Elizabeth Williams Makes All-Defense + Alanna & Dana Miss Out on Awards
Award season is upon us which, despite its glitter and glam, often tends to bring some of the most heated (yet largely inconsequential)…
Award season is upon us which, despite its glitter and glam, often tends to bring some of the most heated (yet largely inconsequential) debates to the timeline. This year is, with the fierce MVP debate unfolding, arguably even more striking of a dialogue than any WNBA season. From a Sky perspective, let’s start with the one player (so far) who actually did get some love from the voters.
Elizabeth Williams Makes Second Team All-Defense
A deserved honor, no doubt, given William’s overall defensive performance this season, but I think it was her play post-coaching change that really demonstrated her defensive talents. Given she’s (1) arguably the team’s best defender (more on the other candidate later) and (2) the center, there’s always going to be a heap of responsibility on a team with varied defensive sets. The shot-blocking is obviously what makes the highlight reel and, if we’re honest, what got her this honor, but it’s the overall defensive consistency that made E-Will such a vital part of what the Sky did down the stretch. There’s a lot of plays where, because she’s so well positioned, the ball handler isn’t driving downhill in the first place. All elite shot blockers have that psychological impact just by being on the floor, but it’s a bigger impact the better you position yourself. The tape from this season shows that, (way) more often than not, Williams was in the right place from the jump — setting the defense as a whole up to be successful.
I’ve already seen some scattered discussion about the Sky bringing in a different center for next season, but it’s difficult for me to see what big will be available on the market that can defend at this level while also offering the pick-and-roll skillset (both passing and driving) Williams displayed this season. She’s not an elite offensive player relative to the top-tier bigs in the W, but she’s the type of well-rounded center a lot of championship basketball teams have used as a foundation over the years. Wherever she plays next season, odds are high they’re a playoff team (hopefully it’s the Sky).
Dana Evans’ 6POY and Alanna Smith’s MIP Candidacies Fall Short
I can’t say I’m entirely surprised to see neither of the Sky’s primary award candidates take home their targeted honor. After all, awards usually go to teams with a lot of wins — that’s just the game. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little surprised by just how low of vote totals Dana Evans and Alanna Smith garnered.
In the case of Evans, I expected the Sky’s second-unit floor general to garner more votes in part because of her popularity across the league. I suppose the counter argument there is that nobody‘s popular this year like the Aces, and Clark definitely fed off of that in a media vote. This is a particularly statistical and success based award (they all are to some degree); so, I’m less surprised by Clark winning. Carrington, on the other hand, I don’t necessarily see as strong of an argument for coming above Evans. DiJonai had a great year so we’re forced, ultimately, to split hairs (four votes is also virtually nothing), but I don’t feel that she comes on the floor and changes the game in the way Evans does. If there’s a difference, it’s that Carrington probably slightly better compliments the starters when she joins them on the floor while Evans provides more value running with other players off the bench. Hard to quantify which matters more overall, but a 15% share of the votes doesn’t feel like enough for what Evans produced this season.
This award, on the other hand, I just can’t get. Satou took a great step jumping from 11 to almost 19 PPG and improving in various other areas (especially from 3) while Canada, too, saw a bump in some key categories. Regardless, both had big roles in the W as recently as a season ago. Sabally, in large part, seems to have been a streak of good health away from accessing her insane potential while Canada had previously been an all-defense selection in 2019. Alanna Smith, to the contrary, was deemed not good enough to be on a roster in 2022 and to her own admission considered passing on aiming for a W roster spot this season. Maybe I’m overlooking some obvious names, but I’d struggle to think of players (besides rookies) who went from out of any league in any sport and found themself starting for a playoff team (and with very respectable numbers) a year later. Again, I don’t necessarily have issue with Sabally winning — it’s tough when there’s so many worthy players — but I struggle to see how Smith doesn’t get similar vote totals. Something like 20–18–15 would make a lot more sense to me, but a 5% share of the vote feels wrong on what, to me, is (and should be) the far more narrative-driven award than 6th POY. If nothing else, the Sky will hopefully reward Smith with a contract that lessens the blow of missing out on an MIP check. The Sky should be a balanced offensive team in 2024, but Smith showed enough skill to finish around the basket that a repeat run at this award is not out of the question with a solid PPG bump.
Where is Kahleah Copper?
Neither Kah nor the Sky were quite at the level for her name to pop up in such a highly-competitive MVP race (though a few more wins and a higher seed may have got her there), but I was surprised not to see her name mentioned at all in the hefty dialogue around the All-Defensive teams. Per the WNBA’s own criteria, the award was meant to recognize the top ten defenders in the league. Natasha Cloud, the most oft-mentioned snub, is certainly in that neighborhood, but isn’t Copper too? Cloud (justifiably so) got a ton of love for her relentless performance against the Liberty, but Copper has also produced those types of performances throughout the season. Jewell Loyd just completed the second-highest scoring season in league history and 2 of her 6 lowest scoring performances came with Copper spending a majority of the game guarding her. In addition to guarding a primary ball handler like Loyd on the perimeter, Copper spent stretches in the post battling with bigs like Napheesa Collier (granted same height but different profile) in the post.
I don’t doubt that the various former/current players and coaches who spoke up on Cloud’s behalf know ball better than me, but I struggle to see how Copper doesn’t deserve a mention in the conversation as well. Yes, there’s bias watching every game of the Sky and not doing the same for the Mystics, but Kah — given her reputation at this point in her career — strikes me as the type of player that should back into this type of honor just by playing to her average level. For long stretches this season, she was well above that average.
So then, what about all-WNBA teams? If Copper wasn’t considered a top-ten defensive player (her, theoretically, stronger side of the ball), I can’t imagine the voters will choose her as an all-WNBA player either. But isn’t she? There’s a lot of great players in the W, but I would struggle to make a list of the top-ten players in the league without considering someone who, for me, is the best two-way perimeter player in the league. In any case, my thoughts on Copper underline the larger issue with these honors. Maybe she was the 11th or 14th or 16th best player in the league this season, but the margins between 6th and 16th in a league so full of talent are relatively non-existent.
In the end, the only people who should really be too upset are the players who miss out on any type of incentive or contract related cash because of the voting. But, to that point, I’d argue any contract incentive structure that doesn’t allow a player like Copper (or any of A’ja, AT or Stewie) to max out their earnings regardless of awards they collect is inherently flawed. We can all get upset and argue our player’s corner, but the premise of these *highly* subjective (and thus, for all voters, biased) awards is ultimately the thing that’s flawed. No matter how many MVP trophies or All-WNBA spots there are to give out, someone will always feel like they just missed out.
