When I’m following a team, I wish for them to be: 1) Good, or if they can’t be good, then 2) Bad in a record-setting fashion, or at least 3) Interesting.
The trouble with the Los Angeles Sparks is that they’re none of the three.
They were interesting Monday at Golden State while Kate Martin — back in Ballhalla for the first time since a rather shocking training camp waiver — was on the floor. I can’t be the only one who noticed that Martin was the only Spark to register a net positive +/-.
The Valkyries are good and interesting. Very many basketball teams have adopted this approach to efficient offense: Shoot a three, but if you must shoot a two, attempt it near the basket. It makes so much sense, and the only thing you’re losing is whatever could be had from midrange.
Seth Parnow’s excellent book on analytics — The Midrange Theory — suggests that sacrificing the midrange is losing a lot, because some players are artists at 12-18 feet.
For instance, Paige Bueckers, whose Wings visited Golden State Wednesday, starting a seven-game stretch for the Valkyries in which every opponent is even with or above them in the standings.
The Valkyries won 90-81, in the fashion that makes them interesting. The Valkyries figure if they play enough defense and shoot enough threes, they don’t need any twos.
GSV second-year guard Kaitlyn Chen had a sensational game, 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting, +26 in 25 minutes.
At the end of the preseason, when the Valkyries faced a couple of painful final cuts, fans fretted over the possibility of one last cut coming down to crowd favorites Kaitlyn Chen or Kate Martin.
Maybe that’s how it happened, and Chen stayed on for adding *something*. I don’t know what is — improved footwork, an irresistible ball fake — something has given Chen as much as a full step to start her drives.
Opposing teams had better watch enough tape to figure this out, else the Valkyries drop off very little when Veronica Burton hands the ball to Chen.