Wednesday 7 August 2019 09:32, UK
Post All-Star break and with the playoffs approaching, the WNBA conversations turns to the leading candidates for the regular-season Most Valuable Player award. Huw Hopkins assesses five players whose play has made them very difficult to ignore.
When Elena Delle Donne is in the line-up for the Washington Mystics, it feels weird that they should ever lose. She has missed four games this season - one to start the year and another three after breaking her nose (she now wears a mask to protect it). The team lost every time Delle Donne was out, but it was understandable. However, the three games they lost when she was in uniform just did not make sense.
The Masked Mystic is so locked in this season. She is hitting half of all her shots - a career-best - and averaging the best free throw percentage of her career. Just to put into context how ridiculous that is, Delle Donne has two seasons in her career when she has hit above 95 per cent from the line.
Washington are struggling in the rebounding category, but this has nothing to do with Delle Donne, who is grabbing a career-high 17.8 per cent of her team's boards. Scoring is down across the league, but she is second in the 'W' with 18.7 points per game.
Some of her tough, triple-teamed fadeaways are truly representative of a player reaching a peak - there is nothing you can do to stop her. She dragged her team to the finals last year on one leg, and general manager Mike Thibault rewarded that by bringing back an actual bench that could help Delle Donne and the Mystics take one step further.
But it all starts with her and she is proving her worth once again at an MVP level.
It's certainly been a rollercoaster of a season - reeling off multiple winning and losing streaks - but the Connecticut Sun are on top of the league's standings for a reason. One of them - a 6ft 6in reason at that - is Jonquel Jones. There are not many players her size that can do what she does.
While her shooting percentages might be down on previous seasons, she is the only player in the WNBA averaging a double-double. Her 10.4 rebounds per game led the league on a team that is second at crashing the boards, and even if her three-point shot is not as accurate as her first three years in the league, the extra defensive attention from being the Sun's go-to option is making the long ball difficult. Despite this, she is still a threat.
Something that has improved is attacking from the perimeter. Last season Jones took 13 driving lay-ups all season, but she has already attempted 19. Her above-the-break three-point shots are a similar story.
Jones has help from the likes of Courtney Williams and Shekinna Stricklen, but this Connecticut roster understands their roles at every position, and the center is finally the focal point. She should have arguably been the first option for the past two years, but now that it is official, Jones is making the most of it.
When multiple stars get together, it can potentially dilute the perception of what each of them brings to the table, but that does not necessarily lead to failure. Movies like 2001's Rat Race brought together some of the finest comedy actors on the planet at the time that ended with somewhat of a disappointing result. However, the flip side is something like Pulp Fiction, which weaved myriad storylines in and out of a golden thread of a narrative that won cult approval on some renowned performances.
When Liz Cambage joined bonafide star A'ja Wilson, rising point guard Kelsey Plum, the latest No 1 draft pick Jackie Young and one of the best scorers in the league Kayla McBride, it could have gone wrong. There were some early teething problems, and Cambage's role is very different from the multiple 40-point performances she managed last season on her way to the highest scoring average in the league.
This year, she is averaging eight points fewer, but her team play has excelled, and her MVP case has certainly been helped by being the No 1 offensive option while Wilson is recovering from injury.
The team is still deep, and if Cambage can lead the Aces to a top seed, with Wilson returning to help build a championship contender, the MVP trophy - and a title - could be headed to Las Vegas.
A middle-distance running tactic during competitions is to stay with the pack but remain at the back. Allow the jostling for position and early sprinters to waste energy in the first lap or two, then pick up speed during the middle of the race to tire them out before kicking hard on the final lap to create space between you and your competitors.
Despite the LA Sparks having some interesting roster construction by Penny Toler during the off-season, and questionable system changes by new head coach Derek Fisher, the results are starting to take shape.
The team started slow but Nneka Ogwumike ensured there were enough wins against inferior talent to stay close to the pack.
Now that Candace Parker and Maria Vadeeva are back, Chelsea Gray is dragging victories over the line and Chiney Ogwumike and Tierra Ruffin-Pratt are solidifying their roles, it's almost surprising to see the Sparks already in position to battle for a top-four spot in the league.
The reason they are is that former MVP Nneka Ogwumike kept Los Angeles within reaching distance, and she has been pushing the pace in this middle stretch. Ogwumike is averaging a high in rebounds, the most shots and among the best three-point percentage of her career. There is still a lot of basketball to be played, so in the final run to the playoffs, do not be surprised if you see some hard kicking in Los Angeles. If they can force their way into the top three seeds, expect Ogwumike's name to be thrown around a lot more in the MVP race.
The further the Phoenix Mercury slip down the standings, the further DeWanna Bonner gets away from an MVP trophy. It's as simple as that.
The Mercury have relied upon Diana Taurasi for so long it is difficult for another to become a leading player in Phoenix. But this season saw the 'Greatest of all Time' sit out the first half due to injury, giving the franchise a chance to see what the team has as it begins to prepare for a post-Taurasi era.
Bonner is the key piece to picking up the slack, and she has done so admirably. Brittney Griner has always performed well alongside Taurasi, especially in the last three seasons with Griner managing highs across the board. But after Bonner posted more than 20 points per game early in her career, her numbers dipped before going on maternity during the 2017 season.
When she returned last year, the 17 points and seven rebounds per game was an incredible improvement and many felt she could take the next step this season.
Upping this to 18.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game is certainly pushing her MVP credentials in the right direction, but missing Taurasi, as well as Sancho Lyttle, Essence Carson, Briann January and Alanna Smith at various times this year, has caused issues for the Mercury's consistency.
In turn, it is making the MVP award that much more elusive for Bonner, and unless things turn around, her name will slip down into the following list.
A'ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces), Courtney Vandersloot (Chicago Sky), Diamond DeShields (Chicago Sky), Natasha Howard (Seattle Storm), Brittney Griner (Phoenix Mercury), Sylvia Fowles (Minnesota Lynx)
