Episode 3 - Selfishness in This Press Conference

Double Dribble Ep. 3: Early WNBA Standings, Foul Trends, Wings Coaching Critique, and Fever Updates

Sylvia and Madeline recap a busy first full week of the WNBA (recorded May 17): no undefeated teams remain, the Aces lead at 4–1, and the Sun are last at 0–4. They discuss elevated foul calls leaguewide, with the Mystics seeing the biggest jump (about 10 more fouls per game, 28 per game). Focusing on the Wings’ close losses to the Dream and Lynx, they criticize Dallas’ defense, Alana Smith’s struggles while wearing a mask, and coach José Fernandez’s public comments about “selfishness,” plus his rotations and reliance on veterans despite Arike’s inefficient 6-point game. They cover the Fever at 2–2, Caitlin Clark’s revised 32-point, 10-assist double-double in an OT loss to the Mystics, Aaliyah Boston’s leg injury, and Indiana’s win over the Storm. They also note Aces vs Dream (85–84), a “This or That” segment, upcoming couch picks, and Sylvia’s retirement announcement.

00:00 Welcome and Week Setup

00:21 Standings and Foul Trends

02:11 Wings Close Losses

04:15 Coach Comments and Rotations

12:45 Lynx Game Officiating

13:38 Fever Recap and Aaliyah Injury

17:07 Storm Win Without Aaliyah

19:38 Aces vs Dream Thriller

23:56 This or That Segment

29:06 Draft Talk and Coach Debate

35:29 Couch Picks This Week

38:52 Swish List and Farewell

Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to episode three of Double Dribble. We're a mother-daughter podcast about the WNBA. I'm Sylvia, and I'm the mom. I'm Madeline. We're recording this on Sunday, May 17th. It will come out on Tuesday, so if you're wondering why we're not talking about Monday's games, that's why. It's been a busy first full week in the W. There's already no teams left undefeated with teams playing f- five games at most so far. The longest undefeated st- streak was the Lynx in 2016 with 13 g- games, and the most recent was the Sun with nine games in 2024. So right now the Aces are in first place at 4 and 1. I think they're the only team that's played five games so far. And the Sun are in last with 0 and 4 record. They're the only winless team currently. The foul calls have remained high throughout this first full week. It does vary quite a bit by teams. The Aces are actually flat to 2025 with 17 fouls per game. Phoenix is the second lowest with an 8% increase year over year, and everybody else has a double digit increase, but a wide variation there. The Mystics have been hit the hardest with 10 more fouls per game than they had last year, which is just over a 50% increase, so very substantial. They also were the team that had the most fouls in 2025, so, they are a pretty foul happy team it would seem. And they've had 28 game per game so far in 2026. Minnesota is up 48%, New York up 38%, and the Fever are up 34%. So those are the teams that have seen the biggest increase in fouls being called on them this season. The Wings are only at 11%, so they're doing better than average at least, I guess. Okay. Today we're going to talk about games highlights. Of course we'll w- focus on our Wings and Fever as we usually do, and talk about a couple of the other key matchups that happened this week. We will do a bit of a fun this or that, our couch picks for the week and of course close with wish list. Okay. So there were two close games against the Dream and the Lynx with the Wings that unfortunately resulted in losses. Obviously I was pretty upset about that. It seems like that's been sort of a trend, at least in their first three games where they've been playing pretty close games, only losing by about I think like five every game. I was definitely hoping they would be able to pull off a win either of those games. I'm a little disappointed that they're 1 and 2, but at least they have one win and they're not winless. Unfortunately it was against the Fever. Which was also a close game. So far I've been a little bit disappointed in the Wings' defense in general, especially considering they have the last year's defensive player of the year. It's just not been anything special. It hasn't, like, neither her or Jessica Shepard have really been contributing to defense all that much. It feels like a lot of points are being given up, specifically layups by them. I'll say Jess Shepard has at least been, uh, more effective on the offense. Alana Smith seems to kind of be- Yeah struggling to find her footing so far on the Wings. Yeah, and I see a lot of people trying to make the excuse that because Alana Smith is wearing the mask, it's obstructing her vision. But I'm not sure I really buy that 'cause there's plenty of great players that have played with the mask and done amazing. So, I mean, it could just be something that, y- you know, obviously she said she didn't like the mask, so maybe it is really affecting her game. But I'd like to see how she plays without it, 'cause if it doesn't change, then... Yeah. Have you seen anything about how long she's supposed to have it on? No, I don't know how long she's supposed to have it on. It's for... I'm pretty sure she's a fractured nose. Is that right? Mm. I think so, yeah. So it might be for a bit. I'm not sure. Maybe, like, a few more games. I don't know. I'd have to check that. But one thing I definitely wanted to talk about is the Wings coach's post-game comments after... Was it the Lynx or the Dream game? I forgot. I think it was the Lynx game. I'm pretty sure. I, yeah, I think so. If you haven't seen it, it's basically just him... Well, there's a specific clip where he just kind of talks about how there's so-called selfishness in the locker room, and how r- real good players don't care about the minutes they're getting. They care about winning. Which, I mean, obviously I understand that, but also I think publicly ridiculing a n- team that you are very new to and hardly understand after three games and calling them selfish is very interesting. I'm not sure why he decided that was a good idea to just say that to the public. And if he was really worried about that, that's something, a conversation to have with the locker room or, like, specific players that he's talking about. And I definitely think, especially where he was like, "You need to look in the mirror and be held accountable," I think that was odd considering he's- From what I've seen and what I personally think, he's been playing more who he wants to play instead of who the team needs to be playing because I know someone, I saw someone asked him like, "Well, why did you take Maddie out when she was having a great game?" And his response was that she gave up two threes on the defense, which I found pretty odd because that's not her defensive position. So if she was defending that player, then something went wrong with the defense because she's not supposed to be guarding on the outside. She's a forward, so that's weird. And also the same person asked about why AZ wasn't getting more minutes, which is a very valid question considering even though she has been getting minutes, it's not been nearly enough for someone who's a number one pick. And again, his response was sort of that he's trying to ease her in, which I don't think is very helpful considering there's no way for you to get more use of the WNBA and be eased in other than actually playing and be able to, being able to experience like the new league and new players and like playing style and, you know, the much harder defense you have to play against. So I thought that was weird that it's sort of like I'm just slowly giving her more minutes. I don't think that's really helping anyone. I also wanted to say that there's definitely no reason for him. It seems like he's really relying on the veterans on Dallas to just do everything and he just will not sub them out like for anything because I know in, I think it was the Lynx game. Um, yeah, he kept Arike in for 30 minutes of the game. And she was, this is the same issue that they had last season. She's just incredibly inconsistent. And while when she's good, she's very good. And obviously she's a great player, but she just has so many games where she just can't get into her flow. She played 30 minutes and only had six points. And mind you, Maddie's, not Maddie AZ who played 10 minutes less than her had eight points, which obviously is only two more than her, but also that's 10 minutes less in a game. And You know, it just felt like Arike was not doing well. She was missing a lot of shots. It-- she was two of eleven. So I was just sort of thinking the whole time, like, she needs to be subbed out. It doesn't matter whe-whether she's, you know, the veteran. She's supposed to be kind of the leader of the team, but I think that shouldn't matter when she's clearly not contributing to the team. And when a very good player and veteran like her, who's supposed to lead the team, isn't able to contribute, that's the time where you're supposed to take them out, and he wasn't doing that. And there was definitely other players that could have been subbed in for her. Obviously, Odyssey could have subbed in for her, Azia, AZ, any of them could have subbed in for her. In fact all of them except for Azia, because she only had eleven minutes, had more points than her when they played less minutes. So I found it kind of weird that they-he just never put her in. And also, I find the same thing true about the Jessica Shepard and Elena Smith. Obviously, I understand they're both... they have good chemistry together, and I get wanting to keep them on the court at the same time. But there's also a lot to be thinking about when both of them, especially Elena, who are supposed to be good at defense, are not being good at defense. You have to... Especially because Jose Fernandez was just really talking about defense. And I find it weird that if he really cares so much about defense, he would actually be subbing them out when he needs to. So I'm-- that's why I'm kind of thinking, like, he's really just relying on the veterans because that's who he's decided he wants to play rather than what the team actually needs to be playing. I think there was a good, like, many good moments where Maddie could have been playing in place of them. Lee could have been playing in place of them, considering she's taller than both of them and she's, while she's not amazing on defense, especially when we were really getting crushed by Natasha Howard because she's very tall and she just kept scoring on them. That's when you really need someone tall, and especially I r-really love Lee. She was amazing last year, and she's very versatile. She can shoot threes, and she can get layups. So there was definitely that. They also could have played a walk because she's also very tall. So I was just... I just think it's a bit It's definitely weird. One, it's weird for him to make that comment publicly after n- not only being new to the team, because even if you weren't new to the team and you were just, you know, even if you were just three games in and you had been with this team for years, it's also sort of weird to say that. But especially considering he just, like, got hired to coach for this team. He hardly knows these players, and it's very weird to be saying, like, there's selfishness in this locker room. I understand where he's coming from, but it's also like you, where he's all like, "Oh, you need to look in the mirror and be taken accountable." I think he also needs to be doing some of that as well because the rotations that are happening are definitely not working. So that's kind of all I have to say about that. Yeah, I mean, losing those close games, there's obviously responsibility that lies with the coach. I mean, no, they're not on the floor taking the shots or playing defense, but you know, there's things he's managing which should include managing any selfish in the locker room. And I could see some coaching styles would be, you know, at certain points calling out your team publicly in the press conference hoping that will motivate them. But three games in, that feels pretty aggressive when you're still trying to get your players to trust you. Yeah. So that's kind of all I have to say about that. I was also pretty frustrated with the refs in the Lynx game. I don't think either of them had two different, like, amounts of fouls called, but I really felt like... I think it was mostly because the Wings defense could not guard Natasha Howard. But I f- I, I almost felt like, I mean, it could've just been 'cause I was so nervous at near the end of the game. But I felt like every shot she was taking, it was just foul, foul, foul. And I don't know if that's just 'cause like Alana Smith and Jessica Shepard couldn't guard her, so they were just having to foul her. But that was definitely frustrating. So, so far I've been disappointed with the Wings' defense, and I definitely want to see them win on Monday, but y- you know, you never know. Yeah. The Fever similarly have—they're now two and two. The two games they lost, one being to the Wings, the other to the Mystics were lost just by a couple of points. So although it's encouraging that they could have easily won those games. It's also very discouraging not to win those games that they could have easily had opportunities to win. They did beat the Sparks earlier in the week, 87-78, so that gave them their first win. But the Mystics game on Friday was tough. I d- was not able to see it live. I was at the Pink Kirban concert, and if you haven't seen Pink in concert, it was amazing. She does aerials, like, all the way up to the upper deck. Of... It was at Petco Park where the Padres play, so big stadium. So that was really fun. But I watched the replay of the Fever Mystics game. And the Fever started out really strong in the first quarter and then got hugely outscored in the second quarter. And then mounted a big comeback in the fourth quarter, really all on Caitlin's back. She scored I think it was like 17 points in the fourth quarter, got hot from three and hit a bunch of them in that quarter. She was originally credited with eight assists in that game, and I saw a lot of clips going around online that she should have been credited with 10 assists. And today the WNBA did revise the stat and updated it to 10. So she had her first double double of the season, I believe. With 32 points, 10 assists. She also had four rebounds, two steals, a block, and four, four turnovers. I won't cherry-pick by leaving that stat out. They-- she hit a three-pointer at the end of regulation, which took them to overtime, but unfortunately, they didn't have quite enough in overtime. Aaliyah had gone out a bit earlier in the game, I believe in the third quarter with a lower leg injury. That was really horrible to see. This is an injury that she got during the unrivaled season. And she sat out some of the preseason because of it, and also did not participate in the FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament because of the injury. So I hope it's nothing too serious that isn't going to cause her to need to sit out for too long, but it does seem like a re-aggravation of that unrivaled injury. So, you know, we also don't want it to turn into a situation like Caitlin had last year with not giving it enough time and trying to come back and play and then just continuing to aggravate injuries or have other things kind of pile on top of it. So hopefully she'll be back soon. But that, that didn't help in terms of losing a close game, and we didn't have her at the end of the game or in overtime. And the Fever lack depths in bigs. They went very guard heavy in the roster construction this year. I'm sure they're trying to correct for all the guard injuries that they had last season. But may have been an overcorrection. There's definitely a lot of fan chatter online about us needing more bigs. And now with Aaliyah, who's obviously our best big and one of the best bigs in the league going out, that has become a much bigger concern. So, you know, I don't know if the plan for backup is like three of their guards in a trench coat or what, but they did end up having to have Monique Billings move over to play center today without Aaliyah and then Myisha Hines-Allen starting at the four. So I'll move over to talking about that game. The Fever did beat the Storm 89 to 78. Aaliyah was out. This ended up being a pretty good matchup for us to have Aaliyah out because a couple of the Storm's bigs, Dominique Malonga and Eze Magbagor, if I can say that right, were also out. And Awa Pham has still not reported yet because she's been finishing up playing in Europe. The Fever led virtually the whole game. I think in the first minute or two, the Storm might have been up by a couple of points at one point. But really, the Fever led throughout, at times up by as much as I think 20. Caitlin had another good game. She hit her first, I believe, true logo three of the season late in the first quarter. They were very dominant in the first quarter. They were much more active on defense. Obviously, having the Storm score 78 versus the Wings and the Mystics scoring over 100 points is a good indicator of better defense. I think there's still a lot more that they can do there. And I think in the second half, they didn't seem quite as active on defense as they did at the beginning of the game. But it was a good improvement, and hopefully they'll continue to build on that. Caitlin had a really big first half with 17 points, six assists, a block. She had a quieter second half. She didn't play as many minutes either, but she finished with her second double-double in a row, 21 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds, two blocks, and five turnovers. Manisha Hines-Allen, as I just mentioned a minute ago, had to start at the four with Aaliyah out. She obviously is not remotely a replacement for Aaliyah and never could be, but I was pleased with what she did. She was hustling a lot out there. She had eight points, six rebounds, four assists, which I wouldn't necessarily have expected, and a steal. On the Storm side, Natisha Heideman, one half of the stud buds, was their highest scorer with 19 points. She also had two rebounds, two assists, a steal, and a block. And then their rookie Flagé famously traded mid-draft after the Golden State Valkyries drafted her was their second highest scorer with 14 points, six rebounds, a steal, and four blocks, so pretty impressive showing from her. In the Aces versus the Dream game, the Aces led most, most of the game, but the Dream had a big comeback late. I know the Aces I'm pretty sure were leading by as much as 19 and were leading as much as 17 in the fourth quarter I'm pretty sure. I was honestly rooting for the Dream. I was a little disappointed when they lost. It was a very close game, 85 to 84. It was very shocking when there was, when A'ja Wilson gave up a turnover very late with a steal from the Dream, which I almost thought that was gonna lead to the Dream winning, but- Yeah obviously Chelsea Gray got that, you know, game-winning shot- Yeah and really sealed it off. Yes. I have to say Kennedy Carter has been looking really great on the Aces. She had 20 points today, I think tied with A'ja. It's crazy that I think they're paying her, like, a league minimum vet salary because she was out of the league last year, so that- that's gotta be the biggest roster steal that anybody has. I, I think it's possible she could find her way into the starting lineup at some point. And, and if not, you know, extremely likely that she will win the sixth Player of the Year award. Like, she's, she's been huge for them. The Dream notably were missing Rhyne Howard who was out with injury today. But very close game for them. That was one of ours that we had highlighted as a couch pick last week. Definitely two potential title contenders there. But the Aces are looking very strong early in the season, unlike last year when they started off pretty slowly. Yeah, I have to say I definitely don't want the Aces to win another title. I honestly don't even wanna see them in a finals. I would rather Fair obviously I'd rather the Lynx, but I don't think that's looking... that future is looking too bright for the Lynx right now, but I would definitely like to see some newer teams that haven't made it to the finals recently. So I wouldn't be too upset if the Dream got into the finals. I think that would be something interesting to watch, but I don't really wanna see, like, the Aces or the Mercury or the Lynx or the Liberty. I don't really wanna see those teams in the finals. Yeah, I mean, Aces and A'ja- Are kind of, you know, in that, New England Patriots, Tom Brady category where you just c- you have to respect how good they are. Obviously, A'ja Wilson is the best player in the world, and it's not particularly close with the second-best player. And you could argue about who that is. But you just get some fatigue, and if you know that's not your team, you just, you get sick of seeing them constantly winning, for sure. Yeah. I also do have to say, even though obviously A'ja's a very great player, I was not too happy when she won MVP last year. I think Napheesa Collier was very deserving of that. I mean, obviously they're both very important to their teams, but I was really hoping she would get it. I think she's a really big asset, even though she unfortunately got hurt very late in the season. And, and that- Yeah I think played a big role for a lot of the season, especially because the Aces didn't start out very well. I think the wor- award was Phees to lose, and then she ended up, I forget how many games she sat out, but it was a, a decent- Yeah chunk. Like, I wanna say at least 10. Yeah. So that makes it a lot trickier. And she's of course starting this season sitting out. We don't know for sure when she'll be back. I thought I heard something about June, but obviously time will tell. So- Yeah we'll see how it goes this year. The Lynx have been doing pretty well without her. I mean, obviously having her with them will make them much better, but for having their star player out, I think they've been playing pretty well. Yeah. They've been doing better than I thought they would with her out, especially with having also lost Alana Smith, Natisha Hiedeman, and Jessica Shepard. So you can imagine how much better they will be once they get her back, for sure. Okay. So we're gonna move into a fun little segment called This or That, Madeline. So you're gonna be on the hot seat to, to pick between some different choices. Okay, what do you prefer to see, shooting or defense? Um, well, I think it depends. Obviously, shooting is much more interesting and fun. You can, like, get hype over it. Obviously, there's some moments in defense where you're like, "Oh, my gosh," like, "Thank God they got that block or that steal," or whatever. But obviously, I mean, personally for the Wings, I would much rather them have a really good defense right now. But obviously, I think shooting i- in offense, I think in most sports, is much more interesting to watch than defense. It's just not that interesting. Yeah. Okay. Three-pointers versus mid-range? Obviously three-pointers because you get more points. Definitely, I know this isn't the same with Caitlin. Paige is m- mostly hits- Uh, in the mid-range. Actually, so far in the season she hasn't done it as much as she did last season, but she's definitely more of mid-range. She's obviously she can also shoot from three and get layups, but... Yeah, I think was it an announcer last year that tried to say her nickname was Middy P? Yeah, I don't know. That didn't catch on. Okay, how about trash talk versus silent killer? I mean, it depends. If you really... If you're good and you can, like, keep up with the words coming out of your mouth, then, like, honestly go ahead and trash talk. But if you're trash talking and then you, like, go ahead and embarrass yourself, I think that's kind of... I mean, I don't want to say embarrassing, but embarrassing. Yeah. If you say, "You can't guard me," and then you know, they proceed to- Guard you guard the heck out of you- Yeah. Okay. Social media star versus low-key player. What is... Like, social media star, is that sort of apply to like, like Caitlin Clark that you say, is that like a social media star? Like, what do you really mean by that? I mean, she's obviously very popular on social media, but she doesn't post a lot on social media. Yeah. What she posts is very much her brand stuff- Yeah and not much personal. Same with Paige. Yeah. Um, so I'd say like Angel Reese is a bigger social media star. She does more things kind of outside of basketball. And I believe has the biggest Instagram following of any WNBA player. Yeah. I think even though, even if this isn't really what you meant by low-key player, but I like players that are sort of under... I mean, obviously I really loved AJ Quinn early. I'm still really upset that she hasn't gotten to play at all. That's something I want to see. I wanna see her play. She's like not even, like, she's got the jacket zipped up on the bench, and that makes me, whenever I see her I get upset. But you know, I like... Obviously low-key players are fun to watch, but also it's also fun getting to sort of have like a fandom of other fans that can talk to you about a player or whatever, so. Yeah. Okay. How about star player on a bad team or role player on a championship team? Ooh. Well, I can say from experience- on star player on a bad team, it's very painful to watch, but I think I'd rather just in general watch a good player than someone who's kinda just pretending to be a good player on a good team. Because even though- Paige was just on a horrible team last year. Like, they could not win anything. It was so pa- I re- I was getting so mad. It was so painful. But I do know, even despite all of those losses, it was still great watching Paige. She had a lot of great achievements, you know, tying the most points ever scored by a rookie in WNBA history in one game. I think that... When she scored 44, that was a great game. It's also, you know, it's fun to watch when they win, but you know, if you're just watching a player that isn't really doing anything and they're winning, it's just kind of... Also, I feel like it gets boring sometimes if you win all the time. Yeah. I mean, obviously in a perfect world you're a star player on a championship team. Yeah. But especially early in your career, the top picks go to teams- Yeah. That's what I was gonna say that haven't been doing very well. So unless there was a, a pick trade in a prior year, kind of like with how Olivia Miles ended up on the Lynx- Yeah, that was not fair. your chances of going to a championship, you know, in your first couple of years are relatively low. I do think it's funny when some fans try to say, "Oh, so and so rookie won a championship or went to the finals before, Paige or Caitlin did." Yeah, but- And I'm like, yeah, 'cause they were a low first round draft pick, because that team is good, and they were sitting on the bench for that championship. So what does that... Yes, they have a ring, but they didn't really contribute to it. Yeah. And speaking of Olivia Miles, I was gonna talk about this earlier when I was talking about the whole coaching thing, but I have also, because AZ hasn't been getting that many minutes, and she's not been doing amazing, I mean, she's been doing fine, especially considering she's not getting the most minutes. And also what I've heard from a lot of people, I haven't really been noticing it, but I'm also not really looking for it, is that a lot of teammates are not passing to her. Especially I've heard people saying, like, Paige isn't passing to her, and they're like, "She better start passing to her and act like she's played with her before." But I don't, I've heard a lot of people just, like Arike and Aziyah are not passing to her. I'm not sure if that's true, but I've also... I was just gonna say I've seen a lot of people saying, "Well, the Wings should have picked Olivia Miles." Like, "They shouldn't have picked AZ. They only picked her because of Paige. Olivia Miles is clearly the better choice. She's doing better." Which I understand, because I think a large part of them choosing AZ was Paige, and I'm not sure had they never played together previously had they have chosen AZ. But the r- but you also have to think about it's not just like, oh, 'cause they're dating. I think that's stupid. It's m- obviously it is mainly because they played together for so many years. Like, even in, like, high school, they- played together, played against each other, and it's just something that if you already have on-court chemistry, it's something you wanna bring to the WNBA. I haven't seen too much of it so far. There was one, I think one or two passes from Paige where AZ was able to make a three or, like, a layup or something, so that was good to see. But also, I do think if the Wings were not drafting AZ, I don't, I personally don't think they would've gone for Olivia Miles. No, and I mean, the way they ended up constructing the roster, it, it seems odd that they picked AZ. If they were gonna sign Arike to a long-term contract, if they were bringing Odyssey Sims to play point a lot of the time, which means Paige is playing off ball more, you know, they... It seems like they should've gone with Olufem or something. Yes. I absolutely think that if they didn't pick AZ, they should've picked Olufem or honestly Lauren Betts if we're being serious, 'cause I'm very disappointed in the Wings' defense, so maybe if they had Lauren Betts or something, she could've improved that. But I do think a lot of people are really underestimating AZ, especially considering, you know, the coach is trying to ease her in, so it's not like she's... And obviously, some people have a much harder time transitioning to the WNBA versus, you know, obviously Olivia Miles did not have that much trouble. But again, Olivia Miles is playing a whole lot more minutes than AZ. And also AZ has only played two games, because one game she sat out 'cause of knee soreness, so there's definitely that. I also agree with you that it, I think it was very odd, especially for them to re-sign Arike. Not only did I think they were going to get rid of Arike and, draft AZ, which they did, but I also think that they should've not re-signed Arike because not only is she still showing the same inconsistency as she did last season, which is very harmful to the team considering she's being put in all the time, but when you have a number one draft pick, you, it just doesn't make sense for you to re-sign, like, the veteran of your team that's most likely gonna be starting in the same position as the number one draft pick. Like, that didn't make sense to me. Yeah. I will say Lauren Betts hasn't done anything too remarkable so far, although to be fair, and I should have mentioned this when I was talking about the Fever-Mystics game Kiki and Sonia are just killing it. They are so good on the Mystics- Oh, yeah and look like vets. They, they have quite a few bigs on the Mystics, and Shakira Austin, who's, who's one of the very few vets on that team is also playing really well. So I think Lauren's not getting a ton of minutes and, you know- Yeah is, is going through an adjustment, which is normal. But yeah, that, them getting both Kiki and Sonia last year was- Yeah, that was- a huge steal. Yeah. Like, they're fantastic. And they work very well together, so it's just- Yeah it almost feels like cheating that they got both of them. I know. They, they really lined themselves up with a lot of drafts, draft picks last year and this year. Okay, getting back to this or that. One final question. I know you don't want me to ask it, but Chris Kauklunas or José Fernandez? Obviously I'm gonna say José Fernandez. You know, sometimes I find myself being like, "Oh, I almost wish we had Chris back." W- yeah, I don't really want him back, honestly. I know José f- is, he's a very good coach. You know, he's been coaching for many years, especially women's basketball. He's a lot more experienced than Chris Kauklunas was. I just think so far what I haven't been liking about him is his reluctance to switch up rotations and, you know, I don't know, just his a- overall attitude towards the team. But having someone like that, who's at least I assume is a good coach with plays, I think is much better than having a coach like Chris Kauklunas, who not only was not good at drawing up plays, but I don't think any of the players liked him. I mean, there's that one photo I think of where he's, like, talking to all of them on the bench, and they're all staring off the distance or, like, looking like, "What is this guy talking about?" So I think at least the players somewhat respect him as a coach, and I think I'd much rather prefer that than Chris Kauklunas. Yes. I think that's the right choice. Okay, moving on to our couch picks. Your Wings have a busy week. Do they? Yeah, four games. Oh. Oh, wow. Yeah, I was gonna say, I actually feel like they haven't... Even though they've played three games, it feels like they've been very separated so far. So yeah, there's obviously the game on Monday versus the Mystics one on Wednesday versus the Sky, one on Friday versus the Dream again. And there's also the Sun versus the Liberty. Yeah. Or that's on Sunday versus the Liberty. Yeah, that's a tough slate of games this week actually. All of those teams are doing fairly well. But Dallas has been right in there in the games that they've lost, so- Yeah I think they should be competitive. Is there any of those you're most looking forward to? Hmm. How have the Liberty been doing actually? I'm not- I think they're two and one or maybe three and one. And I'm also not sure. The Sky had still been not doing well. I don't... I haven't really looked at- I think they're two and one. Okay. So I don't... Mm, just like early game predictions, I don't think they're gonna win against the Mystics. I hope they can win against the Dream this time around, but that's kind of wishful thinking. I think they might be able to beat the Sky or the Liberty, but I don't know. I d- don't know too much about the teams they're playing, so. Yeah, I mean, the Liberty, I think Satou and Sabrina might both still be out- Yeah, Sabrina so that should help. But- What, what's wrong with Sabrina again? I don't remember. I don't either. And Satou's still recovering from her concussion at the end of last season, I think. Whoa. Yeah. What kind of concussion was that? It, it was in the playoffs and there's a lot of speculation that part of the reason she didn't stay in Phoenix is because the way the team handled it really poorly. They had her stand up and walk off the court after she got the concussion, which is not what you should do. Yeah. So that might have impacted her recovery timeline. But obviously you don't wanna mess around with concussions, so you need to be- Yeah very careful about that. So the Fever have a quieter week, just two games on Wednesday and Friday. I believe they are both still at home. They have a bit of a long home stand this week. So Wednesday they're playing the Portland Fire, the expansion team, and then Friday they're playing Golden State. I think both of those games are winnable. They didn't match up super well against Golden State last year, and I know they tend to play very good defense, so that's probably the tougher of the two games. Obviously, they've never played the Fire before, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. And then a couple other interesting games of note this week are the Lynx versus Chicago on Saturday. They're both two and one right now. And then on Sunday, Phoenix versus Atlanta, Also, you know, Phoenix I thought would be weaker than last year, and maybe they are, but I think they're, like, 2-1, so they're doing reasonably well so far. Yeah, so now we have our swish list. I can go first. Honestly, there's not too much that I'm happy about after two consecutive losses, but I am definitely happy that there's gonna be a lot more Wings games this week. I feel like it felt like forever between Thursday and then tomorrow on Monday watching a game, and it's always weird having... 'cause I watch the NFL as well, and so it's always weird going for, like, a period without any sports between January to April. And then when WNBA games start again, for some reason, even though football games are only once a week, it feel, it almost feels longer when I have to wait for another WNBA game somehow, so. Yeah. My swish list this week is that this is my last week of work in corporate America. I am officially retiring on Friday after 19 years with my current company, plus a couple of other jobs with not nearly as long tenure as that prior to that. I've worked in corporate finance, so that might explain to you why I like the numbers and the stats so much. But very excited to spend more time doing things that I wanna do with my time. So that's what I'm celebrating this week. All right. Thank you for listening to our third episode. As always, if you like what you're hearing, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcast platform. Also make sure to follow us on our socials as well, which it's doubledribblepod on Instagram and on- Threads. Yeah. And if you like what you're hearing, we'd also love it if you leave us a review. I see we've gotten a couple on Apple so far, and maybe we'll share those in a future sort of mailbag shout-out to fan session. But thank you for listening to us through our three episodes, and we'll see you next time.