Hi, Richard. I know that you have written about this over on Rebkell, but could the fact that the Lynx signed Mitchell at what clearly was not a position of need, while not pursuing Moriah Jefferson (who signed for roughly the same amount as Mitchell with Phoenix), be a sign that they intend to draft Haley Jones? Jones is not a point guard, but she can operate as a point forward, rotating up from the baseline to direct the offense. If you planned to have Jones defend the 3, but run the offense on the opposite end of the court, then couldn’t you get away with having two shooting guards in the backcourt, Mitchell and McBride and perhaps sometimes even Powers?
I know that the scuttlebutt is that the Lynx intend to draft Diamond Miller, but I have wondered if maybe that isn’t a smokescreen to entice Dallas to trade up to the 2. Dallas supposedly has no interest in Jones, but would be very interested in Diamond Miller. While I doubt that the Lynx could get the 3 and 5 picks for 2, maybe they could get them for the 2 and the 12 picks. Anyway, I find it a little mystifying that the Lynx would oversign at the wing, while deciding to turn the offense over to Banham and Lindsay Allen. I am not really sure who is the starter and who is the backup with the Banham/Allen duo, but it doesn’t inspire great confidence.
It's a fair point, and a reasonable scenario. I still wouldn't have given Mitchell that contract, but if they think Jones can be that player then it would make a little more sense. I also wonder if Cheryl Reeve has just decided that she either wants to go superstar or as cheap as possible at point guard. The last couple of years they ended up searching around, then finding Clarendon and Jefferson on the scrap heap during the season and it worked out fine. Before that, Whalen took all the issues away. So why spend money for mid-range if you can get virtually the same performance from whoever's available on the minimum?
Also, as I hinted at above, I would not blame Minnesota if they balked at giving Jefferson 3 guaranteed years. Given her health history, that would scare me too.
Jefferson’s injury history is certainly worrisome. Still, they also failed to pursue Layshia C., who signed for the veteran’s minimum with LA, or any other free agent PGs other than Lindsay Allen. It just seems very strange to me that they would use their limited cap space to sign Mitchell as a high-priced backup for McBride (if she is indeed a backup and will not be playing in the backcourt along with Kayla), while turning the PG duties over to Lindsay Allen and Rachel Banham. Allen has never averaged more than 17.8 minutes per game in any season that she’s played in the league, and Rachel has never averaged even that many minutes and has played many of her minutes at SG.
Just to be clear--Tiffany Mitchell is a Shooting Guard. She has played exclusively at SG in the WNBA and was also a Shooting Guard in college when playing for South Carolina. I don't think that Reeve is planning at this late stage in Mitchell's career to suddenly convert her to a PG, but I also don't think, for a salary of $135,000, that she is just going to be backing up McBride. Mitchell's signing does not make sense unless she is going to be playing alongside McBride. But if she is going to be playing alongside McBride in the backcourt, then who is going to be directing the offense? Again, the only thing that makes sense to me is that Reeve must plan to have some player at another position take charge of orchestrating the offense when Lindsay Allen or Rachel Banham is not on the court. I don't think Diamond Miller can do that, but perhaps Haley Jones can.
Richard, excellent analysis as always. Thanks for the link to your explanation of the prioritization rule, which I had missed when you first posted it. I’ve been baffled by the rule since I first read about it for the very reason that you gave: even with the increases, WNBA salaries are not competitive with many of the international leagues, meaning that many players would be compelled for financial reasons to forego the W. Most WNBA owners, and certainly Cathy Englebert, are not stupid. Shouldn’t that have been obvious to them?
Basically they were willing to take the risks involved for what they see as the positives, probably with a healthy dose of arrogance thrown in. Maybe they'd lose a player or two, but hopefully it wouldn't be anyone too important and the gains from publicity, players being around to promote the league, potential improvement in the product and pushing the league towards being the #1 destination to play in would be worth it. At present, it doesn't look like we'll be losing many players this year. We'll see how much worse that gets next year with stricter rules and an Olympic-year schedule. All of this stuff is going to be back on the table for discussion come 2025 and someone opting out of the current CBA.
Hi, Richard. I know that you have written about this over on Rebkell, but could the fact that the Lynx signed Mitchell at what clearly was not a position of need, while not pursuing Moriah Jefferson (who signed for roughly the same amount as Mitchell with Phoenix), be a sign that they intend to draft Haley Jones? Jones is not a point guard, but she can operate as a point forward, rotating up from the baseline to direct the offense. If you planned to have Jones defend the 3, but run the offense on the opposite end of the court, then couldn’t you get away with having two shooting guards in the backcourt, Mitchell and McBride and perhaps sometimes even Powers?
I know that the scuttlebutt is that the Lynx intend to draft Diamond Miller, but I have wondered if maybe that isn’t a smokescreen to entice Dallas to trade up to the 2. Dallas supposedly has no interest in Jones, but would be very interested in Diamond Miller. While I doubt that the Lynx could get the 3 and 5 picks for 2, maybe they could get them for the 2 and the 12 picks. Anyway, I find it a little mystifying that the Lynx would oversign at the wing, while deciding to turn the offense over to Banham and Lindsay Allen. I am not really sure who is the starter and who is the backup with the Banham/Allen duo, but it doesn’t inspire great confidence.
It's a fair point, and a reasonable scenario. I still wouldn't have given Mitchell that contract, but if they think Jones can be that player then it would make a little more sense. I also wonder if Cheryl Reeve has just decided that she either wants to go superstar or as cheap as possible at point guard. The last couple of years they ended up searching around, then finding Clarendon and Jefferson on the scrap heap during the season and it worked out fine. Before that, Whalen took all the issues away. So why spend money for mid-range if you can get virtually the same performance from whoever's available on the minimum?
Also, as I hinted at above, I would not blame Minnesota if they balked at giving Jefferson 3 guaranteed years. Given her health history, that would scare me too.
Jefferson’s injury history is certainly worrisome. Still, they also failed to pursue Layshia C., who signed for the veteran’s minimum with LA, or any other free agent PGs other than Lindsay Allen. It just seems very strange to me that they would use their limited cap space to sign Mitchell as a high-priced backup for McBride (if she is indeed a backup and will not be playing in the backcourt along with Kayla), while turning the PG duties over to Lindsay Allen and Rachel Banham. Allen has never averaged more than 17.8 minutes per game in any season that she’s played in the league, and Rachel has never averaged even that many minutes and has played many of her minutes at SG.
Just to be clear--Tiffany Mitchell is a Shooting Guard. She has played exclusively at SG in the WNBA and was also a Shooting Guard in college when playing for South Carolina. I don't think that Reeve is planning at this late stage in Mitchell's career to suddenly convert her to a PG, but I also don't think, for a salary of $135,000, that she is just going to be backing up McBride. Mitchell's signing does not make sense unless she is going to be playing alongside McBride. But if she is going to be playing alongside McBride in the backcourt, then who is going to be directing the offense? Again, the only thing that makes sense to me is that Reeve must plan to have some player at another position take charge of orchestrating the offense when Lindsay Allen or Rachel Banham is not on the court. I don't think Diamond Miller can do that, but perhaps Haley Jones can.
Richard, excellent analysis as always. Thanks for the link to your explanation of the prioritization rule, which I had missed when you first posted it. I’ve been baffled by the rule since I first read about it for the very reason that you gave: even with the increases, WNBA salaries are not competitive with many of the international leagues, meaning that many players would be compelled for financial reasons to forego the W. Most WNBA owners, and certainly Cathy Englebert, are not stupid. Shouldn’t that have been obvious to them?
Basically they were willing to take the risks involved for what they see as the positives, probably with a healthy dose of arrogance thrown in. Maybe they'd lose a player or two, but hopefully it wouldn't be anyone too important and the gains from publicity, players being around to promote the league, potential improvement in the product and pushing the league towards being the #1 destination to play in would be worth it. At present, it doesn't look like we'll be losing many players this year. We'll see how much worse that gets next year with stricter rules and an Olympic-year schedule. All of this stuff is going to be back on the table for discussion come 2025 and someone opting out of the current CBA.