Aliyah Boston’s Franchise-Defining Talent Deserves a Starring Role in Indiana
Despite nearly leading the league in FG%, Boston hasn’t gotten the touches to match.
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Entering her rookie season, everyone had high expectations for Aliyah Boston. Leaving South Carolina as a national champion, Player of the Year, and the program’s all-time leader in rebounds and double-doubles, people had been analyzing her fit in Indiana since before the Fever even got the No.1 pick. It’s hard to live up to such sky-high expectations, but so far, Boston is more than holding her own.
Through the 26 games of her nascent career, Boston is averaging 14.1 points on 59% shooting from the field, 7.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 1.2 blocks. Forget her stats among rookies—she’s in at least the 75th percentile in all of these categories league-wide and is second in the W in field-goal percentage.
To anybody who watched Boston’s college career, it’s no surprise that she’s adjusted to the pressure and physicality of the pros so quickly. Often easily the most dangerous player on the floor at South Carolina, opponents threw double and triple teams at her night in and night out.
While the increased attention slightly knocked her overall stats, it gave her the tools to adapt in the pros. Being forced to navigate and find her own shot through heavy coverage in college helped prepare her for the pros, where defenders are often larger and more aggressive. The comparatively-few double teams she’s drawing now are light work.
With more room to operate, Boston is shooting better than she has since her rookie season at South Carolina. She’s one of just 15 players to put up 14+ points and 7+ rebounds on 58%+ shooting and the first not named Sylvia Fowles to do so in five years. But what makes that feat even more impressive is that among players with those numbers, Boston is doing it with the second-lowest usage rate—18.7% —in WNBA history.
For context, the base usage should everything be even across a starting five is 20%. Across Indiana’s preferred starters, Boston’s usage is higher than only the defensive-minded Lexie Hull. In fact, Kristy Wallace has a higher mark (19) coming off the bench. This is also anomalous when looking at rookies as a whole. Of the last 10 No.1 overall picks, only two—Jackie Young (2019) and Charli Collier (2021) —had lower usage rates in their rookie year. Neither was as efficient or productive as Boston has been so far.
So, why does Boston have a lower usage rate than other players of a similar caliber?
First off, ball movement has never been Indiana’s forte, and that manifests itself more than ever with Boston. The Fever have a league-low assisted shot rate (ASR%), meaning just 60% of their made field goals come off an assist. High assist rates are crucial for team success, as aggressive ball movement can disrupt a set defense and find higher-value shots.
This is especially important for Boston, who takes 62.6% of her shots at the rim. Finding Boston when she has a mismatch down low is something Indiana has so far been unable to do consistently. These problems are compounded when looking at the other players Boston is alongside.
Players like Kelsey Mitchell, who has only been assisted on 34.8% of her 2-point attempts this season, are much more willing to create and take her own shots than Boston. Mitchell hits those 2-pointers at lower rates than Boston— 46.3% to Boston’s 58.8% — but her willingness to find those shots increases her usage on a team with poor ball movement.
Boston has also played alongside fellow big NaLyssa Smith for most of her pro-career. Both players are dominant in the paint, and their comparable shot diet means they sometimes cut into each other’s opportunities. Smith is also easily the highest usage player on the team, at 27%.
With Smith injured for the last few weeks, the Fever have had to retool their offense to adjust. Per PBP Stats, Boston is on the receiving end of more assists in the post when Smith is off the floor: her at-rim assist percentage skyrockets from 45.3% with Smith to 71.4% without her.
However, this still hasn’t translated into more overall shots. In fact, Boston’s field-goal attempts per game dropped from 10 to 9.3 after Smith’s injury, with Erica Wheeler seeing increased usage instead.
This dynamic is especially apparent in clutch games—defined as games with a five-point differential with less than five minutes to play—which Indiana has found itself in a league-high 18 times this season.
In a memorable overtime loss to the Liberty, Boston led the team with 23 points, including a buzzer-beating three to send the game to overtime. She had just one shot attempt in the ensuing overtime period, and the Fever lost by eight.
That’s not to imply that giving Boston the ball would’ve won Indiana the game. Still, it’s hard to rationalize not running plays for her when she’s hitting 54.5% of her clutch shots, with only the injured Smith (55%) making a higher percentage. Wheeler, who missed three short midrange shots in that same overtime period, is making 38.7% of her own clutch attempts.
One argument against Boston’s incredible efficiency is that she’ll occasionally pass up shots that she reasonably could have made, thus boosting her overall field-goal percentage. It’s much harder to maintain a high FG% when taking more shots, and players with lower usage rates tend to be more selective in their attempts. One such occasion was this play against Dallas, where Boston passes up a midrange jumper to kick the ball over to Hull, who misses a 3-point shot when the Fever were only down one.
Obviously, that play was long since broken down—Wheeler dribbling into a double-team certainly wasn’t the plan—but by the percentages, Indiana would want that last shot from Boston rather than Hull. It’s partly on Boston to demand the ball and take her shots in such situations, and it seems she now has, with her three against New York being the prime example.
Boston is a franchise-defining talent. She proved it in college and is already off to an incredibly successful start in the pros. If the Fever wants to prove their commitment to building a team around her, they should give her the most opportunities to develop as possible. Even if there were concerns about Boston’s readiness in intense situations, the only way she can continue to develop is to keep putting her in them. Whether she makes the shots or misses them, every possession she gets is an opportunity for growth.
All numbers in this piece are as of August 2nd.
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