u/Googles8

Please excuse my rant. I was poking through the box score after yesterday and didn't realize things were this bad.

I'm a big Mystics apologist. I carried the weight when we bled out our 2019 championship core. I cheered for the tank in 24 and 25. I even defended (some of) the draft picks. But I just don't get why we are riding the top of the roster for 25+ minutes (and Sonia for 37!) against the Plum-less Los Angeles Sparks in May.

This coaching just does not line up with the roster construction, or even with how we've played earlier. Cass Prosper has been averaging 20 minutes a game, and she is, to put it nicely, a development project (I acknowledge Onyenwere coming back maybe cuts into that).

We're not playing to tank, and we're not built to win. Does anyone else see the vision?

MAYBE if you were going to say we're going to trade assets for a real PG and a real SG and make a push after the trade deadline, I could see it. But I don't know how that works with keeping the good parts of the core together.

Went to the game last night, had a great time (except for the third quarter). My random thoughts, in no particular order:

• Young'uns need to get up to speed quick. This is my number-one takeaway. We played I think two players all night who had logged real minutes: Sonia Citron and Lucy Olsen. All our other returners were out (Georgia doesn't count for these purposes). Of the draft picks, only Cotie McMahon seemed to adapt immediately to the pace and physicality - Betts, Dugalic, and Cass Prosper were one-half to two steps slow in both offense and defense.
• Michael Winger is driving the same playbook as the Wizards. The 'zards are one year ahead, but have basically done the same thing: draft best-player-available, don't worry about not having a real point guard, stock draft picks, and stock cap space. Then, let your players figure out how to maximize their own utility without like... organization or spacing or whatever; in theory, when you get a real point guard, the game will feel way easier than when you were cutting your teeth (this last part is still theoretical - we'll see what Trae Young brings next year).
• Betts will be a menace in the paint once she's adjusted. Betts struggled to actually put the ball in the hoop, which I'm willing to chalk up to the faster pace of the game and better defenders than college. She did really well at establishing herself in the paint and drawing fouls, and if she can speed up her processing and improve finishing through contact and catching entry passes, she'll be great.
• Rori Harmon is electric. Does she have a long future in the league? Who cares? She's going to be our backup PG for at least this year, and if she keeps pushing the pace in transition and whipping cross court passes into shooting pockets, it's going to be awesome.
• Rori and Cotie's Run N Gun Show could be a devastating backup unit. Rori and Cotie both looked to push the pace on turnovers. Since it's likely neither of them will start, we could have some fun moments with them bringing absolute chaos when the starters are out**.**
• We gotta figure out how to counter a press. We had some real struggles to inbound the ball at times. Part of it goes back to #1 above - our inbounders (Dugalic and Prosper mostly) and our guards (Rori, Georgia, and Kamaria mostly) were all playing their first W games. But I thought we were going to get hit with some five-second violations and then some backcourt violations.
• Spacing is going to kill us. Similar story to last year, which we all knew wasn't getting addressed after the draft. No one is really dangerous as a three-point shooter and our bigs mostly want to live in the paint. Driving lanes will be crowded and entry passes will be swarmed. As above, if Betts gets used to playing 1v2 or 1v3 and then we get a real point guard or shooters, it'll be like playing on easy mode, but ... we'll see.
• Kamaria McDaniel was ready for her moment. This is a little irrelevant since she's now been waived, but she was fun to watch. She drew three charges in like four defensive possessions and played a shockingly effective pick-and-roll with the bottom of the 4s and 5s. I think she could be a good add to an expansion team - I would love to see her get a Shey Peddy arc of being a late bloomer in the league (except for the part where she hits a dagger three to eliminate the Mystics from the playoffs).
• Preseason hoops is tragically epic. It's basically the scene from Lord of the Rings where Faramir is charging Osigiliath. Half a dozen of these players aren't going to make the roster. You know it, they know it, everyone knows it. But goddamn if they aren't going to give the best accounting of themselves on the way out. The effort is through the roof. Honestly, the fourth quarter from the fringes of both teams was so fun as you see folks make the most of the opportunity they've got.

As expected, we're seeing more roster cuts now that pre-season games have started.