Positionless basketball is forcing WNBA veterans to adapt
Being a player like Tamika Catchings isn’t enough to stand out in the WNBA anymore. Catchings, a powerful, basket-making forward, put up the world’s first-ever quintuple-double in 1997. At Tennessee, she helped the Lady Vols play an undefeated season and claim the national title as a freshman. She would go on to lead the Indiana Fever and play for Team USA, and eventually become known as one of the best WNBA players of all time.
But the WNBA now looks different from the one she joined. Players are coming into the league stronger, faster, more skilled and more versatile. And veteran players like Catchings have to adapt to keep up.
"When I was growing up, I remember everyone was put into certain positions - they were a shooting guard or a point guard...we don’t have that anymore," Catchings said. "The more versatile you are, the more opportunities you have."
Like the NBA, players in the W are evolving to a more dynamic level of play where the best of the best are no longer confined to specific roles. Rookies can dribble, block and shoot, no matter where they’re playing. Veteran players have had to adapt to this new league, relying on their experience and stay in top shape to keep up. And that sometimes means making sacrifices.
In 2001 Lauren Jackson was seen as one of a kind. 6’5" and able to score and defend, she was drafted first overall by the WNBA and chosen as a franchise player for the Storm.
Jackson was powerful and unstoppable, especially paired with current Storm star Sue Bird. But Jackson is no longer one of a kind. More and more players are coming into the WNBA already unstoppable.
Tall, fast, powerful and versatile young players like Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd and Elena Delle Donne are starting to shape the newest WNBA generation.
"They’re changing the post game," said former Phoenix Mercury forward Mistie Bass.
Players like Delle Donne, who has the skills of a guard and the defensive moves of a post player, or like Brittney Griner, who has the ball handling skills of a point guard despite being one of the league’s tallest players, look nothing like the guards of Catchings’ early years and are creating much more position movement and keeping defenses guessing.
These uber-athletic, can-play-anywhere players are much more difficult to defend, especially for older players who are used to blocking only one kind of shooter. Teams can’t rely on one style of defense to beat a team – they have to change their style based on which "weapons" from each team are playing, Bass said.
"You have an Elena Delle Donne who can do everything - she’s a matchup nightmare," said Phoenix Mercury assistant coach Julie Hairgrove. "You need a player who is athletic and can face the basket."
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This trend of athleticism can be seen in the Los Angeles Sparks’ win over the Minnesota Lynx in the 2016 finals. The Lynx, with one of the oldest rosters in the WNBA, boasts traditionally strong players like forward Seimone Augustus and center Sylvia Fowles. Augustus, drafted in 2006, and Fowles, a 2008 pick, couldn’t defend the practically-positionless play of forwards Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike. Ogwumike’s ability to shoot from anywhere and Parker’s supreme ball handling were too much for the Lynx’s back-to-the basket defense.
Post players in the WNBA are headed in the same direction as their counterparts in the NBA – rather than always playing with their backs to the basket, they’re just as comfortable hitting three-pointers and jumpers. With fours being able to shoot, coaches can space the floor out much more than they could in the past.
"You have these hybrids, when they’re on the court, half the time you don’t even know what position they’re playing," said Seattle Storm star Sue Bird.
Versatility is becoming the sought-after skill for new players, and they’re getting their start in college.
"I was just [an assistant] coach at UNC for two years," said Washington Mystics point guard Ivory Latta. "There was definitely a big emphasis on versatility - you get these combo guards, combo 4s, post players shooting three-pointers and mid-range jumpers."
Hairgrove, who has worked in the WNBA for 13 years, said she sees the league get better and better every year. With small rosters, competition for spots can be fierce.
"In WNBA, [versatile players are] also a product of literally survival of the fittest," Bird said. "With just 11 people on the roster, when it comes down to those final spots, you can’t take a specialty player."
When teams are looking to fill those bench positions, they can’t afford to go for someone who is only a backup point guard.
"You have to have somebody on the bench who is a natural 3 but can come in and run the offense, but then still can play their position too," Latta said. "You don’t want any player to just box themselves in."
With the league approaching its 21st year, the players who were rookies with the founding members are starting to retire. Longevity for the vets that remain can be boiled down to a simple recipe – health.
"WNBA teams aren’t necessarily built overnight. There’s not a lot of free agency movement," Bird said. "Minnesota is a great story, but we’re thinking of the Minnesota of now - that wasn’t the case six, seven, eight, nine years before that. Once a franchise has the right composition of player, then it becomes about one storyline - staying healthy. The teams that have the most talent and stay the most healthy are the ones that can win the championship."
Two years ago, Bird decided to stop playing overseas during the WNBA offseason, a choice that few professional women’s basketball players can afford to make. But at 33, she knew she needed to give her body time off. Now at 36 and coming off a playoff run for the Seattle Storm – the team that drafted her in the first round in 2002 – she’s gearing up for another season as a leader.
"Literally every day is just me building back to getting to that peak performance place that you need to be at," Bird said of her offseason training. "It’s everything from Pilates to spin class to still lifting, and then you start to reintroduce basketball."
Bird said her offseason training and workouts are "totally different" from what they looked like in her early years. Young players can go from the gym to practice to individual workouts everyday without worrying about their bodies, which can handle games and training year-round.
"The difference, I think, is now, from my rookie year, there is so much more knowledge, so much more to be learned" about fitness and nutrition, Bird said. "Something as simple as a protein shake after a workout, which is such a staple now – when I was in college, and in the early WNBA, that was not a part of it."
For older WNBA players, staying injury-free and healthy is key to their longevity more than any drill or practice if they want to keep up with the young talent.
"Once you hit 30 in the W, you’re getting toward a time where you better be on top of all the facets that you need," said Connecticut Suns trainer Jeremy Norman. "Strength, conditioning, preventative rehab, nutrition - all the components that when you’re younger, you don’t have to pay attention to."
For veteran players like Bird, changing and adapting is necessary in a league where the game is getting faster and players are getting better.
"There was a lot of talk that at 35 years old, she was too old to play," said Gabriella Levine, a writer who covers the WNBA. "She silenced that - she went out there and made a conscious effort to make her body and mind better and to continue playing at a very high level."
Diana Taurasi, a 2004 first-round pick, has followed a route similar to Bird’s. Another Rookie of the Year, she joined the team as a strong contributor and has consistently lead the league in points per game.
At 34, has she changed much? Not really.
"I’ve played with Diana Taurasi for three years, and she still works out like she is a rookie," said former teammate Bass.
For players like Taurasi, keeping up is all about fixing the little things -- veteran players who are still leaders on their teams and in the league can utilize their experience and knowledge and also keep improving and learning in the gym.
"As you get older, players like Diana Taurasi really take care of their bodies," Hairgrove said. "Yes, they’re training all the time, because they’re never satisfied, which is what makes them great players."
While Taurasi continues to play overseas (she skipped out on her 2015 WNBA season because her overseas team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, paid her upwards of $1 million to rest), older players like Bird who want to remain at peak performance have to make choices. For Bird, that meant resting instead of earning what could be 15 times her WNBA salary.
WNBA schedules for young players can be especially grueling. Players like Stewart, who won the NCAA tournament her senior year, or the three newly drafted South Carolina champions, Alaina Coates, Alisha Gray and Kaela Davis, could play basketball for a full 12 months with no break. After the NCAA championship ends in April, WNBA players get drafted a week later. The WNBA season kicks off in May and postseason starts in October. Rookie players who want to earn money during the offseason and gain more playing experience will likely head overseas in November, where they can make three times the amount they make in the WNBA. Most overseas championships end in April, and then it’s back to the states for training camp.
When WNBA players suit up to play overseas, they have a little more than a week after the finals before their first international game. The jumping back and forth between seasons with little to no rest can take a mental and physical toll.
"In the NBA, they have time to sit back, so by the time they start, they reset -- our players don’t have that luxury," Suns trainer Norman said. "It’s hard to manage as they get older -- they do the best they can, but we’re not gonna tell an athlete not to make money."
As players get older, it becomes more difficult to keep up with the physical demands of playing year-round. Many players end up leaving the WNBA in their early 30s. Of the six players who retired after the 2016 season, four were between 30 and 37. Former LA Sparks star DeLisha Milton-Jones retired somewhat reluctantly at age 42 after playing a record 499 games. Even though she stayed in shape and offered unmatched veteran experience, not one team gave her a call to hire her for the upcoming season. As more and more new talent seeps into the league, veterans have been forced to changing and adapt if they want to stay.
"Talent level has been a little ridiculous lately," said David Vertsberger, who covers the WNBA for Vice Sports. "The league is clearly on the way up."
The WNBA is getting better and players are developing into multi-position powerhouses. While last year’s finals suggest that this new style of play is here to stay, the league isn’t shutting out veteran players who are used to the old style. It’s just challenging them to keep up.