San Antonio Stars guard Kelsey Plum is in the midst of an unfortunate rookie season, but her play of late shows there is still time to turn it around. The Stars selected Plum No. 1 overall in the 2017 WNBA draft, but have rarely given the 22-year-old guard enough minutes to showcase her skills this season.
The San Antonio Stars need to let Kelsey Plum live
Plum hasn’t received a lot of playing time this season, but the Stars are 5-0 when she plays at least 30 minutes.
That wasn’t the case in San Antonio’s 87-80 win against the Seattle Storm on Aug. 5. Plum played for a season-high 40 minutes and poured in a team-high 23 points, while shooting over 60 percent from deep. She is a pure markswoman from beyond the arc and seems to be finding her rhythm in the league. San Antonio is at the bottom of the WNBA standings at 6-21, so anything the Stars can get from Plum would be a welcome change.
Although Plum has been receiving more playing time as of late, which is paying off for the Stars, that hasn’t been the case all season.
Many are wondering why the Stars wouldn’t showcase their prized rookie:
She averaged 14 points, 5.6 assists, and connected on 53 percent of her three-point shots over the course of those five games. The Stars are currently on a three-game winning streak, and while they won’t make the postseason this year, this is evidence that letting Plum develop could have a great payoff for San Antonio in the future.
Why haven’t the Stars been playing Plum like this all season?
Plum did sprain her ankle in the preseason but has since recovered, so the Stars cannot use that injury to explain her lack of minutes this season. She’s also a rookie who will have the same growing pains of any other rookie. But young players need time to develop, and she can only do that by being on the court.
The problem in San Antonio is that the team already highly values the two guards it has in the starting rotation: Moriah Jefferson and Kayla McBride. San Antonio envisioned a three-guard lineup when it drafted Plum, but her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, wasn’t sure if first-year head coach Vickie Johnson agreed to that.
When San Antonio used its No. 1 overall pick on Plum, Colas questioned the team’s decision to change Plum’s position, according to Howard Megdal of summitthoops.com:
“San Antonio is saying they took her and plan to play all three together,” Colas told the Summitt. “You have established assets who have played well, so why are you taking the number one pick to play out of position? In what sport does that happen? It’s entirely unprecedented. You don’t take Kyrie Irving, John Wall, Sue Bird or Derrick Rose to play the two. This is a woman who has twice been selected for USA Basketball as a point guard and broke the NCAA scoring record as a 1 — and you’re going to ask her to essentially change positions?”
Megdal also reported that Johnson was reluctant about signing Plum before the draft. Johnson called Plum, McBride, and Jefferson the team’s three marquee players:
“Just imagine Kayla pushing the ball,” Johnson said with evident relish, “and you have Plum and MJ running the wing. And then you have Plum and Kayla on the wing: great shooters! Or you have Plum pushing it, and then Kayla and MJ on the wing. Great things. I see great things.”
While this vision sounded great in theory, Johnson has yet to make it a reality. In the first 14 games of the season, Johnson struggled with inserting all three players on the court at once. The Stars continuously decided to not make general manager Ruth Riley and Johnson available to field questions concerning the matter. Instead, the organization released an email statement from Johnson:
“We realize that it has been a challenging season,” Johnson said in the statement. “We have overcome a lot of injuries early on. We are working out different lineups and although we haven’t played Plum, MJ and McBride together a lot these first 14 games, we still believe there is great potential for them in the future. We are a young team and we’re trying to figure out how we can grow together and be productive together.”
This has been an up-and-down season for Plum, but she still has a chance to steal the Rookie of the Year award at the end of the season, according to Megdal. She currently is stepping in for Jefferson, who is dealing with a knee injury.
If Plum continues to play at this level and lead her team to victories, she could easily take home the award. As for next season and beyond, the Stars have to figure out a plan where Jefferson, Plum, and McBride can coexist on the court. If not, some roster changes will need to be made to get Plum the minutes she deserves.
The season is winding down for San Antonio, and it would be wise to let Plum finish her rookie campaign by allowing her to start for the rest of the season. While that seems like a smart move, the Stars haven’t exactly treated Plum correctly since they drafted her.
