EPISODE SIX - Portland Bound!

Wings Sweep Commissioner’s Cup Week; Fever Split vs Dream/Liberty and “Right Team, Right Time” Breakouts

Sylvia and Madeleine recap WNBA highlights, standings, and a “Right Team, Right Time” segment. The Dallas Wings won both Commissioner’s Cup games, beating Seattle 79–56 and Los Angeles 104–96; Arike Ogunbowale scored 30 vs the Sparks, Jessica Shepard had 22, and Paige set/tied a Wings single-game assists record with 14, while Odyssey Sims left with an apparent left ankle injury and Azia James went down late. The Indiana Fever went 1–1, beating Atlanta 83–71 behind Kelsey Mitchell’s 25 (also reaching 5,000 career points) and losing to New York 83–75 despite leading most of the game; Mo Billings posted her best Fever game (15 points, 8 rebounds), and they noted Caitlin’s fast 1,000 points/500 assists milestone and a lopsided Liberty free-throw gap. Standings stayed with Wings fourth and Fever ninth. “Right Team, Right Time” spotlights Veronica Burton, Brittney Sykes, Kennedy Carter, Shepard, and Megan Gustafson. They preview upcoming games and their trip to a Wings–Fire game in Portland.

00:00 Welcome and Agenda

00:30 Wings Cup Wins

04:05 Sparks Thriller and Injuries

08:35 Paige Assist Record

10:09 Fever Beat Dream

15:48 Liberty Loss and Takeaways

18:12 Broadcast Gripes

21:32 Other Games and Rookie Record

25:34 Standings Check

27:40 Right Team Right Time

43:11 Couch Picks Week Ahead

45:25 Swish List and Wrap Up

Transcript

0:01

Welcome to Double Drivel A mother-daughter podcast about the WNBA. I'm Sylvia, and I'm the mom. I'm Madeleine, and I'm the daughter. Today we're going to cover our usual game highlights and standings, and then we'll do a segment called Right Team, Right Time, talking about some players that have showed significant improvement or increased their production or role in a new system, team, or coach. Then, of course, we'll close out with our usual couch picks and swish list. Starting out with game highlights. Okay, so the Wings won both Commissioner Cup games. The first one they won against the Storm on Monday, a pretty big win against the Storm, 79 to 56. A lot of people had a really good amount of points. Madi Segars had nine points, Arike nine points, Jessica Shepard had nine points, Paige had 10 points. Er, AZ had nine points. Alana Smith had five. Laesha Clark had six. Leah Rue had two. Azia James had 18. I didn't know she had that much. And Odyssey Sims also had two. So really everyone contributed to the win, I'd say. Obviously some more so than others, but especially Azia James. I did not realize she had scored that much. I only watched the second half though, so- Yeah, I'm not sure what the breakout was she might have done most of that in the first half. I'm not sure. 'Cause it says she only has, she only played, or not only played, but she played 18 minutes, so maybe it, most of those minutes were in the first half when I wasn't watching. Maybe. A rare game without a double double from good old Jess Shep. Arike was zero from five from the, from three. Paige was one of five from three. AZ was one of four of three. Doesn't seem like a very good three-point- Three-point night. But there was definitely a lot of regular points made. Actually, Paige had more rebounds than Jessica Shepard this game, which is pretty surprising. I think that might have been the lowest amount of rebounds I can remember Jessica Shepard ever having in the game. She had eight rebounds and Paige had nine. Maddie Siegrist also had nine. It was definitely a good win. Good to see them win the first game of their Commissioner's Cup, Yeah, not a terribly tough opponent, although Flau'jae had a really good game- Yeah for Seattle. I was gonna say I really felt for Flau'jae at the end 'cause she did score the most out of any of her teammates, but I think she felt she was having a hard game and I s- I'm pretty sure she was, like, crying at the end of the game. Oh, was she? Yeah, I'm pretty sure, and I was like, you know, she scored 16 points, which is more than all of her teammates. Yeah, by quite a bit. The s- person following her is Latisha Hyman with 11, and the second closest to that is eight, and then from there it's just, like, five, six, two, two, two, four, and zero. So she definitely was the biggest contributor for the Storm. That was probably the biggest reason for their loss, not that she's a big gr- contributor, but that she was the biggest contributor and everyone else was just kind of not contributing as much- Yeah as they needed to secure the win. Yeah, I mean, 16 points is certainly solid, but she shot four of 12, which obviously isn't great, and she did foul out and had five- Yeah turnovers, so. Yeah, I do believe that's when... I mean, she... I'm pretty sure she's crying. She might have just been upset, but I'm pretty sure she was 'cause she had, like, the towel over her face. But she was, Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was after she'd fouled out. It was pretty late in the game, so I don't think it would've really mattered anyways, but. No, and yeah, they were down quite significantly I think pretty much the whole game, right? Yeah. And then on Friday they beat the Sparks 104 to 96. It was honestly a pretty... It was a good game to watch. I actually didn't think they were gonna win most of the game 'cause most of the game they were down, and then they st- sort of started to finally, like, get into their momentum and sort of run away f- with an eight-point lead or something like that. Arike had a really good game. She had 30 points. She took a lot of shots, but she was ultimately pretty good. She was 10 of 21 for regular shots and for three points, she was six from 11. Maddie Siegrist had 16 points. Jessica Shepard had 22 points, and Paige had 18, Azzi had 11. So overall a pretty good game for all their starters actually, because Maddie Siegrist started over Allana Smith, and I think that was the right choice. I think that's definitely what they should have done. Allana Smith only had 16... Not only, but compared to Maddie Siegrist, she had 16 minutes and Maddie Siegrist had 24, as well as starting over her. It was definitely a brutal game to watch when Odyssey went down. She hadn't scored any points, and she went down with I'm pretty sure it was a left ankle injury. I think so. And it was definitely... I, like, saw it. I was like, "Oh, that looks bad." And yeah, she had to be taken off the court in a wheelchair. I'm not sure, were there any updates as to what that was? Not that I've seen. And then obviously Azzi James also went down pretty late in the fourth quarter, I'd say. I'm not sure if that was anything serious, but I believe it was something to do with her hip, and she was also on the ground. I did not like the refs at all that game. It was very, seemed very LA-focused. There was a couple times, I think there was a lot of face contact happening on both sides. And every time an LA player got poked in the eye or sort of, like, accidentally hit in the face, you know, stop the whole game, review it. And I get it. Okay, review for flagrant, whatever. But then both times there were Dallas players quite literally on the floor in pain, they kept the play going. Especially on the play where Aziah James got hurt, that definitely should have been assessed for foul. They didn't even look at it. They left her on the ground the whole play, as they did with Odyssey, and she was clearly in a lot of pain. Like, she was in the back court while the play was happening up court, and she was, like, literally on the ground rolling around, and they didn't do anything, so that wasn't right. Obviously Kelsey Plum led the Sparks with 27 points as always. Nneka had 13. Ariel Atlins had a pretty good game. She had 16 points. I'm not- Yeah, and then Dearica Hamby had 15 points, Erica Wheeler had seven, and Cameron Brink had 10. Kate Martin had five. She actually made all of her shots, except one free throw, but Yeah. It's interesting. So she's one of their developmental players, which is new under the new CBA. Teams can have two, and they're... Each developmental player is only allowed to play a maximum of 12 games in a season, and Kate has now played in five games, I believe. So they've been using her very heavily. I'm not sure if Lin Roberts is maybe thinking she's gonna waive somebody else and potentially put her on the team 'cause they've been burning through the games that she'll be allowed to play quite quickly. So that's been interesting. I'm glad to see her getting playing time, but I'm not sure what the plan is there. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, those are all the stats from that game. I still think, we'll probably talk about this later, but I think Jessica Shepard was in the right place at the right time. Exactly. She's definitely one of the ones we're gonna talk about there, spoiler alert. For sure. And that Sparks game, she was definitely back to the higher production we've seen from her a lot of the season, versus in the Storm game she was a little bit more quiet, although certainly still a solid contributor. Okay, anything else on the Wings? Mm- Oh, you forgot to mention Paige's record that she set. Oh, yes. Paige had the rec- she- The Wings record, right? I'm pretty sure she tied Arike's record from last season for the most amount of assists in one game. I've actually... Paige passes a lot, not that her teammates make shots a lot, but I've, like she doesn't usually, like I've never seen her have that many assists before. I don't even think I've ever... I mean, maybe I have like once or twice, like seen her go over double digits, so that was definitely a lot of assists. Yeah, it was 14 I think, right? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely a lot. I'll be annoying and say the league record is held by Caitlin at 18 from her rookie year. But I mean, anything over 10 assists is quite substantial- Yeah For sure. Yeah, there was apparently I should have, it would've been good for our Says Who segment last week where in the press conference after the game Arike kind of joked like, "Oh, you would've had more if we would've made more shots." And Paige said something about like, "Yeah, I should have gone to each of you in the locker room and called you out," or something like that. That wasn't the exact quote, but- it was like at the end also, I think she was trying to get one more to beat it 'cause she passed, she was trying to pass to someone and get them to shoot it, but it, they didn't make it, so. Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing, assists, right? Like you can make the good pass, but then the player still has to make it. And part of that is you putting them in a good position to score, of course. But, Yeah it relies on two players to, to make that stat come true. Okay, moving on to the Fever. So they had two games, they split them, so they're still at 500 with a five and five record now. They were bo- playing strong teams, both of them the Dream and the Liberty. So they did beat the Dream 83 to 71, so I was really happy to see that. The Dream are, were a very strong team last year. I think got stronger with the addition of Angel Reese, although I think she's- Still trying to find her role in that team exactly. She's not, you know, the number one option that she was in Chicago. And they play a lot of three-point shooting perimeter game in Atlanta, which is not necessarily fully suited to her skill sets, although certainly she can always clean up and get a lot of rebounds which is her strong suit for sure. So we talked in passing last week about the viral video of Caitlin and Stephanie kinda yelling at each other during a timeout in the Portland game last week. They both addressed that in talking to press a couple days later. Both described it as frustration, and both just very passionate, competitive people. Emphasized that, you know, they have a great relationship, nothing to worry about there. And then Sophie in press availability told them that, "Oh, we had a big two-hour long meeting, basically a come to Jesus meeting, where we, talked about our identity and made sure we were all on the same page." And then a reporter asked Kelsey about it, and Kelsey was taken aback and said, "How did you hear about that?" And they said, "Oh, Sophie." Sophie has a podcast where she talks about a lot of things during the season which maybe aren't necessarily great to be talking about during the season. I think the fact that they had that meeting would probably be better kept in the locker room and not shared with the press. But I will say it did seem to make a difference when they came to this game against the Dream. They did have quite a few days off to practice and get ready for that game, so that helped of course as well. The team came out with a very high effort on defense. Their defense had definitely been lacking really pretty much the whole season, I would say. So that was nice to see. Both the Valkyries and the Fire had a lot of success beating the Fever the prior week by really attacking Caitlin and trying to isolate her on defense and scoring. So, you know, a lot of pundits were wondering if Carl Smesko was going to follow that strategy or stick with his usual perimeter offense, and he did opt to stick with what he usually does. And that was not successful, so he might have been better off trying to mimic what the Fire and the Valkyries had done. The Dream's top scorers only scored 13. Both Alicia Gray and Jordan Canada, and Rhyne Howard only had eight points. Angel Reese did have a double double barely, with 11 points and 10 rebounds. But in evidence of the Fever's strong d- defense, they held the Dream to thirty-four percent field goal percentage and only twenty-eight point six from three, and they're normally, a high volume and, higher efficiency shooters from three on that team. Fever's scoring was led by Kelsey, as is usually the case lately, with twenty-five points, and she also had two assists and two steals. Aaliyah also had a strong game, nineteen points, seven rebounds, two assists and three blocks. Caitlin had seventeen points, seven rebounds and eight assists, so she was flirting on getting into triple double category, but still a bit off. I get annoyed with announcers sometimes when they start saying, "Oh, they're on triple double watch" when they have, like, five rebounds. I'm like, "You're only halfway there. That's not triple double watch." I'd say at seven and eight you're on triple double watch, but it's still a little bit iffy for me to call that a near triple double. I think at least one of those should probably be a nine for you to claim that. But anyway, she also had one block. She had three turnovers, which is on the better end for her. Boston and Reese had the highest turnovers in the game with four each So it was overall a very good team effort. It shows what they can do when they come out focused and with the right energy, especially on the defensive end. This is a very offensively loaded team but the defense is clearly something that's been lacking. Wanted to celebrate Kelsey's milestone of reaching 5,000 career points in this game. She's only the second player in Fever history to do so. Tamika Catchings is obviously the first. And she is the 29th player in WNBA history to do so. While we're talking about milestones, I forgot to mention last week, so wanted to make sure I did so today, that Caitlin became the fastest player in league history to record 1,000 career points and 500 career assists. She did that in 59 games. That record was previously held by Sue Bird, who took 82 games, and Sabrina took 84 games, was in second. So she beat them pretty handily in terms of the speed which she got to that record, so that's pretty impressive. By hitting 500 assists, she also became eligible to be included in the calculation for all-time leader in assists per game in the league, and and as a result of now being eligible, leads that list with an average of just under eight and a half per game for her career. Okay Unfortunately, their second game last night did not go as well. I say last night because we're recording this on Sunday. So on Saturday they played the Liberty and ended up losing 83 to 75. The Fever were in control for most of the game, and so I thought things were looking good for them, but then New York found their spark late in the third and took over from there. They unfortunately outscored the Fever 29 to 18 in the fourth quarter. Caitlin is still struggling with her shooting. That was true in the Dream game in terms of her field goal percentage, both in general and from three. She shot 4 of 14 in this game. I think she was 2 of four from three, if I'm remembering correctly. I'll correct that in a moment if I'm not. It was very uneven in terms of fouls. Stewie shot more free throws than the entire Fever team did. She st- shot 21 free throws. The Fever shot 15, and the Liberty as a whole shot 40. A handful of those were because the Fever were fouling late in the game because they were down in the last couple of minutes, but that certainly doesn't explain a 25 free throw discrepancy. It was definitely quite lopsided in this game. Guess what? The encouraging news was certainly that they played the majority of the game against a very good team well. But I think the piece I was happiest about, the biggest positive that I took away was it's the best game that we've seen from Mo Billings so far since she joined the Fever this season. She had 15 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block, so it was really happy to see that from her. Kelsey was the high scorer as usual with 21 points. She also had 7 rebounds, which is really high for Kelsey. I feel like she normally only has maybe two or three. Two assists also. She did have four turnovers in this game. And then Aaliyah had 13 points and 9 rebounds, so almost a double double, one steal, and three blocks. She's been amping up her blocks the last couple of games. Hopefully that's a trend that will continue. And then also wanted to note that Damaris Dantas has DNP'd for several games now. She seems to be on the end of the bench. I'm not sure if they're contemplating any moves potentially waive her and bring somebody else on the roster, but I guess time will tell. All right, I wanna make a quick comment again that actually has nothing to do with the Fever 'cause I forgot to say something about the Sparks game as well. The Sparks announcers were very Unknowledgeable on the wings. Unless I'm like, I'm missing something and they're just not, like the Wings aren't putting it up as like injur- on the injury report. But, they were saying, they said multiple times throughout the game that the Wings were without J.J. Quinerly, which who, which mind you literally had her jersey on the sideline. She just hasn't been playing at all. Like she's fine. She's, she played in the preseason. She's healthy. And not only that, the only injured player they mentioned was J.J. Quinerly, and there was no mention of anyone who was actually injured. They didn't talk about Lee Uru or Awak Kuir which is very odd, but Yeah, and one thing people might notice on, I'd say the majority of televised games or if they're only on League Pass I know if they're on League Pass or if they're on ION, and I think also games that are on Amazon Prime, they're just using the home team's announcers. So if they sound biased, it's because they are. They're what they call homers. And it's really only when you have, a game on ESPN, CBS NBC I think has started having some games this season, that you have more national announcers. On ESPN and ABC it's pretty much always Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo. I know some people's opinion is also that they have some biases. But anyway, that, it gets frustrating. Some home announcers are, do a better job of trying to be somewhat even than others, but sometimes it's very blatantly obvious. And if they're from the opposing teams' home announcers, it can get pretty annoying to listen to. Yeah. I mean, I think they're, they were sort of biased the whole game, but the thing about it was mostly just like you're commentating a game and I feel like it wouldn't hurt you that much to like maybe look something up or like even like I feel like it's kind of the bare minimum to, to see who's injured. Especially while, I'm not sure, I know some announcers are literally like on the sideline, but I'm not sure if they were. But either way you're watching the game, so and they show the sideline. So I'm not sure, like you can see with your eyes who is hurt and who's not. So I don't know what they were doing. Yeah, I don't know. On, and on the Liberty side, Stewie was definitely the high scorer by quite a bit for the Liberty. She had 30 points. 18 of those were from free throws, as I was talking about earlier. I mean, it is a skill to be able to draw a foul. Obviously she was doing that very, very well. Other than that Pauline Astier, who is a rookie to the WNBA, but has been on the French national team, had 12 points, and Satou Sabally had 13, and then everybody else was in single digits. But definitely a huge game from Stewie In terms of other notable games, all the other games that I highlighted in Couch Picks last week were Valkyries games. They had a game against the Portland Fire,, so two of, kind of upstart recent expansion teams. I was curious to see how that would go. They lost to the Fire 95 to 77, so it was not a particularly close... I'm sorry, did I say they lost? Yeah. They, they beat the Fire, sorry. Yeah. 95 to 77. But then they lost the other two games to the Lynx 87 to 84. I want to mention that Olivia Miles set the record for the most three-pointers made by a rookie in that game with eight. Caitlin Clark and Crystal Robinson were previously tied for that record with seven. She's definitely continuing to look like the clear favorite for Rookie of the Year. Obviously, we're only about a quarter of the way through the season, so we'll see. But seems like it's hers to lose at this point. Yeah, like I was, saying earlier, I definitely think there's... it's definitely more Olivia Miles... It's easier for... It's gonna be easy for her to win it, because I was telling you, I think AZ... Like, a lot of first draft picks are really drafted to be, like, leaders of a team. And I'm not sure if I would call Olivia Miles the leader of the Minnesota Lynx, but I think she's a, one of the leaders. And I think AZ was drafted to be a part of the Lynx instead of the leader, because I know last year when the Lynx drafted Paige, she was drafted to be their leader, and then she won Rookie of the Year. AZ was not drafted to do that. She was just drafted to be a part of the team. And, some would argue, "Well, why would you waste your first round draft, or your first..." I mean, first round, but literally first pick on that. And I mean, so far she's been doing really well for Dallas, but also, she only recently got the starting position, and she's not always playing. I know Jose Fernandez really likes to use all of his players except JJ Quinerly. Not bitter about that or anything. No, of course not. But he really, like, uses basically everyone on the bench besides A'ja Quinerly. And the one dev- person I'm pretty sure is on a developmental contract I think. Honestly, I only recently, I was like, I saw her on the bench and I was like, "What the heck? Who is that?" And I looked and she's on the Dallas roster. In, like, street clothes the developmental players have to specifically be activated, I think- By like an hour before the game or something, and if not, they wouldn't be in uniform. Yeah. Okay. So, and I think quite a lot of teams haven't played their developmental players yet. Obviously we know the Sparks have been playing Kate Martin a lot. The Fever haven't played either of their developmental players yet either. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm actually not sure what position she is, but I'm also pretty sure she's a European, so I don't know. 'Cause I didn't notice her. It could be just that they signed her randomly, but I didn't hear about it. So I might be wrong, but it could have been they had her sign and she's just came over from Europe and she's not playing, but I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what her history is. I didn't really do too much research on her. I don't even really remember her name. Yeah. I feel like her last name started with a V maybe, but I can't remember. Yeah, it was like a European name I think. Yeah. And then we digress back to the final Valkyries game that we had highlighted last week. What, that was against the Aces, and they also lost a close game to them, 84 to 79. So they went one and two for the week, but, lost to two very good opponents by small amounts not necessarily highly discouraging for the Valkyries, although obviously they would have liked to have won those games of course. Okay, moving into the standings. Both the Wings and the Fevers positions have not changed after the games they played. The Wings are still at fourth, and the Fever are still at ninth. The Lynx and the Dream remain at second and third, and then the Valkyries actually dropped from three to six after their two losses. Yeah. So the better teams are still, clustered towards the top. The worst teams are still clustered towards the bottom. You're getting some movement in the middle. Obviously if the playoffs were held today, the Fever would be just out of the standings for playoffs. Hopefully that will change, but they're definitely just holding on at 500 right now. Oh, you know what? Actually The Wings, the Aces, and the Dream are actually all tied even though they have the same percentage as well. Yeah. I think th- they're ordering them based on other tiebreaker factors, which is why they have them- Oh, I'm, yeah stacked that way, but- Technically with wins and losses they're all the same, so technically the Wings- are actually in second. Yeah. I mean, come playoff time those tiebreakers would come into effect, but this early in the season those could obviously very easily change also, so, they're definitely in a good position and have a better record at this stage of the season than, I think, a lot of people, including me, would've expected. And I was just gonna say, already they've almost, I'm sure within the next five games or something they'll have already beaten the amount of wins they had last season. I'm pretty sure they only had 10 and 33 losses, if I'm doing the math right. I think they played 44 games, so maybe they had 11 wins, or maybe they had 34 losses. Whatever it was- Yeah it was not good, and they've already have won seven games, so that's definitely- Yeah a huge improvement. They're on track for a dramatic improvement. That's definitely exciting for them. All right, so now it's time for right team, right time. So we wanna highlight a few players that have changed teams in the past year or two and are really flourishing, whether it's due to a new coach, a new system, a bigger role, et cetera. There's quite a few reasons why somebody obviously might start doing better. These are sometimes candidates for most improved player of the year. I think you could argue in some cases that if you're suddenly getting more playing time for one reason or another, and that's increased your production, but like proportionally to the minutes that you've played, that maybe you shouldn't think of that as most improved. It just means you're getting more minutes. But I think the flip side of that is there's probably a reason you're starting to get more minutes. That could be due to other factors in the team that don't necessarily have a lot to do with you perhaps. But, it's something that, I've heard other experts debate when they're thinking about who should be a candidate for most improved player of the year. Early in the season, of course, but I'll start with the person that did get most improved player of the year last year. I think the majority of people we'll be talking about will be ones that are, is more related to their situation this year. But Veronica Burton on the Golden State Valkyries, she went to being, uh, a high-level option for the Valkyries versus coming off the bench for the Sun in 2024, where she was just averaging a little under 13 minutes. She now averages both last season and this season for Golden State just under 30 minutes a game and went from averaging about three points a game to almost 12 points last year and close to 14 points so far this year. So she's really made the jump and has been given a bigger role being on an expansion team, but also has been able to rise to the occasion. So she's also increased her assists and her rebounds compared to her time on the Sun as well. So that's been a great breakout role for her, and we've also seen while we're on that Expansion team note., A similar story for Brittany Sykes, who was previously on the Mystics, then got traded to the Seattle Storm midyear last year, and is now signed as a free agent with the Toronto Tempo. She was not part of the expansion draft. So she's previously been known as a defensive guard. And she, on the Mystics, was a starter and had been averaging pretty high minutes, so that hasn't particularly changed. And same for Seattle, she's been in that 30-ish minutes per game realm for quite a few years. But in Seattle she was scoring about 11.8 points per game, and now in Toronto she's averaging, over 19. So she's definitely become a more primary offensive option and has been able to produce as part of that. Do you wanna talk a little bit about our next person? Sure. So I think Kennedy Carter, upon coming back this season, has definitely been, much better than she was. Not that she was at all bad in other seasons. I think I would actually say that her true kind of- Jump would've been because sh- when she was on Atlanta, she was averaging In 2020, she was averaging 17 points. In 2021, she was averaging 14 points, both those on Atlanta. And then in 2022 with LA, she was only averaging eight points per game. So I would say the true jump is more on points-wise is more from that to 2024 with Chicago when she was averaging 17.5. This year with the Aces, she's also averaging 17.5, she's not getting as much minutes as she was on Chicago. She played more minutes in Chicago than she is on the Aces. Yeah, and I think she- But- started off coming off the bench in Chicago, and then got a starting role pretty quickly. I think one of the biggest jump stat-wise that she's had on the Aces is her field goal percentage. Yeah, so I was gonna say prior her being on the Aces her field goal percentage was 48%, and now this year on the Aces so far she's at 67%. So that's definitely a pretty big jump. I would also say the more thing that's the biggest jump for her is obviously she was out of the league last year, and now she's on a team, and averaging a good amount of points., I do think, a lot of times she was having trouble and unstable on teams. I think it was more so her attitude towards the game rather than her ability to play the game, I'd say. But- Yeah, I think she's pretty consistently demonstrated that she's a very strong player. She has had trouble sticking with teams. She's played five seasons in the league and been on four... No. Yeah, four. Four different teams. And been dismissed previously from Atlanta, from LA, from... And Chicago wasn't an official dismissal, but they just didn't re-sign her in free agency, despite her having a really good statistical season the year prior. So I think hopefully she's in the right situation now with Becky Hammon, and being around vets like A'ja, and Jackie, and Chelsea Gray. It seems to be working out pretty well so far. I will say having a player coming off the bench that's averaging 17 and a half points is pretty wild. I don't know- I'm trying to think, if she were to get a starting spot who she would potentially replace. I mean, Jackie Young has been struggling a little bit. I know she's dealing- Yeah with, I think, some personal loss, so that definitely probably explains that. But from a production standpoint, certainly at least in this moment in time, Kennedy is producing more than she is. Chelsea's the point guard and Kennedy is more of a shooting guard, so I don't think she would replace her necessarily, but- Yeah, and I would also say, there's definitely a lot of things, I would also compare it to Lana Smith with also Jackie Young. There's a lot of times where I think a lot of people, and sometimes even coaches, are like, "Well, this has happened to this person, or there's this and this and this." That's okay that you recognize the reason they're not doing well, but that doesn't mean ignore that they're not doing well. Because I think that was something that was happening a lot with Allana on Dallas for quite a few games. Obviously I think, I mean we'll see once she does get the mask off. I'm not sure when she does, but apparently that's been like a big issue for her. And I also think, apparently at least from what Jose said, she's been definitely, Obviously she's been almost fouling out a lot. I don't think she's ever officially fouled out, but she's definitely getting, like her fouls are building up. And I think it's definitely not something to, it's something to acknowledge, but it's not something to ignore. Yeah, this is the reason they're not doing well. Okay, Jackie Young going through some personal things, that's okay, and you can acknowledge that the reason you're doing bad, like it's okay that you're doing bad, but I don't think it's also the choice to put your team in jeopardy and have them continue to play when they're not doing well. Yeah. That's fair. I think she did have a stronger game, at least one of the games last week. We'll see how things develop there. Do you wanna talk about Jessica Shepard? Yes. I know we've talked about her a lot already, but... Yes. Jessica Shepard is definitely what I would say, honestly I'd say I don't know, I mean I guess I would say right team, right time, but I'd also say right person, right time. I think she's really like the exact person that Dallas needed. Earlier in her career she, I'm pretty sure she was only coming off the bench. Mm-hmm. Now she's started every game I'm pretty sure, 'cause she hasn't been injured at all, so she's started every game. She's, her field goal percentage this season is, 63% I believe, and she's, the league leader in rebounds this season as well. Also not last season when she was on the Lynx, but in 2024 she actually didn't play in the WNBA at all the whole year. She was on an overseas contract with Italy, so she didn't play the whole season. She basically pretty steadily except for 2023 to 2025, her minutes have actually been, like, steadily increasing, especially on Dallas. So she's a- she actually spent her whole career in Minnesota besides this year with Dallas. So she started in 2019 on the Lynx averaging 18 minutes a game Oh, actually she didn't increase then. But in 2021 she was only averaging 10 minutes a game. In 2022, which is a pretty huge jump, she was averaging 26.1 minutes a game. In 2023 she was averaging 26.9, and then when she came back to the Lynx in 2025 she was only averaging 20.9, which I don't mean only "Oh, my gosh, that's so little amount of points," but it was definitely a decrease from her previous year on the Lynx. And then now, like I said, she's averaging 31.5. Also, her rebounds have increased hugely from all of her years on the Lynx. She was averaging in 2019 she was averaging f- five. In 2021 she was only averaging three rebounds. That was also her lowest minute, minutes, so- Yeah that makes sense. And basically all the other years she was only averaging seven, and now this year she's averaging 11.4 rebounds, and she's leading the league with rebounds per game, like average. So that is a huge improvement for her as well, I would say. She's also acting as more of a playmaker in Dallas in terms of her assists. Yeah, I was also- That's a huge jump yeah, I was also about to say that. She was averaging basically around one to three all of her years on Minnesota, and now on Dallas she's averaging 5.8 assists, which is a big jump considering the year before she was only averaging two. I know that Macy Liota, she's only getting five assists, but she definitely makes a lot of good passes. I think a lot of the time her teammate can't really execute it, but- Yeah, and that's a lot of assists for a big. Oh, yeah. And I think she's really good at getting on the inside and being able to sort of like maneuver a certain way to pass to someone on the perimeter, and I think that's something she's really good at. I also think she's good at just, like, long passes, like she's standing at like three-point line and she's able to get like Paige or someone in the paint. Yeah. And I mean, honestly, there's a lot of point guards in the league that don't average that many assists- I think- and that is their job, so. I think Paige averages like that many assists, maybe less. I'm not sure, though. Yeah, we'd have to fact-check that. But I... if I'm remembering right, when we did the league leaders last week, I think she was in the top five, wasn't she? Yeah. So she's doing better than the majority of point guards, then. Yeah. All right. The final one I want to talk about is Megan Gustafson. So this is another expansion team, bigger role story, similar to Veronica Burton and Brittney Sykes. She was selected in the expansion draft. I think she had played for co- Portland Fire coach Alex Sarama on the Spain team before, if I'm remembering correctly, so they had some history together. But she's previously been, most recently, on the Aces for a couple of seasons. She's been with Phoenix for a couple of seasons, the Mystics, and started her career in Dallas. So she's bounced around a little bit but she's definitely playing more minutes now at about 18 per game. Last season, really the last couple seasons for the Aces, she was averaging around 11 minutes per game, so pretty good jump there. Her scoring average has gone from three points last year to a little over 10 this year, although she did have a very big game against the Fever where she scored quite a bit more than that. Her rebounds have gone up, her assists, kind of everything across the board. So she's definitely been a key contributor for the Fire. I'm not sure in terms of all their scores kind of average per game where she lines up, but 10 points definitely a solid contributor. Her field goal percentage at 62% is also very efficient. And so she's been one of the most efficient scorers in the league by field goal percentage, especially for somebody taking a decent number of shots. But it's been exciting to see her as a former Iowa alum, which we mentioned last week after the Fever game against the Fire doing really well in this new situation as well. Probably the most k- key theme that you're seeing here is that, going to an expansion team where you may go from most likely being a bench player at the team that you were selected from in the expansion draft to,, or even if you just sign in free agency,, which actually now I think she might have done. I'll have to double-check that. Anyway, obviously can give you a much bigger role if you end up being a starter on the expansion team versus playing on the bench for somebody else. Another one I meant to pull the statistics for, but forgot to, was NaLyssa Smith. I know she was leading the league in field goal percentage when we looked at league leaders last week, which was a little bit surprising to us, but she's been doing well with the Aces after she got traded to them from Dallas mid-season last season. She previously had been drafted to the Fever and played with them for several years. And she's been a- significant contributor. She, I think, is pretty much always starting for the Aces, if I'm remembering right, at least now. Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't know. So she's been doing well there as well. All right Ready for couch picks? Yeah. So the Wings have a game against the Lynx on Tuesday, which is when this'll come out. They have a game against the Mercury on Thursday. Then they have a game against the Fire on Saturday, which we are going to, woo-hoo. All right. For the Fever, they also have three games this week. They're playing the Mystics on Monday, the Sky on Thursday, and then the Sun on Saturday. So they lost to the Mystics earlier in the season already. I hope they can manage to win this time. The Mystics, you know, their record isn't necessarily great, but they do have a lot of really good young talent, plus Shakira Austin as the main vet who's been doing really well. The Sky and the Sun are among the weaker teams, so I'm hoping that b- both of those will be wins. I'm hoping that all three will be wins. But if they can come out of the week at two and one, I would be pretty happy with that. In terms of other games, the two I most have my eye on are the Liberty versus Dream on Thursday and the Lynx versus the Aces on Saturday. Those are four of the top teams in the league, so hopefully it'll be exciting and competitive games. Yeah, and I also forgot to mention who... I don't think they're gonna beat the Lynx unfortunately. They... I don't remember how much they lost by last time they played the Lynx, but I don't think it was a small amount. I might be wrong about that, but- I think they, they should easily beat the Mercury for sure. And then I'm definitely hoping they beat the Fire, so obviously, 'cause we're going to that game, so they better win it. Yes. I hope so. Should be so motivated by my presence that they should win. Well, here's hoping. I'm sure Paige will feel your presence there and- Yeah, hopefully I can get her jersey signed. I, I sign her jersey. That will probably be her biggest dream come true. Okay, so I think probably our swish list for this week is pretty obvious. We kind of shared it last week Okay, so our trip to Portland is our big excitement as well as your middle school graduation. Yeah, definitely ready to be done with school. I'm excited for the Portland game. As I said, they better win it, so Yes, hopefully, but it'll be fun to explore the city. We'll share more about that next week, as well as our in-person experience at the game and at the Portland Fire's Moda Center where they play. If you don't follow us on social media, it's Double Drivel Pod on Instagram and Threads. I'm gonna put up a poll in the near future to get your feedback on which of the different segments we've been doing each episode you like the best, so we can make sure we're giving you content in future episodes that you like. So please follow us on social media and keep an eye out for that poll, and we would appreciate your feedback and responses. Okay, other than that, we will wrap it up for the week. Please subscribe if you haven't already, and thank you for listening. Bye. Bye.