Good Game Spotlight: Full Circle

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're all
Hoopers and Hotties.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Today.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's Wednesday, April thirtieth, and on today's show, we're going
to continue introducing you to some of the other fantastic
podcasts on the iHeart Women's Sports Network. Today's new frontier
is Full Circle with Lexi Brown and Mariah Rose. We
mentioned their pod back in January as they got ready
to launch. You heard my live show with Lexi at
south By Southwest on our March eleventh episode, and she
and I got to hang out again at the Final four.

(00:26):
But we wanted to celebrate their show this week by
bringing you a full episode here in our feed.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Lexi is a.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
WNBA champ and hooper for the league Seattle Storm, and
Mariah is the sports media personality behind Hoops for Hotties,
aimed at teaching the girls, gays days, and substraight guys
too about sports. To get you prepped, Mariah was kind
enough to send us a brief rundown of what their
show is all about.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Take a listen.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
Tired of men dominating the conversation around women's sports, Well
so are we. That's why I'm Mariah Rose, Sports Media
personality and WNBA star Lexi Brown have teamed up for
Full Circle, a show dedicated to all things women's basketball.
After growing up surrounded by men talking about women's hoops,
me and Lexi are flipping the script. We're here to
deliver the latest news, bold takes, and behind the scenes

(01:10):
buzz from the women's basketball world, no filter, all facts.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Today you'll hear Full Circles April twenty third episode, and
Lexi gave us a little preview of what to expect.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
In this week's episode.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
We are talking about my first impressions of being in Seattle,
talking about the shift of coaching culture in the WNBA,
and we're going to give y'all a very analytical, stat
based preview of what we'd consider the Eastern Conference in
the WNBA. We hope that you guys enjoy this episode,
like and subscribe and tune into Full Circle podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
All right, slices.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
We're stoked to shine some light on Full Circle, and
we hope you're excited to listen that episode. But Lexi
and Mariah is coming up right after this.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Full Circle is an iheartwoman's sports production and partner with
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
Hi, everybody from Seattle.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I'm in Seattle, guys, welcome to another episode of Bee
Full Circle Podcast. I'm Lexi Brown. I'm here with my girl,
Mariah Rose. How are you doing.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
I'm so good, Lexi? How are you?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I'm good.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
The vibes are just very immaculate right now. I feel
it through the screen. What's going on?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
How is your weekend?

Speaker 5 (02:32):
Like? What?

Speaker 1 (02:32):
What?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
What is it?

Speaker 4 (02:33):
I think I'm just I think I'm just happy that
I had a weekend at home because I have been
traveling so much that I try in la the apartment.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, yes, but for a day.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
I got home on Friday, so technically I was in
Atlanta for the weekend.

Speaker 5 (02:46):
Okay, and it was the last time you spent a
whole weekend in Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Girl, I don't even know.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
But but I'm happy because I feel like I got
to I'm cleaning my apartment, I'm getting my life together.
I'm a person again. How are you settling in in Seattle?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, I just got here last night, and so far,
so good.

Speaker 5 (03:04):
It's energy here is amazing, Like it's actually probably the
best first twenty four hours I've had in any city
I've played in. Honestly, like the communication is on point.
They've picked me up at the airport. They didn't have
me waiting. All my stuff in my apartment was just
all set up and ready got They had a rental

(03:26):
cart waiting for me.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Today. I get to go to the facility tomorrow, so.

Speaker 5 (03:30):
I actually might go tonight and go just take it
all in before everyone else is there, So I might
go go get some shots up tonight on the shooting machine,
which like the fact that I can do that now,
like I literally can't believe.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
It, Like, isn't that horrible?

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Though, Like this is year eight, and I'm excited to
have a shooting machine.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
That I can to be able to go to the
gym at night, like.

Speaker 5 (03:56):
And you think about it, and it's just like we
should all have a gym to be able to go
to that night time. And yeah, now it's becoming like
a joke or whatever, like the players are like, oh,
we deserve better, and then they just ship you away.
Because I posted a TikTok yesterday. Actually I was gonna
bring that up, but you know what's funny, Sato commented

(04:17):
on it. And I went on her page and she
like literally posted like the same exact video like a
few weeks ago when she was in the hot tib At,
I think at her new facilities. I saw that one too,
but I didn't see that, so I went on there
and I commented last night, I said, God, don't even
see that you posted this. That's so funny that like
collectively were all feeling the same way about demanding more

(04:38):
and if your team just can't provide it for you,
yor just send you to a team that will. So
thank you La Sparks for sending me somewhere that will
take care of me. But it should be the norm
across the board that everybody should have facilities. And I
think we're getting there, slowly but surely, but we're getting there.
Speaking of TikTok, have you been reading any of the
comments of the last video I posted of us talking

(04:59):
about the international players?

Speaker 1 (05:02):
No?

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Okay, well I.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Would like to know what they're saying about us, Lexi.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
It's not even bad about us.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
I just feel like, first thing about social media since
I've been off X, like everything has just been rainbows,
butterflies and sunshines. I've been so much happier and my
mind is clearer, so.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
We'll start there.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
So when I bring these conversations to TikTok and I'm
just reading through the comments and people argue with each other,
I want everyone to collectively take a deep breath and
stop arguing so much under other people's posts. It's getting
out of control, especially when I can tell that neither
one of the parties involved are really understanding what's being said,

(05:43):
and then the plot gets lost. And so I do
want to clear up something that I think is like
being misconstrued. That conversation we had about the international players
and the rule change, the age change, So one of
the weirdest comments I saw was that the WNBA is
trying to bring European players because they want the league
to be more whitewashed. And I was like, do y'all

(06:06):
know there are not only white people that play and
live in Europe. We just drafted o European player that
is very much a black person.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
So that comment came.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Up a few times, which I thought was odd because
I was like, this has nothing to do with race whatsoever,
nothing at all. And then it was a back and
forth about you know how we're always just like oh,
everyone needs to stay in school. But then everyone's like, no,
they need to lower the age, and then it's like
people can't really pick a side. But I'm like, just
because the rule gets changed doesn't mean people have to
like leave.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
We were just saying that the option should be there.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
Yeah, if anybody does want to leave, because that's it.
But I just like, I was reading the comments and
I'm like, are you guys even understanding what we're trying
to say. And then they're like, well, they put a
cap on Americans in Europe, so we should put a
cap on Europeans here.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
No.

Speaker 5 (06:55):
I don't think that's the solution either, but it's it's
just like I'm always shocked at the lack of comprehension.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Online.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, I'm seeing them.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
I had to go look it up, and the main
thing I see is this conversation about it doesn't benefit
college players to come out and go to the w
early because of an il and blah blah blah blah,
And like you said, I think they're misunderstanding the whole
point of what we were trying to say. That is
just that the option should be there as far as
age and everything is concerned, and the amount of professionalism

(07:31):
that is occurring overseas in order for us to be
able to keep up with that on a basketball level,
because I think people forget that that part still exists.
I know about an IL, and I know that that's
an option, and I know that it makes sense.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
We've just had a million times it makes more sense
for them to stay longer.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
But basketball wise, and I think Sedona made us talk
about this age wise, Like we're talking about how like
if your people are younger, they're going to take people
who are younger with a better skill set over somebody
who's older, and it.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Might be riskier. Like that makes perfect sense.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
It's actually crazy how much of the conversation surrounding college
players now is anile based. We like very rarely hear
people getting into like real basketball talk when it comes
to these players in college. And I think, you know,
during this w season, obviously we don't have NIO. We're professionals,

(08:22):
so we'll be able to get into more like basketball
and analytic talk, which is what we're going to do
in a little bit when I introduce what we're going
to talk about later, but for next college season when
we're doing our show, Like I really want to get
into more like actual basketball talk.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Like speaking of nil and transferring.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
I think Jeniah Baker just committed to Tennessee. I saw
that today, which again further validates our point that everybody
going to the SEC. I'm very nervous for the ACC
and the Big Ten.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
I'm super concerned about the ACC.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
I think the Big Ten will be okay, the Big twelve,
they'll have a few, but as far as the ACC, like,
I'm just I don't know what they're gonna do. But
like do I don't know much about like how the
money and all.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
That stuff works.

Speaker 5 (09:07):
But it's just like y'all got to find some money somewhere.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Find it.

Speaker 5 (09:12):
I watched an interview with Coach Yo on Dejah Kelly's podcast.
She dropped a clip today and Coach Yo's is now
saying that the first thing she's asking her players is.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
How much money do you want? Dang.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
I can't believe this, and I know it's so it's
now I'm so beyond conflicted with this nil stuff now,
because how much money do you want? Like you average
three points a game, you should get twenty dollars?

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Like what do we?

Speaker 5 (09:42):
And I talked about it with Eric Wheeler when I
was with her, Like, it's not teaching these kids how
to like earn anything, battle through adversity, figure your shit out, Like,
unless you really are in a horrible situation at your school,
like you should, you should be encouraged and motivated enough
to try figure it out. I'm gonna die on this

(10:02):
new hill every every day. I'm building a new hill
to die on. Bring back that sit out rule unless
your coaches change or leave. If you leave and your
coaching staff is the same, you need to sit out.
Like it's getting ridiculous at this point. And now you
have players moving from team to team, and we always
talk about.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
The high school kids, but like, what about the kids
that are already on the team.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
Mm hmm, Like you got a new player who obviously
wants to come in and is obviously probably getting money
and promises, and they gonna come in and stomp all
over something that you've been building yourself.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
I'm not really here for that at all.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
So again, my concern with NIL and the transfer rules
and all of this stuff. The SEC about to become
the most dominant conference in basketball. My concern mainly is
with the level of play, because again, if the basketball
itself isn't good. You talk about all the time. The
shooting isn't the same in college anymore. These players are

(10:59):
going to be They're very young, they're not professionals yet.
It's going to get to a point where it's like
all of the talent's going to be concentrated in just
a couple of places. Everybody's just kind of playing around.
It's feeling very unserious, and like you said about I
want them to make their money. Like I don't even
want to sound like a hater. I think most people
are smart enough to comprehend that. We're not saying that

(11:20):
they don't deserve to make their money, but there needs
to be balanced there because at the end of the day,
the most important thing should not be going to the
school where I'm going to make the most money, and
if that opportunity is there, obviously they're going to go
to the school that's going to make them the most money.
As a fan of basketball, we need to start having
basketball conversations again, like you said, Lexi, next season obviously

(11:42):
we'll get very much into that and through w season
and everything. That's the whole point of us doing this.
But it's just unfortunate because those conversations are dominating the
media and dominating the actual college basketball landscape because everything
changes every year because everybody can move, right.

Speaker 5 (11:57):
So you can't even like build on anything that you
were talking about the year prior because that player is
not that school anymore. They're at a new school, and
then whoever was on that team, they had a new school.
So it's like, how do we even put together conversations
and meaningful dialogue when everyone is just bouncing around. And
that's the problem that was happening in the men's side,

(12:19):
and now it's slowly happening on the women's side, and
that is a little bit concerning for me for the
future of women's basketball because we're at this like tip
top of the mountain of momentum right now, and there
are decisions being made right now that could ruin the
momentum long term because now we're going to have the
same problem as the men's Nobody knows where anybody is

(12:40):
at school anymore. You can't grow and build with the
player because every year there at a new school, you know,
there's gonna be conversations that come out about this player
wanting money, this player is selfish and greedy, like it's
already happening with football, it's already happening with men's basketball.
So I hope that we're able to reel it in
a little bit for the sake of the future of
women's basketball, because because the thing that has made this

(13:02):
momentum happen is because for so many years there's been
like loyalty and growth and consistency, and now it's like
it's gone, Like all of those things are just gone now.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
And that's what people love about women's sports.

Speaker 5 (13:16):
And yes, make money, I love it whatever, but like
we still are not making that much money for us
to overcome the dark side of what all this is.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
If that makes sense, I think the solution to this
issue is I think that women are victims to the
fact that we aren't making enough money. We I am
not a professional athlete, but y'all are made enough money
off of what you do on the court in order
for that other stuff not to matter so exactly. Of course,

(13:46):
and Olivia Miles might chase the situation where she's going
to be the girl and the main person on the
team when that Hailey vanleth is gone, because imagine how
much money you can make when they come to do
the Adidas commercial. Guess what, you're not sharing your salary
with somebody else. We have to kind of make these
decisions because at this point, these college kids could bring
in generational type of wealth and they're not going to

(14:07):
turn that down when let's be real, the salary in
the W is it alone? Is it going to allow
them to do that? And on top of that, then
you have to go and do all of this extra
stuff in pr and commercials and social media and all
of these things that are taking away from the actual
basketball being played, which is what we really should be prioritizing, right.
And it's not just basketball either, it's all women's sports

(14:28):
because most women in sports are making most of their money,
you know this, off the court, and so the more
you're putting into stuff off the court, the less you're
putting into on the court stuff. And so if they
want that level of competition to continue the way it
has been, then the money for actually playing basketball needs
to rise or else.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
I mean, and it is about to.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
But the thing about it is you don't get paid
for your performance on the court in college. So I mean,
assuming best case scenario with our new CBA, that money
goes up then I feel like some of those problems
will be resolved. Again, I don't think that's ever going
to change about women's sports. Is doing all the extra
stuff off the court. I think that's just reality. But
like also I think women are just more marketable. It

(15:11):
might be more fun to work with. Even like when
I'm working with companies and brands, like almost everybody that
I've worked with on content and commercials and photos, it's
all women. Like I don't know if that's because like
I'm a woman, so they bring women in and as
vice versa. But it's like women are truly dominating this
space right now. So I don't think that's ever going
to change. But like you said, like you have to

(15:33):
still put the time in on the court, like the
main thing is the main thing, if that's what you
want to do. Yes, they're probably a good amount of
girls that probably do not want to be in the WNBA,
and that's fine, but like the ones that do, like
y'all still gotta fine time to get that extra work
in because there is a whole bunch of other girls
maybe not doing as much as you off the court,

(15:53):
but are putting that time in in the gym and
when it comes to be a professional.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
It's about putting the ball in the basket.

Speaker 5 (15:59):
Like, yeah, it's marketable if you have followers, dah da dah,
that's all great. But at the end of the day,
can you put the ball in the basket? Can you
help the team win? And that's what it comes down
to at the pro level, And I hope and I
don't want to have situations every year where you have
these popular players not getting an opportunity or not making
teams because they're not ready because they didn't put.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Enough time in the gym.

Speaker 5 (16:22):
So I just don't want that to happen because I
feel like we're finally getting like a balance of like
popular players with good brands, but they're also very talented
and ready to go.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
So I just hope that we don't lose.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
That because it is it is a very violent jump
from college to w like extremely violent, and women are
in like you're with grown as women now like fighting
for their livelihood and like this is our jobs. So yeah,
I mean, I wish them the best. I do sometimes

(17:00):
feel bad for the coaches in college right now, and
like I don't know how they are doing their jobs
right now.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
With all of this movie.

Speaker 4 (17:09):
I feel bad for coaches in sports in general. Recently,
I feel like coaches don't at least like a high
school I feel like your coaches everything, they run everything,
they can tell you what to do, they say run,
you say how fast whatever.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
I feel like as.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
Of recently, the coaches are just they're change over, disposable.
The w fired half half of the coaches at the
end of last season.

Speaker 5 (17:32):
And NBA coaches are fire of them grateful for playoffs.
Like what I think is starting to happen with coaching.
I personally never ever wanted to be a coach in
my life, but what I'm seeing based on my experiences
with coaches and now how the game is played now
and like everybody got a trainer.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Everybody's a trainer.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
You have access to all these videos and analytics and stuff.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
You can really do like almost anything. You're at this point.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
What I'm saying now that coaching is going to transition
to is I think at some point the WNBA in
the NBA is going to be at least like eighty
percent former players as head coaches. And I feel that
way because we don't have to depend on these older
people that have never played before. But because there's well,

(18:23):
we we're so knowledgeable. We've been around this, we've been
around that, Like okay, well now we all have access
to everything, Like there's really nothing that these older coaches
can teach us that we can't find on our own
at this point. Also the style, the communication style, mental health,
all those things.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
They don't know what to do with any of that.

Speaker 5 (18:40):
Like all they want to do is scream at us
and yell at us and not communicate with us like.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Adults and like as equals.

Speaker 5 (18:46):
Like that's really the main thing is, like these leagues
are transforming into like more player led and like player centered.
So I'm like slowly seeing like these older coaches like
getting phased out, like one at a time, you and
the NBA, And.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's very interesting to me.

Speaker 5 (19:03):
I've never had a former coach, as I mean a
former player as a coach before, so this will be
my first time playing for a former WNBA player. So
I'm really excited about that because I'm such a nerd
when it comes to basketball. I love film, I love learning,
and I just have never had a coach that hasn't
been like offended by that.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Like, yes, I might know a little bit more than you,
so you're still my coach.

Speaker 5 (19:28):
I respect you, but respect but respect me back, and
don't be mad that I have a question about something
or I have a suggestion about something. Like It's never
been malicious or disrespectful, but my entire career, I've always
butted heads with my coaches because I want to I
always want to learn, but.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
They come, be a sponge. Be a sponge.

Speaker 5 (19:49):
Oh I'm trying to be a sponge, and then you
don't want me to be one. So, from a spectator standpoint, like,
can you tell the difference between how coaches coach that
are former players versus like just coaches, Like can y'all
even like tell the difference?

Speaker 4 (20:03):
I feel like there's a noticeable difference when the players
are buying into the system that the coach is implementing,
if that makes sense. I don't know if it's more
so whether you played professionally before or not.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Thing.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
I feel like it's a case by case basis with
coaches and how much they can connect with their players.
But it's very obvious when you have a situation where
the players are not buying into the system and they're
kind of doing their own thing, and it's obvious that
they're butting heads with what they're supposed to be doing
on the court and a team where everybody's buying in

(20:37):
because it's all about culture in a locker room and
on the court, right. So I don't know if that
has to do with your star player. If your star
player doesn't want to listen to the coach and isn't
abiding by what the coach is doing, then nobody really
is able to If the coach nobody really takes them seriously,
nobody's really going to listen.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
So I feel like that's a mess.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
I was curious for you as far as a player,
because for me as a fan, a lot of times
when I see a coach getting fired or whatever, usually
the first thing that comes to mind for me is
the coach is kind of being scapegoaded.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
They're not actually the.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
One playing once, Like, they can tell you what to
do all they want, but they're not out there playing.
But I'm curious, from a spectator's standpoint, what role does
a coach play in the team's success or lack they're are?
How important do you feel like the coach really is.

Speaker 5 (21:21):
I think for me, since I've been on like so
many different teams with so many different dynamics. Like I'll
actually like give like full blown examples. So when I
was in Connecticut, you know, I kind of just wasn't
like involved at all with like anything that was going on.
Like I just like would show up to practice and leave,
Like I just I literally was like I don't know
what's going on here. And then you fast forward to

(21:43):
the season before they made the coaching change. Like remember
in the finals or the playoffs when Kurt was in
the huddle and he was like, I'm gonna lose my
job if you guys don't make layups, like and that
clip like went viral because they got it on the mic.
Then he was just like I'm gonna get fired because
y'all can't make layups. And it's like at that moment,
like everybody knew like he had lost the team. Like

(22:05):
I agree with you, like you can tell when a
team is like off the coach and like like a mutiny,
damn near. And that's kind of what happened in Connecticut
and that's why he got fired. But like I was
there at the very beginning of that, and it was
just like so I wasn't necessarily surprised when that happened
in Connecticut, and then I'll talk about when I was
in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
You have a team full of Vets ready to win.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
You know, the season didn't really start off very well
for us at that time.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
I wasn't on the team at that rough patch.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
But you have two players, brilliant players and Cannas Parker
and Courtney vanderslout right, So their minds are always turning,
They're always having conversations, they're always talking to coach, They're
always talking to each other, they're always talking to us.
So that there was like a power struggle there for
a little bit of like, okay, sloopmin with Chicago for
X min years. Candace just got to Chicago. Everyone is

(22:56):
expecting a championship, and then you have the coach balancing
to the big Hall of famers, So that dynamic takes time.
And then you know, we got to the playoffs and
I don't want to say James like relinquished his power
to us, like the team, I mean, but he kind
of was like, all right, like we made it to

(23:16):
the playoffs barely. I'm gonna let y'all rock and we
gonna we're gonna roll with what y'all want. To do. Basically,
we have like this meeting and it was like a
great meeting, but like basically he was just like, like,
we can win, but we gotta like we got to
meet in the middle. But it was more like he
met us like the majority of the way, and then
we met him a little bit and then we ended

(23:36):
up winning. So really it's like, how good of a
relationship do your star players? How with your coaches and
your coach's coaching staff, and that it matters like and
then you're basically people say like your point guard is
the extension of your coach, which yeah, that's true, but
I also think like your superstar is also an extension
of your coach. So you have to be able to

(23:57):
communicate things that maybe they don't know how to communicate things,
maybe they don't feel like they need to communicate. Some
conversations need to be had amongst teammates privately or in
front of everybody, whatever you want to do. But those
conversations in that relationship I think is the biggest part
of building a successful team and building a winning culture,
Which is why I couldn't figure my shit out in

(24:19):
LA because every year it was a new coach that
I was trying to build a relationship with, and then
a whole new group of players that I was trying
to build a relationship with, and that's not like the
recipe to be successful. So as much as I would
never want to be a coach, I respect the hell
out of them.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
I think they're necessary to win games.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
Sometimes you're like, oh, this team is like coaching themselves,
but like, yeah, like, but a good coach puts a
team in a situation to be able to just like
run on autopilot.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
So I do think coaches are important.

Speaker 5 (24:49):
I'm very excited to be coached by a former player
because we just think differently.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
And some of these coaches like, oh, yeah I played,
who know, No, you did it. I don't believe you.
I don't believe in it. Coaches that were like yeah
when I was, you know, and I know that was
like a thousand years ago. I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
I'd like what you said about star players and coaches
because they are an extension of the coach, because they
are they set the culture in the locker room when
the coaches around, when the coaches around, Really, I feel like,
especially younger players are looking to the star player more
than they're looking at a coach. And I feel like
organizations they see their star players as anchors and their franchises,

(25:28):
and they see coaches as disposedball. Like you talked about
your situation in LA, I feel like, what's it like
when y'all know the coaches about to get fired?

Speaker 5 (25:38):
Man?

Speaker 3 (25:39):
What's that Like's that like?

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Listen? I will tell another story about LA.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
So my first year in LA, when Derek Fisher was
still the coach, I forgot where we were, but we
had just lost a game that we probably shouldn't have lost.
And it's just not funny, because coaches getting fired is
not funny, guys. But it's just like the way that
professional sports just operates at times is very unserious and

(26:07):
if any other I mean, I feel like maybe some
people get like blindsided when they get fired.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
From their jobs or whatever. But like the way, the time,
the energy.

Speaker 5 (26:15):
The relationships you have to build in these professional sports
and the way that they're just like get out is
so crazy to me.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
So I think we end up we lost the game.

Speaker 5 (26:23):
I can't remember if we were on the road or not,
but we're in the locker room dead silent fish walks
in doesn't say anything, just brings us in for the
huddle and just like walks out of the locker room.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
And that was it. And then I was like the
last time we.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Saw it, so he there was no I'm not coming back.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
It just just break.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
He just walked in, he said bring it in. He
was like, this works, and then left and then boom fired.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
That's so awkward.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
And then after your coach is fired and they bring
in an interim or whatever.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
So the assistant just moves up to place. And then
at that point you're just kind of like that, like
no one ever talks about that coaching time period because
you're in such an awkward situation and the team is
in such an awkward situation, like someone just lost their
job and now you're just like filling in for them,
Like do you implement your own offense defense? Like how

(27:20):
much time of the season is left? Like am I
interviewing for the head coaching job right now? Or is
this just temporary? So do I want to show all
my cards just for them to not keep me anyway,
which is what happened in LA.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
They ended up not keeping.

Speaker 5 (27:33):
Fred as our head coach after he actually did a
pretty good job considering all the nonsense we were dealing
with that season. But it's like that's like a very
unspoken about process for coaching staffs and players. It's like, Okay,
your head coach just got fired, but like, okay, now
you got to listen to this new person, and god forbid,
you don't have a good relationship.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
With that assistant coach.

Speaker 5 (27:55):
Thankfully I did, but there was some players on the
team that like didn't.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Then now they're in Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
I'm wondering that right now watching the NBA playoffs are
on right now and thinking about Denver and Memphis. Your
coaches just got fired and you're in the most important
part of the season, Like yeah, I feel like that's
really important.

Speaker 5 (28:13):
It's crazy, and then you just have to like go
about per usual, be the professional that you are the
whole time. You really still like because nobody ever comes
in and sits the team down and lays out, Okay,
this is what he was doing right, or this is
what she was doing right, this is what she or
he was doing wrong, and this is what y'all are
doing right, what y'all are doing wrong. There's no conversation

(28:34):
about anything.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
You just have to move on. At least not in
my experiences.

Speaker 5 (28:38):
That could be different for other players' experiences, but I
just feel like it would benefit to have some type
of meeting or conversation to lay out what led to
this decision instead of just being like, this is the
decision we made and just get over y'all selves. So
it's always extremely interesting that power struggle of coaching in

(29:00):
front offices, which is why I also think that leagues
like athletes are limited and unrivaled everyone loves so much
because that that dynamic is gone, Like you don't deal
with that at all. Like athletes unlimited, we don't even
have coaches. We don't have coaches at all. We have
facilitators who are like many coaches, but there's no coach's

(29:21):
favorite coaches yelling at you.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
We don't got a GM.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
Play this person, don't play that personal were trying to
trade this person? Like there's none of that going on.
Athletesulimited unrivaled is a little bit different because they do
have coaches, but like, you're not gonna.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Get fired in the middle of the unrivaled season.

Speaker 5 (29:36):
There's no GM, like your team is what it is,
and like the environment is just completely different. So I
feel like that is also why fans and players have
found like more enjoyment in the off season leagues because
that whole political negative side of bowing down to the

(29:57):
front office has been removed. And I hope like the
w NBA is watching these two leagues and they're seeing
like how the players are interacting with each other and
how the level of play is elevated. Like I think
there is a direct correlation between like happiness and playing well,
like you know, like look good, play good. It's like,
so I'm hoping like we're going to implement, you know,

(30:18):
a less toxic environment in professional sports, but like I
don't know, I don't know if that's possible with the
people in charge unfortunately, because they don't understand what it's
like to be in these situations.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
Why do you feel like there was so much turnaround
with coaching last season in the W Yes.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
Well, I think that there's more eyes, which led to
like more criticisms, which I remember literally telling our GM
and coach last season to get off Twitter because I
could tell that they was looking on it. Like I
was like, y'all need to get off the internet, like enough,
because I remember Kurt like got himself in trouble tweeting

(30:58):
about some like you don't oh these.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
People on an explanation, You're the coach.

Speaker 5 (31:02):
So it was like we would wake I would wake
up and obviously a tweet so look good. He tweeted,
like why are you tweeting responding to what people are
saying online? And like that's something that I had to
learn myself, and like it was like I was like funny,
ha ha, like get off Twitter, But I like Loki
was dead ass serious, because why are y'all doing that,
Like y'all are in the positions y'all are in because
y'all are qualified and y'all earned it, and that's what

(31:24):
y'all want to do. Like why are you looking at
what anybody is saying on the internet.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
So I think that had a huge part of it.
It's like you had more eyes.

Speaker 5 (31:31):
So people were like very critical of what was going on.
And I think everyone is just kind of like gearing
up for this new era of WNBA and you have
to put the right people in the right places. You know,
these teams, like I said, drafting intentionally. Free agency was
very intentional. So I think they were just putting the
right coaches and the right situations, and then gearing up

(31:52):
for potential changes, like we're talking about the more European
players possibly coming over a lockout. Hopefully not, but like,
there's just a lot of moving pieces, and I think
the best time to make like massive changes was right now.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
I remember being in the league eight years now.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
It's been like a carousel of the same coaches bouncing
around from this team to this team. And this team
you have a losing season, Oh, who cares, We're gonna
hire you over here.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Oh your whole team turned against you.

Speaker 5 (32:18):
Cool, we're gonna hire you and Steve, you can do
something different on this team. So it's been nice to
see new people being hired, especially from like the NBA side.
I love that some college coaches have come up, because
you know, everyone is like up in arms that Don
Staley won't leave South Carolina, But I'm like, but there's
other coaches that will leave their colleges to come be
in the w So I'm happy that a few of

(32:40):
those coaches have come to coach in the WNBA. So
I'm actually really excited about this season because there's so
much change, Like every team is different except for the
Minnesota Links.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, I used to go team, which makes sense.

Speaker 4 (32:54):
You know how I feel about going to the finals
and changing your whole team up because you lost.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
I know, I hate that.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
What are you looking forward to the most? And I'm
curious because I know if it were me. I know
when I was in high school the last time I
was an athlete, every season I had a game circle.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
You got any game circle?

Speaker 2 (33:22):
You know what game I have circled? Riah, do you
already know?

Speaker 5 (33:26):
But what I did find out yesterday is we have
a close scrimmage in La early May, so I can
get all that bad you do out in private.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
So when we have the real game, it'll be.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
All just fun.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, it'll be all shits and gigs.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
Actually, this is how I wanted to kind of break
down the W season these next two episodes. This episode,
I want to talk about the East Conference teams, even
though we technically don't have conferences anymore, but this is
the easiest way to break them up, and then next
week we can get into the West.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Is that cool?

Speaker 3 (33:55):
I'm excited?

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (33:56):
Okay, all right, in the Eastern Conference. If you guys
don't know, let's give the listeners a little history lesson.
There was a time where the WNBA operated Eastern and
Western Conference in playoffs.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Okay, that used to be a thing.

Speaker 5 (34:10):
I think that the Western Conference became too dominant, I
want to say, which is kind of what we're seeing
in the NBA. I wonder if they'll ever pivot out
of the Eastern versus Western and just go one through.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
They copy y'all with the Ncson Tournament too.

Speaker 5 (34:25):
So okay, back to the WNBA and the Eastern Conference.
We have the liberty, the fever, the dream, the sun,
the sky, and the mystics. Okay, So this is how
we're going to have this conversation. We're going to go
through if they had a coaching change or not, any
of their major personnel changes, not including the rookies. Okay,
I'm not really gonna we talked about the rookies last week.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
I don't really know enough about them all yet.

Speaker 5 (34:49):
So we're going to acknowledge that they got rookies, but
we're going to talk more about their returners, cool potential
play style changes, and then as far as my basketball
nerds like me, I'm going to use three stats that
I looked up on the WNBA page. Which is effective
field goal percentage, which is your field goal percentage, and
it calculates it a little differently because it includes three

(35:10):
point percentages, and it like weighs it a little bit
higher because they're worth more points. Their pace, which is
how fast you play, and then their net rating, which
is your offensive rating minus your defensive rating, which is
like you basically will be like your point differential.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Okay, all right, everybody keep up.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
I'm so excited.

Speaker 5 (35:28):
First team we'll talk about is Indiana Fever. They were
first in effective field goal percentage, second in pace, and
sixth in net rating. New coach Stephanie White, who came
from the Connecticut Sun, and some notable personal changes is
the additions of Natasha Howard, Sophie Cunningham, Breonna Turner, Dawanna Bonner,
and Sidney Coulson.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Thoughts, Mariah, Well, we've talked in length about the Indiana
Fever and what they did in the offseason, but I
think they obviously are taking winning and capitalizing all of
this Caitlin Clark moment.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
They have going very.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
Seriously and I feel like this is exactly how you
are You're supposed to react to having a star like her,
and they made the playoffs. She was rookie of the
year she had a great year, Like this all makes sense.
I'm excited for them. The coaching change, I think is
going to be really big. Poor Connecticut.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
There in the East, we'll get there in the Sea,
We'll get to them. Yes, but I think that it's
going to be really exciting.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
I don't I'm not going to call them championship contenders
or anything.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Like that, but I think that it's going to be.
You think that they're.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Contenders, Yes, I do. I'll tell you why.

Speaker 4 (36:32):
Wait wait, wait, wait, let's talk about this for a second.
When I say championship contender, I mean I would bet
my own personal funds that they are going to win
a championship. I guess contending means they could. But like
I call, I think a contender is like, I will
put you in there right now today, I think you
will win.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
I guess my contenter means get to the finals.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, get to the finals. Gets to the
finals is a ya.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
And I'll tell you why.

Speaker 5 (36:57):
I think that there was a lot of misconception about
Kaitlyn Clark's overall game. I think that people got so
caught up in her scoring that they didn't realize how
good of a point guards she was in college, so
I think that.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
Well, not to interrupt to but she didn't get the
opportunity to show that as much in college because that's
much exactly.

Speaker 5 (37:20):
But the plays that she was making still despite all that,
was like insane. But like people were so caught up
in the logo threes and the twenty three point attempts
per game, which absolutely I understand that, Like it was
so much fun to watch. But I always said she
could potentially be one of the best point guards to

(37:41):
ever play in the WNBA, and everyone was like, shut up, Lexi,
and I was like, all right, led the league and
assists last year as a rookie, which is incredible. So
I think after you know, they take the inventory of
this season, you look at what you have, they said,
we need to give her a more elite supporting cast

(38:02):
and potentially not as many players that need to be
spoon fed buckets.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
So that's no disrespect to anybody that was on her
team last year.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
Like obviously they made the playoffs, they'd had a great season,
but you have a Natasha Howard and a Dewana Bonner
that can just straight up go get their own bucket,
and they're huge Okay, these are tall people. Okay, guys,
I think they're both like six three and sixty four, right,
so matchup nightmare. Sophie Cunningham has been playing out of

(38:29):
position in Phoenix for like three years, so she probably
will get to go play the three again. She's a
very underrated defender, and now you have very elite rimt
protection and breed turner. So now you go keep a
Leah Boston out of foul trouble, which means she's gonna
be at to stale on the court.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
So do I think that they are contender? Yes? I do.

Speaker 5 (38:48):
Then you throw in Sid Coulson, who is a very
very very very solid backup point guard and she plays defense,
so you can even.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Throw her out there with Caitln.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
Kayln can chill on defense for the most part, because
defending the one is not easy.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
And it's not.

Speaker 5 (39:04):
Because you can't stay in front of people. It's because
all they do is get freaking high ball screens constantly
and it's hard to navigate those at times, especially when
the screener is six five. So yes, I do think
they're a contender because they strategically gave Caitlyn Clark a
very very very well balanced team where she won't have

(39:27):
to carry as much as the load I don't think,
and she can fish. She'll probably end up facilitating even
more than last season. And then I didn't even talk
about I didn't even mention Kelsey Mitchell. I can't believe
I forgot to mention Kelsey Mitton. All I do is
talk about her constantly. I have my notes right here.
I didn't even put Kelsey Miss's name on there, Like,
I'm so sorry, Kelsey.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
She might be the most important returner.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
I also, you make a really good point about defense
and Caitlin being able to preserve herself on that side
of the court, because that is really really dangerous because
one I don't think she's ever had that ever, and
two they also have to protect her as far as
staying healthy.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Exactly? Have I convinced you you.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
Make great points, really make great points. But we shall go.
We shall continue on.

Speaker 5 (40:10):
Okay, Well, speaking of contenders, we're gonna talk about the
current WNBA.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Champs, the Liberty.

Speaker 5 (40:15):
They were third in effective field goal percentage, seventh in pace,
and first in net rating.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
And don't let.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
That confuse you, because every time we played the Liberty,
Like we were like they don't really like.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Playing defense like that, which they don't.

Speaker 5 (40:30):
They just scored way more points than everybody, so yes,
they have the number one net rating, but like, let's
not get it confused, like they're not locking up.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
They wasn't locking up on defense.

Speaker 5 (40:39):
Which with that being said, the additions that they have
added might have them us. Yes, so they didn't make
a coaching change. They added Natasha Cloud, Isabelle Harrison, and
Marine Johannes decided to come and play, which is so
fun for all of us to chase that girl around.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
And and someone that.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
Probably everyone has forgotten about is Rebecca Gardner. She's been
out with injury. She was on the Chicago Sky now
she's on the Liberty. She, if everybody remembers, was the
oldest rookie ever. Everyone just reminded us constantly how old
she was a rookie.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
So love that for her. We played together in Israel.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
She's a very smooth player, she's a great defender, she's
super athletic, very underrated. So them adding Rebecca as well
is huge for them, especially defensively.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
But I'm interested to see how Tash.

Speaker 5 (41:30):
Intermingles with this group. We watched Tash and Sabrina play
pretty well together and unrivaled, because I remember we mentioned
that a lot while ago that tashould probably try to
get on the Liberty because her and Sabrina got a
good little thing going on.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
I can't believe, like we call that that literally and
it took a minute for it to happen.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
But I'm happy for her.

Speaker 5 (41:50):
So am I and I know that, Like remember we
would always talk about like the Liberty, like as good
as they were, they kind of like lacked like a
real personsonality And that's why they made Ellie like the
face of the Liberty. Ellie is their mascot, guys, by
the way, which she is amazing and has been actually

(42:11):
so great for the Liberty and the WNBA.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
But I don't like that.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
Their forward facing thing is their mascot and not one
of their players. I've always thought that was interesting to me.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
I kind of love that for them, especially being in
a franchise like New York and it's so forward facing
and it could be so marquee and this that and
the third they.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
Just want to hoop like they're not.

Speaker 4 (42:34):
I see that they're not stressing all that other stuff.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
They really just get to chill and play basketball.

Speaker 4 (42:39):
Right, They're like, let let Ellie go do the press
tour and go.

Speaker 5 (42:46):
I never thought about it that way, like the fact
Ellie like, yeah, I used to think it was weird,
But I'm like maybe they liked, like maybe they asked
for it to be like that, Like that wouldn't actually
surprise me considering who's on the team, Like they are
a very marketable.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Group Stewie signature shoe.

Speaker 6 (43:02):
Yeah, they already are doing their thing, They're making their
money on and off the court, and they still get
to just hoop and kind of stay out of having
to do all that face the franchise extronists and just
and go win the championship.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
I would have preferred that.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
That's actually a great point, especially in New York.

Speaker 5 (43:21):
Okay, all right, Mariah, you you have turned me because
I used to kind of have an attitude because I
was like, why do we see the elephant one of
the players. But that makes sense and that's why they
probably freaking we.

Speaker 4 (43:32):
Still the players just enough at the parade.

Speaker 5 (43:35):
Facts with their championships and everything. I think that Tash
is going to be a great addition. She's going to bring,
you know, a different type of personality, a toughness, and
I think that I always said Sabrina plays well with
an elite point guard. So going from one elite point
guard to the next, and from Cody Matter, salute to

(43:56):
Natasha Cloud. So I'm excited about the Liberty. I'm very
excited for Natasha and let's see if they can defend
that title. Next we have the dream At Yeah, oh yeah,
this is your team. Well technically mine too, but they
were last in effective field goal percentage, eleventh in pace,

(44:17):
and seventh in net rating. I we lost to the Dreams.
I think every time we played them, which I was like, how, like, well,
I don't know, like they had our number for some reason,
like it was crazy. New coach coach Smessko. I want
to say, his last name is Believe. He's from Florida
Golf Coast and if I remember watching any type of
Florida Golf Coast, they like to run running gun, which

(44:40):
will fix their pace problem. Their major additions were Bree Jones,
Tory Walker, kimbro and Brittan Grinder. So my only question
is what type of play style are they going to run?
Because you have two very dynamic scores and Ryan Howard
and Alisha Gray. You have a point guard that wants
to push pace in Jordan Canada, and now you add

(45:02):
these ginormous players that are pretty limited, not in like
skill set obviously, but like traditionally, they're very limited. They
neither one of them really shoot threes. They don't handle
the ball, which is basically what those positions are transforming to,
slowly but surely.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
So I'm very interested to see where they.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Land, what the identity is gonna be.

Speaker 5 (45:24):
Yeah, because we watched and we'll talk about Dallas next week,
we watched that double big experiment in Dallas fail miserably.
So I don't know if they're going to do the
double big thing in Atlanta or if they're going to
play them one at a time. I'm talking about Big
and bri Those are two players that typically have been

(45:45):
one of the focal points of an offense, and I
can see them being like the third or fourth option
on this team. So Bigi's used to playing with the
dynamic score and Diana Tarassi as far as like outside shooting,
Bree not so much. That's always what Connecticut's Achilles Hill
was their lack of perimeter consistent three point shooting.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
So maybe it will benefit Bree having.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
A completely change of scenery as far as personnel and
play style. I mean, I think Beg's going to be fine,
like she's BG. But they surprised me last year. I
thought they were going to be better than they were.
I think they were right there at the playoffs. They
almost made playoffs.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
I will say, as we spoke about earlier, we saw
this in the MMBA with the Pistons. A coaching change
at the right time to build a new culture.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
You know what I'm saying might be.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
The move I believe.

Speaker 5 (46:36):
I mean, I believe in them, and I love playing
in Atlanta even though they're like we have the most
sold out games in the league. Well yeah, because your
arena holds twelve people. So like their games are lit
because I remember growing up they played in the big
arena where the Hawks played, and those games were.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Lit, and they had.

Speaker 5 (46:54):
Like a down time where the games were in that
smaller arena and nobody was in there. And now it's
packed out every night, which I think is amazing, and
the energy is very Atlanta, like it's Atlanta down in there, Like.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
It's so funny.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
You know, it sucks and this is it. I'm not
even come for the Dream. I see.

Speaker 4 (47:11):
I see beautiful things for them this season. But I
was going to respond to all those things you said,
was I feel like this mystery of there's all these
options of what they could do and who the focal
point could be and what could possibly happen, just means
that we'll have options Lexi.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Yeah, lots and lots of pop shots.

Speaker 4 (47:28):
It is really unfortunate in Atlanta as far as being
a sports city that we have every professional sport. We
have so many sports teams and we have the fan
base here and we just don't have winning.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
So I'm gonna need the Dream.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
I'm gonna be dedicating myself this season full time. When
I'm not being a dedicated Lexi fan, when I'm there,
when I'm there when you play the Dream, I'll be
supporting you, of course, but I feel like I've dedicated
myself to hopefully the Dream being that kind of like
Vegas brought Vegas their first professional sports championship.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
We need that with the Dream. So it's time.

Speaker 5 (48:02):
I mean, I have I'm very positive about what they
got going on there, like even the addition of Chator.
I didn't talk about her much like she is a
consistent scoring option. She plays defense, and she's like a
great teammate because I played with her at Maryland, so
I know her personally and she's great and I'm glad that,
like she also is getting a change of scenery. But

(48:22):
it's gonna be interesting, what like if they're gonna just
completely change their offense, because it's different when you bring
a new player. You bring in not even new players,
you bring in stars. These are two all stars you're
bringing in, and then someone who knows how to win,
like Stories won championship.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
She won championships in college, Like, she's a winner.

Speaker 5 (48:41):
So you bring in three players like that, you're obviously.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
Trying to make a culture change.

Speaker 5 (48:47):
So what is that dream team gonna look like this season?
Because they had such a disappointing year last year. So
shout out to the dream I'm excited for them. One
of my favorite cities to play in and they have
I have my favorite jerseys. Looky, playoffs, We playoffs, all right,
we stamp it.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
All right, next stuff, we have the Connecticut son.

Speaker 5 (49:17):
I'm going to read off these stats, but like they
really don't matter because nobody is nobody on the team.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
Last year is even on the team.

Speaker 5 (49:23):
But I'm still gonna read the stats anyway because we're
going to keep it consistent. Eighth and affective field goal percentage,
last in pace and second in net rating. So new coach,
the European coach came over Key Editions, Diamond Deshields, Marina Maybury,
J C. Sheldon, Yvonne Anderson, Lindsay Allen. Tina Charles was

(49:45):
the biggest surprise signing for me because I'm not going
to be an agist. I'm not because I'm creeping up
there as well. I don't want people to do this
to me. But I'm like very surprised at like she's
still playing like and I think it's like I think
she just won to win like she I can't imagine
going that is she.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Doing in Connecticut.

Speaker 5 (50:04):
Well, I feel like nobody else wanted to give her
a chance to win, like And I don't know Tina
Charles personally. I'm pretty sure she was overseas playing like
the She doesn't get enough credit in my opinion for
her longevity. She might be right behind DT and scoring. Yeah,
she's the second leading scorer behind Diana Tarassi. Yes, she's

(50:29):
over two thousand points. Behind Diana Tarassi, but she's still second,
and because she hasn't one, people put her in this
like box, which unfortunately, that's the reality of sports as
a certain point winning if you're a good enough player
winning there is an expectation to win, and she just hasn't.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
But she's also the all time leading rebounder.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
Here's the thing I see.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to be
that person. I think that they should just they should
just go out there and have fun and try their best.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
That's what I see.

Speaker 5 (51:03):
But remember when Diamond was on here, she said she's like,
y'all are sleep on us, and I believe her. It
doesn't help that one of your star players demanded a trade,
but two of them said. One actually got it and
the other one did not get it. So that's probably
not the greatest I would say. Brina does not want
to be there. Yeah, that's probably not the best energy

(51:24):
to have starting a season. But I'm hoping that the
rest of the team can like override that and make
her feel comfortable and make her feel like she can
help them win games.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
And she needs to stay there because she's not getting traded. Yeah,
be serious. She's not.

Speaker 5 (51:41):
You demanded the trade last year, it's not going to happen,
and then they traded.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
Tash, so I think they were like, Okay, we'll get
rid of one of y'all. So I mean, I want
them to have.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
As good of a seat, Like I don't know what
they're ceiling is, but I want them to get there.
I would like to see them get there because Diamond
is my best friend.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
I want her to be successful.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
So yes, this is a very biased opinion on the
success I want for Connecticut because I want her to
feel success for herself.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
They have some rookies coming. I know we were going
to talk about the rookies.

Speaker 5 (52:12):
But it's like you're starting from scratch. Like for me,
I'm like, this is fun.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Like I know you're in.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
Connecticut and like, no, that's not fun, but like that's
beside the point, Like you are starting completely over, Like
for me, I would love that.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Don't send me there, but I'm I'm having given.

Speaker 4 (52:29):
By unbiased synopsis. Okay, for those who don't know, correct
me if I'm wrong. LEXI not a starter from last season.
It's still there.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
No, they all love every single one.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
Okay, your entire starting vibe is gone. I knew that,
but I just wanted to hear you say it.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
You don't.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
The point is I feel like when you're in a
situation like that, where really your whole culture, like we
talked about with the coaches, star players, everything, Your coach
is gone, your star player's gone. You're starting completely from scratch.
My pow for Diamond, I will say, is being in
that kind of situation is very low pressure and gives
you an opportunity to shine.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
And I hope she finds that success for herself.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
But that organization needs to figure it out low key
because there's some crazy stat.

Speaker 3 (53:14):
About they've been to the playoffs the most times.

Speaker 5 (53:16):
Yeah, most playoff wins, most playoff wins a championship.

Speaker 4 (53:19):
Okay, thank you, most playoff wins that championship. That don't
make no sense. And to have that and then to
get rid of everybody is like. But I will say,
I will say that it is important for organizations to
know what they're ceiling is and know, Okay, we're not
going to get that far with this group. So maybe
that is a positive for them that they realized they
weren't going to get to the mountaintop with that group

(53:39):
and they got well they did not technically bad choice,
but that group is gone, so maybe this is an
opportunity for some new fresh blood. But if I'm categorizing these.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
Teams as you go along, this is probably what I
will do.

Speaker 4 (53:49):
Between contenders and pretenders, they're pretenders, they're they're not.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
That's fair.

Speaker 5 (53:53):
I would say the only two real contenders so far
Indiana and New York.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Indiana and New York for sure.

Speaker 5 (53:59):
Yeah, next week you have the Sky eleventh in effective
field goal percentage, ninth in pace, and tenth in net rating.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
So yeah, not very good. New coach coach marsh from
the Aces, which I thought was a great hire.

Speaker 5 (54:14):
Key additions Cordy Vandor Slut and Ariel Atkins, so I'm interested.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
This group is going to be interesting.

Speaker 5 (54:23):
I'm interested that Slute decided to go back to Chicago
after winning a championship.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
That was an interesting move to me.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
And I was surprised to see Ariel leave the Mystics.
I don't know why she left the mistake. I don't
know what they got going on over there, either, But
some players don't want to be part of a rebuild,
and that's completely valid and fair.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Like I wouldn't. You're not for always my primeier is
on a rebuild.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
I would love that as a rookie though, Yeah, for sure,
I would love that as a rookie being able to
play it not a high stakes environment, but you're still
playing professionally against the best of the best and learning
and getting your foot in without somebody being like, Okay,
we're going to trade you if this don't work out.

Speaker 5 (55:00):
So, I mean, but Chicago kind of like kind of
rebuilding right now too. Yeah, their core players will probably
be Angel Camilla and Haley, so babies, babies, right. I'm
very interested to see what type of offense is implemented
because they brought in some scoring, some outside scoring which

(55:22):
they were severely lacking last year, and new coaching, new culture,
coming from a championship culture at that so I don't
foresee them trying to do that high low stuff again,
the double big thing. Like, I'm very interested to see
what teams that have that personnel actually try to do
that double big thing. Because the thing about when you

(55:43):
do double big lineups.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
At least one of them has to be versatile.

Speaker 5 (55:47):
They have to be able to bring the ball up,
they got to be able to pass and they got
to be able to shoot.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
So you don't have.

Speaker 5 (55:52):
That in any of the bigs in Chicago, respectfully, Like
that's not a knock on them, it's just true. Camilla,
Angel and Elizabeth are very interior post players, which is
very important, but very hard to play a certain style
with both of them on the court at the same time.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
Lexi, for our other basketball nerds listening, I'm curious because Angel, Camilla, Haley,
those are going to be big ticket names as we
go through the season and as they go through their careers.
But as far as on the court, they're actual fit.
What you see coming out of that little trio. How

(56:28):
is that going to look on the basketball court?

Speaker 5 (56:31):
I honestly think whoever plays best with Haley is going
to play more. Haley said in her press she does
like I love playing with big players.

Speaker 4 (56:38):
Well, do you think that Angel has an advantage because
they played with Obviously it was only one year, and
that year, I mean, everybody points to it and says
that you're terribly it didn't really work out, but they
still they still.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Did, They still want Yeah.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
So do you feel like Angel has an advantage in
that way because she has played with Haley before?

Speaker 5 (56:56):
Or I feel like people didn't even bring that up.
It's a completely different environment. It's a completely different situation,
and they're both very different players than they were.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Two years was it two years ago?

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Two years ago?

Speaker 5 (57:11):
You know, Hayley got her confidence back, Angel got her
swag in the w Like, it's going to be a
completely new experience for them playing and now you're playing
for something different like this is the pros now like
this in college like these aren't you not playing against
little girls? No?

Speaker 2 (57:27):
More like you're playing against grown women.

Speaker 5 (57:29):
But again, Tyler, he's he's used to this very fast paced,
running gun elite offense and style of play. So them
being able to implement that with that group, like would
be really cool to see because I do feel like
a lot of people think that like that group is
going to be very limited, and I feel like if
they're open to learning and developing, that that group can

(57:52):
be very special on both ends of the floor. I
mean we didn't even get to the defensive side. I
think defensively they could be a nightmare to play against.
But you know, you got to score the ball to win,
So it's gonna be like who's who's gonna have to ball?

Speaker 2 (58:04):
The most is gonna be the real question.

Speaker 5 (58:05):
Obviously, Ariel and Salute together like that's gonna be a
one to two punch that I'm very looking forward to see,
because playing with anybody that plays with Slute automatically is
gonna be in a better situation on the floor at
all positions because she's such a great point guard and
she has such a feel for the game. And I
think that's something that Chicago lacked last year, is they
didn't have somebody that could just like control the game,

(58:27):
like if it was getting a little out of control.
They didn't have someone to be like, all right, let's
chill out for a second, or we need this type
of bucket, let's get this bucket, let's do this, let's
do this. And I think Slut will bring that calmness
to the to the group, which will be good because
they're so young, and then Ariel can like she can
give you thirty.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
At any given night. So I mean, I think they're
gonna be better than they were last year. I think so.

Speaker 4 (58:48):
A lot of the discourse surrounding Angel specifically was double
double queen, rebounds, rebounds, rebounds, rebounds, rebounds, and obviously, as
a fan of angel that wants to be great and
don't want anybody to talk about her. I will say
I want to see her finishing more as far as
looking at her off season, and obviously y'all are only

(59:09):
going to post the best parts of your workouts. But
it seems like that's something that she's been really working on,
so hopefully that improves.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
But that's something that I would like to a little
nugget I would like to give this guy. I would
like to see that.

Speaker 5 (59:19):
Oh yeah, I mean they were second to last and
field goal percentage, Like that's not like that's a stat
that is literally a statistic on the internet. They were
second to last and affective field goal percentage, which is
a combination of twos and threes, so they barely shot
any threes. So that means you were very poor shooting twos.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
That's not good.

Speaker 5 (59:38):
You're not gonna win very many games being poor at both.
So I think that her rebounding is still something that
is like next level, very elite, like not a lot
of people can do that. But will her rebounds potentially
go down if she finishes a little bit better, maybe
they might, but that's not going to be like she's
not going to be like, I just hope the conversation
doesn't heard. Oh look, she's not Like, I just hope

(01:00:00):
it doesn't have to be a negative thing. If you
see improvement in her game, you see improvement in her game.
But we don't know what that is going to look
like necessarily, but there is going to have to be
an improvement as far as like finishing around.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
The basket exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
And I feel like one thing that you always say
is obviously the double double stuff, and her rebounding is
super early, and that's great, but if you're not putting
the ball in the hoop, you're not going.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
On games exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
So I mean, I'm really looking forward to to this guy.
You know, they're another team that kind of like cleaned
house with it. Their whole team basically gone. So I'm
really excited for them too. I'm always excited for a
new coach, especially if new black coach.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
I know, that's right, always excited for that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
Angel was hurt about their coaching change though, and so
I feel like they had to bring somebody in.

Speaker 5 (01:00:43):
Yeah that could at least give them like confidence that
like okay, like we're still we still got Fai, but
he has you know, an incredible background and one championships
and has a really good reputation, so I think they're
going to be better.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
One thing I want to clarify though, for those listening
is we have said very similar things about you're gonna
hate me about Connecticut in Chicago as far.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
As they cleaned house and blah blah blah.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
But Connecticut they're not as young.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
No, they're not as young.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
So it's not the same thing. This is a true rebuild.

Speaker 5 (01:01:17):
Well, yeah, Connecticut is like out with the old day
with the new like rip the band aid off. Chicago
was like, I mean, it's hard to believe that we
won a championship like three years ago. That is that
is insane, Like it's like it happened, and then everyone's
like whatever, who cares.

Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
But as you mentioned, the culture there when you want
a championship was very It was vets trying to win literally,
so it was kind of like, Okay, you got yours,
and now we're planting this new seed and watering it
so that we can have another.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Group of vets that want to win, that are ready
for that.

Speaker 5 (01:01:49):
It's like basically what it was, and that's kind of
basically what all the teams are doing right now is
similar to what Chicago did that one year, was like,
we're finna win now and then we can figure everything
else out. Okay, so Sky, I foresee them having a
much better season than they did last year.

Speaker 4 (01:02:04):
But they're still in my pretender's bucket. Sorry Chicago, That's okay,
all right.

Speaker 5 (01:02:10):
Last, but not least, we have the Mystics fifth in
affective field goal percentage, ninth in pace, tenth in net rating.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
New coach knew a lot of things. I think.

Speaker 5 (01:02:20):
I don't think they signed anybody in free agency, and
then they have the seven million rookies that they drafted.

Speaker 4 (01:02:26):
Let say shout out to my girl, Kei Ky you
ate that dress up eight down that you're in the house, honey.

Speaker 5 (01:02:33):
So honestly, I think the key returners I guess we
could just talk about step Dawson, Brittany Sykes, Shakira Austin
which Shakira Sykes. They both have been dealing with like
injuries a lot the last like one or two seasons,
so I'm excited to see both of them healthy. They
both played and unrivaled, Both looked really good and unrivaled. Oh,

(01:02:55):
Steph played in Unrivaled too, So yeah, they've all been
playing in the off season. I think they are ready
to win again. You know, the Mystics used to run
the table for a little bit. Finally they can let
Elena deladn go because she officially announced her retirement, because
I know that there was a part of their organization
like she.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
Might come back, she might come back.

Speaker 5 (01:03:16):
So now they can officially like just move on, which
I think is good, especially with this new group of
rookies coming in, Like they might be the most rebuilding
rebuild team right now.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
For sure, like by a long sure. Sure.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
And I interviewed Kicky and she talked about that they're
not they're expecting to be in a rebuilding kind of situation.

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
It's not yeah, win now mode, because even their vets
are pretty young, like I mean, I would say Steph
isn't considered super young, but like her psych Shakira, like
they still like are.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
On the young vet side, I feel like.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
So I just also want to note that it's interesting
that we started off this conversation by talking about the
East West Conferences elimination in the W because if that
were the case, if it was East West, I mean, damn,
like the West is significantly stronger.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
Yeah, which is weird because like, how does that keep happening.
It's happened in the NBA and the w significantly stronger.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
And if that were the case, I would consider Indiana
a real contender if it were East West, because they
wouldn't really they'll.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
Be able to kind of clean the East up.

Speaker 5 (01:04:20):
I feel like I feel like I might agree with
you there, but I think that DC is kind of
in a similar situation as Connecticut, Like y'all have opportunity
to build a new culture, new era, new style, new everything,
and they do have some key vets that have played
a few seasons together to like hold everything down.

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
So it'll be awesome for the rookies.

Speaker 5 (01:04:41):
Yeah, And again, like I'm excited for the like this
rookie group, like they can like grow together.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
Like we just don't.

Speaker 5 (01:04:47):
See that in the WNBA, Like we don't see like two, three,
four rookies coming in together and figuring it out together
and whether it's successful or not. Like it's always nice
to see a group of players like grow and together,
which is again, white people love college so much. And now, yeah,
you're kind of seeing it more in the NBA now,
especially now that these teams are younger than some of

(01:05:08):
the college teams playing Like we're looking at Houston, Okay,
see who else is young?

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
Detroit?

Speaker 5 (01:05:14):
Detroit, Like people are really invested in them because they've
we've watched them like grow and learn together. Like are
they gonna win championship? No, probably not, but the journey
not this year, not this year, but they run at
the time is ticking. And that's the thing about the
W as well, is like everybody moves around so much,
like and then when it comes to the time to

(01:05:35):
make real decisions about salaries and contracts and salary cap like.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
It's all just like very random.

Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
Because by the thirty year, second or third year, you
already have moved you rookie to a new team because
she even give her a chance to develop or she
wasn't able to keep up. But like, that's not what
your pro career is about. It's about development and growing
and learning. Unless something just horrible happens during the season,
she must go that's different. But that's usually not the case.

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
But I want to before we go, ask you as
far as I know, in the NBA, the MNBA, I
should say, they.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Don't get us kissing Mariah saying that shit.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
Sorry, Lexi, Lexi does not I.

Speaker 5 (01:06:16):
Do not say m NBA guys, I know probably all
would like me to. I'm very much an NBA fan.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
I love NBA. So Mariah Maria said it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
I think everybody knows that I am an NBA fan.
The point is, I feel like in the NBA we
have seen ever since the Warriors dynasty, the formula for
winning a championship became smaller. The game got more outside outside, outside, outside,
and some fancying it's boring.

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
I absolutely love it. That's my favorite. That's my favorite album.
Asked wall to watch, but that's.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
Either here nor there in the W you mentioned double
biggs in Atlanta and Chicago, that kind of situation. What
do you think that the recipe for success, whether it's
going to work or not, But like, what do you
think that these coaches and these organizations are seeing as Okay,
this is this is the style on the W that
everybody's kind of implementing.

Speaker 5 (01:07:06):
I do think that more outside shooting is coming, which
makes me excited and very happy because at the end
of the day, threes are worth more than twos. Like
what like that is what it is? From the last
three or four championships, the best player.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
Of the team has been that four So.

Speaker 5 (01:07:23):
I think the key right now in the W is
having a really versatile foreman.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
And versutile can mean a lot of things. That's why
it's versatile.

Speaker 5 (01:07:32):
Like maybe they can shoot really well, Okay, maybe not.
Maybe they can pass very well, maybe they can bring
the ball up, they can initiate offense like what you
would consider like a glue player, but they're like super
glue because they are also scoring the ball. So I
feel like, you know, you have the best players in
the league right now. And if he's the Collier Ajia Wilson,

(01:07:55):
Breonna Stewart, Neka Gloo McKay, I mean Natasha Howard could
reinsert herself in that conversation on this Indiana team, John
cul Jones like, these are what you consider like the top.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Players in the league right now.

Speaker 5 (01:08:07):
And then directly under those players, I think are the
perimeter players that can hit outside shots. So the Ariquees,
Jewel Lloyd, Kelsey Plumb, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young me.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
I was gonna say Lexi Brown hello.

Speaker 5 (01:08:23):
So first I'll thank Arik because she was probably one
of the first players to come out and shoot autumn
damn threes off the bounce, off the like all the
crazy shots. Jewel Lloyd I think has been more of
like a surgical score, you know, coming off of pin
Down's curls, like not as random as Arique's buckets.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
And then you bring in.

Speaker 5 (01:08:44):
A Kaitlyn Clark who's doing all the logo shooting off
the bounce, coming off screens, pull up transition threes, like
now everybody's like, okay, like this is what we can do,
Like this is the style of play that's gonna win
you games.

Speaker 4 (01:08:59):
But also facilitating, because it's like you're drawing so much
attention to yourself that it confuses defenses, and if you
can facilitate and make plays, then you're dangerous.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:09:11):
So I mean, yes, you look at the Golden Golden
State Warriors has been the formula. You have elite scores
from the perimeter, and then you have your glue man.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
So the Draymonds of the world.

Speaker 5 (01:09:21):
But I feel like that position in the w is
more offensively gifted than the Draymond what you would call
the Draymonds of the NBA, which because there's so much
perimeter scoring now, like that person doesn't necessarily have to score. Also,
they have more time, Like there's just so many different
things in the NBA that are different from the WNBA,
Like we have more time to play, more people.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
Would be scoring.

Speaker 5 (01:09:44):
But because that position right now is so versatile and
so good gifted offensively, and then just a matchup nightmare.
Like they're just like kind of the key piece. So
the fore man has been the key.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
To WNBA's success.

Speaker 5 (01:09:59):
Now there's some shoot around them. Very hard to.

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
Guard, very hard to guard. Shout out to the.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
Force, Shout out to the four.

Speaker 4 (01:10:06):
Well, Lexi, I'm really excited for next week because I'm
about to come with stuff to say about these lest teams.

Speaker 5 (01:10:12):
Yeah, but I'll have a nice little update for our
first day of training camp because it'll be the day
after our camp.

Speaker 4 (01:10:19):
When are we going to have ours our a Lexi's
goals show right before the season starts, like at the
beginning of Bay.

Speaker 5 (01:10:25):
Yeah, right before our first actual game, not our preseason games,
our first actual games, so I can actually put together
a realistic list, you know, okay, because I want us
to be able to check these goals off. I don't
want to end the season and nothing is checked because
I've made goals that didn't make any sense.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
I will say.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
When I was working for the Atlanta Hawks, I was
on the social team and we did this thing where
the players would write down their goals for the season
on the little poolaroid to be cute to put them
on our Instagram, and the whole starting five did it,
and so obviously everybody put win a championship as their goal,
except for Capella, who put go to the conference titles

(01:11:06):
and everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
They tore us up in the comments.

Speaker 4 (01:11:09):
Tore us he was so mad about at the social
team for posting that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
He was so mad, But.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
I was like, you say, right, I mean, and he
was probably be the most realistic out of everybody.

Speaker 5 (01:11:21):
But yeah, like what y'all want them to lie about
the goals just so y'all can make fun of them
if they don't get the championship because they all knew
they wasn't gonna get going.

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
So so funny. That's really funny.

Speaker 5 (01:11:33):
Okay, Well, I hope y'all enjoyed our little breakdown of
the Eastern Conference and the WNBA. We're really excited for
next week to get into the West and this season
is going to be really fun. But thank y'all for
tuning in again. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
We will see y'all next week on the Full Circle Podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:11:51):
Thanks for listening to Full Circle. We'll be back next
week with more basketball for the Girls by the Girls.
We want to hear from you. Leave us a review
on Apple par podcast and tell us what you want
us to talk about. Full Circle is hosted by Lexi
Brown and Mariah Rose. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz.
Our supervising producer is Grace Fuz. Our producer is Zoe Danklab.

(01:12:12):
Listen to Full Circle on America's number one podcast network,
iHeart open your free iHeart app and search full Circle
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