Deep Dive: Dearica Hamby’s Strong Offensive Start
The Sparks forward is off to a hot start in 2024.
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One of the most intriguing offseason questions was what the Los Angeles Sparks would do at the four and the five. With longtime stalwart Nneka Ogwumike leaving for the Seattle Storm and sister Chiney Ogwumike not on the roster, the position was in flux. Add in that Azurá Stevens is currently out with an arm injury and you’d think the picture would be pretty dire up front. No. 2 overall pick Cameron Brink was expected to help with these issues, but what would Los Angeles do beyond her?
That’s where Dearica Hamby comes in. After finishing just seventh on the Sparks in minutes per game last season, head coach Curt Miller has ramped up Hamby’s minutes, and in the process, he’s allowed her to become the team’s No. 1 scoring option. After a 2023 season where Hamby was in and out of the starting lineup and averaged her fewest points per game since 2018, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the two-time Sixth Player of the Year might be exiting her prime.
Instead, the first three games of 2024 have seen Hamby playing arguably the best basketball of her career.
Hamby is currently averaging 22.0 points and 13.7 rebounds per game, which would both be career highs. Hamby’s also been active on the defensive end, adding 2.0 steals per contest.
Among the 65 WNBA players who are averaging 20 or more minutes per game this year, Hamby ranks fourth in field-goal percentage and eighth in effective field-goal percentage. She’s hitting shots at a pretty wild clip, much more in line with her 2021 and prior numbers than with how she’s shot over the past two seasons. The uber-efficient Hamby who served as a glue player for the Aces appears to be back, and she’s managed to do that while scaling up the usage. Her previous high for field-goal attempts per game was 9.3 back in 2020, but right now Hamby sits at 14.7 per game in 2024.
The WNBA website does have seemingly correct numbers for shooting zones, and there we see that Hamby is 10th with 5.3 attempts per game in the restricted area. She’s shooting 75.0% on those attempts, tied for the best field-goal percentage there of any player taking at least five attempts per game in the RA. Expand that out to a larger sample of players taking three or more attempts and she still ranks third.
One thing you’ll see watching video of Hamby this year is that she’s been using her athleticism to finish quickly at the basket. Rather than backing down defenders and scoring via an assortment of post moves, she’s instead cutting to the hoop and scoring layups. Rewatching the loss to the Aces, you’ll see this happen over and over — Hamby out on the wing, makes a quick cut to the basket and is able to use her momentum to score the bucket.
You often see this via transition plays, with Layshia Clarendon and Hamby running the floor. Hamby makes a beeline to the basket and is able to outrun her primary defender, leaving open space between her and the basket.
That’s not to say Hamby can’t score in other ways. On the play above, things start out much like they have on numerous other plays this season, with Hamby setting a screen out at the 3-point line and then rolling toward the basket. This time, things get crowded as Lexie Brown drives as well and doesn’t give the ball up until late. As Brown’s momentum post-pass carries her away from the play, Hamby’s left with the basketball under the bucket with three defenders on her. Here’s a situation where she has to adjust because the defense isn’t giving her the space she had earlier in the game.
What she does is turn her back to the basket, stepping out of the restricted area. One defender slides back, leaving Hamby double-covered. She’s able to create some separation on the turnaround and finishes a beautiful seven-foot fadeaway.
Hamby’s also still shooting threes. Her two attempts per game aren’t a huge departure from her career average of 1.2 per game, but the fact that they’re a lower proportion of her attempts than usual might make it seem like she’s not out there beyond the arc.
But that’s just what makes Hamby so tough to defend. Sure, she can cut to the basket at any point, but she can also choose to simply just…not do that, to stand behind the arc while her defender sags off her and, when the ball swings her way, to drain the three. While Hamby’s only a 28.7% shooter from deep for her career, she’s shot over 30% from deep four times in her career and even had a 2020 season where she shot 47.4% from beyond the arc. She’s not going to go out there and knock down dribble jumpers from 27 feet, but if she can knock down some open catch-and-shoot looks, that’ll help Los Angeles.
I’m a big fan of on/off stats to get a sense of how a player impacts the team when on the floor, even though it doesn’t always give us a full picture of things. Unfortunately, we can’t really talk about the on/off numbers with Hamby because she hasn’t been off the floor very often. The Sparks have played 108 minutes with her on the court and just 12 with her off, illustrating the depth concerns the team has up front. With Brink still adjusting to the WNBA, Hamby’s had to stay out on the floor for virtually every minute.
What we do have is some data on the Hamby/Brink pairing, though the sample size is small. In 68 minutes with both on the floor, the team has a +5.78 net rating. It’s been three games so I’ll take the actual number with a grain of salt, but it prompted me to go watch some of the minutes where they shared the floor. Because both players can extend their games outside of the paint, the team’s able to space things out well, keeping the paint open at times. They aren’t playing a full five-out offense, but they do have the capability to do things like this:
The Sparks have Brink, their center, up above the arc, and Hamby is the only player inside the arc, but she’s only barely in there, out on the left baseline. Like Hamby, Brink has the athleticism to put the ball on the floor and drive inside. The defense collapses down to defend her and she hits an open Clarendon for the three.
Having these two as the frontcourt could pay huge dividends. I worry a little about them holding up against a larger team like Connecticut, but most nights the versatility will be a major plus for the Sparks, assuming Brink can stay out of foul trouble and on the floor more.
Dearica Hamby is getting a chance to really be a team’s featured player for the first time in her career and she’s excelled at it so far. The Sparks might not win a lot of games, but if Hamby keeps scoring as efficiently as she has been, they’ll surprise a few teams along the way.
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