BBL leader in points and assists per game Rahmon Fletcher features in his fifth Molten Team of the Year, while the Sevenoaks Suns' Cat Carr makes the WBBL Team of the Year for the fourth successive season.
Thursday 13 May 2021 16:15, UK
The 2020-21 Molten BBL and WBBL Teams of the Year were announced this week, with two unanimous selections and a former two-time league MVP featuring for the men while three debutants make the cut for the women.
Here's a look at the respective quintets, as voted for by head coaches...
Geno Crandall - Leicester Riders
Leicester's Minneapolis-native point guard has dazzled all season long and was voted to the Molten BBL Team of the Year unanimously by the 10 eligible BBL head coaches after leading Riders to a fifth BBL Championship title. He finished the campaign leading the league winners in scoring and ninth in the BBL with 15.9 points per game, second in the league in assists (7.8) and fourth in steals (1.9). The crafty guard also drew the second most fouls of any player in the league as he proved difficult to contain going to the rim and shot an impressive 80 per cent from the line on more than five attempts per game. He had nine double-doubles on the season, which was third among all players, including numerous efforts where he was close to a triple-double in games, led by a monstrous 18 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists in victory over Plymouth Raiders; and 12 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds in a crucial March win over title rivals London Lions. Crandall joined Riders after a season in the Czech Republic, and was previously a two-time All-Big Sky second team selection at the University of North Dakota before graduating from the formidable Gonzaga University.
DeAndre Liggins - London Lions
Also receiving 10 votes was London's former NBA man DeAndre Liggins, adding this election to his appearance in the Molten BBL Defensive Team of the Year as London finished second in the BBL Championship. He led the league in weekly All-Star 5 appearances with 11 across the season, and finished third in the BBL in assists per game (6.9), eighth in steals (1.6) and fifth in three-pointers made with a total of 65 at an accuracy of 41 per cent. Effective at both ends of the floor all season long, Liggins also contributed 14 points and five rebounds per outing while doing a little bit of everything for his team. Lions lifted the BBL Trophy in March and he was huge across the board in that game, winning the MVP award with 19 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and five steals. He was a player who flirted with triple-doubles throughout the season, finishing with eight double-doubles, including 14 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists as they beat title rivals Leicester in January. He hit a season-high 33 points against Surrey Scorchers in April as Lions pushed the title race all the way to the final games.
Dirk Williams - London Lions
Another Lion who makes his first appearance in the Molten BBL Team of the Year - in his third campaign in the league having previously featured for B. Braun Sheffield Sharks - is the league's most prolific three-point shooter, Dirk Williams. He hit a total of 91 triples on the campaign, which was fully 25 clear of his nearest rival, Sam Cassell Jr. Coming at a deadly accuracy of 39.7 per cent, he also continued to demonstrate his athleticism going to the hoop, scoring 59 per cent on the inside (ninth in the BBL), and showing his pure shooter's touch with 89 per cent at the free-throw line (fourth in the BBL). In all, he was tantalisingly close to being just the fourth 50-40-90 shooter in BBL history. Receiving eight votes from BBL head coaches, he was second in the league in scoring at 18.8 points per game, with four rebounds and two assists on average. He scored in double-figures in all of London's last 12 games as they hunted down the title, with season highs of 37 against Manchester Giants and 35 against Surrey, scoring 20 points or more on 13 occasions.
Rahmon Fletcher - Newcastle Eagles
In his sixth campaign with the Eagles, Fletcher has become just the second player in BBL history - alongside another star in the North East, Russ Saunders - to lead the league in both points per game (19.2) and assists (9.3). That amounts to the best season of his career in terms of facilitation and second only to 2016-17 in scoring output, across all of his BBL seasons, the Netherlands, Slovakia and a four-year college career at Green Bay. The 32-year-old Kansas native also makes a fifth appearance in the Molten BBL Team of the Year - one for every completed season he has had on these shores - meaning that he moves further clear as the player with the most appearances since voting moved to this format in 2009. He also moves to joint-fifth all-time (including under the previous format) with players such as Saunders, Peter Scantlebury, Drew Sullivan, Sterling Davis and Danny Lewis, and trailing only Nigel Lloyd (nine), John McCord (seven), Tony Dorsey (six) and Rob Yanders (six). He scored in double-figures in all but three league games, led the BBL with 11 double-doubles, and also had 21 points with eight assists as Eagles won the BBL Cup in January.
Darien Nelson-Henry - Leicester Riders
Leicester's American big man has quietly been pivotal in their BBL Championship-winning campaign, and as captain of the team it was he who lifted the trophy aloft following their final win of the campaign at Cheshire Phoenix. In his second year with Riders after two seasons in Austria and a college career at the University of Pennsylvania, Nelson-Henry set the tone for the team by showing remarkable consistency throughout while featuring in every game and playing just under 23 minutes per contest. He averaged 12 points and seven rebounds per game, also handing out 2.4 assists as one of the best passing big men in the league. The 6ft 11in 27-year-old from Kirkland, Washington, finished fifth in the BBL in field goal percentage (58.7 per cent) and fourth in the league with a total of 160 two-point field goals made as the typical go-to player to get Riders established early in games. He put up a big double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds when Riders needed to win their final game to secure the league title against Cheshire, and in total he had six double-doubles with one of the biggest being 20 points and 11 rebounds as Riders beat fellow title-chasers Newcastle in February.
Cat Carr - Sevenoaks Suns
Carr captained Sevenoaks Suns to a third straight WBBL Championship title, losing just one league game along the way, and makes the Molten WBBL Team of the Year for the fourth completed season in a row, meaning that she stands alone as the player with the most appearances in WBBL history, moving clear of former Nottingham Wildcat Ashley Harris. The do-it-all guard was in the league's top three in points per game (third, 18.8), assists (second, 7.2) and defensive rebounds (second, 7.7); while her field goal percentage of 47.8 per cent was also top 10. In her seven seasons in the league, the rebounds and assists numbers are career highs, and her scoring trails only the 2014-15 season when she averaged 20 points per game. Scoring in double-figures in all but one game, peaking at 29 points against Essex Rebels, she had 10 double-doubles on the season and two triple-doubles, both during the title run-in, including 20 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, also against Rebels.
Alison Gorrell - Newcastle Eagles
The league's leading scorer features in the Molten WBBL Team of the Year for the third straight completed season, meaning that she joins Harris in second place overall in that regard. She paced the league by some distances in scoring at a mark of 23.6 points per game, scoring on average one third of her team's points as she proved unstoppable throughout the campaign. Doing a bit of everything for her team, as captain, she was also fourth in the WBBL for steals per game (2.5), fifth in assists (5.3) and 10th in defensive rebounds (6.1). Those were career highs in points and assists, and despite voting for this award having been conducted based on the regular season she has only pushed on from there with an inspirational triple-double of 22 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists as Eagles caused the biggest upset in WBBL Play-off history to make the final by toppling Sevenoaks live on Sky Sports.
Kennedy Leonard - London Lions
In her first season in the WBBL, Leonard has made a record-breaking impact and has already featured in both the Molten WBBL British and Defensive Teams of the Year in this week's awards announcements. She was one of only five players to average a double-double with 15.7 points and 11.3 assists per outing, breaking the total assists record with 225 in the campaign and also the single-game record when she handed out an astonishing 21 assists against Caledonia Pride in March. Like Carr, she scored in double-figures in all but one game, had 12 double-doubles and finished the regular season with a first triple-double of 24 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds against Durham Palatinates, adding eight steals for a near quadruple-double. She was MVP as Lions lifted the WBBL Trophy, getting them off to a fast start in a dominant performance before finishing with 21 points, nine assists, seven steals and six rebounds.
Holly Winterburn - Leicester Riders
Yet another do-it-all guard elected to this team, Winterburn adds this accolade to her Molten WBBL All-British Team of the Year selection and features for the first time in her glittering young career at just 20 years of age. She averaged 15 points per game on 36 percent three-point shooting, and was third in the WBBL for assists per game (6.2), sixth in steals (2.1), ninth in defensive rebounds (6.1) and 10th in fouls drawn as she proved to be a handful for opponents all season. She had a near triple-double in WBBL Cup Final success in February, posting 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists; with a season-high of 36 points in the penultimate game of the season, a massive 84-80 defeat of London Lions that secured second place in the league table. With nine appearances in the weekly All-Star 5, she was second only to Leonard in that regard.
Cassie Breen - London Lions
Michigan-native Cassie Breen was another key addition in transforming the London Lions this season, after professional stints in Spain and Germany, and as the all-time leader in made three-pointers following a four-year career at Central Michigan University. Her long-range prowess was immediately evident as she knocked down an astonishing 19 triples in her first three league games with season highs of seven makes against Nottingham and Oaklands in that spell, and a season high of 35 points in the first of those games. In all, she was the league's most accurate volume three-point shooter at 43.6 percent and was second in total makes with 61 on the league season. She was fourth in the WBBL in scoring with 18.7 points per game, and proved her shooting accuracy across the court as she was ninth in field goal percentage (47.9 percent) and second with an amazing free-throw accuracy of 93.8 percent at an astonishing 62-66 for the season. Like Dirk Williams on the men's London Lions team, she was agonisingly close to a 50-40-90 shooting campaign. She also scored 25 points, making all 10 of her free-throws, in lifting the WBBL Trophy.
The play-off final takes place at Leicester's Morningside Arena on Sunday 16 May, again live on Sky Sports.
