Overseas Film Study: Sika Koné

Diving into how Koné has improved (and added) to her burgeoning game in her first season at the EuroLeague level.

If you’ve even loosely followed the action overseas this offseason, you’ve probably caught on to the fact that things are going pretty well for Sika Koné with Spanish side Perfumerias Avenida. Domestically, the Malian leads LF Endesa in efficiency, but that’s nothing new as this marks her fourth straight season leading the Spanish league in that statistic. What is new? Her standout performances during her first season playing in Europe’s top club competition: EuroLeague Women. In 16 games in the group stage and quarterfinals, Koné finished with averages of 12.2 points and 7.1 rebounds despite averaging only 20.6 minutes per game.

To provide better context, her rebounding average is 5th best in the competition but the four players who finished above her have all played 30 or more minutes per game. Adjusted for playing time, Sika averages almost 3 extra boards per game compared to the rest of the top 5. Her raw scoring average doesn’t rank as high (22nd), but you could make a similar calculation about her playing time and find that only Marina Mabrey (24.31) and Nyara Sabally (24.29) average more points per 40 minutes than Koné (23.69). Granted, increases in minutes usually don’t correlate to linear increases in stats, but Koné’s efficiency as a scorer both from the field (54.9% - 4th) and at the line (79% - 5th) also places her amongst the best in the EuroLeague. To underline just how high her level of play is, the only other EuroLeague player to average 10 points and 6 rebounds with similar efficiency is soon to be EuroLeague MVP Emma Meesseman.

It’s great for Chicago to see Sika Koné thriving overseas, but it’s also important to understand what has fueled her growth as a player and what that could mean for Chicago in 2024. Let’s dive into a few of the new and improved aspects of Koné’s game with an emphasis on how those skills will help her (and the Sky this summer.

Defensive Improvement

Much can be said about what Sika brings at the offensive end, but her progress as a defender will probably pay the most dividends for Spoon and the Sky this summer. No matter how much her overall defensive abilities evolve, the most important part of Koné’s defending will likely always be her unique physical profile. Her raw strength—as we see in the first clip below—allows her to force the opposition to catch the ball further away from the basket than desired. The distance between the post-up position and the basket means it’s always going to be difficult for the Gran Canaria player (Lynetta Kizer) to get a clean shot off, and Koné staying tight means that the entry pass comes in high and pulls Kizer even further away from the basket. Kizer actually does well to move Sika towards the basket, but she quickly runs out of moves and picks up her dribble at the edge of the paint. From there, all Sika needs to do is keep her arms straight up and her reach will force a miss more often than not. With Sika’s strength, forcing players out of position isn’t always that hard, but it’s the willingness to keep doing it again and again (something many players give up on as the game wears on) that really sets her apart.

In the second play below, we see the dynamic element of Koné’s game that makes her so unique as a defender. Despite a slight stumble off the line, her foot speed is good enough to help her recover and stay in front of the driver. It’s great to see post players step out to the perimeter and clamp players, (and I do think Koné regularly demonstrates the footwork needed to do that at an above average level) but it’s simple plays like this where Chicago can really make use of her abilities next season. With an elite shot blocker like Elizabeth Williams at the rim, the Sky don’t need Koné to lock down every player she picks up on the perimeter. If she can just stay in front and use her reach to deter a shot on the move, the ball handler will usually be out of luck when they meet Williams at the rim. Because of these abilities, Emre tasked Koné with some of the league’s most difficult match-ups late last season (Breanna Stewart, for instance), and this is a facet of Sika’s game I expect Teresa Weatherspoon will take advantage of against a variety of star power forwards (and maybe even small forwards) next season.

Lastly, the final two clips are just a bite-sized example of Koné’s progression in reading the game as a defender. While Koné faired relatively well as a one-v-one defender in the W last season, she (like many rookies before her) was still just starting to get the hang of processing the game when the season wrapped. With Avenida, there’s been obvious progression from the early days of the EuroLeague campaign—when it seemed like teams were determined to force Koné to make challenging decisions—to today where Koné looks a far more confident player. At just 21 and entering her first full season (after missing time for AfroBasket last year), this is an area where I expect Spoon will work closely with Koné over the next few years. The fact she often got caught over helping last year (as opposed to failing to recognize the need to help at all) bodes well for her ability to evolve into one of the Sky’s best and most important defensive players.

Work Off the Dribble

While I give former coach Pepe Vázquez credit for inspiring a lot of Sika’s all-around growth this year, it has to be said that new coach Nacho Martinez seems to have empowered Koné to work with the ball in hand on the perimeter more since taking over. The results: a downhill force that feels unstoppable off the dribble because of her physical tools and aforementioned ability to shoot free throws. The players strong enough to physically trouble Koné aren’t reactive enough to track her first step (play 1 below) while those quick enough to keep up with her are rarely long enough to make any (legal) impact on her shot when she goes up (play 2). Even a more dynamic player with a good combo of strength and speed is usually overmatched just enough in both respects that Koné finds a way to score regardless (play 3).

Of course, the context is critical here. Győr (2-12 in EuroLeague) and Gran Canaria (6-17 in LF Endesa) are fine teams, but their records reflect the fact that they’re not stocked with WNBA caliber defenders. The ‘unicorn’ type of defender it would seem you need to stop Koné is more than just a mythical creature in the W—it’s something that nearly every team has. Even if you can’t stop Koné, the scenario I described above where Sika runs the player she’s defending into the path of Elizabeth Williams can also be applied against her as well. In other words, I wouldn’t expect to see Spoon go all in on Koné being a regular ball handler on the perimeter and taking people off the dribble.

However, this can still be of great value for the Sky in instances like the third play. Note that Sika starts the action on the block and fades towards the corner to allow the pick-and-roll the space it needs to succeed. As the defense rotates, Sika eventually winds up being marked by the player who was initially guarding the primary ball-handler—meaning Koné is likely to have an advantage in both size and strength. As she drives, no one commits to helping and the result is that Koné gets a high-percentage (though well-contested) look at the basket. These types of opportunities against rotating defenses will come in the W and the confidence Koné is showing when putting the ball on the deck suggests she’ll be able to exploit them just as well against WNBA competition. It’s not just guards that Koné can go after either, the defender in this clip is Bridget Carleton of the Lynx—a wing player who’s been lauded for the defensive versatility she brings.

Pick-and-Pop Potential

In the European game, the pick-and-roll is often the bread and butter of a team’s offense, and Avenida have given Koné (a great screener due to her broad frame) a lot of opportunities to thrive with a free look at the basket like in the first play below. For the Sky, that’s great to see—and I would expect that Weatherspoon will look to make more use of the Malian in these types of actions—but it’s the second and third clip which add an exciting wrinkle to the equation. If Sika can regularly hit mid-range shots like these, it adds an extra layer of confusion for the defense when dealing with the screens she sets. However, there’s also wider implications that stretch far beyond this one offensive package. As currently constructed, the Sky’s roster seems to lack a big who can do significant damage in the mid-range and complicate defensive coverages. Depending on who the Sky select in April’s draft, front court spacing help may still be on the way, but perhaps that player is already in house.

And to that point, Koné—especially in the last couple of months—has started to hit the occasional shot from the mid-range even when she’s not getting the look by shaking her defender after setting a screen. Time will tell if she can translate those bright spots into a consistent mid-range game, but the potential is huge if she can. If Sika is an off-ball threat outside of the paint, a defender has to follow her, and her combination of size and speed means that can’t be just any player. If a defender with the physical profile needed to limit Sika is dragged further away from the basket, it’s pretty obvious what benefit that has for players like Dana Evans and Michaela Onyenwere who want to slash to the basket regularly. The sample size isn’t large enough to make a definitive claim about Koné’s mid-range game yet, but the confidence and efficiency she’s showing with these shots makes it worth keeping tabs on as training camp approaches.