josiahcohen

Important stat category watch: Most Cookies Seen Being Eaten On Bench During Live WNBA Play - 1, Kate Martin, Sparks @ Sun.

Wings lead the WNBA in % of rim FG assisted at 71.95% (pbp). Sometimes it's the offball stuff. They take away the rotation help on both sides for an eventual rim FG: strongside corner lifts up, stackside flare screen draws up the other big defender, leaving no help at the rim.

Dallas Wings - "Triple" (per Jose Fernandez) Pistol w/big handoff into twirl, which Bueckers, seeing Sabally jump over the screen, flares back to the corner and winds up with a tough middie.

Looking forward to Liberty-Fire tonight (in-person!), especially how both teams manipulate the middle third. Opening set from NYL yesterday: gut/zoom with a paint seal from the screener Sabally or a flow to remove the help defense. Portland working with some similar concepts...

What's awesome about this Tempo BLOB is how Marina Mabrey executes it. Toronto spams screen-the-screener baseline, so Mercury very much have it on their scout, but Mabrey ghosts the first screen instead of setting the usual backscreen. That catches Brochant a step behind. Game.

Great coverage read from A'ja Wilson. Hillmon undercuts the screen aggressively, so Wilson cuts/powers through to the rim for an and-one. A baseline inbound play the Dream saw on film, and Hillmon executed the coverage to take away the shot, but Wilson (/LVA?) just countered to great success.

The Mercury got some good offense when Alyssa Thomas rejected the inverted ball screen, a play with which Phoenix killed Golden State last year and will run plenty of this year (especially once Sami Whitcomb is back).

Have to give Laeticia Amihere her flowers: she's been tremendous. Per pbpstats, she already has three and-ones this season, matching her seasonal career high through just two games!

Couple of clips that didn't make it: Veronica Burton getting to the rim with a pair of nifty in-and-out dribbles

Two big fourth-quarter steals from Rhyne Howard, who helps the helper into one lane and then recovers efficiently to the strongside corner for a second. She's been a top-quartile STL/40 player for her entire career, per HerHoopStats.

The Dallas Wings got a couple of good looks using Maddy Siegrist as an empty ballscreener, fading for a jumper against the ice coverage and rolling against the over for two buckets.

A couple of (the many) clips that didn't make it: The Tempo created two turnovers with Nyara Sabally blitzing the ballscreen, against both Georgia Amoore and Sonia Citron, in the fourth quarter. Veteran technique to hold the screener w/inside and attack ball w/outside hand.

Small gameplan details can make a big difference. Against the Mystics, the Liberty made a point of taking away Rori Harmon's strong right hand drive, and Pauline Astier and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton shaded and "weaked" Harmon to great defensive success. Video:

@ericapricot.bsky.social it's the good old Warriors shrug, Nakase so avant garde with the "W"

The Liberty too, by the way, running the WTF sideline out-of-bounds play, with former Warriors assistant coach Chris DeMarco now the head coach of New York.

Great stuff from Eric as always. Toronto Tempo also ran WTF, in their first, with ex-Valk involvement (Fágbénlé and Conde).

Small but interesting from the Wings: Jose Fernandez has Dallas taking jump ball violations when mismatched in the defensive jump ball circle. Has opponents taking the ball side out as opposed to the potential controlled chaos of a jump ball win situation.

Fever SLOB: Twirl 15 Chase Indiana gets early motion going into a Clark/Boston chase action for an empty ballscreen. Bueckers' leverage is already to Clark's left, Caitlin takes the handoff downhill and finds Boston on the pop vs. the forced "ice" coverage.

Indiana Fever - top lock counter. Sims top locks Kelsey Mitchell against the offball screen, so Mitchell goes shallow, creating inside leverage for an open lane to the basket and cutting into space when Boston catches (great perimeter spacing and timing).

The questions is whether she can move the needle offensively. -8.51 ORTG on/off splits last year and will need to shoot closer to her career 35% 3PT than last year's 29%. Also needs to look to score against mismatches inside and get to the line. 91% rim + 3 rate last year. That's all the Lynx want.

It is kind to vets, however, and Nia Coffey was another bright spot for the Lynx. Reeve talked about her impact on MIN's defense, and that's clear: great isolation defense at all three levels, and a high block rate + 93rd percentile def. Win Shares augurs well for Minnesota.

... but preseason is good for exposing shortcomings. She was at a strength and athleticism deficit (for now!) against seasoned pros, and defense is crueler to young players than offense.

Some good Lauren Jensen preseason minutes for the Mercury. Very energetic offensively and the kind of IQ that comes with playing a LOT of minutes in college. Very distinctive motion style, and some good connectivity at point guard...

Lauren Betts and the Mystics are going to be just fine. I like using her as a high post facilitator, which also opens up the handoff game, simplifies her rolls, and expands her role, per se. herhoopstats.substack.com/p/lauren-bet...

Also a lot to like about Sydney Taylor on the Chicago Sky. Besides a game-high 23 points vs. Atlanta, her game has a snap to it offensively—fireball pass in transition, good first step on drive—that I think gives a great change of pace to Chicago's cluttered backcourt rotation.

Good size and mobility for that size defensively, some rim protection and perimeter engagement. Can stand to communicate more defensively (eg. when wing dropping on roll) and can get too square in up-to-touch screen coverage, leading to pockets, but lot of growth potential.

Couple WNBA notes: love the Lynx add of Emma Cechova. Really good mismatch sense and execution on duck-ins and at the rim, some burst on the bounce, good awareness and execution. Minimal playmaking in Euroleague, but Minnesota won't need that with Miles & Williams.

What's interesting is how it seems intended to create te timing for Portland's own 2-for-1 instead of stealing a last-second possession a la GSV. Fire didn't show it vs. Seattle, so it could just be a test, but they did fullcourt trap and play zone on two dif EOQ possessions. Something to watch!

No surprise that the Fire, who figure to be a very aggressive defense, show a similar late pressure look against the Sparks. You can see Sarama motion for the double in the first clip and then Bühner seems to look back toward the Fire bench before double in the second clip. (3/4)

Of course, good passing teams can find the open looks from three against the double. Here, both PGs smartly dribble away from the double, creating an extra second for them to make a read and drawing the defense away from where the ball eventually winds back up, on the strong side, for three. (2/4)

Mini thread: #WNBA end-of-quarter defensive pressure. Something we saw a lot from Valkyries in 2025. "Punch" (look at Nakase's signal) can let the defense speed up the offense and can net a 2-for-1 possession, or abbreviated opponent last look (statistically valuable), at the end of quarters. (1/4)

Finally, Jackson's worst screen nav came while trying to top-lock this wide action for Johnson. Back turned leaves her not seeing the screen, she can't navigate it cleanly, and Johnson takes it strong for the and-one.

Big-time box out from Kaitlyn Chen (5'9) on Mackenzie Holmes (6'3) after a switch. You know, the little things.

Some clips that didn't make it: mentioned GS out-spacing the Storm. Look at Nakase relocate the stack-side players to better space the strongside for the drive, creating an open look from three

They had some more good stuff with a layered Spain PnR (a very Spanish one, at that) for Jocytė/Bibby as well that I liked

For the Bluesky crowd, @lucaskaplan.bsky.social posted a good coaching clinic appearance Lynne Roberts (Sparks head coach) www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U-W... Early on, she talks about the Sparks' cutting principles, so I made a quick cut with examples (one of Gabby's steals was one of these):

Gabby Williams is a 0.5 basketball player

A couple clips that didn't make it—I want GSV to steal this action. Imagine that flare for Janelle Salaün...

Ok, wrapping this one up. I'm going to break down how Galatasaray exploited and executed enough upon Schio's defense to get the win in tomorrow morning's post, but until then, some nice plays from Cecilia Zandalasini (always poised in the paint) and a nice 3 off Zoom action for Kitty Laksa.

Schio again with the sequencing: nice start-of-quarter slice to get Conde a post up and an even nicer turnaround make. Then, post touch again for Conde with a weakside pin-in screen slip. Talked more about Conde's game here: riseofthevalkyries.substack.com/p/the-on-sea...

Great chess match. Schio (ATO) goes flex (screen) reject pindown, forcing the rotation and finding the open corner three. They run it again, and watch #11 (Derin Erdogan) recognize the action & call out the reject and follow. Galatasaray executes defensively and gets a stop.

Awak Kuier attacks and finishes at the rim. Two bad closeouts. Badiane stunts at the elbow and, flipping her hips/top foot twice, loses leverage integrity. Then Shepard rotates on the backside of a trap and overruns it by a foot—nice by Kuier to get middle twice and convert.

Clever from Maria Conde/Schio. They show the Spain action early (backscreen roll, pop), and Jess Shepard gets fouled. Then, off a BLOB, they show the same action, but Conde slips the back screen. If Shepard fades wing, she might be able to hold Kuier and negate the recovery to the paint/contest.

OK then, Serena Sundell! Nail tag w/ice coverage, recovers on the blind pig handoff, uses length to get the block from behind, drives the play in transition off the rebound and kicks it to Steph Talbot for three.

Geelong (WNBL) - SLOB - Box Zipper Ricky Exit (strong) Jaz Shelley inbounds and gets an exit screen to the corner, creating a good look from three. Sequenced after wheel concepts that flow into empty pick-and-roll with Mackenzie Holmes finishing in the paint.

Finally, a nice Fener play I didn't get to dive into—all the movement and quick touches up top off the Iverson/blind pig/wide action get a corner help defender having to choose the quick slip or corner; she picks the slip, Meesseman just misses the wide open shot.

Good fastbreak looks from Venezia's Francesca Pasa—gotta like the aggressiveness to go at, and finish over, bigger defenders and make the right reads at high speed. Play-driving is such an important quality.

Murjunatu Musa had a huge and-one offensive rebound to seal the win, with a neat boxout-beating technique (that I'll maybe talk about down the line).

Couple clips: great effort from Camille Droguet to get back in transition, and good read to peel switch, in essence, to the corner, getting a steal as part of Landes' go-ahead run.

Finally, monster possession here tying it all together. Effortless pressure takes away time and space—Venezia doesn't touch the paint, because of Lacan, until 7 seconds left. Then peel switches on a dime and finishes the turnover with her length (and she's peeling again while she does it). Elite.

Look at her BLOB inbound defense—she has the presence to take away the first option, the second option, and her length further pushes a deep inbound pass. That takes time and space away from the offense, and stacking plays where you remove both things is elite defensive foundation.

Look at her sort out and direct the switches through the action and then seamlessly (again, effortless) get into the passing lane to steal a roll pass. Then, in transition, the effort to recover, the decisiveness to swing to the boundary, and the technique to swipe the entry pass.

Quick Leïla Lacan defense thread from Landes-Venezia. Her effortlessness (a useful heuristic) while guarding in isolation and executing basic, important defensive concepts (X out in the third clip) really stands out in conjunction with her length. She does the basic things AND the advanced things.

Just to close the thread, FB put the nail in the coffin with some more of the cross screen set, including a rip screen variant (Rupert missed). Meesseman got a good look off the usual and hit a few straight middies to put the game out of reach (OLY head coach Froso Drakaki was not happy).

The same roll/replace action from the first clip hits again in the halfcourt, where the help is removed as Meesseman draws a mismatch foul. Then, pindowns off the BLOB in McBride/Rupert empty PnR (luxury), Rupert touches the hi-lo—look at how high FB is to make the help-the-helper further out.

Great sequencing from FB. Went to/had a lot of success with the double cross screen action early against OLY. Meeseman hits the jumper off the screens, Gustafson takes it into the post (note the secondary zipper screen), and then she fades that same downscreen to get a wide open three.

Olympiacos shows—and Julie Allemand repeats—a double pindown call off a SLOB (a 5 out very delay); Fener's Sevgi Uzun doesn't execute Rupert's switch call, and Danielle Raber hits the three. OLY shot 47% on threes (matching Fener with 9 threes) but went just 4/4 on FTs compared to Fener's 15/19.

Fenerbahce, the Euroleague Women title favorite, is just so smooth. Doing all the small things right—everyone runs the right lane in transition (corner, corner, paint); Rupert fills fully down to the block and then lifts to take away the low help while Fener flows into empty PnR and a free layup.

Santucci's shooting mechanics and results (23.9% 3PT European comp.) leave plenty to be desired, but she had some good moments offensively, getting to the rim on and off the ball, especially against guards and wings. Also got to the line, shooting a game-high 7 free throws (6/7).

Four of those steals came from Mariella Santucci (5'8/26/Toledo '20), who flashed some good stuff defensively. 3.3 STL/40 in career European competition. Fared pretty well against Vanloo (above stepback notwithstanding) in point of attack defense.

The Mersin backcourt was Valkyrie-heavy: Tip Hayes and Julie Vanloo. Hayes, on a pitch count, flashed some explosiveness (less so when guarded by Charles), and Vanloo hit one of her patented deep threes, but Mersin shot just 22/62 (eFG - 42.7%) and turned the ball over 16 times.

One area of continued improvement for Charles is rim finishing; her 46% clip on shots within 5 feet ranked in the 10th percentile in WNBA '25, per @herhoopstats.com; she was hit or miss here. Venezia had some success on BLOBs involving rip screens and Spain actions, when Mersin wasn't in zone.

Thread: Venezia 72 - 62 Mersin (October 9) Mersin failed to score for the final 5:30 and Kaila Charles led the victors with a 15-point, 11-rebound outing. Her three-point rate jumped in 2025, which she finished with the Valkyries, and she shot 2-4 from deep here.

Also, gotta clip the Amihere threes, which go from brick to brilliant

... and here, with Cecilia Zandalasini doing C3ci things

Valkyries expansion draft Maria Conde (missed 2025 W season - Achilles) fires a beautiful no-look pass to the slip as the backend defender steps up, and then finds Jessica Shepard on the roll to kickstart another nice passing play for Schio.

Salaün hits the stepback three over Amihere recovering as the trailer in transition (after a missed layup), and Kaitlyn Chen, on the Praha bench, is pumped. The Salaün-goes-left-stepback is a pretty familiar sight.

Joctyė gets her right back, stonewalling the Salaün drive late in the shot clock... with Laeticia Amihere, switching into the low defender role, getting in on the help as well.

A little Valkyries foreign legion action: Justė Jocytė isolates against Janelle Salaün, drives and kicks, Coulibaly hits the three to open things up for Girona in #EuroLeagueWomen earlier. (Praha was not in zone to start the possession, just helped aggressively against the drive.)

The Lynx have never not been ready for GSV's end-of-quarter "punch" double-team on defense. Carrington hits a big three, her second of the game, to close out the quarter and put Minnesota up by 21.

Minnesota just demolishes Carla Leite with screens off the ball (cross-matched onto McBride, double pindown, three) and on the ball (point of attack defender, Phee screen-and-roll, bucket). Quick hook.

Remember when the Simpsons—and even Marge—sang "you don't win friends with salad?" Well, try singing "you don't play zone vs. Minny (when Phee is on the court)." Ceci tries to put out a fire but creates another fire, and Collier cashes in.

cf. @ericapricot.bsky.social "Very bad sequence there" valkyrienation.substack.com/p/playoff-ga... Lift into the needed 45 cut (extremely difficult pass to make to the wing here, kinematically speaking) is pretty tough to execute at speed

MIN runs delay twist, which I talked about at length. VB does a great job to peel off and blow up the pin-in look for Collier, but that leaves her switched onto Phee, and she goes to work on VB in the post late for a late-clock turnaround. riseofthevalkyries.substack.com/p/how-the-va...

Speaking of comms, great audio from (I assume) Kaila Charles. Good denial too from Temi but she's whistled for the foul. MIN started both halves with a cross-screen action. Sound on:

Cold, like Minnesota. Nasty strongside pindown action, McBride hits it. Ceci not top-locking off the slow cut, gets backscreened. Temi can't call it for her. Great route again and screen from Collier.

Look at the difference in thumb down action pre-switch execution between MIN and IND. Against MIN, Carleton just shuts off the drive and Smith shows help without losing position. Vs. IND, Temi wins the physical battle & then seals, and VB gets downhill leading to rotation & then rim finish.

Watch McBride off screen here: the price of vigilance is two points. Big proponent of the top-lock from Ceci (you always know your old team!) but you can see McBride's IQ as a route runner finding the space both times (that corner dex is the counter to the top-lock, if the pass can get there).

Ban the in-game coach interview, jeez. GSV hits two threes on plays started by a thumb down action. MIN isn't pre-switching. VB finds the help both times, getting McBride a step off for a Ceci three and then recalling Phee's nail stunt to find Salaün for the second.

Took some time to watch NYL-PHX OT. Two more clips of GSV attacking 15, with VB pulling vs drop and then horns vs. 12. Temi hits the middie. Hiedeman (first, Williams) very consistent with setting her leverage to the wing and forcing middle. Good old empty PnR and horns reps.

21 give flare again, just as in previous matchups, and VB sparks it. Great, luxurious screen from Temi to catch Carleton (guarding VB as discussed) more effectively than in the previous game. Also note the weakside pindown from Salaün to draw away the help.

Ok, finally getting a chance to watch GSV-MIN game one. Will try not to be too self-referential to the pre-game post in this thread, but it will sometimes be inevitable. riseofthevalkyries.substack.com/p/how-the-va... Zoom empty with Carleton—would love to shrink the floor more at the nail here.

The Valkyries are going places.

Setting that screen lets Burton go downhill and get a better angle to make that skip pass as opposed to having to throw cross-body when taking the lower screen middle.