Quick Three: Chicago Sky Sign Lindsay Allen
What will the former Lynx point guard and first signing of the Spoon + Pagliocca era bring to the Sky?
With the big free agent pieces all going elsewhere, the Sky’s new front office are left picking up the metaphorical pieces and aiming to add effective depth around their pre-existing core of Kahleah Copper, Marina Mabrey, Elizabeth Williams and Dana Evans in the weeks before the 2024 season. In steps Lindsay Allen, a veteran point guard with nearly 150 games of WNBA experience and 55 starts under her belt. Allen isn’t the splash the Sky were aiming for, but she looks like a key part of the functional (and deep) roster Chicago will try to build around Kah in the first year of her new extension. Let’s take a look at three of the most useful skills Allen—another Notre Dame grad—will bring to the table:
1.Passing Ability + IQ
If you’ve watched Lindsay Allen play for any extended period of time, it’s immediately apparent that she’s a fantastic playmaker. Her range of passing is vast and she accurately places all types of passes (bounce, overhead, wrap around, etc.) routinely whether she’s on the move or stationary. She also possesses the unquantifiable eye for an extraordinary pass that all of the game’s best floor generals have. That skill alone makes Allen (29.3% assist percentage last year) a valuable asset to the Sky—who are losing Courtney Williams’ productivity as a passer (33.8%) and will likely start Dana Evans (22.6%, albeit in very different context) at the point. Evans’ progress in this area suggests she’ll be just fine once she’s settled in the starting role, but it will be good for Spoon to have a veteran who can easily organize both the starters and the bench unit while getting those around her good looks.
More interesting to me, however, is the skillset Allen displays in the third and fourth plays in the clip below. In both instances, she showcases her ability to understand exactly where and when her teammates need the ball. In the half-court set against LA, this manifests as Allen creating a distraction while weaving through the defense down low and allowing a teammate (Nikolina Milić in this case) to slip free for a three. However, it’s also evident in transition as Allen holds on to the ball a beat longer than normal to allow Kayla McBride to catch and shoot instead of having to take a dribble before shooting (s/o Stephen Bardo who also caught this on the Sky’s broadcast). In the clip against LA, Allen also shows a willingness to hold onto the ball and absorb the pressure of the defense—something that shows up a lot in her tape. While often under appreciated in basketball, this skill (often called Pausa in Spanish footballing terms) is an understated but incredibly effective weapon for disrupting a defense’s structure.
2.Defensive Effort
I’m not sure Allen will ever register as a premium defender on the perimeter, but the high defensive floor she’s displayed at past stops suggests working with Spoon could help her push her ceiling even higher over the next two seasons. The key to her steady (though understated) defense has been her consistently high levels of effort. In spite of her relatively slight frame, she’s eager to put a body on the player she’s guarding (something you can see in each of the first 3 plays below)—often refusing them the chance to get to the spot they want to score or create from.
The third and fourth plays clipped below also underline Allen’s defensive IQ and ability to apply pressure to a ball handler without fouling. In both cases, the ball handler would otherwise have the opportunity to feed their big in the post with a floated entry pass but Allen’s tight pressure and active arms limit the passing window enough to deter the pass. Against Kelsey Plum, the defensive coverage serves as a deterrent multiple times with Plum deciding against trying to shoot over Allen’s outstretched hand before the same arm (and in fairness Collier’s positioning) again denies the chance to find A’ja off the bounce. Matched up with Aari McDonald, the commitment to defending through the possession is again key. After denying the entry lob to Cheyenne Parker, Allen sticks with the play and forces a wild crosscourt pass from McDonald. The lack of accuracy on the pass not only denies Allisha Gray the chance to catch and shoot, it also delays Gray’s drive enough to allow Allen to help across—contesting the shot after Diamond Miller shows Gray inside.
3.Reading Space + Exploiting Pace
Despite having had a very impressive 2022 season from behind the arc (57% on 1.6 attempts per game), Allen’s career (26%) and 2023 (21%) marks from three mean no one will mistake her as a floor-spacing shooter. That said, there are plenty of ways to create space without shooting and exploit the space that others around you create. In those two respects, Allen is often masterful. In the first play below, she recognizes that Brittney Sykes has turned attention to stopping Miller’s drive and slashes to the basket. In the process, she not only creates an easy chance for herself to score but gives Miller—now caught between a couple of defenders—an outlet to unload the ball before being swarmed.
Against the Sky in the second clip, Allen offers a classic example of finding the holes in the zone. As Collier attracts both Mabrey and Smith, Courtney is forced to come across to keep an eye on McBride—one of the league’s premier shooters. Even knowing that Courtney will likely jump to McBride, Allen still cleverly waits just long enough for Courtney to step up and open a hole in the zone before cutting. If she cuts any earlier, it’s likely that either (1) Courtney would still have time to change course and potentially effect her shot or (2) Allen would’ve run too far by the time she received the ball—meaning Elizabeth would be in range for a block.
Beyond finding holes in the defense with her off-ball movement, Allen also possess sufficient speed to exploit defenses with the ball in hand. Against the Liberty, she demonstrates her ability to get a defender off balance with a quick burst in the half court—creating a path to the bucket which she has plenty of strength to drive into. Meanwhile, against Atlanta, we see the speed Allen can generate with a full head of steam. She’s not Dana fast (few are), but her acceleration (plus, in fairness, a great ‘screen’ by Collier) allows her to turn the corner and generate an opportunity at the stripe from what—at first—looked like a great shot-blocking opportunity for Rhyne Howard. With a career 78.9% clip from the line, any fouls that Allen is able to draw with drives to the basket are usually productive offensive trips for her team. Given how successful the Sky were on the break last season, expect to see Allen’s top-end speed (and her complementary ability to vary her pace as needed) put to good use in transition next season.