HookedorNot
25+ Posts
I know that you didn't say anything about rankings. But a lot of people have high hopes for Ariel because she was ranked very high. I believe in basketball rankings to a degree. But in my opinion she's not on the level of players like Kelsey Mitchell, Brianna Turner, or Wilson, and she was rated among those players. Also, in my opinion there's not that much of a difference between the 2 or 3 in this offense.
Ariel is really good player who better days are still in front of her. She is still trying to figure out the new offense, she hasn't had the reps that the others players got because of her injury. She is more fundamental than Empress hands down and has more length. It doesn't really matter whether she is the 2/3 because both are wings positions. A teams best athlete is typically the 3 position (if they can handle the ball). I think the missing piece on this team is a true power forward position. Imani is long but not a power player. If we had Nneka this year, we would be unstoppable. We have the outside shooting in Brooke, Celina and Ariel. What we are missing is physical post/rebounder. Bre tries to fill the bill with her effort but she isn't tall enough. We clog the lane up with post players, so our guards can never attack the basket like other teams. A lot teams use their post players as screeners to free up the guards but we do not do it enough. The mid range is missing skill set in all of women's basketball. So it's a tough skill set to find, so teams have learned to either attack the basket off the bounce or shoot the plenty of screens. If we want to see our guards go to work, we have to open up the offensive but then everyone will complain that we aren't going to the post. IMO our coaches have to make adjustments during the game based on what is happening. If the post are dominating, we need to continue to go to them. If we are shooting well from behind the arch, then we need to keep shooting. If we can uses post screens to get to the basket, then we need to do that. Great teams can do a multitude of things to beat you. We are headed in the right direction! Let's trust the coaching staff and players. They haven't disappointed yet.