What is up, basketball fans? I am Jason Burgos for
Sports Night and I have the great pleasure of being
joined by a notable name in the women's basketball reporting
game.
She covers both college and the WNBA for ESPN,
and that is Alexa. Phillip who?
Alexa, thanks so much for the time today.
Happy to be here. Appreciate you having me.
So of course we have to start the conversation with
Caitlin Clark.
It's, you know, that that's just the way it is
these days.
She, she hasn't even played a regular season game yet,
and her impact on the league has already been pretty
huge.
And watching her now, watching her career and knowing the
WNBA so well like you do,
what's the kind of the realistic outlook on her rookie
season?
Can she immediately do what she did in college because
she's such a good shooter,
such a good ball handler?
Or if she can't explain to folks that may be
watching the WMV more because of her,
because her fame, why it might be a struggle for
her in year one?
Well, for me, I think her ceiling could be an
All Star.
I think that would be a really successful season for
her.
And the reason why I think her game is going
to translate,
even though she's going to have to learn how to
play against such physical opponents from other WNBA teams,
and she's going to have to learn how to play
with even better,
honestly, teammates and she's probably ever had in her whole
basketball career,
but it's because she can both shoot the ball and
we've seen her range and look.
Maybe we'll see how many local threes that she feels
like she can get off early on in the season,
but it's also the fact that she can pass and
facilitate so well.
And talking even with Indiana's head coach,
Chrissy sides today, she kept talking about how the team,
the Fever, they're just better with her on the floor.
So because she's going to be able to pass to
her teammates,
but she can also stretch the floor and she has
that court vision.
She can do it all when it comes to that
offensive kind of
package and making the offense go.
And I expect that part will translate.
And I think that could really help the Fever
reach new heights This season.
And the Fever have good players.
They have the the Rookie of the Year from last
year.
Believe it. And you know,
going on for your knowledge of of what Caitlyn did
and and Iowa stuff like that and go into the
idea of what you were saying with she's going to
be playing with better place.
What kind of stuff? Nothing against her teammates with the
Hawkeyes.
But what did she maybe lack with her teammates now
that she'll specifically get with the Fever?
Is it just more people that can hit open shots?
Is it somebody in the polls,
like what's the big difference that she'll benefit from?
Well, when we think about Iowa's team historically caitly has
played a lot with really great post players.
But Aaliyah Boston, who like you were mentioning is the
former Rookie of the Year was a former number one
pick is in a lot of ways that kind of
generational in her own right.
That's going to be the best post target that Caitlin
has ever had the opportunity to play with.
So I know that Aaliyah keeps saying how much it's
been really fun to be able to be on the
receiving end of a lot of Caitlin's passes.
But not only do you have Aaliyah download,
you have another lottery pick.
And Melissa Smith out of Baylor,
she was the number two pick in
2022. So she's had a great start to the preseason
and I expect that will help her a lot too.
And then you have a lot of other great shooters
and a lot of great scorers around Caitlin,
even in the backboard. So Kelsey Mitchell,
one of the college games best scorers,
Caitlin broke some of her records earlier this year.
And then you also have a player like
Katie Lou Samuelson who can knock down threes.
You have another experience that are in point guard and
Erica Wheeler.
We can really help usher Caitlyn into this new phase.
So, you know, it's nothing obviously against her hockey teammates,
but she's going to have a lot less of the
kind of
mental and offensive load on her shoulders in terms of
trying to help her team win basketball games.
And it seems like the the figure have a lot
of positive things that they have a lot of elements
that should lead to a good team.
I mean they finished last in the East last year,
just a few games out of a playoff spot like
that.
What do you think? Would it be a surprise if
they're not a top six or seven should?
Is that a fair, realistic place they should be now
with having Kayla?
The thing with the WNBA is there's so many good
teams and I think even the top six,
it's like really hard to crack into that upper echelon.
So I think for the Fever,
the way that they've kind of conceptualize it as their
goal is to make the playoffs and the top eight
teams make the playoffs in the WNBA.
So if you're in the top 8 of 12 and
then you're set.
So I think the Fever,
like you were mentioning, they weren't even a bad team
last year.
They lost a lot of close games,
but now they're so much more talented,
both between bringing in Caitlin but also bringing in some
other pieces and the offseason,
and they have that year of experience under their belt,
so I think their goal will be playoffs.
It would be probably a really big surprise if they're
able to finish in the upper half of the league,
but you never know with a player of her caliber
of Kaitlyn's and also Leah Boston taking a step forward,
how the pieces all mesh together.
But it's such a competitive league,
we'll just have to wait to find out.
The Liberty made the big splash this time last year.
Sign of Brianna Stewart. It almost paid off.
They got to the finals,
just came up short to the Aces.
I mean, no shame in that.
Are they the team to beat this year,
especially since Candace Parker retired?
And And how big does this Parker's departure affect the
Aces and their three peak goals?
As far as I'm concerned,
the Aces remain the team to beat.
As much as everyone's talking about Caitlyn and and all
these other great rookies,
the Aces are the back-to-back champs.
And yes, they don't have Candace Parker,
but they won that title without Candace Parker and in
fact they won that game four that clinched the series
in the finals without two of their other starters.
So they've just had such great chemistry that they've built
over the years.
They obviously have, you know,
a face of the game and Asia Wilson D face
of the game,
you could say, and their guards are so great.
You have so many other pieces that they brought in
to kind of bolster their bench in the offseason,
too. So I think they're still the team to beat.
And it's going to be really interesting to see if
we got a rematch of the finals of the Liberty
and if the Liberty could kind of learn from what
went wrong in that final series.
But yeah, still the Aces in my book.
A lot of the focus,
you know, this time last year was on the this
the Super team kind of thing.
You had the Aces, which were so good.
And then New York makes the moves.
They become like this other team
super team and they delivered.
They were the team that got to the finals.
This also you know it seemed like Seattle,
Phoenix they try they're trying to catch up and they
made the kind of moves to do that.
Which one of those teams do you feel are truly
ready to kind of peak compete at the top levels
of the league and maybe compete for a title this
year. I think maybe Seattle and I would say Connecticut.
I am in the Mohegan Sun casino getting ready to
cover the sun taking on the fever.
So those are the two of of the,
you know, I don't know if we would say they're
in the same tier as as the Liberty and Aces
or you want to just add them in the,
we'll just say there's like a Contenders tier right.
So I would say those two I think I have
a little bit more trust in the sun had been
here before.
They have their big Three and Brianna Jones and also
Thomas and Dewan and Bonner.
And then with Seattle they have a newer big Three,
even BIG4 if you want to
kind of extended that far.
They added Neko, Gumu K Skylar,
Diggin, Smith. I do think they have a little bit
more depth than Phoenix says.
Phoenix is a team that could also be in that
conversation.
But I think there's just a few more variables with
Phoenix because of health.
We know that Brittany Griner is not going to be
able to play at the beginning of the season because
she fractured her toe and then Diana Pirasi obviously in
her 40s, so sometimes she gets
injuries or house arrest here and there.
So again, I think Seattle I would keep my eye
on for sure.
And then the sun never come out the the sun.
They've been to the semifinals at least each of the
past five seasons.
Kaitlyn got a lot of attention during the draft,
obvious reasons, but there were other really good players,
Cameron Brink, Camila, Cardoso, Angel,
Reese that were also taken in in the draft.
Do you think any of those ladies,
or maybe another woman that was drafted in the
2024 WNBA draft are maybe have a game that can
better transition into WME quicker,
quicker and should be considered serious contenders for Rookery of
the year and may give Caitlin a run for that?
Yeah, well, I think my official prediction was Caitlin for
Rookie of the Year.
But there's also just, I think a lot of the
time with rookies it's about fit and opportunity.
So for if we take,
for example the Los Angeles Sparks rookies,
they drafted Cameron Brink and Rikia Jackson.
I know so many people are excited to see both
those players make that step to the especially for Kia
Jackson.
I mean, she's gotten so many great
compliments on her game and how it's pro ready for
years really.
So I'm excited to see them.
I know Camilla Cardoso can't play right away because of
a shoulder injury.
That's to cheat experience, but I'm really eager to see
how Camilla and Angel Reese in Chicago grow their games.
Even that might not all be apparent even this year,
maybe 3-4, five years down the line.
We're seeing the fruits of all that hard work,
but they have a staff there that really prides itself
on player development.
So again, it depends on fit,
opportunity, luck, staying healthy, all that stuff.
But this rookie class is going to be one that's
really going to make a huge impact on the league
all summer long.
Do you feel that because of it?
And like I said, you know,
Cameron Brink was talked a lot about during the season
and stuff like that,
a lot of really good players on top teams.
Is this one of the best WNBA draft classes of
all the time,
especially because of Clay, Caitlin,
Washington College? I think that you could definitely say that.
Obviously when you make that assessment,
you kind of want to see how all those players
end up panning out in the league,
you know, down the line.
But I do think it was probably maybe since the
at the beginning of the league,
maybe one of the most hyped or the most hyped
draft class that we've seen.
And that really said it all,
even with the viewership numbers for the draft itself,
where, you know there wasn't even a ton of intrigue
in terms of where players ended up going,
nothing crazy shocking happened. There weren't any crazy trades,
but ever, you know, even ever knew that Caitlin was
going to go to the Fever at that point.
But it's still the numbers were exceptional.
The engagement just is off the charts.
You've seen viewership numbers. You've seen attendance records.
Even in the preseason. Everything is pointing in,
you know, such a promising direction for the league and
the rookie class and the the fans and the eyeballs
that they bring from the college game to the pros
has a huge part to deal with that.
And now they get to prove it on the court
too
and go into the direction of like the impact you
know what's going to happen long term for like it
seems like
Clark's arrivals gum coming at a perfect time now the
meteorites deals up next year
CBA is coming up in the fall.
If Kaitlyn does help to lift the league up with
bringing her popular bringing new eyeballs to the league and
and takes the league to another level.
Do you think the CBA becomes a huge story as
maybe the the WNBA athletes kind of maybe take a
stand on wages on other benefits that are kind of
long over do if the WMA does hit a new
interest people.
I think that's the direction that things were going even
before she got into the league.
Obviously a lot of the kind of metrics that we
look for to show popularity,
we're headed in the right direction with the WMBA and
now Caitlin Clark and these and these rookies arriving to
the league has really just escalated,
elevated all of those to a whole new level.
And we've seen that already because the WMBA is
basically implementing full time charters earlier than anyone really expected.
They thought that would have to be collectively bargained over
when the CBA negotiations would be going on for the
next agreement.
But instead it's going to be happening this season.
So that really kind of shows a little bit of
insight of like this league is headed into such a
promising direction and it's experiencing such exponential growth,
maybe even more so or earlier than many expected.
And so that is going to
help with the new attention that these rookies are bringing
in,
allow the players to fight for what they want,
whether or not that ends up being wages or,
you know, changing different policies that are in the league.
Obviously they got charters now,
which is a huge thing,
but we'll have to see obviously how that all pans
out,
if there's anything they want to adjust from there.
So I think that the power is really in the
players hands and that's something that they're going to really
kind of take and run with
and going by how well the numbers did for for
college basketball because of Caitlyn,
all these different plays. But obviously what you get best
case scenario and maybe not the time but Caitlyn Steph
Curry in WNBA and she takes the fever to the
finals they lose or whatever.
Best case the numbers for the season are great ratings
the the revenue the tickets everything is great.
Does you know because we talked about the the players
deserve more they they might take a stand.
Do you think it could go that level like hey
we will strike and we will do what we have
to do because this is our best chances the most
leverage we have could it we've seen in other leagues
could they finally have me here because they deserve to
get more.
You know that's the first time I've been asked that
question and I actually I I haven't really been able
to ask players that
per SE or been able to really catch on if
that is something that's in their minds.
I I don't get that sense because I do feel
like the league understands that.
You know, this is kind of the direction things are
going.
I think the chartering issue is probably the biggest issue
that players had.
We did a player survey and travel was the top
issue that they identified when asked about the biggest issues
Jason the league.
So in my mind, I think
the league was able to kind of take a lot
of pressure off of itself by figuring out the charter
issue so early and and and earlier than anyone really
expected. So I'm not sure if I quite see a
strike in the future.
But you know, again, I do think kind of along
those lines like we were talking about,
the power is with the players.
So if there's stuff that they want and if they
don't believe the league
is able to pry for,
that would obviously be very contentious.
But there's a lot that can happen between now and
then too,
and we do know that the league seems to be
really excited about its
business transformation and how things are headed
in that direction as well.