The Underrated

Is Angel Reese Really Ahead of Caitlin Clark for WNBA Rookie of the Year??

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Duration:: 11m
Broadcast on:: 12 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

What's up North America? I'm Dave Dibon. Thanks so much for tuning into the underrated pod. On today's show, I want to talk about Angel Reese vs. Caitlyn Clark for the WNBA Rookie of the Year. It is just flat out amazing how many people in the media have actually chimed in recently, and have actually come out on the side of one Angel Reese. In fact, a little earlier in the day, the good folks over at the mothership, that's our DSPN, released their latest study on this particular topic. They use three different metric categories to actually rate who the top rookie is in the WNBA. This particular report today when it came out, actually had Angel Reese first and Caitlyn Clark second. Look, I don't want to get into what makes the hot dog, so to speak, here, just simply to say that's what ESPN reported. Now, there have been several other people inside the media that have come out in support of one Angel Reese. And I just want to be really clear with everybody right now. I have seen every single Sky game and every single fever game this particular season, and I can confidently tell you, based on the attendance of the games, based on the all-star balloting, based on the fact that 2.1 million people showed up to watch the WNBA draft, that Caitlyn Clark is clearly this year's WNBA Rookie of the Year. Now, we can look at the stats and the stats are, you know, certainly interesting, and I'll read them to you right now. Reese is averaging 14 points a game, 11.9 rebounds, which, by the way, is super impressive, and 1.6 assists a game. Now, for those people out there that are just Caitlyn Clark, just Caitlyn Clark, just Caitlyn Clark, a lot of you will come out and say, well, that's because she misses her shots and she gets her own rebounds. Look, let's just not go there in this particular discussion. On the other side, Caitlyn Clark is up to 16.7 points a game. In her last game, she actually scored 29 points. I've said this all season about Caitlyn Clark. If she wanted to, she could be averaging over 20 points a game. Anyways, she's also averaging 5.9 rebounds a game, and more importantly than the rebounds is the fact that she's averaging 7.6 assists a game. Now, one of the other media members who actually came out in support of Angel Reese actually used turnovers as the reason that this particular person is sort of like the person whose name shall not be mentioned, but I'll mention it anyways is Skip Bayless, who earlier in the week actually said that he believes Angel Reese is the WNBA Rookie of the Year at this point. And the main reason he cited is Caitlyn Clark turns the ball over too much. They have to know that both the sky and the fever are not great basketball teams. There's a reason the fever, by the way, had the first draft pick in the WNBA draft skip. Now, as you have actually watched a lot of the games like I have, you would also know Skip that many of those turnovers quite frankly weren't her fault. Now yes, she has been careless at times, and yes, she has been too creative so to speak. But for the most part, you've got to like her creativity. You've got to like the fact that a rookie is trying to get her other the other players involved. Now, if she could just get the other players to stop bumbling the ball out of bounds, then that wouldn't be an argument that Skip Bayless can actually use. Now another person that came out in favor of Angel Reese, and this was last week, and this was Monica McNutt at ESPN. Now, I personally love Monica McNutt. I think she does an absolutely fabulous job in her role at ESPN. She's fantastic to listen to, but on this particular topic, she threw all of logic completely out the door. Her reasoning for actually taking Angel Reese, because at the time that she had this segment on ESPN, the sky were actually ahead of the fever by half a game in the standings. So she was simply using the standings to decide which of the two players, who were pretty evenly matched statistically, were using the standings to actually make that decision. Now, that's just ridiculous. I mean, just think about the NBA for a second. I mean, Chad Holmgren had, you know, he had a really good year. And when you pull up the Chad Holmgren statistics, you pull up the Wembley statistics, while Wembley's are definitely better, they're not that much better. And last time I checked, the San Antonio Spurs didn't come anywhere close to sniffing a playoff berth this year, did they? And the OKC Thunder ended up with the number one seat in the West. If we were to use Monica McNutt's strategy for deciding who should be a rookie of the year, then Chad Holmgren would have won in a landslide, which of course was not the case. Now, in terms of my personal opinions on this, and once again, I have sat through all of the sky games and all of the fever games this particular season. And I can tell you, as I mentioned, the attendance at the game has to factor into this. The fact that the all-star voting that Caitlin Clark had over 700,000 votes for the WNBA all-star game. If you compare that to the 2023 stats, Asia Wilson, who had the top number last year, only had 95,000 votes in 2023, 700,000 to 95,000 2.1 million people showing up to watch the WNBA draft, to sold out arenas, to larger arenas, to television ratings that the WNBA has never, ever seen, never, ever come close to sniffing before. The Caitlin Clark effect certainly should be part of the reasoning why people who have the actual vote to decide who the WNBA Rookie of the Year award is should be using that as a mechanism. Now, a lot of you out there are big Angel Reese fans, and I love Angel Reese's game. I think she's absolutely fantastic. And any other year that she entered the WNBA, she probably would have been Rookie of the Year. Plus, I also love the fact that she plays with a chip on her shoulder. I mean, in other words, if the WNBA were to re-hold their draft today, do you think Angel Reese would still go 7? And the answer to that is absolutely not. I just want to make sure that in this discussion, we are giving Angel Reese enough credit for what she has accomplished. Angel Reese herself had over 389,000 votes for the WNBA all-star game. 389,000 vs. 700,000. I'm just saying, if Caitlin Clark for whatever reason decided to not enter the WNBA this particular year, then certainly Angel Reese would win the WNBA Rookie of the Year in a landslide. But that is not the case. All of the attention, or at least 80 percent of the new attention that is coming to the WNBA can be directly attributed to Caitlin Clark. I want to point this out once again. If Caitlin Clark wanted to average over 20 points a game, she would be averaging over 20 points a game. Her head coach has got her to buy in to play in the team ball that they're playing. I've been saying since the start of the season that they needed to really just unleash Caitlin Clark and allow her to spread her wings before they concern themselves with the rest of the team. That's not how this is all played out to this point. But we see it night in and night out. She certainly has the potential. Now, she is only shooting last time I checked about 34 percent from the three-point arc, and that will certainly improve over time. You also have to remember that the Indiana fever have done a horrible job, especially early in the season, and actually even running any specific plays for Caitlin Clark. Look, they're still barely doing it today. I know at least 20 other coaches that would have probably done a significantly better job with this particular roster than the current coaching staff has. That being said, it is what it is, and I think when you factor all of the off-the-court stuff together with the impact that Angel Reese has had on the court, but then you look at the actual impact that Caitlin Clark has had across the entire, not just WNBA community, but across the entire basketball community, it becomes very hard to actually imagine a vote in which people don't actually hand the WNBA Rookie of the Year award to Caitlin Clark. All right, that is it for today's underrated. Hey, always fun just going off the cuff of love to know what you think North America couldn't drop in your comments when you have a chance. For the underrated, I'm Dave DeVaugh, wishing you all a tremendous rest of your sports viewing day to the guitar riffs we go.