2023-2024 WNBA Season

[DefenseWinsChamps]

This may be an unfair comparison, but I've been trying to do a deep dive into stats to understand why WNBA basketball seems boring compared to the NBA. This is not a dunk thing, or a athleticism thing, or speed, or gender, or anything like that, because I really enjoyed watching the Iowa Hawkeyes play last year. They scored a lot of points, led the NCAA in assists, and generally had a great style of basketball.

Here's a breakdown of some stats for why I think this is. The WNBA plays 40 minute games, compared to 48 for the NBA. I'm going to normalize the stats at 48 for this.

1. Points scored - The New York Liberty lead the league at 103.2 points per game (48 minute adjusted). That would be the least points per game in the NBA by 2.6 points. The worst team is the Mystics at 87.8 points per game, which would be 18 points fewer than the worst team in the NBA.

2. 3s attempted - The leading team in 3 point attempts is the Mercury at 35.3 a game. That would rank 16th in the NBA this season. The worst are the Chicago Sky at 18.4 per game. No team in the NBA has attempted that few since the 2015-2016 season.

3. 3% - The leading team in 3% is the Minnesota Lynx at 39%. The second place team is the Mercury at 33% (6 points between 1st and 2nd place!). The second best shooting team in the WNBA would be the worst in the NBA by 1.1%.

4. Fouls - The team with the fewest fouls per game is the New York Liberty at 19.6 per game. That would rank 23rd in the NBA. The worst fouling team in the WNBA is the Chicago Sky at 24.5 a game, which would be the worst in the NBA by 4.1 fouls per game.

5. Turnovers - The best team at turnovers in the WNBA are the New York Liberty at 14.4 a game. That would rank 24th in the NBA. The worst are the Sparks at 21.1 TOs a game. That would be the worst in the NBA by 5.4 TOs a game.

6. FG% - The best team in FG% in the WNBA are the Lynx at 45.5% a game. That would rank 29th in the NBA. The worst is the Mercury at 39.6% a game, which is a full 3.9% lower than the worst NBA team.

7. Assists - The best assists team in the WNBA are the Minnesota Lynx at 28.8 a game. That would rank 5th in the NBA (not bad!). The second best is the Liberty at 25.8 a game, which would be 18th in the NBA. The worst is the Dream at 21.4 a game, which is a full 1.7 lower than the worst NBA team.

The WNBA product is generally just not a good product right now. The NBA's product is not the end-all-be-all, but it is a proven product that people enjoy watching. Will the WNBA will carve out a fandom with a different style of play? I don't always enjoy the NBA's style. I would be fine with that. But the current style is not doing that. 

TLDR - The current style of the WNBA is not good. The flow of the game is poor due to fouls and turnovers, the style of play is antiquated, and the efficiency is lousy.

[Phantom255x]

Real bold move leaving Caitlin Clark out of the Olympics team.

Regardless how you feel about her, she's a massive reason women's basketball (college AND WNBA) is taking off lately and why the players are treated better in terms of chartered planes, better accomodations, etc. She could have really grown things further in the Olympics in the world stage but instead she's not there.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Real bold move leaving Caitlin Clark out of the Olympics team.

Regardless how you feel about her, she's a massive reason women's basketball (college AND WNBA) is taking off lately and why the players are treated better in terms of chartered planes, better accomodations, etc. She could have really grown things further in the Olympics in the world stage but instead she's not there.

Felt like they could have bent the rules for her seeing as camp was during the final four.

[Roy H.]

Real bold move leaving Caitlin Clark out of the Olympics team.

Regardless how you feel about her, she's a massive reason women's basketball (college AND WNBA) is taking off lately and why the players are treated better in terms of chartered planes, better accomodations, etc. She could have really grown things further in the Olympics in the world stage but instead she's not there.

Felt like they could have bent the rules for her seeing as camp was during the final four.

Bending rules leads to distractions and resentment, I think.  Clark will get her turn.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Real bold move leaving Caitlin Clark out of the Olympics team.

Regardless how you feel about her, she's a massive reason women's basketball (college AND WNBA) is taking off lately and why the players are treated better in terms of chartered planes, better accomodations, etc. She could have really grown things further in the Olympics in the world stage but instead she's not there.

Felt like they could have bent the rules for her seeing as camp was during the final four.

Bending rules leads to distractions and resentment, I think.  Clark will get her turn.

It's a flaw in their system. Young players bring the most excitement to a sport. They shouldn't have scheduled camp during the final four weekend, when some of the best young players would be playing. That was dumb.

There's no doubt that the team would be better with Clark, and there's no doubt it would be better for the popularity of women's basketball.

[Goldstar88]

Caitlin Clark became the second rookie in WNBA history to score seven three-pointers in a game and equaled a career-high 30 points in the league on a night when the stats racked up for the Indiana Fever phenom.

Clark tied Crystal Robinson’s three-point record for a rookie, set in 1999, and also surpassed Tamika Catchings’ record of six, achieved in 2002, to set a new franchise record for the number of three pointers by a rookie in a single match.

Her performance helped Indiana to a 85-83 win over the Washington Mystics in the Commissioner’s Cup Friday night in a game moved to the Capital One Arena to sate the demand to see the No. 1 draft pick in action.

The 22-year-old did not disappoint in front of the 20,333-crowd in D.C. – the largest for a WNBA game since the 2007 Finals – as she also recorded eight rebounds, six assists and a career-high four steals.

She is only the second rookie to score 30-plus points, five-plus rebounds, five-plus assists and five-plus three-pointers in a game.

Clark also became the fastest WNBA player to reach 200 points and 75 assists, according to ESPN, doing so in 12 games and beating Sue Bird’s record of 14 games.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

80 total TOs + fouls in this Mercury/Wings game. That's pretty brutal.

[bdm860]

Real bold move leaving Caitlin Clark out of the Olympics team.

Regardless how you feel about her, she's a massive reason women's basketball (college AND WNBA) is taking off lately and why the players are treated better in terms of chartered planes, better accomodations, etc. She could have really grown things further in the Olympics in the world stage but instead she's not there.

Felt like they could have bent the rules for her seeing as camp was during the final four.

Bending rules leads to distractions and resentment, I think.  Clark will get her turn.

It's a flaw in their system. Young players bring the most excitement to a sport. They shouldn't have scheduled camp during the final four weekend, when some of the best young players would be playing. That was dumb.

There's no doubt that the team would be better with Clark, and there's no doubt it would be better for the popularity of women's basketball.

Team USA Women's team has always been pretty popular, they definitely don't need Clark.

For all of Caitlin Clark's records, she still hasn't been part of the most watched woman's basketball game of all time, that belongs to the Team USA women in 1996 (which was so popular it launched 2 women's pro leagues in the WNBA and the ABL).

Some random stats I can find:

Iowa?s six NCAA Tournament games on ESPN and ABC averaged 10.07 million.

Compared to the 2012 Olympics: The three USA women's games broadcasted on NBC averaged more than 10 million viewers. No ratings for the 2016 Olympics, but the 2021 Olympics, Team USA women had gold medal game "averaged 7.8 million, the largest audience for any women?s basketball game in at least five years." (Numbers are down, but it was several time zones away in Tokoyo and still dealing with Covid issues).

I'm just trying to point out Olympic women's basketball has been popular for a while now.  Already matching/exceeding Clark's popularity.


And while ratings/attendance are way up, Clark's not exactly lighting up the WNBA, sitting at 13th in ppg.  Clark's appeal is as a one women show, she's not going to drive any Olympic viewership averaging 5ppg coming off the bench for less than 10mpg.

Or should Team USA be forced to start her and give her big minutes too?

[Who]

Tim Reynolds @ByTimReynolds

The top 11 players in WNBA All-Star fan voting in 2023: a combined 702,202 votes. Caitlin Clark, this year: 700,735 votes.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Decided to count Clark's potential assists for the first half of this game - 13.

Trae Young led the NBA in potential assists last season with 18 a game.

Adjusted for 48 minutes, that would be 31 potential assists for the game for Clark.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Clark sets the WNBA record for assists in a game with 19. In the fourth quarter alone, she had 5 more potential assists that her teammates did not convert.

[Who]

Clark sets the WNBA record for assists in a game with 19. In the fourth quarter alone, she had 5 more potential assists that her teammates did not convert.

Wow, I love her passing. I love passers.

[Moranis]

Had 24 points also, but Fever lost.

[gift]

is the WNBA potentially entering their growth period that the NBA went through with Larry&Magic? i never paid much attention to the league, but Clark is so good at such a young age and in an exciting way (not just a big who can bully smaller players). some more of that $$$ could finally start rolling in for the league if they play it smart.

[Celtics2021]

is the WNBA potentially entering their growth period that the NBA went through with Larry&Magic? i never paid much attention to the league, but Clark is so good at such a young age and in an exciting way (not just a big who can bully smaller players). some more of that $$$ could finally start rolling in for the league if they play it smart.

The WNBA is effectively controlled by the NBA, and their rights were rolled into the new media deal.  NBA: $6.6 billion per year.  WNBA: $200 million per year.  The deal lasts 11 years, so the bulk of Clark and Reese?s career.