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Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Karl Smesko's coaching philosophy has enabled Atlanta Dream's fast start
Seven new head coaches joined the WNBA this season, each looking to make an immediate impact. But among them, arguably none has been more successful than the Atlanta Dream's Karl Smesko. The Dream currently sit third in the league after an 8–3 start, trailing only the defending champion New York Liberty (9–1) and last year's runner-up the Minnesota Lynx (10–1). Advertisement On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant broke down Smesko's coaching style and philosophy, discussing why the 54-year-old has been able to hit the ground running in Atlanta. Keita: We're seeing a lot of these new head coaches trying to set up their foundations, and some teams are doing it exceptionally well with the new faces that they've integrated into those new foundations. Let's start at the top of the tier with someone whose team is largely beating expectations this year, and I put emphasis on 'large' because their team is big, and that is Karl Smesko and the Atlanta Dream. Watching this team, they're relentless. The number of ways they can score and the number of ways they can make you feel like you have no room to play in the halfcourt is tremendous. Ben, can you tell us a little bit about Smesko's coaching style and his philosophy? Pickman: It's been interesting because Sabreena and I talked to Karl on the day he was hired as the Atlanta Dream head coach, and we wrote a big story about that decision, and then obviously followed up with them in the weeks and months since. Karl Smesko came from Florida Gulf Coast University, a small college where he developed this reputation as an offensive mastermind. They prioritized 3-point shots, often catch-and-shoot 3s or layups. It was a really innovative offense, and they were top of the country in 3-point rate all the time. He was also a winner, and entering this past college season, he boasted the third-highest winning percentage among active college coaches behind just (UConn's) Geno Auriemma and (LSU's) Kim Mulkey. Over the last decade, it was only Auriemma, Mulkey and (South Carolina's) Dawn Staley who had more 30-win seasons than Smesko. So from a basketball perspective, it was all about this outside-the-box thinking and offensive innovation. Advertisement But one of the things that sticks out is that he talks about being a teacher first. That's really important to how he communicates and how the Atlanta Dream are building. He's always seemingly asking follow-up questions, and he talks a lot about habit-building. One of the things that struck me when I went down to Atlanta is that he doesn't call his practice plans 'practice plans,' he calls them 'progress plans.' That was something that goes back to his time in college, where the thinking was, 'We have a progress schedule, not a practice schedule.' From a college context, the way he explained it to me was, it's a way to try to get people to understand that we're not just showing up at practice at 10 a.m. to get shots up and work out, we're actually building towards something. Those are some of the things that are really important for him, there is a big emphasis on communication and asking a lot of questions. At his core, and he said this when he got hired and it's still true today, they are trying to leverage the strengths of their best players and put them in a position to succeed. Every coach would say that, but it is something we have seen with him because they're not playing exactly the way he did in college. They have two centers in Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones, and they didn't have that at FGCU, so it is a little bit different. But again, that shows his adaptability and wanting to be a teacher first in how he communicates. Keita: What I love about Karl Smesko as a coach, and what you're referring to, Ben, is that it's an open dialogue with him with the way he asks those follow-up questions. You've heard on the broadcast that covers the Dream about how he's very much like a dad, and he has his dad jokes … Pickman: You want a good one? You know how some people say, 'You're my ride or die.' Karl Smesko often says to Rhyne Howard, 'You're my Rhyne or die,' which is a great example of that. Advertisement Keita: Well there you go. Sabreena, having a head coach that has that endearing quality to him already disarms folks, doesn't it? And it already makes them feel a little bit more comfortable to show up as their true selves. When you're looking at this team right now, Allisha Gray was the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, and she's been the Eastern Conference Player of the Month as well. There have been unbelievable performances coming from her, and she's a Most Improved Player candidate for sure. Rhyne Howard is also doing great in her fourth year. But it's really the way that he's made all of these players work together with a lot of new faces that's impressive, isn't it? You even consider the fact that Jordin Canada is coming into this mix late from her injury. And when you look at their most recent game against Indiana, when Canada came in she was not just distributing, but she was going to the rack as well. It feels as if Karl Smesko has found ways to get all of these different things out of this team, where there's a light shining on individual attributes, but they're also jelling so well as a collective. What are you seeing out there, and why do you think Smesko has been able to get all of the best elements out of his players, while also getting them on the same page? Merchant: Firstly, not to discount what Karl Smesko is doing in Atlanta, but there was a lot of low-hanging fruit on the offensive end. This was a team that had the worst offense in the WNBA last year, averaging 96.6 points per 100 possessions, and they're about 10 points better than that this season. Rhyne Howard is not shooting the ball all that much better than she did last year, but you've got Brionna Jones who's hyper-efficient inside, Allisha Gray is shooting better, and the shots they're getting make so much more sense than the long 2 parade that existed with the Dream the last couple of years. So that's first and foremost. You hire an offensive mastermind because you think that there is untapped potential with your players, and I completely agree with that. The Dream was way too talented to be scoring the ball as poorly as they were the last two seasons, so that just seemed like the obvious source of improvement. But for it to have happened so quickly just validates everything we thought about Karl Smesko. I must say Ben hit on it perfectly with the personality part of it. We had talked about his 'ATL Lytics' shirt, and I was talking to Brionna Jones about how all the players got one and whether she had worn hers, to which she said, 'Definitely not.' But she also said, 'Smesko's not like any coach that I've ever had.' And you can't deny that everything he's saying makes sense, and there is logic to everything that he is preaching to them. So when you have the track record of what Karl Smesko brings from FGCU, when you have the initial spate of success that they've had to start the season, and when everybody is getting to play as their best self within the system, it's easy to buy in because things look like they're working. And achieving that initial success helps a lot in that particular aspect. Also, Smesko keeping Brandi Poole as one of his lead assistants, who's been in the WNBA for a very long time, just helps to translate things because he comes from college basketball and she's been in the WNBA for a while. So that makes a lot of sense because it just helps give the staff a little bit more credibility. When I saw the Dream in Los Angeles, their shoot around was being run by Poole, so that sharing of responsibilities and having a voice that people are maybe a little bit more familiar with helps in building a culture and adapting to the WNBA this quickly. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Atlanta Dream, WNBA, No Offseason Podcast 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Karl Smesko's coaching philosophy has enabled Atlanta Dream's fast start
Seven new head coaches joined the WNBA this season, each looking to make an immediate impact. But among them, arguably none has been more successful than the Atlanta Dream's Karl Smesko. The Dream currently sit third in the league after an 8–3 start, trailing only the defending champion New York Liberty (9–1) and last year's runner-up the Minnesota Lynx (10–1). Advertisement On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant broke down Smesko's coaching style and philosophy, discussing why the 54-year-old has been able to hit the ground running in Atlanta. Keita: We're seeing a lot of these new head coaches trying to set up their foundations, and some teams are doing it exceptionally well with the new faces that they've integrated into those new foundations. Let's start at the top of the tier with someone whose team is largely beating expectations this year, and I put emphasis on 'large' because their team is big, and that is Karl Smesko and the Atlanta Dream. Watching this team, they're relentless. The number of ways they can score and the number of ways they can make you feel like you have no room to play in the halfcourt is tremendous. Ben, can you tell us a little bit about Smesko's coaching style and his philosophy? Pickman: It's been interesting because Sabreena and I talked to Karl on the day he was hired as the Atlanta Dream head coach, and we wrote a big story about that decision, and then obviously followed up with them in the weeks and months since. Karl Smesko came from Florida Gulf Coast University, a small college where he developed this reputation as an offensive mastermind. They prioritized 3-point shots, often catch-and-shoot 3s or layups. It was a really innovative offense, and they were top of the country in 3-point rate all the time. He was also a winner, and entering this past college season, he boasted the third-highest winning percentage among active college coaches behind just (UConn's) Geno Auriemma and (LSU's) Kim Mulkey. Over the last decade, it was only Auriemma, Mulkey and (South Carolina's) Dawn Staley who had more 30-win seasons than Smesko. So from a basketball perspective, it was all about this outside-the-box thinking and offensive innovation. Advertisement But one of the things that sticks out is that he talks about being a teacher first. That's really important to how he communicates and how the Atlanta Dream are building. He's always seemingly asking follow-up questions, and he talks a lot about habit-building. One of the things that struck me when I went down to Atlanta is that he doesn't call his practice plans 'practice plans,' he calls them 'progress plans.' That was something that goes back to his time in college, where the thinking was, 'We have a progress schedule, not a practice schedule.' From a college context, the way he explained it to me was, it's a way to try to get people to understand that we're not just showing up at practice at 10 a.m. to get shots up and work out, we're actually building towards something. Those are some of the things that are really important for him, there is a big emphasis on communication and asking a lot of questions. At his core, and he said this when he got hired and it's still true today, they are trying to leverage the strengths of their best players and put them in a position to succeed. Every coach would say that, but it is something we have seen with him because they're not playing exactly the way he did in college. They have two centers in Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones, and they didn't have that at FGCU, so it is a little bit different. But again, that shows his adaptability and wanting to be a teacher first in how he communicates. Keita: What I love about Karl Smesko as a coach, and what you're referring to, Ben, is that it's an open dialogue with him with the way he asks those follow-up questions. You've heard on the broadcast that covers the Dream about how he's very much like a dad, and he has his dad jokes … Pickman: You want a good one? You know how some people say, 'You're my ride or die.' Karl Smesko often says to Rhyne Howard, 'You're my Rhyne or die,' which is a great example of that. Advertisement Keita: Well there you go. Sabreena, having a head coach that has that endearing quality to him already disarms folks, doesn't it? And it already makes them feel a little bit more comfortable to show up as their true selves. When you're looking at this team right now, Allisha Gray was the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, and she's been the Eastern Conference Player of the Month as well. There have been unbelievable performances coming from her, and she's a Most Improved Player candidate for sure. Rhyne Howard is also doing great in her fourth year. But it's really the way that he's made all of these players work together with a lot of new faces that's impressive, isn't it? You even consider the fact that Jordin Canada is coming into this mix late from her injury. And when you look at their most recent game against Indiana, when Canada came in she was not just distributing, but she was going to the rack as well. It feels as if Karl Smesko has found ways to get all of these different things out of this team, where there's a light shining on individual attributes, but they're also jelling so well as a collective. What are you seeing out there, and why do you think Smesko has been able to get all of the best elements out of his players, while also getting them on the same page? Merchant: Firstly, not to discount what Karl Smesko is doing in Atlanta, but there was a lot of low-hanging fruit on the offensive end. This was a team that had the worst offense in the WNBA last year, averaging 96.6 points per 100 possessions, and they're about 10 points better than that this season. Rhyne Howard is not shooting the ball all that much better than she did last year, but you've got Brionna Jones who's hyper-efficient inside, Allisha Gray is shooting better, and the shots they're getting make so much more sense than the long 2 parade that existed with the Dream the last couple of years. So that's first and foremost. You hire an offensive mastermind because you think that there is untapped potential with your players, and I completely agree with that. The Dream was way too talented to be scoring the ball as poorly as they were the last two seasons, so that just seemed like the obvious source of improvement. But for it to have happened so quickly just validates everything we thought about Karl Smesko. I must say Ben hit on it perfectly with the personality part of it. We had talked about his 'ATL Lytics' shirt, and I was talking to Brionna Jones about how all the players got one and whether she had worn hers, to which she said, 'Definitely not.' But she also said, 'Smesko's not like any coach that I've ever had.' And you can't deny that everything he's saying makes sense, and there is logic to everything that he is preaching to them. So when you have the track record of what Karl Smesko brings from FGCU, when you have the initial spate of success that they've had to start the season, and when everybody is getting to play as their best self within the system, it's easy to buy in because things look like they're working. And achieving that initial success helps a lot in that particular aspect. Also, Smesko keeping Brandi Poole as one of his lead assistants, who's been in the WNBA for a very long time, just helps to translate things because he comes from college basketball and she's been in the WNBA for a while. So that makes a lot of sense because it just helps give the staff a little bit more credibility. When I saw the Dream in Los Angeles, their shoot around was being run by Poole, so that sharing of responsibilities and having a voice that people are maybe a little bit more familiar with helps in building a culture and adapting to the WNBA this quickly. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Atlanta Dream, WNBA, No Offseason Podcast 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
16-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How Karl Smesko's coaching philosophy has enabled Atlanta Dream's fast start
Seven new head coaches joined the WNBA this season, each looking to make an immediate impact. But among them, arguably none has been more successful than the Atlanta Dream's Karl Smesko. The Dream currently sit third in the league after an 8–3 start, trailing only the defending champion New York Liberty (9–1) and last year's runner-up the Minnesota Lynx (10–1). Advertisement On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant broke down Smesko's coaching style and philosophy, discussing why the 54-year-old has been able to hit the ground running in Atlanta. A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'No Offseason' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Keita: We're seeing a lot of these new head coaches trying to set up their foundations, and some teams are doing it exceptionally well with the new faces that they've integrated into those new foundations. Let's start at the top of the tier with someone whose team is largely beating expectations this year, and I put emphasis on 'large' because their team is big, and that is Karl Smesko and the Atlanta Dream. Watching this team, they're relentless. The number of ways they can score and the number of ways they can make you feel like you have no room to play in the halfcourt is tremendous. Ben, can you tell us a little bit about Smesko's coaching style and his philosophy? Pickman: It's been interesting because Sabreena and I talked to Karl on the day he was hired as the Atlanta Dream head coach, and we wrote a big story about that decision, and then obviously followed up with them in the weeks and months since. Karl Smesko came from Florida Gulf Coast University, a small college where he developed this reputation as an offensive mastermind. They prioritized 3-point shots, often catch-and-shoot 3s or layups. It was a really innovative offense, and they were top of the country in 3-point rate all the time. He was also a winner, and entering this past college season, he boasted the third-highest winning percentage among active college coaches behind just (UConn's) Geno Auriemma and (LSU's) Kim Mulkey. Over the last decade, it was only Auriemma, Mulkey and (South Carolina's) Dawn Staley who had more 30-win seasons than Smesko. So from a basketball perspective, it was all about this outside-the-box thinking and offensive innovation. Advertisement But one of the things that sticks out is that he talks about being a teacher first. That's really important to how he communicates and how the Atlanta Dream are building. He's always seemingly asking follow-up questions, and he talks a lot about habit-building. One of the things that struck me when I went down to Atlanta is that he doesn't call his practice plans 'practice plans,' he calls them 'progress plans.' That was something that goes back to his time in college, where the thinking was, 'We have a progress schedule, not a practice schedule.' From a college context, the way he explained it to me was, it's a way to try to get people to understand that we're not just showing up at practice at 10 a.m. to get shots up and work out, we're actually building towards something. Those are some of the things that are really important for him, there is a big emphasis on communication and asking a lot of questions. At his core, and he said this when he got hired and it's still true today, they are trying to leverage the strengths of their best players and put them in a position to succeed. Every coach would say that, but it is something we have seen with him because they're not playing exactly the way he did in college. They have two centers in Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones, and they didn't have that at FGCU, so it is a little bit different. But again, that shows his adaptability and wanting to be a teacher first in how he communicates. Keita: What I love about Karl Smesko as a coach, and what you're referring to, Ben, is that it's an open dialogue with him with the way he asks those follow-up questions. You've heard on the broadcast that covers the Dream about how he's very much like a dad, and he has his dad jokes … Pickman: You want a good one? You know how some people say, 'You're my ride or die.' Karl Smesko often says to Rhyne Howard, 'You're my Rhyne or die,' which is a great example of that. Keita: Well there you go. Sabreena, having a head coach that has that endearing quality to him already disarms folks, doesn't it? And it already makes them feel a little bit more comfortable to show up as their true selves. When you're looking at this team right now, Allisha Gray was the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, and she's been the Eastern Conference Player of the Month as well. There have been unbelievable performances coming from her, and she's a Most Improved Player candidate for sure. Rhyne Howard is also doing great in her fourth year. But it's really the way that he's made all of these players work together with a lot of new faces that's impressive, isn't it? Advertisement You even consider the fact that Jordin Canada is coming into this mix late from her injury. And when you look at their most recent game against Indiana, when Canada came in she was not just distributing, but she was going to the rack as well. It feels as if Karl Smesko has found ways to get all of these different things out of this team, where there's a light shining on individual attributes, but they're also jelling so well as a collective. What are you seeing out there, and why do you think Smesko has been able to get all of the best elements out of his players, while also getting them on the same page? Merchant: Firstly, not to discount what Karl Smesko is doing in Atlanta, but there was a lot of low-hanging fruit on the offensive end. This was a team that had the worst offense in the WNBA last year, averaging 96.6 points per 100 possessions, and they're about 10 points better than that this season. Rhyne Howard is not shooting the ball all that much better than she did last year, but you've got Brionna Jones who's hyper-efficient inside, Allisha Gray is shooting better, and the shots they're getting make so much more sense than the long 2 parade that existed with the Dream the last couple of years. So that's first and foremost. You hire an offensive mastermind because you think that there is untapped potential with your players, and I completely agree with that. The Dream was way too talented to be scoring the ball as poorly as they were the last two seasons, so that just seemed like the obvious source of improvement. But for it to have happened so quickly just validates everything we thought about Karl Smesko. I must say Ben hit on it perfectly with the personality part of it. We had talked about his 'ATL Lytics' shirt, and I was talking to Brionna Jones about how all the players got one and whether she had worn hers, to which she said, 'Definitely not.' But she also said, 'Smesko's not like any coach that I've ever had.' And you can't deny that everything he's saying makes sense, and there is logic to everything that he is preaching to them. So when you have the track record of what Karl Smesko brings from FGCU, when you have the initial spate of success that they've had to start the season, and when everybody is getting to play as their best self within the system, it's easy to buy in because things look like they're working. And achieving that initial success helps a lot in that particular aspect. Also, Smesko keeping Brandi Poole as one of his lead assistants, who's been in the WNBA for a very long time, just helps to translate things because he comes from college basketball and she's been in the WNBA for a while. So that makes a lot of sense because it just helps give the staff a little bit more credibility. When I saw the Dream in Los Angeles, their shoot around was being run by Poole, so that sharing of responsibilities and having a voice that people are maybe a little bit more familiar with helps in building a culture and adapting to the WNBA this quickly. You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube. (Top Photo:)
New York Times
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Watch: Candace Parker on coaching, commentating and coming out
Candace Parker is a role model whose legacy extends far beyond the basketball court. A three-time WNBA champion, finals MVP, two-time regular-season MVP, seven-time All-Star and All-WNBA first-team member, Parker is sharing her story in a new memoir, 'The Can-Do Mindset.' For all the brilliance she showed on the court, Parker had to navigate many challenges away from the bright lights, so the release of her memoir — which coincides with the start of Pride Month — seems especially fitting. Advertisement On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant interviewed Parker about her path to self-acceptance, coming out and embracing her sexuality. A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'No Offseason' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Keita: Candace, in your book, you wrote about your internal struggle, coming to terms with your feelings with women, and how there was a significant difference in how you were treated before and then how you were treated with your wife after coming fully out. What do you think made that so hard for you, even in a league where many players are very out and proud of it? Parker: Well, going through it, I've supported someone who has come out before, and at the time I was dating men, so I just looked at it like, 'Why is this so difficult for you? Nobody cares, it's OK and it's accepted.' But when it's you, it's different. Growing up and reading the trashy magazines where you do the little tests to see who you're compatible with, based on movies and colors and all that stuff, I always envisioned a Prince Charming. So it's scary when you envision something your entire life, and then all of a sudden life hands you something not in the package that you expected it to come in. So it took a long time for me to be OK with it myself, and there's no way that you can fight a battle trying to explain yourself and validate who you love with others before you've officially done that, and come to grips with it yourself. Everyone probably knows someone who has gone through this struggle, and you can't explain it until you're in it. I understand that the world now sees it as great, and sees the fight as behind us and all those things, but it's not. You're still looked at in a different light based on who you love, and you still get the looks and the glares and all of those things. Advertisement So as an individual and as a person who wants to be a role model, the hardest thing for me was with my family, because I wanted my nieces and nephews to still look up to me. I wanted them to still love me, and I wanted my brother's kids to still look at me as a role model. So I had to come to grips with that, and honestly, it's been my daughter, nieces and my nephews that have legit been so important for me. We told my nephew, and my nephew was literally like, 'What's for dinner?' Like, he didn't care. So just getting the support from my family and my friends was so important. And yes, I have lost some friends, but that's OK. You have to be at a point where it's OK in your journey to be able to withstand that, so I'm super grateful my our support system. It's just crazy because I cannot believe it's only been three years; it seems like it's been forever. But that just shows that we need more visibility, and we need more people out there who are just living their lives and can provide some sort of roadmap and hope for those who are struggling. I can't imagine if someone was in control of my finances or where I lived or how I supported myself, and my decision of who I loved impacted that. So my heart and love go out to all of those people who are struggling with this. The mother who doesn't know how to support their daughter who's coming out, or kids seeing their parents choose love. This isn't easy to navigate, but at the end of the day, it's about having conversations and truly about being authentic and being open and honest in those conversations. Keita: With this shift in transition, what are your thoughts on the term 'pretty baller' because when I was coming up, you were the definition of a 'pretty baller.' I remember I had my baby hairs like you did and all of that. But as the league continues to evolve, this concept of what basketball should look like and being feminine in basketball has evolved as well. Do you have any thoughts around that? Parker: Here's the thing, now with social media I think that you're going to see people be able to follow who they follow. And again, I say numbers don't lie, check the scoreboard. There were so many times when people said females in general couldn't sell shoes and couldn't be on the covers of video games. But now we're seeing more women have the opportunity to do that, and the key is opportunity. Females come in all shapes and sizes, and when you talk about clothing, the runway and the ability to show off who you are, and your personality and being unapologetic about that, it's so important. So I'm proud of the WNBA because I don't think anybody has dimmed their light to fit into a box. I know myself that I couldn't control what other people thought of me. But I knew what I wanted to bring to the table every single day, which was Candace Parker. And every single day, I wanted to work harder to get closer towards being authentically myself. But for women in society, it's hard because you're judged by everything other than playing basketball. Then when you play basketball, it's not good enough. And when you play basketball, you've got to be competitive, but you can't be too muscular. I remember worrying about that in college when I was power cleaning because of my shoulders. And you would have seen at the ESPYs I was wearing this dress, and I remember seeing a comment when I accepted the Women's Sports Award from David Beckham, and someone saying, 'Well, she's pretty, but she's too muscular.' And I remember going home, looking in the mirror and being like, really? But now I bench 125 pounds easy, and I don't care. It's one of those things where with time, you realize that everybody is trying to critique everything in this culture. And everybody has a voice now with Twitter fingers and all that stuff. So you've just got to be you, and I think your community will find you. You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube. (Top Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Our experts' takes from the opening WNBA weekend
We might be less than a week into the 2025 WNBA season, but opening weekend already delivered plenty of drama, excitement and storylines for our reporters to dive into. On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,',Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant dished out their 'half-baked takes' from the early games. Advertisement Watch the discussion below. A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'No Offseason' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Keita: The WNBA season is officially underway, and we have got some early takes and overreactions — we're calling it our 'half-baked' takes. Guys, I want to know your best half-baked take after opening weekend. Ben, you're going to go first, and Sabreena, we'll see if this one's worth eating. (laughs) Pickman: My take is a broad one, and it's that the WNBA's middle tier, which we were so high on in thinking many teams were going to be really competitive because there was so much stacked talent around the league, is actually just not as good as we thought. There are four really good teams in the WNBA, and then there's a huge gap between (them) and the rest. I have the first four being New York, Las Vegas, Minnesota and Indiana, in no particular order. And I'm just going to throw out some quick facts on some of the other teams. The Seattle Storm had a really underwhelming performance with Gabby Williams and Ezi Magbegor shooting 2-of-18 from the field. Atlanta took a franchise record 36 3-pointers in their opener against Washington, but didn't really execute down the stretch. Clearly, they have a lot to learn and figure out, especially on the defensive end of the floor in Karl Smesko's first year. Phoenix had a great win over the Storm, but Kahleah Copper is out with a knee injury, and she's going to miss four to six weeks to start the season, so that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a team that already doesn't have a ton of depth. The Chicago Sky shot 29.1 percent from the field, 22 percent from 3, and had 17 turnovers. I get that they were playing the Fever, but it still wasn't a great performance. And with the Dallas Wings, I understand they have a lot of new players, and we're giving them time. But one of the things that stuck out to me is that there were eight times in that game, per Synergy, that they got scored off cuts. If you look at Minnesota, they were just slicing through back door, baseline cuts and slicing through the paint. So especially defensively, Dallas has a lot of room to grow. Advertisement Those were some of the teams people were really high on when they thought, 'Wow, every team is going to be so close and maybe someone can jump into that next tier.' But I came away thinking, 'Not so fast, maybe we still have a big gap between the legitimate finals contenders and everybody else.' Keita: If you're watching this on YouTube, you're seeing me wince. And if you're not watching this on YouTube, I hope you can feel me wince. Mainly because Ben just went through three teams that we all said were sleepers, and they showed up looking a little half asleep. It was a rough opening for some of these teams, and I was disappointed in Seattle because it still looks like they haven't really figured it out on defense. I was also a little disappointed in how Dominique Malonga looked because of all the expectations we had out of the No.2 overall pick. But we'll see what happens there as the season goes on. Merchant: In fairness to us, we did say that there was a big gap between tier one and tier two in the WNBA, and that gap was apparent. You're not going to pick a sleeper team from tier one, … shame on us for no one picking Washington (laughs). But when given the choice of those teams, you do what you've got to do. Half-baked is a good word for my take here. Which is I think it's low-key a good thing for Phoenix that Kahleah Copper is going to be missing the first month of the season, because they have so many new things to integrate and to do it all at once would be a little challenging. I like the way they looked where you got the Alyssa Thomas minutes, you got the Satou Sabally minutes, and each of them just got to cook. … We're really going in on those words. But I think it'll be better in the long term to get those superstars more time on the court where they get to be the lead actor versus bringing all three of them in together. Keita: OK, interesting, I was not expecting that. Ben, what do you think about Sabreena's half-baked take? Advertisement Pickman: The benefit is that it allows these role players who may not have a ton of WNBA experience to actually settle in, get more comfortable, get live game reps and adjust to the WNBA. We saw Kathryn Westbeld making her WNBA debut as a 29-year-old rookie, having never played in the WNBA before. And she scored nine points, made an early impact in the first quarter, and had five rebounds. And Lexi Held had 11 points in 22 minutes off the bench for Phoenix. So there are players who are big question marks who are forced into bigger roles and will gain valuable experience, so there's truth there. I do think it felt comfortable to watch the Phoenix Mercury without Kahleah Copper, in that it felt like we were watching Alyssa Thomas from the Connecticut Sun. Satou Sabally was also playing a little point guard, bringing the ball up the court and orchestrating the offense, and Thomas was doing the same at times when Sabally wasn't on the floor. Those players know how to play those roles, and in that way, the comfort is good. But I don't know how much that will impact the reintegration of Copper when she comes back. And when she does come back, there's still going to be a lot they have to figure out because although she's a very good player, she's a very high usage player who will have to fit in next to them. The other thing — and this is why this is a half-baked exercise — is that they played the Seattle Storm, who put up a real stinker with just 59 points. So let's wait and see a little bit on the Phoenix Mercury. I'm not ready to give a stamp of approval on my take yet, so I'm not ready to say, let's take this out of the oven, it's ready to go, on Sabreena's take either. 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