clark’s feet. The WNBA would still financially fail next week if it stopped receiving NBA funding. But for once the league is looking like it’s ascending. Which is good for everyone.
The other players in the WNBA should read up on what Tiger Woods did for golf. Tons and tons of money came pouring into the sport and all the players benefitted from it. Of course some of the other golfers were racist dickheads about it a the time and then made money off of his raising the profile of the sport.
It seems to me that CC's popularity has caused a lot of NBA fans to look at what's going on and criticize her teammates for not backing her up and it's the WNBA fans from before CC that are defending the bullshit like they never played a team sport in their life.
A month ago, I couldn't possibly imagine The Fever beating The Liberty in any scenario. Clark is adapting to the WNBA quickly, and the team is gelling much better.
She's easily the best I've ever seen. These are just rookie tribulations, and of course physically there are much bigger and stronger players
But unless she's simply an early herald of a new age, I don't see how she isn't dominating the league in short order
Candace Parker was MVP her rookie season so she's got some competition.
Clark will likely be the best player in the league one day. But as you alluded to, women's players are just way better than they used to be too.
I wouldn't say they're better, we are arguably seeing the very best players in the world consolidated into 12 teams. The worst team in the W is still massively talented.
We have a small sample size compared to the men's pro history.
How many of the very best never got the exposure due to playing overseas? Or skipped out on playing at all after graduation?
The only time most Americans were even thinking about woman's basketball would be the Olympics. Now it's reached a tipping point.
No. These players are objectively better. Women's sports in the US and really all over the world is just now reaching a point where enough time has passed to see the first generation of girls taught by women who were able to get serious coaching themselves. (And all the economic research about sports says it takes three generations)
Women's basketball today is basically where mens basketball was in the early 80s - where you started to see a clear divide in the skill and ability.
Players that we used to call "generational talents" are now coming around in almost every draft class. Girls who would have been All Stars in the WNBA in the early 2000s are completely washing out of the league.
Yes Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie, and Swoopes could play in today's league. But there are more players on par with their abilities than ever before.
Because THE WNBA is a much smaller league filled with many players at or very near the same level. And there's even more future stars working their way through college at the moment.
The whole team.is improving and gelling and its fun to watch. She and Boston have the potential to be a lethal duo as they develop. My only major criticism with the team is the continued inexplicable coaching decisions from Sides.
Basketball fundamentally is a team sport. You can have nothing but all stars and lose to a team that is working together as a team, as some USA Olympic men's teams have learned in the past.
Honest question as a WNBA noobie.
Why?
Is it simply because this league scores less than the NBA overall? Is the style of play that different from NBA? It’s hard to understand without a point of comparison and I’m still learning just how different this league is.
Rarely but it does happen. Most of the most impressive statlines come from the close games where star players play 44+ minutes. I'm not saying that the time is the only reason but it's definitely a large factor.
Less time per game, so there is less opportunity to score, which subsequently means less opportunity for rebounds and assists, and there are less two pointers and dunks, which tends to be where many NBA assist come from.
I really don't see the hate from reddit. And I'm on r nba everyday. One or two bad apples in every thread but the overall sentiment is overwhelmingly positive.
I was at this game today. First WNBA game for me. It was a nail biter! The Fever got a snap 10pt lead in the beginning. They came out hard, but seemed to tire out fast. They started subbing out players and then got behind after a big rash of fouls from desperate defense. But in the end they pulled it together and regained the lead with 2 minutes left. They managed to hold that lead for the win. Awesome athleticism and teamwork all around. I had a blast.
Honestly, she needs the break. She and other rookies went directly from the college playoffs to draft to the WNBA. lots of learning curves. Giving her 2 weeks break to work with her new team would be a god send.
Also US Women's basketball knows what the fuck they're doing when they assemble a team. They've come in 3rd like one time in the last 20+ years or something crazy like that. They dominate, and they will do so again without Clark.
Assemble a team to what end? To win? CC isn't going to add or take away from that most likely. To get people tuned in? I think we've seen the data on that in the wnba so far. Bad business decision by USA basketball in my opinion.
By the team her career is over in the W her triple double stats will be unbeatable. She’s already come so close to multiple triple doubles this season, truly incredible player
This is a big result for everyone involved. The fact that a few weeks ago the Fever were getting run over and now they are showing growth and beating one of the teams that crushed them, and it's the best team in the league. The next few years are gonna be fun. Welcome to the W.
Dude that’s bullshit. The community was super toxic regarding her until about a week ago when they realized the rest of sports subs were picking up on its bitterness toward her.
Caitlin Clark was on the wrong end of three of the first nine flagrants in the season. Including the obvious solo shove followed by cheering by Reese and her teammates.
That sub suppressed conversation about it and was downplaying the obvious reality Clark has been targeted this season beyond just basketball.
The ROTY race is crazy! Angel Reese will likely break the WNBA double-double record tomorrow against the Storm. Caitlin leads most players in the league in assists and Angel leads the whole WNBA in rebounds. Both are already top 20 players in the league and they’re just rookies.
Reese is playing well and a double double machine; but the gap between her and Clark is ocean sized. It’s not a Race, once Brink went down it’s Clark’s trophy barring injury
Angel is great but quite literally the only stat she has over Caitlin is rebounds. Angel is #1 there with CC #2.
Caitlin is the #1 rookie in field goals made, 3 pointers made, and total points. #1 in assists. #1 in steals. She also has more blocks than Angel somehow.
Every metric other than rebounds CC is leading and that's purely stats on paper not even taking into account the way teams play vs Caitlin. Blitzed almost 2x more than any other player in the WNBA, routinely doubled, picked up at half court, full court pressed, etc. Teams are setting up purely to shut her down and she's still putting up record-setting numbers.
This is also purely anecdotal from the 2 games I’ve watched, but it looks like Reese gets a lot of her rebounds because she misses shots at the rim and just gets her own rebound.
Is this the case? Admittedly I’ve only seen 2 games but it looked like half of the rebounds were her own. Which obviously is still good and better than the other team getting the rebound, but much less impressive than just making the shot the first time
Tbf it's not always her misses, her team has the second lowest fg pct...
She's leading in offensive rebounds (and second place is her teammate).
It's good that they're getting their misses but a high volume of misses leads to a high volume of rebounds. If Sky had better shooting this double double streak wouldn't exist.
Nah, it's more meme than anything. A couple of weeks ago, people started crunching the numbers and turned out to be something like 1.7 self rebounds per game.
Angel Reese is an average WNBA starter. Literally google “Angel Reese shot charts.” Anyone her size could do the same thing.
CC runs her team, and has taken the Fever from basement to middle of the pack.
She has .41 FG%….you watch her play and it’s like she has cement in her shoes and can’t jump more than inchs…then she barely makes a little over 1 out 3 layups.
> Both are already top 20 players in the league
No they are absolutely not. I question whether you actually follow the WNBA...
You could make the argument for Clark to be top 20, but Reese is not there yet. Her touch around the rim is pretty bad. I think she is shooting 45% on shots from within 5 feet (and only 15% on shots from 5-10 feet). You want your forward to be able to play inside the paint.
honestly, the defense in the WNBA is so ham-handed and rough.. like playground b-ball in junior high… ladies are clobbering each other and bodies hit the floor with an unprepared “SMACK” on almost every play… so it’s a special thing when a player stays upright long enough to rack up some stats
It would be hilarious if the US Women don't win the Gold Medal. The chances are probably small but social media would absolutely melt down if that happened.
You get double digits in 3 stat categories for Clark it was points, rebounds, assists. There have also been a couple in the history of the W with points, rebounds, and blocks.
Didn't you hear that Angel Reese has the most consecutives double doubles? WE SHOULD ALL PAY ATTENTION TO HER, NOT THE ROOKIE THAT'S MOVING GAMES TO BIGGER ARENAS AND PUT TICKET PRICES AT TRIPLE THE COST
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She is also just the 13th WNBA player to have a triple double in a game https://www.espn.com/wnba/boxscore/_/gameId/401620338 She finished with 19 points, 13 assists, and 12 rebounds
It's wild there's only been 13 in almost 30 years
13 players rather than 13 total but still nuts. Alyssa Thomas is a huge outlier and had 10 just last year
There has been 35 triple doubles, with 13 WNBA player contributing to that stat.
Wait. So 35 in 30 years and 1 player was 10 of those last year? Am I getting that right?
A little less than 30 years but yes. Keep in mind the games are only 40 minutes vs 48 in the NBA, and they play 40 games vs 82 in the NBA (and for most of the history of the league it was a 34 game season). Also there's only 12 teams vs 30 in the NBA, so a lot fewer total games in one season. For comparison, it's roughly the same amount of games as a typical NCAA season (where it's also 40 minutes) and the men's record is 12 career triple doubles, and second place is just 6.
NBA Regular Season *Total Games* since 1997: **32,882** WNBA Regular Season *Total Games* since 1997: **5,880** NBA Regular Season *Total Minutss* since 1997 (No OT): **1,381,044** WNBA Regular Ssason *Total Minutes* since 1997 (No OT): **235,200** NBA Regular Season Total *Triple-Douples* since 1997: **1,664** WNBA Regular Season *Total Triple-Doubles* since 1997: **31** **NBA Games between Triple-Doubles: 19.761** **WNBA Games between Triple-Doubles: 189.677** **NBA Minutes between Triple-Doubles: 829.954** **WNBA Minutes between Triple-Doubles: 7,587.097** For every 1 WNBA Triple-Double, there is just slightly over 9 NBA Triple-Doubles. What if we matched the length of the WNBA games and seasons to the NBA, but kept the same amount of teams every year? It'd be an increase to 13,899 Total Games *(+236.4%)* and an increase to 583,758 Total Minutes *(+248.2%)*. We could expect the WNBA Triple-Doubles to increase to around 73 to 76 Total Triple-Doubles. If we bumped up the WNBA teams up to match the NBA as well since 1997, this puts the WNBA at 1,381,044 Minutes *(+587.2%)* and 32,882 Games *(+559.2%)*, for an increase to around 173 to 182 Total Triple-Doubles. Even if the WNBA were to match the Total Regular Season Games and Regular Season Minutes since 1997, they would be sitting at 11% of the NBAs Total Triple Doubles in the same time period. I don't know why I did this. It was a huge waste of time and now I'm going to be waking up late tomorrow. The math is surely wrong in multiple spots and I'm sure some of my sources were innacurste as well. Oh well
Simply bumping up the minutes doesn't account for the higher likelihood of a triple double in a game with more minutes though.
Oh 100%
Yeah good job trying to show a comparison, but as others state the fact that games are different lengths is going to be the biggest factor that prevents TDs from occurring at the same frequency. What you'd need, to get anywhere close to a usable comparison is to use the stats of every WNBA player in every game and then extrapolate what the stat might have been given an extra 8 minutes (x1.2). Then use thes extrapolated counts as your basis. Obviously this is still fraught with issues but at least it's closer to the same starting point.
Rather than extrapolating, if it's possible, why not see how many of the NBA triple doubles occurred within the first 40 minutes?
What if you multiply all WNBA stats by 120% (because NBA game are 20% longer)?
Well now that's not as fun to me :(
Hey, I just wanted to sya thanks for doing this. I enjoyed it having some numbers to mull over. There may still be errors, it was probably a waste of time, and you'll likely feel grumpy in the morning, but at least one person is grateful for your (ill-advised) efforts.
It was 7, but yes Alyssa Thomas is a fucking beast. 13 overall when no one else has recorded more than 3
Damn, WNBA has its Russell Westbrook
but with titles!
8 minutes shorter games than NBA is a contributing factor to the rarity.
Fewer games in a season, too, so not as many opportunities.
Why are the games shorter??
Smaller hands
At first I thought this was a joke, but does that really make a difference?
well for starters, women use a smaller ball
Yet lowering the rim so they can dunk is somehow offensive
It would require lowering the rim from early ages. You can't just drop it and assume everyone's lifetime of shooting to a specific height will just adjust. At gyms for earlier ages, those rims are set to default height and won't get lowered for girls games, so it won't happen at the WNBA either.
They should make the court proportionally smaller too tbh. It takes them way more strides at full speed to get from one end to the other.
Smaller clock hands don't travel as far so they take less time.
It does make a difference but not as much as having smaller feet.
I think the question is why the NBA games are longer. FIBA is 4x10 min, NCAA mens is 2x20, women's is 4x10. My high school was 4x8.
Knowing nothing about the topic I will venture a wild ass guess: Money?
Probably, although it's been 12 minute quarters since the beginning of the league back when a bingo night could churn out more revenue than a game.
So competing with bingo night for the consumer attention drove the games to be longer? :)
[A dude walking backwards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plennie_L._Wingo) was drawing bigger crowds than basketball saw until the 80s. Never underestimate how easily humans can be entertained. *source: [video](https://youtu.be/kXVDv-_p6wE?si=c8hIQ4Rx2fafIqkY). Or, for podcast listeners, its episode 493 of The Dollop, “Plennie Wingo”*
Gotta pull in all them old biddies when the bingo finishes somehow.
Almost always the answer
They run the same time as college games. It’s odd but a prevailing trend in women’s sports to have the same ruleset as college, and usually high school. For example women in high school and the olympics both throw 4 kilo shot puts and 1 kilo discus. Meanwhile men throw 12 pound and 1.6 kilo in high school and 16 pound and 2 kilo in the olympics.
It’s the norm for most sports, it’s just men’s league North American sports that buck the trend, and even then not uniformly. MLB/college is the same other than bat material and a mercy rule, and NCAA hockey uses the same rules as Canadian junior leagues and the NHL excepting no fighting in junior/college; the ice is the same and the period length.
It attracts the bears. Do you want bears?
That's my first thought. Russell Westbrook AVERAGED a triple double for an entire season. Just blows my mind.
So did Oscar Robertson in the 61-62 season.
Is this what it feels like when a new era hits in a sport?
They play 40 minute games, not 48. that alone really drops the odds. How many triple doubles are their in the big 10 over 30 years? Because that's about the same number of teams and they play 40 minutes. I'm not sure my college team has EVER had one.
Caitlin had 17 triple doubles while at Iowa. But even in college, they are not that common.
I mean, it's the wnba
Doing this with a “bad” team & coach btw, all the hype she’s gotten is deserved
You can tell she’s the real deal by how jealous all the other players are of her.
> She is also just the 13th WNBA player to have a triple double in a game Wut
And she didn’t make the US TEAM? Interesting…
The Liberty has been the best team in the WNBA this season and was the runner-up last season, so this is very impressive. Clark is still getting acclimated with going up against the size, athleticism, and length of professional players and scoring at this level. With time, her shot will become more consistent, and she'll shoot 40% from 3. As is, she's already a top 5 passer in the league. The 3 point shooting is what gets her so much attention, but her passing has been special for quite some time.
Her 3pt and passing will only get better. Her number 1 trait is vision and effort. Idk if i want a better combo than that. Besides ‘shooting the lights out’
Her passing is elite now. Hopefully she'll get better players around her who can take advantage of those passes.
Boston is so important
Did she fuck around and get a triple double
Todays gonna be a good day
Didn't even have to use her AK
In the wise words of the warrior poet Ice Cube…
You get use to a speed and all your senses are set to that. When you step it up it takes a moment to be like “oh shit, got to be x,y,z” to do what I usually do.
Yeah she's absolutely showing she's a special player, this DESPITE her shot being quite off so far in her rookie year.
I’ve watched parts of Fever games, and I feel she should have more assists than what her stats say, but her teammates either don’t shoot, or miss. Is that an accurate assessment?
Yes. And that's also a big reason for her turnovers.
One of the real problems is the coaching. The defense should not be able to get away with the defense that they play on her. Defenses in the NBA would love to be able to crowd Curry well beyond the 3 point line for example, but Kerr is not an idiot and any defense that tried to spread out a defense that far and went as hard at him as defenses tend to go at Clark would get destroyed by a competent coach. You simply never see that kind of defense in the NBA, despite there obviously being shooters who can shoot from that distance. It's because to be a coach in the NBA you have to be much better than that.
First in Indiana Fever history. If her shooting becomes more consistent as the years go by she will fulfill her potential.
From the games I’ve seen, her shooting isn’t the problem. It’s the spacing and shot selection. Defenses are blitzing her asap. She needs a better team around her so defenses can’t go all out on stopping just her.
I believe it’s only a matter of time before that’s the case. Either the Fever builds around Caitlin or her rookie contract runs out and she goes somewhere else.
Big money LA. Queen of the Colliseum
The Kobe and Shaq of the WNBA
CC and CB would be nuts
Max wnba contract would be like 275k/year. CC already murders that with endorsement contracts.
She'd get 10x more endorsement money in LA or NY.
As unrealistic as it is, I'd love for her to join the Valkyries. It would make me feel better about eventually losing Steph to retirement.
She doesn't need to wait. Caitlin is going to the Lakers 2025-2026, you heard it here first.
LeCaitlin
I think we can all agree Caitlin Clark would be a more valuable player than Bronny
If her teammates don’t stand up for her and challenge the goons coming after her than she should absolutely leave no matter what the team does. They need to sign the female Charles Oakley to regulate out there.
You probably haven't seen a recent game then, they're getting much better at moving the ball in general, and her and AB's P&R chemistry is growing. So opponents haven't been blitzing her nearly as much as early in the season. Although it's still the most in the league.
I think there's definitely some truth to this. Early on, there didn't seem to be any flow to their offense at all. It was awful. But I think they are starting to jell better and understand the plays and where each player works best on the court. The bigs also seem to better understand where and when to cut to the basket when Caitlyn drives.
People don't realize just how little time there is to prepare for the season. Clark had like a month after finishing the college season and the start of WNBA. In that time she had to move, establish all the usual stuff when you move, start a new job and all the things that entails, and figure out how to mesh with all new players at a professional level after being on the same team for years. AND that team is terrible.
Honestly I hope they spend the Olympic break really working on their team work and fundamentals.
Probably not a coincidence that the team has been winning more recently, too.
they lack good coaching. they don't run more than two plays, very low discipline too. no wonder they've been bottom of the league for like 4 years.
She has so many turnovers credited to her from perfect passes that her teammates bobbled. She'd have way more assists on a better team and way better shooting percentage with less pressure on her from a better team. She really is more amazing than her very good stats. At least her teammates are starting to be a little better at being ready for amazing feeds.
Increasing the talent a bit would help, but what would really help the most would be simply getting a better coach. With a competent coach, that defense simply would not work. There's a reason why you never see that defense in the NBA despite having players who can shoot from well beyond the 3 point line. A competent coach would have destroyed that defensive strategy a long time ago.
Please remember that she's on the team that was last last year, she is not an entire team, and her back is being broken on purpose. Her own damn teammates don't have her back. She's putting up the numbers DISPITE being actively attacked. And the WNBA has done NOTHING to address this, and it's a really bad look when most the WNBA is acting like this is high school locker rooms.
The WNBA and the Fever is dropping the ball on this whole situation. You got a star player making history and actually bringing in revenue and you do nothing to support them. Caitlin Clark is becoming the Larry Bird of the WNBA, she’s the reason people are starting to watch
Bro look at r/wnba. They fucking hate Clark over there. The WNBA is a bunch of mean girls. Caitlin overnight made the league somewhat relevant. She did more for women’s basketball than all her peers in history before her combined. And the players know that. And they’re jealous bitches. Taurasi I remember in college. She can’t market shit. Sorry. But she led the charge being salty before Clark even hit the league.
the latest triple double thread there is actually very supportive. seems like she's changing some opinions the hard way
I would hope so. It’s a fucking achievement. I think they’re just getting called out as a sub more and more for mirroring the same weird hate she’s getting. Like we get there have been hundreds of players before her. They all failed to make the WNBA anything more than a PR expense. They should be kissing Clark’s feet. The WNBA would still financially fail next week if it stopped receiving NBA funding. But for once the league is looking like it’s ascending. Which is good for everyone.
The other players in the WNBA should read up on what Tiger Woods did for golf. Tons and tons of money came pouring into the sport and all the players benefitted from it. Of course some of the other golfers were racist dickheads about it a the time and then made money off of his raising the profile of the sport.
It seems to me that CC's popularity has caused a lot of NBA fans to look at what's going on and criticize her teammates for not backing her up and it's the WNBA fans from before CC that are defending the bullshit like they never played a team sport in their life.
A month ago, I couldn't possibly imagine The Fever beating The Liberty in any scenario. Clark is adapting to the WNBA quickly, and the team is gelling much better.
She's easily the best I've ever seen. These are just rookie tribulations, and of course physically there are much bigger and stronger players But unless she's simply an early herald of a new age, I don't see how she isn't dominating the league in short order
Candace Parker was MVP her rookie season so she's got some competition. Clark will likely be the best player in the league one day. But as you alluded to, women's players are just way better than they used to be too.
I wouldn't say they're better, we are arguably seeing the very best players in the world consolidated into 12 teams. The worst team in the W is still massively talented. We have a small sample size compared to the men's pro history. How many of the very best never got the exposure due to playing overseas? Or skipped out on playing at all after graduation? The only time most Americans were even thinking about woman's basketball would be the Olympics. Now it's reached a tipping point.
No. These players are objectively better. Women's sports in the US and really all over the world is just now reaching a point where enough time has passed to see the first generation of girls taught by women who were able to get serious coaching themselves. (And all the economic research about sports says it takes three generations) Women's basketball today is basically where mens basketball was in the early 80s - where you started to see a clear divide in the skill and ability. Players that we used to call "generational talents" are now coming around in almost every draft class. Girls who would have been All Stars in the WNBA in the early 2000s are completely washing out of the league. Yes Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie, and Swoopes could play in today's league. But there are more players on par with their abilities than ever before.
Because THE WNBA is a much smaller league filled with many players at or very near the same level. And there's even more future stars working their way through college at the moment.
The whole team.is improving and gelling and its fun to watch. She and Boston have the potential to be a lethal duo as they develop. My only major criticism with the team is the continued inexplicable coaching decisions from Sides.
Basketball fundamentally is a team sport. You can have nothing but all stars and lose to a team that is working together as a team, as some USA Olympic men's teams have learned in the past.
It only took 28 years for someone to do it. Good shit.
Honest question as a WNBA noobie. Why? Is it simply because this league scores less than the NBA overall? Is the style of play that different from NBA? It’s hard to understand without a point of comparison and I’m still learning just how different this league is.
NBA games are 20% longer than wnba games. It would be like an NBA rooking putting up 23/15/14 stat line which is impressive even in the NBA.
She played 38 minutes. Top NBA players rarely play more than that in the regular season.
Rarely but it does happen. Most of the most impressive statlines come from the close games where star players play 44+ minutes. I'm not saying that the time is the only reason but it's definitely a large factor.
Less time per game, so there is less opportunity to score, which subsequently means less opportunity for rebounds and assists, and there are less two pointers and dunks, which tends to be where many NBA assist come from.
I hope they enjoyed beating up on her the first half of her rookie season, because she’s gonna be the woman’s 🐐
27 years and no (rookie) has had a triple double?
Say what, I thought she was only good for her 3-pointers?
came for the hate. was not disappointed.
Successful woman… Reddit post
Crazy how much hate she gets. I wonder why that is?!?!??!
I really don't see the hate from reddit. And I'm on r nba everyday. One or two bad apples in every thread but the overall sentiment is overwhelmingly positive.
r/wnba is the most toxic subreddit I've ever been a part of
Ah. Well. I don't go there so there's that. R nba is very supportive though.
They don’t like her over there at all.. they glorify everything Reese does… Clark not so much
Every other top post on r/wnba today is lauding Clark's feat. I haven't really seen this hate you speak of.
Hmmm. Wonder why.
Yeah im looking for all the people from r/nba to tell me again how she is trash
NBA folks liked her, it was the WNBA sub that were being jerks
Women hating women is always going to be higher than men hating women
r/nba is essentially a drama forum, but I think r/wnba is where you should look for the hate against her.
I look forward to hearing from other players how this proves she’s overrated
"The only reason she scored a triple double is because she's straight and white"
I was at this game today. First WNBA game for me. It was a nail biter! The Fever got a snap 10pt lead in the beginning. They came out hard, but seemed to tire out fast. They started subbing out players and then got behind after a big rash of fouls from desperate defense. But in the end they pulled it together and regained the lead with 2 minutes left. They managed to hold that lead for the win. Awesome athleticism and teamwork all around. I had a blast.
Great numbers The classiness is what is impressive The bullies and haters haven’t gotten to her
I never thought the WNBA would be watchable but she is fun to watch
She's pretty good huh
METAL GEAR
Last week fucked around and got a triple-double Freakin' ****** every way like MJ I can't believe, today was a good day, shit!
She didn’t even have to use her AK!
Historic, no other athlete has increased the value of their league like Caitlin Clark.
But she shouldn't be on the Olympic roster lollll
Honestly, she needs the break. She and other rookies went directly from the college playoffs to draft to the WNBA. lots of learning curves. Giving her 2 weeks break to work with her new team would be a god send. Also US Women's basketball knows what the fuck they're doing when they assemble a team. They've come in 3rd like one time in the last 20+ years or something crazy like that. They dominate, and they will do so again without Clark.
Assemble a team to what end? To win? CC isn't going to add or take away from that most likely. To get people tuned in? I think we've seen the data on that in the wnba so far. Bad business decision by USA basketball in my opinion.
It would add much needed exposure on the world stage
Was never going to happen. HC of the team doesn’t like her and didn’t hide it.
Oh yeah I knew she wasn't making that team when I saw those shady tweets
By the team her career is over in the W her triple double stats will be unbeatable. She’s already come so close to multiple triple doubles this season, truly incredible player
I wonder how many double and triple doubles she'd have if her team could catch a pass.
MMW Angel Reese will find a way to make this about herself.
Ice Cube would be proud
That stat record is so much sweeter with the W.
This is a big result for everyone involved. The fact that a few weeks ago the Fever were getting run over and now they are showing growth and beating one of the teams that crushed them, and it's the best team in the league. The next few years are gonna be fun. Welcome to the W.
I walked by a bar other day with women’s basketball on, and the bar was full of people watching. I love it.
But she isn't good enough for the olympic team
Next year she’s gonna rule that league
Glad to hear she is still doing well. Seemed like she had a rough start.
She will have 10 of these within 3 seasons.
Just came for the continuation of the proxy race war through the guise of women’s bball.
Obviously the haters have something to say
r/wnba
Everyone in that sub has been praising her.
Dude that’s bullshit. The community was super toxic regarding her until about a week ago when they realized the rest of sports subs were picking up on its bitterness toward her. Caitlin Clark was on the wrong end of three of the first nine flagrants in the season. Including the obvious solo shove followed by cheering by Reese and her teammates. That sub suppressed conversation about it and was downplaying the obvious reality Clark has been targeted this season beyond just basketball.
The ROTY race is crazy! Angel Reese will likely break the WNBA double-double record tomorrow against the Storm. Caitlin leads most players in the league in assists and Angel leads the whole WNBA in rebounds. Both are already top 20 players in the league and they’re just rookies.
Reese is playing well and a double double machine; but the gap between her and Clark is ocean sized. It’s not a Race, once Brink went down it’s Clark’s trophy barring injury
Angel is great but quite literally the only stat she has over Caitlin is rebounds. Angel is #1 there with CC #2. Caitlin is the #1 rookie in field goals made, 3 pointers made, and total points. #1 in assists. #1 in steals. She also has more blocks than Angel somehow. Every metric other than rebounds CC is leading and that's purely stats on paper not even taking into account the way teams play vs Caitlin. Blitzed almost 2x more than any other player in the WNBA, routinely doubled, picked up at half court, full court pressed, etc. Teams are setting up purely to shut her down and she's still putting up record-setting numbers.
The only reason CC does not have more boards is that she is a shooter and does not miss often when she hits a layup.
Angel gets a lot of rebounds on her own missed shots.
I still feel like there’s a wide margin between what CC does. The fact that Reese has so few blocks and assists kinda blows my mind
It’s literally a fake story. Angel Reese is not a gamebreaking player.
The Andre Drummond of the WNBA
This is also purely anecdotal from the 2 games I’ve watched, but it looks like Reese gets a lot of her rebounds because she misses shots at the rim and just gets her own rebound. Is this the case? Admittedly I’ve only seen 2 games but it looked like half of the rebounds were her own. Which obviously is still good and better than the other team getting the rebound, but much less impressive than just making the shot the first time
Tbf it's not always her misses, her team has the second lowest fg pct... She's leading in offensive rebounds (and second place is her teammate). It's good that they're getting their misses but a high volume of misses leads to a high volume of rebounds. If Sky had better shooting this double double streak wouldn't exist.
Yeah it was a pretty high percentage. I’m team CC and biased, so take it with a grain of salt
Nah, it's more meme than anything. A couple of weeks ago, people started crunching the numbers and turned out to be something like 1.7 self rebounds per game.
It's really not - CC is astronomically better.
Yeah the future is bright
Not to mention Brink who was arguably the best rookie before going down with an injury. Three possible league-changing stars from one draft class.
Angel Reese is an average WNBA starter. Literally google “Angel Reese shot charts.” Anyone her size could do the same thing. CC runs her team, and has taken the Fever from basement to middle of the pack.
She has .41 FG%….you watch her play and it’s like she has cement in her shoes and can’t jump more than inchs…then she barely makes a little over 1 out 3 layups.
Angel Reese is a post player who is shooting 40%. Efficiency matters. She’s not a top 20 player until she improves her shooting and defense.
> Both are already top 20 players in the league No they are absolutely not. I question whether you actually follow the WNBA... You could make the argument for Clark to be top 20, but Reese is not there yet. Her touch around the rim is pretty bad. I think she is shooting 45% on shots from within 5 feet (and only 15% on shots from 5-10 feet). You want your forward to be able to play inside the paint.
Such a fun fucking year.
When are the haters gonna start calling her a stat padder?
Wow, it's almost like she should be on the Olympic team or something.
I wonder if her day started when Mama cooked the breakfast with no hog?
Today Was A Good Day
honestly, the defense in the WNBA is so ham-handed and rough.. like playground b-ball in junior high… ladies are clobbering each other and bodies hit the floor with an unprepared “SMACK” on almost every play… so it’s a special thing when a player stays upright long enough to rack up some stats
It would be hilarious if the US Women don't win the Gold Medal. The chances are probably small but social media would absolutely melt down if that happened.
She’s going to push the game forward
Forgive my ignorance, what is a “triple double”?
You get double digits in 3 stat categories for Clark it was points, rebounds, assists. There have also been a couple in the history of the W with points, rebounds, and blocks.
Reese is 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
Didn't you hear that Angel Reese has the most consecutives double doubles? WE SHOULD ALL PAY ATTENTION TO HER, NOT THE ROOKIE THAT'S MOVING GAMES TO BIGGER ARENAS AND PUT TICKET PRICES AT TRIPLE THE COST
Eat that Angel Reece!
But she's not good enough for the US Olympic team.
It's a shame the rest of the league is so antagonistic and racist towards her
Does anyone who watches more WNBA know why triple doubles seem way more rare than the NBA?
Games are 8 minutes shorter.
8 minutes less game time per game and a much higher premium on defense.
Because the NBA plays unguarded iso ball
Less time per game, fewer games and players just tend to play less minutes overall.
Awesome!
Maybe some day she will make the olpymic cut
And yet they still didn’t put her on the Olympic roster 😡
She is the best!
Definitely leave her off the Olympic team. What a rookie 😅
I’m just glad Diana T. Is there. Clark obviously would have been a bad fit.
I thought she was no good and a product of social media
Is she still off Olympic Team?