20 Burst results for "Dewana Bonner"
WNBA Nation
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on WNBA Nation
"Know a word that doesn't sound mean. I've finished their fans aren't going to be happy with. Yeah, I mean, I think I'll say this. In terms of a failure, failed to reach the goal of 2021 was that for Connecticut. I don't even think there's any evidence, but it's about it. You were the top seed by a distance in that playoffs, you came short in the commissioner's cup game. Turn that into like a monstrous run in the second half of the season, came in as the odds on favorite and then flopped in the semifinals. And because of that people, I think, lost a little bit of that energy stock with Connecticut of like, okay, but when are they going to seal this in when it matters? And. That's where this gets frustrating. It's like, what more could they possibly do? And they're in this situation of like, oh, do you add some insane, do you get really hard into the breeze through its sweepstakes or something? It's like, well, you could. But anything you do is going to mess with the laboratory formula that is this roster, Kurt Miller is put together that he wrote to the finals, and it's so hard to kind of figure out where does that come from? How is that piece together? And the only thing that I can think of is. If they were going to lose any level of top end players, especially starters on this team, my full and honest belief is it's going to be to work their way up the draft board. I think the one way that these guys are going to say is like, we probably can't make an Aaliyah Boston type move. I don't think that anyone in her when she's ready to come to the league. I don't think anyone's going to be able to trade away that top pick. But is there, is there a player on the college radar that we go, that's the name? That's the one that we think we can make happen. And is it angel Reese? Is it Ashley Jones? You know, it's like you look at these names that you're going like, who is it that we kind of go like, that's who we think we can actually put our full investment in and it turns into they become that youth injection that changes the trajectory of this team. And it's hard. Honestly, when you look at it like Cameron brink is such a Connecticut sun player. It's kind of almost built like a Connecticut sun player. But then also like, you know, Nissan tomorrow probably isn't quite in what people might prototypically think, but for goodness sake that would be a great injection into the team. That's kind of where I see it because I just don't know if all of a sudden adding some other all star crossed league really shifts things. That's kind of what happened bringing in dewanna bonner and be closed out to where to where it is now. It's like, it's just tough. The answering the question to the Connecticut sun problem is one of the hardest things. It's weird. Yeah. Well, I think about, I mean, I think about our final four teams. Obviously you've got Vegas. You've got Connecticut who just mentioned is probably the most disciplined of any team to end the year. Seattle has to feel like, you know what? We want our rings with this group, we're more about Sue Sue bird's retirement at this point. We had a damn good run. That's kind of the Seattle attitude. I know they would have liked to get one. I think they believed they had the talent to get one. But they could go back and look at the last ten years of Seattle storm basketball and feel like obviously undeniably we were successful with this. I think currently the storm are just trying to get as many small children in Seattle to send videos to breeze stewards saying, please don't leave. Yeah. As possible. Just anything they possibly can. I think that's the sole thing on their mind right now. In terms of actions in the off season, that's a different story. But in terms of the general feeling over the past week or two as the season came to a close, I think Seattle fans you probably don't hang your heads after the season you had. And likewise, I think Chicago fans probably stung pretty bad with how the Connecticut series ended. But shortly thereafter, you watched Connecticut lose in the finals to Vegas anyway, you kind of say, all right, well Vegas was the best team this year. And we still got Candace Parker. And we still got a ring from last year. So we're feeling okay. Yeah. If I were to guess, I think Chicago fans and the Chicago sky won an honest scratch against the aces in a playoff scenario. I think they really want because I think that was the matchup that was gonna be more anticipated. And credit to Connecticut, they love. I just think it's classical Kurt Miller said they love showing up when they're from behind when no one's thinking about them. And so it was like a perfect scenario to say, well, let's destroy this matchup people want to see and make our own way and credit to them for that. But I think in Chicago's mind they're going, we deserve a shot at this. I think they'll maintain as much of their roster as possible and handle that well. I will say this, I feel really strong, there was a really high shot that Chicago had at repeating a title, especially when the Emmys have been move happened. Is
The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"To my, you know, to be fair to me, I mean, I think Chelsea was having like an okay beginning of the year, but I've never seen anyone so locked in throughout an entire playoff run. My God, yeah, you gave it up for the point guard God at the beginning. I mean, I guess we can't really overstate how special or understate how special Alyssa Thomas was in this series too. I mean, she was also in that redraft class. Good lord, did she end with a triple level as well? Yeah, two of them back to back the first time to be a finalist history. I truly believe if this season had gone on for another 7 games, she would have posted another four. Like, I just think she's just kind of in her group. It's the perfect team where she can do a little bit of everything. And where she has to do a little bit of everything, but you're not asking for anything that she doesn't want to do. Yeah, honestly, like, I hate to bring this up, but AT is so dangerous. And still does not have full use of her shoulders. Like I can not imagine. No, seriously, think about that. I seriously can not imagine if like teens could no longer leave her open 12 feet out because they know she's shooting this one one handed floater all the time. Like I can't imagine actually had to guard her because she could make a 15 foot consistently. Yeah, and crater. I feel like she did start to make those consistently in the last two games, but you're right. Yeah, she's definitely crafted that shot, but I just can't imagine if you had to guard her anymore than what you have to guard her. Like, it's embarrassing that somebody with no shoulders is beating you though. Like is averaging a triple double seriously though. That's incredible to me. It just sounds so funny when you put it like that. Somebody with no shoulders. Sorry, date. You know, I love AD. I'm just saying, I think that's amazing. I think Holly rode does her little annual, you know, hit unless it Thomas shoulders, and it's like, she needs to add to that at the end. Like, well, she's now the triple double queen who clearly doesn't need these things to be fixed in order to continue to kill the leak. Was there anyone on the sun this series that you, I mean, I think there's one obvious answer and she had a decent game three or she had a good game three and a decent game board, but is there anyone that stands out that should have should have done a lot more for the sun team? Anyone that stands out, I should have done more for the sun. I think looking at it, you know, you expect a lot from like a Brianna Jones and a dawn of bonner. And I think just what they kind of lack, which is something I think the biggest like too is like consistency, right? Like having players who are consistently going to have good games and be productive on both sides of the basketball. You know, we talked about that one day where like DB and Kourtney Williams, where were they? They were like, it was equivalent of like a two for ten, like an 8 for 19 or something like that. That's a big one for 9 in one game, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so it just makes me think that I think overall what they miss is just a consistency from start to finish in their main players that needed to play, right? Like we saw gays were to teach you to hide them and had a really good game one game she had 9 assists and kind of was, you know, a real focal point in the game and other games we don't see her. Same thing with cordy Williams same thing with dewanna bonner. Like I will say, I really wanted this one for DB though. I feel like DB had just made the correct move and going to Connecticut. They made moves she needed to make. I know all that she's, you know, went through to be able to get her team to the finals and kind of ground her team and lead our team in that way. And just just seem like she didn't have all she needed to have. I felt like in order to get it done. But she did a tremendous job again getting our team to the finals. A lot of us didn't even think it was possible that they were going to get through Chicago. And they made us eat our words because they got there. Yes. Definitely me. What about you? Was there anyone that stood out for you that you felt like it needed more of? Well, I mean, for me, the obvious one was dewanna bonner, but I didn't think about Brie Johns that much, but I think this whole playoffs is just kind of her usage was down a lot, and it's weird that that happened with the low amount of minutes at John quell Jones is playing. It's such a strange team overall. I mean, I loved, I loved everything. I mean, she had one or two maybe bad shooting nights, but cordy Williams is phenomenal. This blouse. I just did as well. She had some really big plays and defensively, like, you know, guarding Kelsey plum, guarding some of those perimeter players. Yeah. Yeah, DB was great against Chelsea gray and game three. The only player who could slow her down, things was her first game under 20, and I think, I don't know how long months, right? So it's tough. I mean, it sucks being that close. For Connecticut fans, I'm sorry. You were close, but you're also running up against a buzz saw and that's like Becky was arguably like just some of her schemes. I mean, mixing in the zone when it was needed. I mean, just the way to motivate your team after getting beat by 30 on the road. I mean, granted, they're professionals, and they understand what was at stake, but it's hard to win on the road, the playoffs. Greta, can't say enough great things about Asia, Chelsea. Kelsey had a bounce back series after she was hearing a lot of noise. She heard me. And of course, you know, the hero upon Williams that we talked about before. Yeah. We'll quickly glance over the aces next year. They're basically bringing everybody back. So is there a real chance in your mind that they could run the table again? Yeah, I definitely think there's a real chance. I think the only question anybody's going to probably ask is like, can Chelsea gray play at this level for a whole season? You know, is it only going to come after some level of disrespect? And again, I'm a Chelsea great fan. So I think so. I think she's always been this good, is never just truly been highlighted. And it's never been this long of a consistency. Like you talked about 20 points corn games and like a month where she hasn't scored less than that. But I think also too, what we saw is her ability to take over, right? Like we always looked at, you know, Kelsey polman Asia Wilson, and we were like, oh, even Jackie young a certain degree. You know, like these players are the ones who are mainly going to take over and she's going to make sure I get a piece of the pie. And Chelsea was like, nah, I bumped that. I'm past bacon and shoot, and I'll take over. It's no problem. So I feel like I feel like, yeah, I feel like they can, they can, they can repeat if Chelsea can play at this level. The whole season because I truly don't think that there's anybody who's going to be able to stop her. Like, I don't think that there's anybody else going to be able to stop her. And I think if everybody says, hey, our game plan is to stop Chelsea. What are you going to do about the other three or four? I don't even know. To me, it is so, so shocking to think that there's a point in this season that Jackie young was basically having like 25 and 30 point games. Yes, yeah. And Chelsea gray was having 9 and 12 point games. Yes. But then, you know? Yeah. The adjustments, the team made understanding who needed to step up, especially in the playoffs, it's amazing, but
Winsidr WNBA Show
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on Winsidr WNBA Show
"They're four zero and elimination games. I think that speaks volumes. I wish there was that same sense of urgency in game two in Las Vegas because that's when I also thought their backs were against the wall, but I guess at the end of the day it wasn't an elimination game. So really good to see Connecticut, you know, offensively clicking to have a lot of their weapons doing what they do, dewanna bonner, you know, finally being able to look like herself and see the ball go through the net. I mean, that was the biggest difference in the game, along with establishing John quill Jones on the interior. I mean, the points in the paint where the story of this game, in my opinion. Unbelievably dumb and I think it was what, 64, 66, something along those lines, but just dominating the paint. I mean, it was just good to see Connecticut do what they do. It was good to see them respond this team has always found a way. And I like the quote that Kurt Miller said, he was like, you know, we're going to make Las Vegas beat us. You know, we're not going to go away. We're not just going to sit here and, you know, Peter out the rest of the season. We're going to make them earn this thing. If they're going to go after it. So I thought it was a really great game, a really great performance, a complete performance, and it shows it reminded us what Connecticut can do because, game too was so disheartening. So disheartening. It was such a letdown. I think for the Connecticut fan base for the Talking Heads of the W because, look, like we know that Connecticut is fully fully capable of having those types of games where they just completely disappeared. We haven't seen it in so long. This WNBA finals is nothing that you want to see, right? Like we want, we want a barn bird. As a barn burner, it blowout or a close game. We want a close game. We want a close games. We want competitive games, even if it's a Connecticut competitive game where it's 65, 55 or 6 73, 69. Whatever it is, we joke about it on the playback shot at the playback, we're doing these fun streams. Their watch parties, they're great to watch. The link is get playback dot com backslash room backslash windshield, get playback dot com backslash windshield. It's free to download. Or sorry, you don't download. It's free to join. It's a lot of fun. We just did, actually, I should give a shout out last night we did a playback. It was sponsored by homage. The T-shirt company will drop the link in the show notes for this episode, but they did a really cool giveaway. They leaked us. I can't tell you what the design is, but they leaked to us. They have already designed for Connecticut and Vegas, whoever wins wins. They've leaked designs of their championship shirts, sweatshirt, stuff like that. First of all, they have the coolest softest shirts in the game. I haven't had their sweatshirts yet but supposedly equally soft. But they leaked us the design, they sponsored our playback last night, they did a giveaway. We did a prediction thing. We like doing fun stuff like that. Give back to the community. Shout out to the person who won it. It was funny. We had 206 applications for this. And Rachel was one of two people who picked Connecticut to win last night. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? And here's the funny thing. Yeah, right. Clearly our Connecticut bias is showing. Shout out to that troll account. Really interesting of all those people, two people pick Connecticut to win, and both of you picked Vegas players to be the leading scores of the game, and both of you pick Connecticut to win by four. So I thought I just thought that was super interesting. The other person ends up winning blinking on their name right now, pull it up. But they won because they had Asia Wilson scoring more points than Kelsey plum. So shout out to who was it? Michael Torres, who's the big winner the other night. But I want to give myself a Matt, Matt Cohen, one side of writers have been doing amazing work on the playbacks. He's come in the podcast before. He's been doing amazing writing articles. I love listening to Matt, I learned from him. Can we talk? I love having him on the playbacks because it's always really fun because you and him can he always wants to talk X's nose and like he notices the slight variations in the differences that are going on. You can play that game much better than I can. If you don't know this, I'm not an elite basketball mind. I need to rewatch the games. I think my eye test is pretty good. But then I rewatch the games and can expand and exfoliate my thoughts a little bit more. But Matt and you just like next level intelligent basketball conversations that I love. So I love the dynamic of having all of us up there because we all do a little bit different stuff. But shout out to Matt, Matt and I, like going into this series, we were chatting about what could Connecticut do to really disrupt Vegas and I think a lot of people almost going into the series said, you know what? Connecticut's a great defensive team, but they're not going to be able to match up to the guards. And Chelsea gray is doing amazing things. There's nothing they can do to stop her. They just have to hope that they win some other way, you know, you look at the Seattle series and yet some of those games were close. Even though Chelsea gray was doing high level heroic legendary stuff. Matt and I, looking at it, talking about it. I think there's a text between you and I to confirm this, so I'm not making this up. And I were like, well, do you want to bother on Chelsea gray? Has to be the adjustment. Historically, when they play bonner covers Jackie young,
AP News Radio
Sun stay alive, beat Aces 105-76 in Game 3 of WNBA Finals
"Alyssa Thomas had a triple double in the sun forced a game four in the WNBA finals by clobbering the aces One O 5 76 Thomas had 16 points 15 rebounds and 11 assists for Connecticut It was the first triple double in WNBA finals history We came already My teammates hit their shots and I always say without them none of these trouble doubles are possible John quell Jones led the son with 20 points in dewanna bonner added 18 Jackie young paced the aces with 22 points in Asia Wilson had 19 game four is Sunday afternoon in Connecticut I'm Dave ferry
The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"Is that Jasmine Thomas? I mean, they miss her, man. And she's running right now, which is yeah, that's awesome. You know, that's my girl. DMV oakton high school represent. But for her, I just think they're missing another offensive weapon or not necessarily someone who could put the ball in the basket. But when they need some offensive organization, they're missing that. I mean, heinemann has been off the mark offensively too. For as rough as dewanna bonner has been playing offensively. Yeah. I mean, one for 9 in both games. One for 9 in game one, one for 9 in game two, correct? 5 points two for 18 from the field this series. Two for 18. That's, I mean, that's the only player for Connecticut who has won a championship in the WNBA. So you're relying on her and some of those shots are open looks. Like, and I think Kurt Miller, he said that a little bit postgame, he said, you know, some players have the ability to knock in open shots. And I was like, oh, because Garner had open looks, especially early on. Like, over 5, I believe she started, through some of most of them, pretty much in rhythm, wide open looks that she makes normally. And they weren't going down. And then he said something about Chelsea gray, being able to, with the ability to make tough contested shots. It's a different level player. I mean, her shots and we'll get into her, but just with what Connecticut was missing on the offensive end. You don't have hyneman knocking in her shot that she normally makes a 40% or more shooter this season from three. Outside the playoffs, right? And then you have bonner who is their only WNBA champion who you're really relying on to offset the pressure, if you will, for AT, Alyssa Thomas. And John Cole Jones, who have been great, I think those two have been playing well, they need support, especially from the perimeter, and that's where I think they miss a player like Jasmine Thomas. Again, not just her scoring ability, but her ability to organize them on the offensive end. So they don't have empty possessions, but also let her set the table and set her teammates up so they're more in rhythm. They just seem so disjointed on the offensive end. And that fourth quarter really showed itself. Well, and you could see Kurt grasping at Charles there. I mean, you know, as much as I love Nia clouding. I really do. She came in into a final series after not playing game one and not really playing in these playoffs. I just thought that was a recipe for disaster to put a player like that into that situation. Yeah, she got burned by Kelsey plum because of course she did. I mean, I think I didn't think the thought was that crazy. I just thought their grasping at Charles that position because of the lack of Jasmine Thompson and because dewana bonner can't get going. If she's shooting well, that becomes less of an issue to not have your point guard. Exactly becomes much easier. But I think the only the player who was really going after an offense, as we have always mentioned, was Courtney Williams. I mean, 18 points from ra she had a great game too, especially in response to that game one. Yes. And she's always gunning for it. But at the end of the day, I think the real stat that the biggest stat here for this game and it's a stat that has been talking about throughout the playoffs is points in the paint. Aces, 46 points in the paint, Connecticut 28. I mean, that was the difference. Oh my gosh. And I think there was a timeout. I can't remember what jumped out. It was Becky Hammond was like, it's 24 to 12 us in the paint. I love it. And I was like. Man, I'm like, who wouldn't want to play for Becky heaven? God, man. I mean, she just has that energy exuding in those huddles and she just empowers her team and Greg Popovich was there too. That was so awesome to hear him speak to the team afterwards and, you know, I love what she has been able to do there. That's why, you know, she's coach of the year. That's why Asia Wilson's MVP this year. Because of that kind of thing. And I mean, Chelsea gray, God, man. She is elite. Every knew that, but she's just solidifying her her role in this Lake. And, you know, for her to roll her ankle. And the team not miss a beat. I mean, that just speaks to the chemistry and trust. Of this coaching. They trust one another. It's reciprocal goes both ways and, you know, hopefully Chelsea gray, you know, hopefully it doesn't go up on her, you know, they flew charter last night, so they get and she and she looked fine. She looked fun enough with her. After she rolled it, she got a bucket and was like height and she put her jacket on and like, yeah. That's sitting span was going. I was like, go ahead, Chelsea. Have yourself some fun. I mean, she's just playing great basketball right now. And she's on another level. When it comes to being a striker, and clutch moments. And clutch moments, there aren't just at the end of the game, okay? Let's trust and believe that clutch moments happen in momentum swing moments. And she was swinging that momentum all game long, all series long, all playoffs long. All season long. Flat out dog. She's on a different planet. She's on a different level right now. I tweeted this yesterday. I've never seen anything like this. Ever. And then I've watched a lot of basketball. Yeah. I mean, maybe Dwayne Wade in the 2006 finals. And older WNBA fans, if you guys have someone to let me know exactly what maybe there's probably an angel McConnell series, but she never won the final, so it's hard to, it's hard to equal it with Chelsea gray. So if you have someone that has done this from the mid range, where she has, like, the sliver of space she's trying to get to. Yeah. Is free throw line at the elbows, baby give or take a couple feet. So we're talking about a four by 8 foot box on the court. Everyone on the court knows that she wants to get there. Everyone, everyone in the stands, every coach, every player, everyone in the stadium and watching at home knows that she wants to get to that spot. It's impossible to stop her from getting that spot. And it's impossible to contest the shot enough such as she's gonna miss. This is not, this is beyond the pale. I think of something we've ever seen because it's not that she's getting to the free throw line a lot. It's not that she's getting to the rim a lot. She's playing great team basketball being unselfish finding her teammates, but it's all coming from that mid range. I mean, we haven't seen. At the very least, we haven't seen this in the modern revolution of basketball in the past like ten years. Yeah, no question. You know, when you were saying that, I was just running through my rolodex in my head of names from the past and the WNBA and Dana Nolan is a player who stands out to me in that regard. Swin cash even mentioned her in her Hall of Fame speech. I just think she had that ability in the mid range to crush your spirit. And that's what Chelsea gray is doing right now. But the difference between Deanna Nolan tweety, Nolan, as she was affectionately known throughout the league, the difference is Chelsea grace body strength is just amazing. And it's so dominating. If you get, I mean, if she gets a piece of your hip, and she's trying to bump you. I mean, she's like a post player with guard skills. I mean, she's 6 foot. I mean, what? 5, 11, 6 foot. But she is like a wall when it comes to getting down here, getting a piece of your body, moving you, bodying you up, and then rising up on you with her footwork that has just been amazing. And her release is so high. So it's like, you know, she's going to get that shot off. Even if you have a hand in her face, you saw that one particular shot with Courtney Williams being banged, banged, banged, you know, she'd get into her, her shoulders, and then Chelsea gray just takes it up and over her. And her hand was like, in her face, like, directly in her face. And it didn't make a difference. And, you know, that's just who she is as a player, but
The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"Giving up things inside against JJ breezy and Alyssa Thomas. And so I feel like it's just the wing players have got to be able to knock down outside shots. I think the heidemann needs some credit like she's been playing consistent. She's been doing a very good job of playing her role at the point guard position, right? Like not turning the ball over a crazy amount, making sure she gets in there as a guard and gets rebound. She had four today. But, you know, shot three for 8 from the field hit two outside shots. She's a consistent three point shooter that they've got a guard. But you know, really, it's just a difference in Courtney Williams and dewan bar knocking down those shots. And I mean, they have done that. I would say you talk about fatigue. I would say that they are probably a little bit fatigued. Obviously, I had to go to a game 5, so they played a little bit later, right? Vegas has some more rest. They were already in Chicago, then had to go to Vegas. And so I could see that turning into Y DB is one for 9 from the field. She just may be exhausted. Right, exactly. And rightfully so, maybe exhausted. But yeah, to me, that's the key is if they knock down those outside shots and with Kelsey plum playing out Kelsey Palma is playing, they have an opportunity to win some of these games. And I don't think it's going to be shocking. Again, somebody tweeted the other day, but I think Connecticut would have rather had big as the match up in Seattle. I think they've fully believed that they can meet them in 5 games. No, I think that's, I think there's accurate, although I don't know, watching Chelsea gray loss. Weeks makes me question what I thought before the playoffs. Yeah, no one wants to see Chelsea gray at all. Like nobody. But you know, you have to make choices in this league. Exactly. Here's my big picture question. Because at some point in this game, I tweeted, you know, okay, this is Connecticut's chance to win a road game. Because you win a road game to win the series, obviously. They can win game 5. You don't want to be in that position. So they near when game war two, I looked at this game and I was like, you know, Kelsey. Yeah, she's one for she hasn't been shooting well on this playoffs, but she's probably not gonna get one for an iron again. I thought, like you mentioned Jackie young was kind of out of it. Obviously, like he has stokes Manson deer can be coming back looking healthier. So my question what my statement was was this was their best chance to win. But honestly, a more I think about it, I'm looking at the score. This is Vegas lowest point total of the season. I think the score was in the exact right place for Connecticut. I think last series, I said the same exact thing about Connecticut against Chicago. Okay, if they don't win this game, they're done. I think it was game three. And then they came back and won. So Dan, which way should I lean on this question? Is this the best chance to get this game early in the series? I mean, you're holding the aces to 67 points. I think so. I mean, it was like the exact same type of type of game is game wanting in Chicago, right? Except Vegas. I mean, yeah, Vegas was down a half, you know? Just had a really good third. And I knew we'd get some type of push in the fourth quarter from that Connecticut team, but is lysa Thomas shooting 16 job attempts a recipe for success. Thank you. 100%. It depends on where you shot 56%. I mean, yeah. And the teamwork minus ten tonight. But you know, I know I probably on plus mine is too much, but I just don't, I don't see you're going to get a game from the aces where they score a 112, you know? So that's a win there. I love the term the series doesn't start till someone wins a road game. So it's not true because the series started. They had the series is here. But you get a good shooting performance out of the aces next game. You're not winning. You can't keep up with them. Your bench is giving you absolutely nothing besides the 6 player of the year. So. You're going to have so much pressure going home. Add game three. That's how I feel. I go off. You know, I thought we were like here and today I just feel like we're like am I hating too much? It was drifting. No, no. Dice it up is dicing. No. I think alys Thomas shooting 16 shots is probably because dewanna bonner or cordy Williams did not shoot a good percentage. And so she was taking closer shots and more shots. I a 100% believe that if they were knocking down shots, she would have been more looking to facilitate and get the ball to them. So one, I think that's because of the game. I think that's just kind of cause and effect. But my question for Dano is, if AT, if the game happens the way the game happens. If you don't want AT shooting 16 shots, then who else would you like to shoot? Because to me, it actually looks pretty even, like, tranquil Jones shot 15. Courtney Williams and DB both had 9. They just didn't make their shots. And tisha had him and had 8. That's right around her normal average of like, hey, I'm gonna shoot a couple of threes. I'm gonna get a couple in the paint a little bit, maybe a transition layup. And then breezy off the bench shoots 11 shots, and she's got 12 points. So it's kinda like, where else would the shots really go? I mean, that's Connecticut. That's a crux of their problem. But if I drill down a little bit, I say you definitely need more of the one of honor. For sure. Yeah. But the one has got to get you started. She's that tempo, give everything going player. And she's had a good playoffs. A 100%. 100%. Again, I think that was fatigue. I think that was fatigue. And I think because 30 minutes is still a high usage rate for somebody like DB. But I definitely think that was fatigue. I think from the bench though, you know, normally we see a little bit more of DJ Carrington, but it's kind of hard because she's like inconsistent and good and bad way. You know, like sometimes she'll come out and she'll score like 7 points in three seconds and you'll be like so impressed and other times when she's not really affecting the game, especially defensively or she's getting those steel and layups. You're kind of like losing a little bit because right because she's not a true outside threat, so to speak. So I feel like today she didn't impact the game like she normally does, which I agree with Daniel on that that the bench didn't really help besides breezy and I think Odyssey Sims can give more as she didn't, but I also think natisha heideman was having a good game and playing her role so we didn't see as much of her.
WNBA Nation
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on WNBA Nation
"If everybody on this starting lineup gets 15 points and John quill Jones gets 25 because she's capable of being an MVP, best player on the floor type player. Who's, I mean, I think Connecticut can really surprise. I don't know if I've seen people give them the type of credit, I think they deserve it. No, I agree. What's going to be interesting to see here is to see if Connecticut and their well rounded scoring and they're kind of approaching things as a team is going to overthrow just the absolute insane scoring capabilities. It's a buzz saw. This is just put up a ton. The aces, whether it's Chelsea gray or Asia Wilson or Kelsey plum or Jackie young. Any one of those players can absolutely go nuclear and run you out of the building. And that's what Chelsea gray has been doing lately, but if Jesse gray doesn't do that one game, don't immediately assume that the rest of the team isn't capable of that because that's what we've seen. We've seen Kelsey plum and Jackie young do that at times throughout this season. I think I really do think that the old adage of offense wins games defense wins championships is gonna come into play. Both of these teams play really good defense. And it's gonna be a blast. They play really good defense and they can put up a lot of points. think that I gotta go. I think Las Vegas has the advantage here. I think home court advantage does play a pretty decent pretty decent role in these first couple games. Although there have been several wins away from home for different teams in these playoffs so far. So it's not like a, it's not an end all be all, but I gotta say that Las Vegas has to feel pretty good getting an extra game of rest. Starting a series with two quick home games that alone, you have to be feeling pretty good if you're a Las Vegas aces fan. I think they come away with the game one win and man, I think the ace is probably gonna take this series, but I am just excited. I think this is gonna be a lot closer series than some people are giving it credit for. So I think my official prediction will be that Las Vegas takes the series, I'm gonna say that they get it, but I'm like you, the longer I sit, if you ask me by tomorrow morning, I might go my go Connecticut because I've looked back at different plays and different highlights through those last two Connecticut games. And that's a team that is scary good. On both ends of the court. So yeah, well, I don't even know. I don't know what to say other than I feel like you and I both rambled a lot on our thoughts here. So I hope you enjoyed that. I'm going to go, I'm going to go four games. I'm going to say that this is going to be similar to that Seattle series where Las Vegas wins in four games, but it isn't because they're winning convincingly, if that makes sense. I think they're going to do just enough to win this in four games. And I think Connecticut still deserves the respect. So I apologize to Kurt Miller for not picking them. But I will say that there's a lot of people who are disregarding Connecticut right now that are absolutely just dumb for doing so. But yeah, so I'm going to say vague is in four as my official is my official prediction, what you got. I've officially overthought this now to the point where. Please. I got your back, Kurt. I'm taking your team. I'm taking the sun. I think it's 7 and 5. The questions that we need answered are can Chelsea gray continue the unbelievable streak that she's been on, which I said before game 5 I thought could continue and I still believe can continue. But it might not. Realistically, if it dips even a little bit, absolutely opens the door for the sun. And I think if someone takes dewanna bonner aside and says, look, we need that. We need you to be that for this team. Maybe not 5 nights in a row, but we need a couple games where dewana bunner gets more than 13 or 14 a game. We need to see that because she's capable of it. If those two things happen, if Chelsea gray cools even a little bit and comes back within orbit of earth and dewanna bonner can up her presence on the offensive end a little bit. I think Connecticut has the defense. I think they have the better bench. I think coaching is a wash. I think these are two of the best coaches in the game right now with teams that are absolutely bonded chemistry, not an issue. They gel they've been playing together for a long time. It's going to be a great series. I'm going to take the sun and I'm not trying to game a system here or reverse jinx anyone. I'm just honestly straight up. I've talked myself into this being their year. That's kind of exciting for me because I didn't think that was going to happen. And just so you guys know, this is not we have off mic decided as a show that we're not going to ever do. If all four of us hosts are on and three people pick one team, we promised ourselves as a group that we're not going to change our predictions based on what other people say. Just for the sake of pandering to one fan base or another. So you can take what I have to say, you can take what Logan has to say. You can take that to the bank of what we truly think about this series. And I'm excited to I'm excited for Sunday, dude. I'm excited to see how this game, this game one plays out. I think it's going to be a fantastic series. I think it's going to be a great matchup. I think that I can't wait to see what Connecticut in Las Vegas have in store for us. And I'm hoping and I've got my fingers crossed that this ends up being a similar series to what we saw both of these teams do in the semifinals because obviously they're capable of it. And I think the world deserves to see what the very top level of the WNBA is capable of. Logan, anything else that you've got before we go ahead and wrap this episode up. John quill Jones, game winning bucket. In game one, Sunday Night. Okay. That's my extra calling my shot prediction just. JJ, with the game winning bucket in game one, I like that. I like that. Thanks everybody for listening. Go ahead and make sure you hit subscribe wherever you are listening. If you're listening on Spotify or on Apple podcasts, we would love, love it if you would just tap that quick 5 star review. If you're looking to get a shout out on the show and you want to hear us read your review on Apple podcast, if you write up a review with 5 stars, we always read those out loud on mic. So if you're looking to maybe get a little bit of a shout out, that's the easiest way to do so that will guaranteed get on the show. And we would love to see some 5 star reviews coming through. Just your downloads,
WNBA Nation
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on WNBA Nation
"I've got Logan Jones with me tonight because we have to talk about the WNBA finals coming up. We've got some games to recap and if you're wondering why I'm making this intro really, really fast, it's because we want to do this entire episode in 5 minutes because the apparently that's all the basketball you have to play in order to make the WNBA finals. Logan, how are you doing? Oh my gosh. What a few days obviously we had to jump on. You know when the major sports networks are talking about the WNBA, you know your WB nation pod is gonna crack out an episode, no matter what time of night it is. Absolutely. Yeah, we need to talk about this finals matchup. We need to talk about what happened in Chicago. I'm just gonna go ahead and get out in front of this now. I am so sorry. Sky fans. Oh, I love it. We're gonna set this last episode. We knew we knew. This is on me. I'm sorry. I love it. But we're gonna talk to sun aces, and I'm gonna give you my unfiltered opinions on how I think that series is gonna go. I'm not gonna like try to think my way around the cosmic jinxing that I've been doing for the past four seasons of the show. We're just gonna go straight forward, and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but boy, I thought I thought I really had something with Kalia copper had a good first half. I was like, finally, I got something right. And then, boy, well, I wasn't the only one who was surprised by that ending. I'm sure we'll get into it, but sorry, I didn't mean to take over. No. The episode. I wanted to get ahead of it because I don't want sky fans waiting for the apology any longer than they need to. No, I'm glad I'm glad you apologized immediately because I'm sure the sky fans are feeling it. I know that immediately every one of them as soon as the game went zeros and they had lost. I know every one of them immediately immediately started to think about blaming our show and the jinx power that at least one of the hosts has. At this point, Jason said it really, really well in our group chat. He said, Logan, at this point, it's not, it's becoming less of a funny joke and more of a statistical improbability. At what point at what point does this become like, do we have to study the science? Yeah, it's like if I turned in a true or false quiz and I got 50 wrong answers out of 50. It's like, well, wow. That's impressive. That's more impressive than getting a hundred right, you know? And so for those of you who might be new to the show in the last year, Logan ever since we've started our show anytime he picks Chicago to win, they usually lose and last playoffs, Logan specifically wanted to test out this theory and Chicago's coming in is the 6th seed and Logan picked Chicago to lose in every single matchup in every way on purpose, which led to a succeed eventually going and running the table and winning a championship. So when he says that Chicago is going to advance to the finals because they only have to win one of the next two games, and they've looked just nearly unbeatable. You knew that Connecticut was going to make the finals. So let's actually break this game down because this was one of the most interesting games I have seen in a while. Especially in the WNBA, this was an interesting not in the way that we saw the Las Vegas Seattle match ups, be interesting, but interesting in a way that speaking of statistical improbabilities, how often does a team not only come back from being 9 down with only four minutes and 44 seconds left on the clock to winning by 9 in that in that four minutes and 44 seconds, you're down 9 and then you won by 9. How often do you think that happens in the game of basketball? It can't be, it can't be hardly ever, especially at the level of a WNBA playoff series. Logan, what was going through your mind as you watched this because you and I were watching it at the same time and we were messaging each other and I just want to know what was going through your head as you're watching the last bit of this game happen. Well, I think by the time the sun were within three and then tying and then taking the lead, everyone had kind of tuned into like not only is this game not over, but like we don't really know what's happening right now. Every ounce of this qualifies as a collapse for the sky as much as I want to give the sun their flowers and we will talk about what Connecticut did and whether they can repeat that sort of performance against Vegas, I mean, if you're the defending champs and you're up in a game 5 with Candice Parker on the floor in four minutes to go, it's a collapse. You lost this one and they know it. You can see it on their faces. They knew it. What's crazy is like we've seen some crushing Chicago losses over the last couple of years. Last year's championship sort of erases the memory of the handy heave in 2019. But remember, we watched Vegas hit a half court shot to knock these guys out of the playoffs, not too long ago. To me, and I don't know if this is a hot take or not. This was a more shocking ending. Yeah. Because we watch March Madness and we watch a lot of basketball and you see buzzer beaters. Occasionally, like there's enough buzzer beaters in the league to create a highlight reel at the end of the year. Well, how often you don't see what I was going to say how often do we do when are the early days of our show when we would do like play of the week? How often did we have buzzer beaters? Like almost every other week. Like we'd have a buzzer beater on there. In the playoffs. Yeah, it doesn't happen a lot in the playoffs, but what really doesn't happen in the semifinals, unless you're a team from Connecticut. A little deep cut for the UConn fans there. Usually 18 O runs don't happen. They really only happen if you're a fan of a Connecticut basketball team, actually. And not only was it a run because of explosive offense and lots of different players hitting every it got to the point where every time Connecticut hoisted a shot, but Courtney Williams took an elbow jumper, you're just like, that's going in, bang, dewanna bonner, bang, like you knew. But you go back on the other end. There was still several minutes left in this game where even it was when it was a one possession game. It was like, if Chicago could just do anything right. They still could have pulled it out. But they just looked bad. They looked like somebody took like space jam style. They just like sapped them of any sort of competence at the end of this game, which is weird. I mean, we know they have what it takes to win a championship. We know the caliber of the players they have on that team. Nobody's questioning the legacy of any of these players. But what a smelly way to end a championship or bust season. I think this was rough. A game 5 where it's hard fought all the way through and then the sun have the edge. I think you hold your heads high and you say, we played great basketball in the center of great team. And whatever. This feels like it's going to linger. I feel like this is going to impact off season decisions. It's going to impact maybe players want to come back, maybe they don't. I don't think it's going to cause drastic unrest in the locker room or anything like that. These players all like each other. But it doesn't, it's not the sort of thing that you're going to sleep off in a week and then just be like happy for the champion this year. They knew they knew at the end of the third quarter when they held the sun to just 5 points in that quarter that a second ring was kind of on the horizon.
Winsidr WNBA Show
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on Winsidr WNBA Show
"Or non sports related event, welcome to the wind siders show the Connecticut sun closed out the Chicago sky with an 18 O run to clinch the finals birth they have been waiting for. The ace is on the other hand. We're getting the ice packs ready as they get to prepare to face the wrecking ball that is the Kurt Miller led Connecticut sun. Rachel, we're here. Game ones. So close, I can taste it. The WNBA finals. The culmination of a compacted, beautiful WNBA season, any wise words before we dive into the key points of this game. No, I may not just, I'm excited to get it going. It's so crazy that it's here, but it also, at the same time, I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but even though it's a condensed season, I feel like it's kind of been a long season. I'm not complaining. I'm just like, wow, I feel like we've been doing this for a minute now. So I'm just excited to have the finals here. I'm excited for this matchup in particular, just being able to kind of dive into these two teams and have a new champion, you know, it's going to be a first for either one. And I think there's a level of excitement. And that I personally appreciate, you know, just something new. An opportunity here and just kind of excited to see how this 5 game series plays out. I spent a lot of time. I did a little bit of shameless plug. I did a little preview where I was able to kind of talk to a few WNBA coaches. Who had schemed against these two teams throughout the course of the season, and I thought it was really fascinating to hear some of their insight. I'll definitely be sure to share some of that as we talk about some of these keys. Love it. Well, we'll start off in a, I don't know if it's macro or micro or whatever. Well, let's start off talking about key players for each team. And we'll talk about the underdogs, right? The Connecticut sun are clearly the underdog. They're playing with house money. And that is not just a joke because they're playing Vegas. But let's talk about some key players on Connecticut. For me, it's John Cole Jones and dewanna bonner. Now, bonner is going to be and we'll get into this. Matchup wise, I think she's a really, really interesting one, especially considering the fact that Derek hamby is her health is in question for this series. Clearly she was not healthy in the semifinals, but they didn't really need her in the semis. They're probably going to need her just in the sense of they're going to need more minutes and more bodies to go up against this Connecticut sun team. And that really adds an element when hamby is not there when hamby's on the bench. It really throws off some of the matchups because you literally you have Asia who I understand is a big, but I'm going to say this and I'm going to get so much flack for saying this. But in my mind, I don't think of Asia as a true center or that big 5. You know what I mean? When they're playing with hamby and Asia it kind of seems more of a, I don't know, fun and gun as I like to call it offense. As opposed to now that hamby's out and you have stokes in there, it's a little bit more like obviously it's not traditional, but it's still a little bit more traditional. So for me, having bonner's ability, her length, her speed, her tenacity on defense, that's going to be a key player in my mind just because Connecticut, they're known for their defense and mucking things up and just forcing these ridiculous situations. Bonner is going to need to be an impact player on both ends of the ball. Hopefully, I was texting Rachel about this earlier. I'm curious your thoughts on this, Rachel. Bonner on Chelsea great. Right? Like, what is the positives, the negatives, break it down, coach Rachel, because in my mind, you got to throw the kitchen sink and like, heck, throw the backyard hose at Chelsea gray, just something new that she hasn't seen in a while because the way she's playing right now, she's not just having the greatest playoff performance in WNBA history, but in basketball history. Well, I think that one thing that's not really being talked about a whole lot is Kurt Miller really knows how to defend Chelsea gray. You know, she is really struggled in my opinion. Against Connecticut for years. And so, you know, it's not necessarily one single assignment, but there's a little bit of a problem there in terms of just kind of the way the Connecticut sun and the way Kurt Miller can scheme against Chelsea gray. And you can look at 2018, 2019, 2020, you know, I think that's kind of gone under the table a little bit of just their scheming ability and being able to frustrate her and keep her uncomfortable getting up and pressuring her. And keeping her out of her rhythm a little bit. Now, you know, you asked me about key players and obviously I Chelsea gray is the engine that makes this team go. You know, obviously she's aware of this. She's very familiar going up against the Connecticut sun and what that looks like. And so it'll be interesting to see at the level she's playing at right now, which is out of this world. So much fun to watch. How does that translate into a historically kind of troubling matchup for her in terms of just how they scheme against her. It is particularly one thing I'm going to be paying attention to because she's so important not just how this team operates as the conductor, but just the level that she's playing it right now. So I think when it comes to Chelsea gray, it's not just a one person assignment. It's going to be it's a whole team trying to get that specific assignment taken care of. And I think you're going to see a lot of different people potentially guarding her. I mean, the length and the physicality of Connecticut pose unique problems. In my opinion, that nobody else on this team in the league can necessarily match up with. And it's hard to emulate. What Connecticut does with their physicality and their length? And as you said, bonner brings a lot of that to the table as well. So one of the coaches I was talking to about just their opinion of what they felt Connecticut should do and they said, you know, if you pay attention, Chelsea, if you can pick her up before half court. She doesn't like to be pressured a whole lot. She wants to advance the court and kind of easily pick its side and get into their offense. But if you can pick her up before half court, you'll see she'll turn her hip into you in sort of back you down, and if you're able to get her to do that. And this is something that, you know, I think it'll be important to pay because I can think about it now. I'm like, she does she does do that at times. All the time. You take away half of her vision. And you're taking away key chunks of time off the shot clock. So just little things like that that coaches were bringing up to me that I thought were really fascinating and then just trying to see how does Connecticut play her and I think in my opinion have done one of the best jobs in any other team in the league in the past. So that's a huge area of concern because, you know, you've got such a force coming to the table here with the way she's playing, literally. I mean, it has to be at least at the top. Of
Winsidr WNBA Show
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on Winsidr WNBA Show
"On Connecticut do you think can really make the push besides a list of Thomas who we've seen her put the team on her back before. We've seen her have those ridiculous games where every push shot is going in and she's got a triple double. But outside of those big three, right? Because we finally got to see that big three together with dewanna bonner and with JJ, who can be the player that can make up some of the ground that they're losing because the perimeter defense is going to be their problem and not having Jasmine Thomas is a problem. Yeah. How can they overcome that? You know, I don't know if this is a hot take or not, I don't think so, but DJ night Carrington needs more minutes. Like, immediately. She is that microwave player. And it's so obvious. Because sometimes, you know, Connecticut can get in those ruts when they are holding opponents, it's strong defense, but they can't get a bucket. DJ checks into the game, she immediately gets a bucket. And it's not even how she does it. It's not like she's coming in and shooting threes. She knows her minutes are limited, so she's just trying to score a bunch of points. She attacks the defense. She makes them play defense. She's driving to the basket. She's getting layups on these tough defensives. We saw it over and over throughout the season and we saw it over and over throughout these playoffs. I think that she has to get more minutes in this series. The guard play is going to be extraordinary. We know this. The post play is going to be amazing with whoever ages guarding with JJ with Brie Jones, but putting in DJing Carrington will make the aces guards have to think twice have to be on their toes, have to know where she is because she slashing, she's driving, and she just needs more minutes. I need more of her on the floor. I don't even think she got enough minutes in game 5. They still pulled it out, but I need her more on the floor. I think she makes other people better and she makes their opponents just be on their toes. Second guess. And be more alert. I love it. I couldn't agree more. I love when she gets the ball in the perimeter and does a little fake and then just sort of like drives to the hoop and the layouts. Signature move, it's the best. Do you enjoy watching the WNBA? We, us three, obviously, sure do. Come hang with the wind sider team on playback. It's a fun new way to watch WNBA games with your Friends and make new ones are link is get playback dot com backslash room backslash wind cider. First of all, Owen flawless. That was good. I was like, where are you asking me? Do I like the WPA? I totally do. By now, right? I think everyone's on their toes today. This allows us to do a little bit of an awkward transition though. We wanted to talk about the encore, but we did say we wanted to come back to just why we were so excited to talk to you specifically. And I think that part of what makes us so excited is that there are so few people in this space doing what you're doing, which is combining your writing talent with podcasting with hosting. Your finger is so clearly to the pulse of where journalism is headed right now. So how have you continued to adapt in an industry that's often so slow in evolving any of its practices? Oh wow, thank you. That's so nice. This is an audio only, but I'm smiling. Ear to ear. So that was very nice. I have been trying to have my hand in everything. That's exactly where I want to be everywhere. I want to try everything. I'm don't know if I'm great at everything, but I just want to try it. I want to make sure that these WNBA players and these women's basketball players stories are everywhere. I don't see them enough. And there's so many of them and they're so great as humans and as players that I want to tell them. And they could be told on audio, they can be told on video, written, play by play. There's so many ways to tell those stories and I've been having so much fun carving out all these lanes and trying all these things where stories could be told and listened to and shared. So that's what I've been trying to do. I'm like a journalist octopus like putting my hands on my talents everywhere because it's been so, so fun. And the feedback has been great. I think, you know, the past couple years, I've really been trying to follow my passion and my passion is with women's basketball and WNBA. And I don't think there's enough of us. There's just this small group of us where we just band together and we just fangirl out on all these players on the history and I just want to bring more people into that. And just like on the NBA side, you know, from past work, either at the ringer would spinsters, there's so many other ways that you can connect with players or with the league. And we see that all the time. In NBA with LeBron or with other things, sometimes it's off the court things that connect you and watch them on the court. You may not be a, I don't know, Chicago Bulls fan, but you are connected to some of the players and you follow them on Instagram. So you tune into the game. And that's what I want to do for the W as well. If you're not a super fan, it's really hard to be a casual fan in the WNBA because of all the hopes and different things and different ESPN channels that the games are on. You have to really be committed to watching it. But the stories is what really brings everyone together and makes everyone a fan. I mean, what I love about what you just said is how wholeheartedly you celebrate the players and their stories. And so I want to turn it on to you for a second and give you a chance to celebrate yourself because you deserve to. And you can name as many things as you want here, but you've accomplished so much in the basketball space. What are you most proud of professionally in terms of things you've already accomplished? Oh, that's a good question. I think you're right. I don't think I think about this enough. Of what I am most proud of, I think I'm most proud when, you know, I interview a WNBA player and this happened a couple times this season with the buckets 5, where we're sitting and we're not talking about basketball at all.
The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"You and take you to a place of stress like, oh my gosh, if we lose, we're going to be on our home court and we're going to lose. First of all, who I'm sure that wasn't set out loud because that would be ignorant, right? Nope. No, no, no. Nobody's saying that out loud. Coaches, players, no one saying that out loud. You're going to have this team win on your home court. And you know what I'm saying that? Okay? I hope, because that's not the that's not one with them. For sure. No, because it's like, don't think about a pink elephant in the room. What are y'all thinking about? Pink elephant, right? Come on, you're focus needs to be on winning. Focus on winning. Like, hey, on this plane, I'm setting this screen. I'm gonna set it hard so we can get something to the rim. 'cause they were doing so well, getting to the basket. And I think that's what Connecticut did well down the stretch. They got the ball in the paint. They started attacking. And when they went on that 18 O run, what was it 24 to 5? You know, to the last quarter. Yeah, come on, man. They really did a good job with the big lineup. To get the ball in there. And I thought that was their advantage. In the game. And, you know, Chicago just missed makeable shots. They had to get some of those down, man. I mean, for most of the game, what was it? Connecticut was shooting pretty well, but it was because they went inside at the end. And that bolstered their overall field goal percentage for the game. But it was their efficiency down the stretch that did Chicago win. Yeah, and so I wanted to get your thoughts on this comment from one in a million. They say Chicago lost the game more than the sun won the game. Here we go. So I just wanted to know it. I disagree with that personally, and I can explain my Connecticut theory. I do think we need to talk a little bit more about Connecticut as Kurt Miller Miller asked us to in the postgame press conference. He said it in a little snarky way that his team has eliminated canthus Parker in three of the last four postseasons, which is true. But she did eliminate them last year. So tomato. But regardless, I think Connecticut did a lot to win this game. But I wanted to get your thoughts since you were just talking about Chicago. Yeah, you know what? Again, it's not disrespect to Connecticut by any stretch. Of the imagination, okay? I was merely going on the advantage that they had coming into the series. Which was four games to zero. On the winning side for the sky. And when you have that, okay, you know, sometimes I know it's zero zero postgate. I mean, postseason, you go straight in and you make the adjustments in advance. And that's what Candice Parker said coming into this game 5. It's not about surviving advance. It's about a just an advance. And I think Connecticut made the adjustments. They went to their big lineup. They put the ball inside down the stretch. And they got the job done. So it's frustrating. And I know Connecticut has always said, we're disrespected. You know, I've said it for a couple of seasons now, right? You do have that. I got this shirt three years ago. Yeah. And it's still true. And it's still true, but it's not, you know, you have to win. Right? know if they can market those shirts anymore. Because now you've advanced to the finals again. So just win. And the respect comes along with winning. And you can't say, well, disrespected, but then you're not winning. But they won. But that's what I'm saying. Now you won. So it's like, so there you go. So you can't keep saying that it's disrespect. Because you don't, as a team, you shouldn't be worried about what other people are saying anyway, right? You shouldn't. You really shouldn't. And it's about to locker room and it's about what you all believe. And if people are going to disrespect you, then so be it. Like, okay. And it shouldn't matter. It should be a consider the source situation when it comes to that. Always said that. And when you win and you get disrespected, that's another thing because that's a very real thing. Okay. And don't get me started on that because I'm going to take a sip of my expression. I know where we're going. But I do want to say, in fairness, we did not pick them. Certainly neither of us picked them to win this series. And certainly I would say probably 90% of the people doing this did not pick them. In fact, there was a video from the USA basketball camp in which every single person, except for bonjour laney, who said she wished both teams would lose, which I love and she's correct. It did say that. She did. But every person on the Team USA camp picked Chicago to win. They did. Look, there's something to the disrespect thing. I don't think that's what pushed them to the championship. I love the narrative. It's great. Also the shirt. Although the shirts are really high, it's good for this podcast. We want them wearing. It's just like, but I don't know. The top. I think it works good though. But I just think what really pushed them and you said adjust in advance. And that's what Candice and Chicago did. And that's how they've approached the game in this series. And you could see it. You know, they did a lot of adjustments. They did try a lot of different things. They did, you know, some of those things work. Some of those things didn't, some of them produce open shots that they missed. Right. I was listening to the press conference last night for Kurt Miller and dewanna bonner. And for Connecticut. And it was interesting because Kurt, you know, his whole thing is preparation is power. We will drill the tape since we can't practice. We need to hit the tape as hard as we can. So that's Kurt's mentality. But after game three, duana went to Kurt and said, we're not going to watch film today. They were all together and they said, you know, she said, we're going to not do this today. It's going to be a team only meeting. And apparently, in that time, they really figured things out. And I don't think it was more about like, oh, you need, you know, we need to put the ball here, you know, you need to do this on her. I think it was more like, we just need to play basketball together. We have to believe you have to believe, right? And that's the hardest thing to do, 'cause anybody can draw up a play.
AP News Radio
Sky score final nine points, beat Sun 95-92 in overtime
"This guy took another step toward wrapping up the Eastern Conference regular season title by outlasting the second place son 95 92 and overtime Ali quigley hit two big shots in OT and finished with 13 points and 5 assists Quickly came up big after the sun took a 92 86 lead with two O two remaining Kalia copper poured in 27 points as Chicago improved to 23 and 7 Dewanna bonner topped the sun with 23 points and 9 rebounds while Alyssa Thomas scored 22 points with 8 assists and 5 steals Connecticut is three games behind Chicago I'm Dave ferry
AP News Radio
Sun beats Storm in Sue Bird's final game in Connecticut
"The sun had four players score at least 12 points in an 88 83 win over the storm Alyssa Thomas led the way with 19 points for Connecticut which scored the last 5 points to improve to 20 and 9 And the teacher hyneman hit a tie breaking three pointer with two 42 remaining the game's final basket Brianna Jones chipped in 13 points one more than Courtney Williams and dewanna bonner It was the final regular season game in Connecticut for former husky star Sue bird The 41 year old bird finished with 14 points and 7 assists for Seattle I'm Dave ferry
Winsidr WNBA Show
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on Winsidr WNBA Show
"It's Connecticut, Connecticut's number one, and then there's a little slight little drop off in Chicago's number two. Connecticut's the most balanced team in the league. They have the second best offense in the third best defense. So this is a team that as you said is kind of been experimenting this year also they lost for the season, their point guard, their leader, their floor general, their best defensive perimeter player. And still have been able to kind of maintain this winning record more than a winning record, they're 19 and 9. It's very impressive. And I think that one thing that jumped out to me and kind of doing prep for this pod is we often talk about the imbalance between the fact that all of their best players base are most of their best players play in the front court, can you win a title can you compete in the playoffs when all of your best players are bigs and your backcourt might be lacking. So I was like, all right, let me go to the numbers and see what the regular season has shown us in terms of when they play super big versus when they play smaller because even their small lineups are still bigger than most teams. But when they have played the ultra big lineup, which is Brianna Jones, John quell Jones, Alyssa Thomas, and dewanna bonner, along with Courtney Williams, which with Jasmine Thomas being injured, those are their 5 best players undeniably, and the teachers stepped in really, really admirably and brings a really important spacing shooting dynamic offensive presence to this team, but those 5 of their 5 best players, when you have dewanna bonner as the shooting guard, when you have Alyssa Thomas as the small forward, you're like, huh, does this really work? In the regular season, it has worked really well. There's outscoring teams by 16.4 points per 100 possessions when that lineup plays. So that's like staggeringly good. Now, will that translate to the playoffs? Because you're able to game plan more in the playoffs, you might need more of a backcourt presence can Courtney Williams be your de facto point guard can Eliza Thomas be your de facto point guard, you know, in a series against the sky, that remains to be seen, but I kind of am tired of saying, well, we just got to wait and see till the playoffs, I'm skeptical if it's going to work. It's like, you know what? I'm going to give Kurt Miller the benefit of the doubt he's a really, really good coach and right now when this team has gone ultra big, they are the best rebounding team in the league. They're just, they're just really good. And once again, they're among the best in the league and are putting themselves in a great spot to win a couple playoff series here and make the finals. So you just got to give them credit. They're playing really good basketball. Yeah? I agree with everything you're saying. Who's your opp team? My up team to close this out here, the Phoenix mercury a season that obviously wait, wait, wait, wait. Say the line. It's not just a line. It's very important, but say it. I don't know what you're getting at here. Free Britney grinder. Free, well, yeah, that's what I was getting to, a 100%. Is freebie G it's a season that has been extremely difficult for this team. And in many basically all regards, it's like the basketball just doesn't matter. It's been far too long and we're always thinking about Brittany in what is just a horrific situation. So it always is worth mentioning at the top that the basketball really is so secondary and just always kind of an exercise in perspective that we love delving into the encore stuff. But it really doesn't matter. Free BG bring her home. It's been way too long. This team against all the odds missing their best player and really just having a kind of an uphill climb this whole season and dealing with that kind of emotional element too of having to watch someone who you're really close with go through just this devastating, unimaginable situation, somehow this team is still able to be able to come out here and play really good ball. They are the only team in that 6 through 11 bunch that I continue to talk about who has a winning record in their last ten games. They're 6 and four over their last ten. And they're making the push that they seem to make at the end of every season. It's like the last few seasons kind of in this like post peak DT era, right? Like when DT was at her peak and griner was playing, you know, back when they had duana bonner. Like this team was the cream of the crop. They were the top of the league. And of course they were gonna be, you know, one of the teams that you just never wanted to play. But in these last handful of seasons, when they have not been among the elite, but they're still, you know, contenders, it really seems like they hit another gear in the second half of the season. And that's really been the case recently where they are making a push and they are putting themselves in a position to make the playoffs. They still have a lot of games against the teams they're competing with for 6, 7 and 8. And it's starting to look more and more like they might make it. Skylar digging Smith has just been absurdly good. The on off numbers with Skylar on the court versus off the court are sort of unbelievable. She is just putting this team on her back and playing at a first team all WNBA level. Night in and night out with just some amazing stunning offensive performances. Shape heady, someone I've talked about on this podcast quite a bit who we just never give enough credit to, but has just been so good. This team is desperately needed there. They don't have a lot of depth. They don't have a lot of players who can kind of do things on both sides of the ball and shape hetty has been essential in that regard. And DT, who, you know, I'm obviously can be critical of her in her later years. Obviously with the caveat that she's an all timer that she's a legend, one of the greatest to ever do it. But in her later years, she's really taken a step back defensively and has sometimes been a liability on the floor, but gotta give credit where it's due for a player who is 40 years old who has dealt with nagging foot injuries and who is just kind of battling because she's just so competitive. That's really the only reason she's still out here, she's still capable of having games like she did against Seattle where she is dominating offensively. And that completely changes the way this team can operate when you have, you know, Skyler carrying the load and then DT being this second force who's just knocking down threes and really making the defense choose and pick their poison between two options where it's like you can't leave either of them open. So if you look at the advanced stats, the lineup data, the lineup. And I guess Sophie Cunningham is the other person I have to mention. Inserting her into the starting lineup, she's played really well. A really solid player, the small lineup that has Brie Turner at the 5 surrounded by wings, Sophie Cunningham, Shea petty, taurasi, Skyler digging Smith, has been killing teams. That lineup has been dominant. And so if they can just ride that lineup for this home stretch for this final ten or so, it's starting to look like this might be a playoff team and, you know, you hate to say it, but it's like Chicago doesn't want to face Phoenix again in the first round. You don't want to have to face Skyler and Diana in the crew in the first round. You really don't. And so I just give this team a ton of credit for they've had, you know, obviously this horrendous and super saddening worrisome situation over their heads the whole season. And then they've also had a lot of internal strife even in terms of the players who have been here. You know, the report that Skyler requested a trade.
Winsidr WNBA Show
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on Winsidr WNBA Show
"Is kind of the opposite arc for them. They got off to a really rough start and then we're kind of forced to scramble the whole year and then really got back into the thick of things. And had ended up having a great season, but if you looked at the minute totals for dewanna bonner and Alyssa Thomas and some of their primary players that season, you know, they were playing 35 out of every 40 minutes, not exactly a sustainable model when a lot of these players have to play two seasons. But if you look at the minute totals right now, Jasmine Thomas, the only one over 30 minutes a game, everyone else is minutes have been extremely manageable. And so I think that, you know, what we've seen from this bench has been really, really exciting. I think DJ Aaron, we just talked about Lexi Brown, you know, being someone who played at athletes unlimited and just gained a whole lot of confidence that we're really seeing this season in her offensive repertoire. DJ Carrington is another one who's just making the most of her minutes right now and is exactly the type of player that Connecticut team desperately needs, which is kind of someone who can come in on this back court and really just give a little bit of offensive punch when they're lacking it. So I think that's huge. I want to amend what I said earlier. Alyssa Thomas is the only one over 30 minutes a game so far. I apologize for the mistake, not Jasmine. But regardless, the point being that this early, easy schedule so far has afforded Kurt Miller the luxury to see what he has in nea clown and to give natisha heideman big minutes and to give Dijon a 24 minutes a game. I don't think anyone anticipated that. So I'd be very enthused with the caveat that they haven't played anyone yet and really the ultimate question is can this team maximize both Alyssa Thomas and John quell Jones at the same time against the best teams. They did a good job of that in 2019. But it's 2022 now and we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, the only thing I want to add to that is just so our listeners can get an idea of it. Carmilla is so used to playing like a 5 6 person rotation, right? And you think I'm exaggerating. I'm really not. But now he has the ability with this roster and with duana bonner back and having Courtney Williams, you have Carrington. You have hide him in. I know he's, you know, cloud and still some work to do. You have homes. And you got Brie Jones. Like, they have legitimately four players that you can make an argument on a different WNBA team would be starting. So yeah, who's your up team? Totally. So this is the team is the final team we're talking about this week on stocks up in stocks down. And if you're a fan of this team, you might be mad at us at this point because it's week three. We have yet to discuss this team. And this team, you know, I'd say without a doubt, it's pretty hard to make a case against what I'm about to say. This team, the Las Vegas aces have been the story of the season so far. I mean, just an incredibly fun bunch to watch and I think a very rewarding start to the season for all of us who have watched the aces for the last handful of years under Bill laimbeer, who I must point out is a legend is a three time WNBA champion is a multiple time NBA champion, the guy has it all and clearly kind of beloved by his players. It was wonderful seeing them all swarm him on the sidelines after they won last week. So no shade towards Bill laimbeer. I'm done with that, but I think we all knew it. I think most of us knew it, he just was not the right coach for the modern game. And was really stifling the potential of most of the players on this roster for the last few seasons. And to see a team who just feels empowered right now. That's the word that I would assign to this early season scorching start for Las Vegas is just the empowerment that these players are playing with. Obviously I'll start with one of my all time faves who I feel very validated and how she's playing right now. Jackie young, I've been defending her for years as people have been calling her overrated. I mean, no one's had a better start to the season, Jackie's guarding the other team's best perimeter offensive player. She's arguably been the ace's best offensive player as well. Asia Wilson just dominating folks on defense, doing what she does on offense. Kelsey plum is having a career year. The system that Becky Hammond has come in and installed in Las Vegas, essentially gives the power to the players. There was a, there was a great clip that you'll see on WNBA league pass during commercials where I don't know if this was in training camp or one of the early practices, but it doesn't really matter regardless she's saying, hey, if we're running a play and you're open, don't keep running the play, shoot the ball. And you're seeing that, these players are just playing with such flow and such ease and such confidence, and they're running teams off the floor. A few stats for you here. If you will, the aces have a one 10.3 offensive rating, which means for those unfamiliar with the stat. That they're scoring a 110 plus points per 100 possessions, which is best in the league and is in striking distance of the 2019 mystics who had the best offensive rating of all time. So something to follow going through this season is the race for the best offensive rating ever for the nerds out there, such as myself. The aces are first in defensive rebounding percentage. So they're grabbing all the misses, which I think is very notable given that, you know, people always talked about, hey, can this team win with Asia Wilson at the 5 and DR can be at the fore. They always played so.
The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"Up all those stats because you are clearly you clearly prepared more for this podcast than I did because I had no stats for a reelection, but yeah, 7% of the room feels like it's just not going to cut it for that prototype of player. If you're going to be that alpha score or even that number two to Elena delle donne when she's healthy and you're not a three level score if you're not scoring at the rim. That's one of the levels so yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, so and also it just opens up everything, right? Like as soon as she gets down there, there's going to be passing opportunities, especially if when this team is fully healthy, their shooters all around there. And then there's everyone that can get downhill. You have cloud. You have Heinz Allen. We'll see if how healthy a landel done is to see how healthy Elise Clark is, but an ideal world of everything goes, well, it'll be 5 out. Everyone gets their own finish. I think Ariel's gonna be really pushing that. So yeah, I'm glad I'm glad you picked her too. Because I feel like she, I don't think she gets overlooked, but she doesn't get talked about as much just because she's kind of more quiet. Especially with the way the seasons have gone for the mystics since the championship, I think she hasn't quite gotten enough credit for the development that she's had. No, I agree. I think this might be the year where she finally starts getting talked about in that way. Yeah, and shouts to RiRi, though. Did you have you seen any ruby highlights? I've seen a couple, yeah, not enough. This is a lot more tonight, but I'm excited. She like, I think she's gonna have a if I had to pick, I wish this was a prop. If I had to, if I had a prop bet, I'd say she's going to have one travel. Today. Just because 0.5 travels. Over 0.5. Over 0.5. I think she'll have one because there's just like times where so she's brilliant. She was like a brilliant basketball player, but she sees things like ahead of her teammates and she can't communicate with them. Because she doesn't speak English, so it's like, she was like, oh, go there, and then my giants island that has no idea what she wanted her to do, so it's like, oh, travel. So it happens sometimes, but I'm excited for, I'm excited for Ariel. I hope this team is healthy just for the love of God, the love of God. Please make the selfie, please. Definitely. Do you want to go on? Do you want to go into our next one? Or do you want to do you have anything else in the mystics? No, let's go on. Let's take the next one. All right, my next one is dewanna bonner. In Connecticut. I had a couple of choices on Connecticut. I just think Connecticut's fascinating. This is the first time we're going to see bonner with the full strength sun for the entire season. Obviously we saw that team together for four games last year. Four games where they lost to the Chicago sky in the semifinals. So things did not go great in that very small sample size. This team should fit together but I think someone's going to have to change. Someone needs to sacrifice because you have a list of Thomas. You have John quill Jones and you have to want to honor. You could say, hey, Jasmine Thomas, Brianna Jones, you two sacrifice, but they don't really have high usage to begin with. So that's not where you're getting it from. Bonner's usage in Connecticut both seasons has been very high. I mean, it was 27.3% in 2020, 23.9%, 2021. Her shooting dipped a little bit last year, but went up from three, so it's just like, you know, we've seen her be a perfect option when she a perfect third option in a Phoenix with griner and with Tracy. Which was great. But can she can she be that player in an efficient role again? Does she want to be that player and then the fishing role again? Where does she see herself in the hierarchy of this team? Is that going to, how does Kirk and manage all that? I think of Courtney Williams coming off the bench and it's like, well, a lot of bonners production in the past couple of years have been running with bench units and keeping those units afloat offensively. So now you're kind of taking that a little bit away from her too, so it's like, how do you get her enough touches so that she is being productive and can she be more efficient so that she doesn't need as many touches. So that's why I think bonner is really, really interesting. I think she'll have a huge part to play in the title race this year. Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, she was the third.
Winsidr WNBA Show
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on Winsidr WNBA Show
"With this team is I know Amanda as I would be was going to miss a portion of the game. But Rachel, I told you this off air and I'll say it on air so excuse me as I repeat myself. But going into this off season, it very much felt like to me that the LA sparks were aware of the fact that to be blunt, it's been a shit show since Derek Fisher took over. Yes, you had a pretty good like you had a pretty like the first couple of years when you had a stacked roster, you had a pretty good you had a really good regular season record, and abysmal playoff record, you know, don't make the playoffs this past season. And Derek Fisher's, I don't want to say his reputations on the line, but his name is on the line, right? In the sense of, if they had another season this year, like they did last year, what? Or his job? Yeah. Exactly. His job was in question, his job was online, and that's what I mean about it. And it looked like it was an all chips in when they make the move to get Liz Cambage when they get Jordan Canada, Kennedy corridor, Katie Liu. Trade around in the draft to get back in there and get some powerful picks in the draft. I don't want to downplay the draft picks. Here's what my concern is is they kind of were midway through the path towards all chips in, which was a situation that in my opinion is it's either going to implode on them and go horrible or it's going to be greatness, right? Like this is the showtime sparks. And they kind of moved on from a few players that had a little bit more experience or a lot more in Amanda zawi B's situation. To then bring on these younger players and it's so rare for rookies to have seriously impactful minutes in the playoffs and or like Amanda's like having a dota you know for the season when Amanda Saudi is going to miss ten games or so fine, I get that. But when you get to the playoffs, who do you want as your backup? A rookie who had a horrible showing in the big time games of the tournament or a vet who's been dying to be in that moment and has had big moments before. Well, I think first horrible in the tournament is a little harsh, but I hear what you have to remember how many games in the tournament I watched. Yeah, like half of the game. Everyone take that with a grain of salt. I turned on the tournament and she missed a couple of free throws in a couple layouts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. I think that she has a lot of pro potential. Coming from Yukon and just that speaks for itself. So I don't think you're looking at Olivia and Nelson dota to take the sparks to win a championship. However, you know, I think the attention, yes, I agree. You know, it's all chips in. This is a completely new roster. I mean, yes, we can talk about Sykes and tolliver, neck a Sinéad, you know, but like in my mind, it felt like the case didn't even play last year, you know? It's like now, you know, hopefully everyone's healthy. For me, you know, and then you bring in aspects of like Jasmine walker, who, you know, this was a player who this team felt really highly on and miss played in like some pre season games last year, and then it has been out. So that's a question mark. I do think you have a lot of versatility. You have a lot of lengths. You have players who can kind of shift around kind of that four and 5, three position at times. And so you saying that to me last night I was like, oh, that's a good point, but now when I'm really looking at this roster a little bit more, I think you have, in my mind, it comes down to you have to get something out of Chennai. She's got to have a good solid season. I think necco's got to be good. You know, obviously you have the most dominant center in the league outside of Brittany griner in Liz Cambage. So, you know, I think that they've got the pieces there on the interior, you know, when it comes to long runs and deep playoff runs, but I will say early on in this season, it is going to be important. You know, that Fisher throws Nelson a dota and walker out there in allows them to develop and play in that way when it does hit playoff time if this team is a playoff team which in my opinion they 100% should be. You know, they can be serviceable and they can provide those valuable minutes. If people are going to be buried on the bench and you're only going 7 deep, that's going to be a problem. So I'm not as concerned about it as you are. I mean, yeah, I was a little bit surprised about this situation. I think she was really good for LA last year. She served a role that this team didn't have, but I don't see it as a huge necessity or as much as you do. No, I guess I went on a rant there. So good. There's got to be good, like we've seen her be, but she also, she needs to play her 6 women of the year. Style play. But also, I will say, for me, it's more so that in my mind, the way the boat was going was like, we're going to the left. We're going to the left. And then partway through, they're like, oh, maybe we should go to the right. And now they're kind of in the middle, and I feel like they're not committed to either, really. But not here nor there. Another interesting roster in my mind is the Connecticut sun, a team that made some interesting cuts right as right as the season was coming down to it. Their roster includes the water bonner, the Thomas, John called Jones, Jasmine Thomas, Brianna Jones, Courtney Williams, the teacher heideman, nea cloud in, Vijay Carrington, Yvonne Anderson, and join our homes, lots of fluctuation there an interesting thing because as you and I and our listeners all know, you know, these Connecticut sun teams under Kurt Miller have been extremely extremely, you know, shallow, I think, is the right term to make, maybe. And so because of that, it's just one of those situations where I guess you're a shocked when you see these younger players like, you know, a beatrix mom premiere, like a kyla Charles players like that who like we've seen Kurt Mueller have faith in. And to see them cut was a little bit shocking to me. Yeah. Well, I mean, again, this is a situation where we're talking about the cap, you know? They're already going to be shorthanded this year. And then for the first two games, at least they're playing with 9 because they don't qualify for the medical hardship with Courtney Williams suspension. Duana bonner is not over here yet. She could miss anywhere from the first three to 7 games of the season. So she really shorthanded, you know, the first few games. And I think, you know, it's just not going to be at full strength. And as you said, shallow, but again, that's the direct cause of the CBA and everything we opened up the show talking about. I think that you got to look at Nia cloud and what she was able to do. She was a bit of a surprise for kinetic kit to be able to get her at 12 in the draft and she goes in the training camp and I mean, she's got that offensive firepower and we even talked about it. She's going to compete for a spot. And now you've got to make some really tough cuts. I think we're going to see Connecticut team that's plays a little bit smaller this year because of that. I mean, they talked about, they really felt like they needed more offensive firepower at the off guard position, clowns really good at playing off the ball. She can also facilitate the offense. But obviously they added that in Courtney Williams as well. But dewana bonner is more than capable of sliding up and playing at the floor. She's been doing it all year in Europe and playing exceptionally well. So it is going to look a little bit different in terms of just their interior depth and size. They're going to be a little bit smaller, but I mean, again, when you have a player like dewanna bonner, who can literally play one through four, why not? With that type of type of length and versatility. So yeah, I mean, Connecticut's interesting from the standpoint of this team is going to be so short handed, you know, so you're going to see them Kurt doesn't go that deep anyway. I think shout out to Jasmine, who called me out when I was tweeting about it. She said, well, he's not going to play more than 6 anyway. And I'm like, yeah, that's true..
WNBA Nation
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on WNBA Nation
"She got 12 seasons out of being a second round pick out of Rutgers. Yeah. That's not something that happens very often in the WNBA, you know. So 7 time all star caffeine Dexter on that team, I think they're a winning team. Oh, for sure. I'm gonna go with you said you were tempted to do this. And I wasn't just tempted. I followed through. Don't want to bonnet, get back to feet. All right. 'cause if there's one thing this Phoenix mercury squad could use, it's a dewanna bonner. 'cause think about how deadly this combo would be. They've already got sky dig, DT, Brittany griner. You throw in dewanna bonner. It's just, it's too good. This reminds me of two good. Earlier on Twitter, someone was daydreaming. What if the liberty added Sammy whitcomb, bris Stewart Juul Lloyd, and I was like, ah, that's really fun. Didn't Natasha Howard? We've seen that. Yeah, we've seen that team. That's how I feel about being like, imagine if Johanna bonner played for this Phoenix team, they would be like, deep run in the playoff type of team I bet. It's like, wait, that just happened. Like, three seasons ago. Yeah, I went with the one on. I almost went with Michelle Tim's. I think Michelle Tim's, you could make a really good argument to bring Michelle back to this squad. But I think if I'm looking for impact right now in today's game, don't wanna honestly one of the most underrated current basketball players on the planet has the potential to put up really could put up MVP numbers at any given moment. And is also just a really great teammate. So I went with bonner. Logan, I'm going to go ahead and take Seattle. I went with Lauren Jackson 'cause I thought it was really obvious. Cool. So, yeah. I don't know where you went with this, but I learned Jackson because if you, with the current Seattle, roster, you know, the got Mercedes Russell, and they've got some they've got some bigs, but if you're looking to really free, you know, suburb jule Lloyd and Brie Stewart and really just let them go be the best version of themselves. You've got KD Lou also shooting on the outside. Jordan, Canada. You've got some really solid well, and we're recording this Jordan Kennedy might be not with the storm for all I know and maybe stewie or joules sign somewhere else because we're recording this on the night of the 31st. But that's who I would bring back is Lauren Jackson because the center position has been iffy at best for the Seattle storm outside of a stint with Natasha Howard for a couple of seasons. So ever since Lauren Jackson left, if your name isn't if your name wasn't Natasha Howard Seattle's weak link in their chain has been that center position. So bring her back. Yeah, I found this one hard to pick away from Lauren Jackson, almost similar to the Maya market because it's like, well, we have the proof of concept. Yeah. We know that they would win it all with Lauren Jackson. I do feel like it's worth mentioning Yolanda Griffith. She's a Hall of Famer. She won an MVP. She's a 7 time all star. 6 foot four, one 75. She could play it. And that's true. She was a really good player a long time for Sacramento and then played one year in Seattle one year in Indiana. So not known for the Seattle stint of her career by any means, but technically counted. So I threw her in here because we didn't mention her name today because Sacramento doesn't exist anymore. But I think the answer is still large action. I mentioned earlier. Anytime you get a chance to add a three time MVP to your squad, you should probably do it. So defensive player of the year and O 7 MVP O 7 have to do. Logan will let you go ahead and take Washington first since I took Seattle first there. Go ahead and bring it home for our last team of the night. Who are you bringing back to Washington? All right, for the final pick of the night, in this weird fantasy draft that we're doing in the off season. I'm going to take 5 11 guard Katie Smith out of Ohio. Yes. Yeah. Definitely. I know she was a links for a long time, played for a couple other teams in there. I ended up playing, I guess, just one season for Washington. So this is kind of a sneaky pig. But Katie Smith was a baller, man. Another Hall of Famer, another 7 time all star. She was an all star with what four different teams? 5 different teams. Yeah. In Minnesota, Detroit, Washington, Seattle, and New York. That's impressive. All over the place. But a fantastic player. Yeah, yeah, just yeah. Just a great score, distributor. She was almost I see her almost like the I don't want to conflate the two, because I don't think they're the same player by any means. But I feel like Katie Smith walks so that Courtney Van Dyke could run. Is.
The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
"Good. They just have to limit the amount of Courtney Williams that are getting this year. But I don't think it's going to be something that's like, there was a wrench into the system, I think, you know, in terms of a chemistry perspective, this is probably the best place for her to be right. Everyone knows her. Everyone's done with her. Yeah. Absolutely. But that's what I'm saying. It's like, you know, the chemistry piece is going to be the same, but it's going to be different because these players have changed a bit. True. Right? So I think that's going to be really something to look for with Connecticut like, you know, you look at it on paper and it's like, oh yeah, but then you look at it physically and it's totally a different story. With the way players have changed their skill sets and their confidence and their strength, all of that. And their ability. So I think it's going to be it's going to be interesting to see how she fits right back in physically. Like, on paper, makes sense. Physically, let's see what that looks like with all of the players and how they've evolved. Well, and she's going to have I mean, she's coming in probably at best as a 6 woman. And I'm not even sure she's going to take that spot because the teach I haven't split great since in the past couple of years. And what are you going to do? They have some pieces there that could fit in in front of Courtney Williams. I think it's about managing expectations to declare like that. Managing her expectations, managing your expectations and I think Kurt Mayer has a good grasp on how to deal with corporations. I'll say that. I think it'll be good. But John quell, man, I mean, you have to applaud her for taking less than the max. I know that's not necessarily everyone's first reaction, because everyone wants these parties to get paid as much as they can, but this whole team has sacrificed at least somewhat to get this group to have a chance to win the title. Next season. And she was the last piece of that. I think she deserves applause for coming back and sacrificing a little bit for the rest of the team. How about this? How about John Cole Jones, I mean, how much less money did she take? No, we don't. We don't know specifically. No. Significant? I don't know. I'm guessing it's not super significant. So like a list of, I'm just using a different example here from the sync. Okay. So Alyssa Thomas, she's getting paid 200 $1000 this year. And she the supermax this season is $228,000. So, you know, she took less, but at the same time, unless I Thomas was injured last year when she signed the contract. I would say it's somewhere between dewanna bonner salary, which is 227 almost 228,000. So just a shade under the max, and then some and then probably above Alyssa. So anywhere from 200,000 to the supermax. So maybe maybe it's 200 grand and it just depends. I got to look at the like we have a GM sheet. Yeah. The breakdowns. To see what their cross response. But it is going to be she's taking less, whatever it is. And why would she and explain to me and us? Why she would do that? Why does she need to do that? Why does she need to do that? Because this team would be, let's see, I'm going to tell you now, so I have about 500. If she took the full max, they would probably not have space for court loops, depending on what depending on what Courtney Williams are other offers are. Potentially, if they're bringing in Courtney at the minimum, that would be space for someone else like Brian January or any kind of free agent at that level. That would be to bring someone like that. So that's how you take a little bit less just because they do need a little bit of room. I haven't done all the math here. I'm sure. It's okay. I'm sorry, Richard Richard Cohen's on it. We'll find out. But no, I was thinking that it was because of Courtney, but I wasn't sure exactly. I don't think it was actually that. I don't think they would just do it for Courtney. I think it was more. It's more so like, hey, you know, I'm willing to sacrifice because of the rest of the team has sacrificed and we're here to win championship. And if this money helps us in any way, she may be willing to do it. But I don't know. I mean, I don't know. John Paul, John Paul seems like I don't know if you've ever talked to John Paul. Yes. She is the chillest person I've ever talked to in basketball. She is so just like easygoing, just willing to answer any questions and it's a credit to her that she's willing to do it. But more so just like it's an indication of her personality, that being said though. I think last year in the finals we talked about that personnel in the conference, the semifinals. Yeah. That kind of personality kind of hurt them a little bit outside. Yeah, yeah. And she is. I mean, she's a sweetheart. And, you know, when she played at GW, they went back to back when they were in the 8 ten. They run back to back 8 ten titles. I mean, she's from the DMV. So, I mean, just to see her evolve from Riverdale baptist to GW to now being all of that in the WNBA I mean her personality is has always remained the same. Oh yeah. So yeah, yeah. She's tough. Don't get that voice. I mean, she's KD esque. Okay, with her skill set, her ability to knock in those threes and get to the rim and like all that 6 6 come on. She's legit. She's legit. I was watching the 2019 finals. I watch it like, I don't know once a month now. I was watching games. I was like, I love it. Just like watching John quell battle, Emma, and just I miss those days. That was so epic. And hopefully there'll be a parade. I don't know. I mean, I'm not pushing it. I know COVID and all the variants I get it. Like, hey, the mystics deserve a parade for that 2019 run. I'm just going to put it out there, say what you want. I said what I said, so. I think they do too. You know, I was going to talk about Lana but we could skip over Atlanta for next. We're obviously we're D.C. far. Let's talk about D.C.. So my finds out, I was going to come on here and talk about a report saying that she has interest from Seattle Indiana, Minnesota, and New York, which all makes sense..
Locked On Women’s Basketball
"dewanna bonner" Discussed on Locked On Women’s Basketball
"It. If you enjoy it and two point six carbs and ninety five calories we can all enjoy the things a little bit more. This season and i don't really follow the mba playoffs. Very much i wasn't tulsa and of course the tulsa natives were watching closely that game seven against philadelphia. They were definitely the majority of them rooting for atlanta. But the reason i love atlanta right about now is because of l. dunkin of espn. Have you seen her tic tacs have. Y'all been seeing her videos. Have y'all been seeing her put on for the. at l. i love it. I love it. I love it i love it. So again. michelob ultra. It's worth it if you enjoy it and l. dunkin. Oh yeah we're gonna crack open amid ultra for you. Okay so i told you a little bit about. When i'm thinking regarding this voting i told you a little bit what i think about the snub conversation again. Y'all have got to check out dem peters. I have the link the here for you but Let's talk about players of the week Actually you know what. Let's do that in the next segment. We're going to get you players of the week we're going to get your roster updates in injuries just to clue this. Close this out with a nice bow again. I'm going to have the opportunity to hopefully ask commissioner engelbert a few questions so we're gonna get some updates there but I think you have to have a rega- on that all star team but delaney has to be there on just looking at the points leaders from this last week the players in the top ten that are available because they will not be playing for team. Usa jonquil jones mentioned her. She's at two twenty one point six points or against this. This can't be from last week. This has yet regular season leaders. Excuse me tina charles's leading twenty four point five points per game at the number one spot but she will be with. Usa be number. Two is jonquil jones. Already mentioned her number. Three is stuart twenty one point win points. She's averaging for seattle but with usa. Be number four already. Mentioned her Gabella with twenty point five points per game number five with nineteen point nine points per game almost at twenty. Exact is benign delaney. We mentioned her. Brittney griner at six scouting and smith at seven ariel atkins at eight. Jewell loyd at nine and asia wilson at ten a few other players that are at the leaderboard for right now. Nafisa collier is there. Tiffany hayes courtney williams. Now i heard that in some media. Availability basically atlanta is on this. If you don't vote courtney williams. You don't deserve a vote. She's thirteen points per game. Averaging sixteen point nine for atlanta marina. Mabry who i think should be considered right behind her. At sixteen point five dewanna bonner fifteen actually ahead of sylvia fowles kelsey. Mitchell's up their liz. Cambay bauge elo lists can beige in. Also we'll probably already be in. Las vegas will one because she plays for vegas but also i believe australia. And nigeria teams. That usa basketball is tuning up against so lots of things considered. But as i mentioned coming up next we're gonna talk about your players of the week as presented by the eastern and western conference. And then we're going to talk about games to watch for this upcoming week. Bet online is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. We know that baseball season is in full. Swing the w or excuse me the. Nba playoffs are just fed. Tastic the nhl playoffs and as i will be host of lockdown cracking. I'm definitely locked on those games. Islanders though who that was rough thousand tough one to watch so before you head over to those games good abet online on your laptop or your mobile device and checkout all the great sporting news sign on bonuses and contest information. Do not sit on the sidelines anymore. This is your chance to get into game as teams prepare to continue..