WNBA: Weekly Takeaways, May 14-23

Here are a few thoughts that have stuck with me over the opening 10 days of great WNBA action…

Enjoying the Sabrina Ionescu Experience

After having her rookie season end after two-and-a-half games, WNBA fans have been blessed so far with five full games of Sabrina Ionescu’s sophomore season. It has been nothing short of impressive, as she opens the summer averaging 18.4 rebounds, 8.8 assists, and 6.4 rebounds per game. Ionescu is also shooting 48.5 percent from 3-point range on 6.6 attempts per game and shooting 91.7 percent from the free throw line. Those numbers were impressive enough to earn her the first Eastern Conference Player of the Week award of the season.

It has just been a treat watching how she controls the game on offense. Rather it’s making the right passing read seemingly every time — a lot of times with a decent amount of flash — or knocking down a trey with sharpshooter precision, she’s must-see TV whenever she’s on the floor. It’s amazing to see someone be a legend right out of the gate of their pro career. I’m excited to see what else is in store as this season continues.

The Sun Have Risen Again

The Connecticut Sun are off to a 5-0 start, their best since 2018 and a complete reversal of their 0-5 start last season. I give the biggest credit for this surge to the return of Jonquel Jones, who opted out of playing last year, and the emergence of guard Natisha Hiedeman.

Jones has returned from her sabbatical playing like an all-around superstar. Her 6’6″, 190-pound frame has allowed her to average a double-double so far this season: 18.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. However, she has also stepped up her playmaking and shooting touch. Jonquel is averaging career highs in assists per game (3.2), 3-point attempts per game (4.4), and percentage (50.0 percent even). Defensively, she’s even averaging a career-high 1.6 steals per game.

Hiedeman, meanwhile, has transitioned smoothly into being Connecticut’s starting shooting guard. In 2020, when only only start four of the team’s 22 games, she averaged 11.8 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 0.7 steals per 36 minutes. This season, where she already has four starts to her name, she kicked up those per 36 numbers to 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.2 steals. She’s also improved her shooting, going from 35.4 percent from the field to 40.0 percent, and her assist-to-turnover ratio, jumping from 1.71 to 2.33.

With the rest of the holdovers mostly maintaining the same production, it seems that the return of their star center and the emergence of one of their young players was all they needed to jump this battery back into title contention. Sporting a league-best 16.4 net rating, 7.2 points higher than the second-place team, Connecticut is playing at a high enough level to reach the Finals for the second time in three years.

Are the Wings About to Take Flight?

The aforementioned second-place team in net rating is the Dallas Wings. They’ve only played two games so far this season, holding a 1-1 record. I’m not ready to say they’re the second-best team in the WNBA or anything, but I am wondering if they are about to take that next step and become a playoff team.

The Wings haven’t been in the playoffs since trading away Liz Cambage ahead of the 2019 season and starting anew by drafting super-scorer Arike Ogunbowale. In their first two games, they have shown some promising signs that they could great the league’s top eight by season’s end.

From a marco standpoint, they walloped the Sparks on the road and lost a close game in overtime to the defending-champion Storm in their home opener. In those two games, they find themselves tops in the league in true shooting percentage (58.7 percent) and second in both net rating (9.3) and rebounding percentage (56.8 percent).

Individually, Ogunbowale is third in the league in scoring (22.5 points per game). This includes a season opener where he scored 17 points on 12 shots despite having her minutes limited due to foul trouble (four fouls) and struggling to handle the ball (one assist, six turnovers). Allisha Gray dopped 23 points in the season opener, but has temporarily stepped away due to FIBA 3×3 commitments, while Marina Mabrey is averaging 18.5 points in her first two games.

Despite the start, there’s a good chance that the Wings could hit a slump. The shooting could go cold at any stretch of the season, and the team already holds the worst assist (56.3 percent) and turnover (23.8 percent) percentages in the W. Things could get disorganized on offense pretty quickly. Nevertheless, I think that even in this small sample size, the Dallas Wings have shown that they are capable of competing for a playoff spot this season.