Greetings my peeps and welcome to the All Things Basketball podcast with your boy GD.
In this episode I'll be going through Caitlyn Clark.
She's played two games already, one on the way.
So I will talk about all the critique, the criticism from the fans, from a myriad of
places.
I'll give my analysis of what's going on with her and might squeeze in another few news items.
So just sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
Okay guys, this is your boy GD back with the All Things Basketball with GD podcast.
I was going to hold off until the conference semifinals were finished but you know with
all the WNBA talk now, all the things circulating as far as Caitlyn Clark goes, I said you
know what, let me do an episode and kind of get some things off my chest in that regard.
So here it is guys.
So Caitlyn Clark, she has played two games already, one game on the road, her opener
which she started in Connecticut playing the Connecticut Sun and then a couple of nights
later she comes to Brooklyn.
No I'm sorry.
She goes and has a home game against the New York Liberty.
So I will talk about that and then all the criticism and everything else.
So her first game out.
Of course she had the jitters and she even expressed so.
And my new Connecticut Sun, one of the top teams in the East.
Remember guys, she is actually in the Eastern Conference in the WNBA.
So you have teams like Connecticut Sun, the New York Liberty, two of the top teams in
the East.
You also have there the Atlanta Dream, also the Chicago Sky is there and then the Washington
Mystics.
So that's your teams in that conference.
So of course she's going to start out with teams within the conference and it just happens
so happens to be.
She faced the two top teams.
And then remember guys, this schedule was put out well in advance right around I want to
say around.
It was just before or a little after the free agency period which starts like in February.
So around January, February, around that time.
So the schedule already laid out and and that's what it was.
And this is before we even knew where she was going in terms of teams and all that.
So once you set the schedule, that's it.
That's what it is.
Unless of course there's occasion, of course, we have the Indiana Pacers and the playoffs
doing well.
So things will get shifted around a little bit.
But that's probably the only caveat in terms of moving the schedule and so forth.
So I wanted to bring that up because it's why I'll talk about that later.
But nonetheless, so those were her first two games against the Connecticut Sun.
Here's her numbers.
20 points.
She did score.
A lot of it kind of in garbage time.
But her first basket was probably the easiest basket she'll get in the WNBA because you
have to remember.
Connecticut Sun is one of the top defenses in the league.
And they have a number of players who has pretty good defensively.
And she faced for the most part, DeGeney Carrington.
DeGeney Carrington was a player from last year who was a runner up in the sixth person
of the year coming off the bench.
But now she's been installed as a starter now.
Now that you had players being traded and you have another one retired as well.
So she moves up the depth chart and now she's a starter.
Which means she's being called upon to do a little bit more according to coach Stephanie
White who I listened to her press conference where she was talking about Carrington.
Where she has demanded of her to play a little more defense and be able to guard your man.
So DeGeney in her first game, her first assignment, Caitlyn Clark.
And she does it well.
She covers her pretty well.
She got a couple of steals off her.
So on and so forth.
So she played her very, very tough.
And it was mostly one on one.
They would switch off if she was to drive to the lane.
So help would come to kind of help out as far as Caitlyn drives to the lane.
Of course, the first basket that she scored, it was kind of a little late to the lane.
But nonetheless, she was guarded tough in that game.
That's what I'm trying to say.
So she has the 20 points, three assists.
She has two steals.
She had 10 turnovers guys, which tells me she was really forced kind of forcing the action,
so to speak.
So I, and the 10 turnovers for a rookie is actually a record, a record one would like
to have, but it's a record nonetheless.
She did shoot at five or 15 from the field, four of 11 from three.
So she did drop four threes in her first outing, which is good.
Perfect from the line six for six.
So all in all, it was, it was a solid outing.
If you take away the 10 turnovers, which is kind of hard to do, but it's a solid outing
and you would like to see that.
So we'll move on.
Oh, before I go on that game was watched by 2.3 million.
And this is the largest debut in terms of those numbers since 23 years ago.
So you're talking about some historic numbers here for Caitlin, her first time out.
Then game two, she does it.
She has it at home playing against the runner up from last year, the New York Liberty, New
York Liberty on their team.
They have a few pretty good defenders there.
I wouldn't say the backcourt is the greatest defensive backcourt, but Sandy Bronne Dello,
the coach over there said, you know what, let's take our best perimeter defender and
put her on Caitlin, which they did in Banaji Laney Hamilton, who last year I thought she
got Rob from being on the all defensive team.
Even first or second, I think she got Rob.
She's a very good defender guys.
And actually she got some votes for defensive player of the year.
That's how good she is.
So she was given the assignment of covering Caitlin, which she did very well also.
So much so, Caitlin in the game, just nine points, so 11 points less than her.
First outing, she did have six assists.
The turnover she cut down greatly, only three turnovers and then seven rebounds.
So and oh, by the way, in the first game, she had no rebounds.
So at least in this month, she was able to get in there and get some rebounds.
Again, she didn't see too much of a double team.
Every now and again, you'll see a player slide over somebody like a Kaila Thornton
would slide over and guard her.
And then after a while, when they saw they pretty much frustrated her, they ended up
putting Courtney Vandesloot on her, which, you know, she was able to get off some threes
against her drive on her.
And of course, Vandesloot, she's kind of long in the two-fin term and WNBA terms.
She's in her 30s.
So yeah, she's been around the league a while.
So Caitlin was able to get a little bit off on her, but not so much again, only the nine
points.
She was two of eight from the field, one of seven from three.
So she only made one three in that game and perfect from the line four for four from the
line.
So all in all, if we look at her numbers, only shooting 30% from the field, not great
from three point range, five of 18, that's not good.
That puts you in the 30ish range.
She is perfect from the free throw line.
So she's at least knocking down the free throws, so that's the good news there.
So with that said, those two games there, of course, the analysis is kind of all over
the place.
A few people I listened to and I respect.
Tariqa Foster-Brasby, she covers the Connecticut Sun, and she's on a few podcasts.
Her handle is she knows sports and she covers other than women's basketball, she covers
baseball and other things.
And she put it plainly, she was on the brother from another podcast and she said, listen,
we try to tell you folks, she was going to struggle.
And all in all, she has.
Why?
Because this is a league where you have women there, grown women playing that are not going
to let some rookie come in and show them up.
So you have that.
And also remember two guys that I think gets lost in the whole umbrella of analysis.
She's just less than two months away from competing in the NCAAs, guys.
She was over there competing there where you didn't have all these games so close together.
Right now, she scheduled to play Saturday in Barclay playing the Liberty.
Then two days from then, they'll go back to Indiana, host the Connecticut Sun.
Two days after that, she goes on kind of a road trip, a three game road trip where she
goes to Seattle 24th, the Los Angeles sparks.
And then she has a back to back to where she gets the sparks.
The next day she gets to defending champ, the Las Vegas aces.
So she's getting thrown right into the fire right off the start guys.
And then from the Vegas game, they get a little reprieve.
And then about three days later, they face the Los Angeles sparks in their arena.
And then they end the month playing the Seattle storm.
So I would say if I had to look at the schedule and kind of take a guess or two, maybe she
gets a win perhaps against the Los Angeles sparks.
I think that's her most likely chance of getting a win.
I don't see her beating Seattle.
I don't well, of course, the defending champ.
I definitely don't see that.
I don't see them getting the game against the Liberty or the Connecticut Sun.
So she probably will finish this month with a win.
And I would say eight losses.
And then of course, everybody is crying for her coach to be fired.
Christie Sides, which I think is a bit unfair.
I do think though, Christie Sides, I think it's incumbent upon her.
I understand she wanted to start of Erica Wheeler next to her because Erica kind of
taken Caitlyn under a wing, but I think you're at a point now where, and I was just listening
to actually Diana Tarasi, who, oh, by the way, seemed like she was right all along, guys.
It was going to be not so easy coming into the league.
She was right.
But the problem with people dated like how Diana said says it.
But that's Diana's personality.
She comes off that way and all the vets can tell you about their welcome to the NBA moment
that Diana Tarasi has given them.
So that's just the nature of Tarasi.
So I say that to say in the long run that first of all, Diana Tarasi has been in the
league.
This is her 21st year in the WNBA.
So don't you think she's seen players come and go and she knows the good ones and she
actually said it there.
She says she admires how she's taken tough challenges Caitlyn has and rise above it.
So I said from the outset that all this talk about her being a hater and all this was just
plain ridiculous.
And actually in my 200th episode when I was on the panel with my guys there, I mentioned
that what is the difference between critique and haterism and now that bears fruit today?
I mean, it was a honest critique.
And like I said, someone I followed, Tarika Foster Brassby, she said the same thing.
She said the very same thing.
We told you folks, the people who are the, you know, I'm on social media.
So I call them the ultra sensitive Caitlyn Hark sickle fans because there's no talking
logic to these people.
They think she's going to come into the W, drop 30 with seven threes per every outing.
That's not going to happen guys.
It's just not.
Well, it happened like in the long run, probably, probably she she's a student of the game.
She's going to figure these things out.
And you just got to give her a chance and I blame media too for putting this kind of
weight on this young lady's shoulders.
She's a 22 year old trying to figure out her way in a new league.
Give her some time.
Give her some grace.
And I say that not just for Caitlyn for all these rookies here.
Give them some grace guys.
We know this is going to be a fantastic rookie class.
We know this.
We just got to give it time.
They haven't even gone around once in the in the WNBA.
Give them a chance.
That's all that's all we're saying here.
I've heard Monica McNutt, the voice of the New York Knicks on the radio, who all by the
way, she covers the WNBA as well.
And she mentioned the same thing.
Caitlyn's going to be fine.
She's going to figure it out.
She's she's smart.
She studies.
She knows what she needs to improve on and so forth.
So figure these things out guys.
Let's let's let's be honest about it.
Yeah, I just listened to Sue Bird.
She was on Rich Eisen's show and she said the same thing about the huge pressure that
is put on Caitlyn Clark by the media, by her fans, that her delusional fans.
I'm not even saying the whole fan base is the ones that think that what happened there
will immediately happen in the W. And that's just not reality guys.
And just think about it like this.
You have a hotshot associate coming into a law firm.
They're not going to get the huge cases there.
Those are going to go to the partners.
They have to work their way in.
They have to earn their stripes, so to speak, to get the big cases.
And they'll probably work under a partner there, but they're not going to get big cases
where they they're the head of that.
That's not going to happen.
So just take it at any line of work that where you got a hotshot kid coming in, you're not
going to throw them in the fire right away.
You know, they're going to have to be seasoned.
They're going to have to learn their way around.
Even in department stores, you don't know where the laundry is from the men's belts.
You have to figure all that out.
So I'm just saying that to say there's a learning curve that must occur.
That must happen.
That's all that's being said here.
So with that said, and then also to the perfect model to well, early model at least, is Sabrina
and that's cool of the New York Liberty who came into the league.
She was drafted in 2020.
Her first three games looked like she was figuring it out.
And then boom, ankle sprain, a three green ankle sprain that knocked her out for what
was thought to be a month ended up being the whole season.
So then she comes back her following season and she has a rough go of it because, you
know, she's trying to acclimate herself back into playing.
And she had she had a rough go her second year.
And then the third year, that's where she you saw everything come together.
Am I saying it's going to take Caitlin Clark that long?
I doubt it.
I don't think it's going to take her that long.
But I'm just saying that to say that when adversity comes, it takes you a while to kind
of get your sea legs, so to speak.
So I think all in all, Caitlin is going to be fine.
She's going to figure this thing out.
And I just, I actually too think that the coach, Christy sides, I think she should probably
take her off the ball for the moment until she kind of get her feet wet.
She start her with a Grace Berger, who was a rookie last year.
And it seems like as the season progressed, she kind of found her way.
So I think maybe taking Caitlin off the ball will alleviate some of the pressure off of
her in the game.
So I think that's another option too.
And Grace Berger is somebody who can knock down the three as well.
You need somebody in there who's kind of a threat as well.
I think putting Caitlin in with a Grace Berger can kind of alleviate things and even help
the ladies inside, like Aliyah Boston, who's had an uneven start so far.
And also Melissa Smith, who's also in the interior.
So I think those are fixes that can help Caitlin at this moment, but I'd say take it easy,
guys.
One more thing before I go.
This is going to be a quick one.
But Colin Carr heard.
I heard him talk about this and I said, this is a guy who's been on TV, who kind of knows
the ropes.
He went and said that the league should have made the schedule easier for Caitlin Clark.
I'm like, where'd he do that?
The schedule is already set.
I talked about that earlier.
The schedule is set.
Everything's put in place.
How in the world are you going to fix the schedule to help out a rookie?
That's unheard of.
And for you to even mention that, would you say that about the kid Caleb coming into
the NFL, would you say that about him?
Would you say that about Victor Winmayama, that they should ease up the schedule for
him to make things easy for him?
No, you wouldn't say that.
It's a ridiculous take.
It's a garbage take for somebody of Colin Carr heard's caliber.
It's ridiculous.
And I can't believe it came out of his mouth.
All I'm saying is, let's give Caitlin some time, guys.
She's going to figure it out.
She's going to be fine.
And they'll be beneficial for the league.
So that's all I'm going to say to that.
All right.
So that was it.
I had some more things to say, but I'm just going to leave it at this.
All right.
Thank you for listening as always, guys.
Always appreciate it.
This quick, wanted to do this quickly because there's a lot of talk out there and I just
want to dispel kind of the notions that's out there.
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All right, guys.
So with that said, I thank you for listening as always.
Always appreciate your listenership.
It means so much to me and we'll talk soon.
Take care.