Sloot is the New Chicago Sky All-Time Scoring Leader

[seacatfan]

To make it to #1 (Sue Bird), Courtney would have to play 4-5 years after Sue retires, which could happen after this years season as Bird just turned 40.

ZagDad

You'd think Bird has to retire sooner than later. But she's showing no signs of slowing down, looks great so far this year. After missing 3/4 of the previous 2 seasons, she appears to be completely healthy this year and not showing her age at all. Putting up good assists numbers, Sloot is gaining on her but slowly. There is nothing about the way she talks, or plays, or acts, that gives the slightest indication Bird intends this to be her swan song.



And this has nothing to do with anything but I gotta give a shout out to probably my all time favorite player, Kelsey Plum. Her pro career has been fairly up and down, but she went off tonight and looked pretty much like the player she was in college. Career high 32 points, 11-16 shooting, just missed setting a WNBA record for most points in a game for a bench player. And the best part was she couldn't stop smiling. She's admitted there have been times she's lost her joy for playing the game as a pro, but certainly appears to have it back again now.

[ZagDad84]

You'd think Bird has to retire sooner than later. But she's showing no signs of slowing down, looks great so far this year. After missing 3/4 of the previous 2 seasons, she appears to be completely healthy this year and not showing her age at all. Putting up good assists numbers, Sloot is gaining on her but slowly. There is nothing about the way she talks, or plays, or acts, that gives the slightest indication Bird intends this to be her swan song.



And this has nothing to do with anything but I gotta give a shout out to probably my all time favorite player, Kelsey Plum. Her pro career has been fairly up and down, but she went off tonight and looked pretty much like the player she was in college. Career high 32 points, 11-16 shooting, just missed setting a WNBA record for most points in a game for a bench player. And the best part was she couldn't stop smiling. She's admitted there have been times she's lost her joy for playing the game as a pro, but certainly appears to have it back again now.

I have heard, in some of her interviews prior to the start of the season, that Sue wanted to make it through to the Olympics and then see how it all works out. Playing pain free, playing well and playing for one of, if not the best, team in the WNBA would not be hard to see her continue on to next season and beyond. Sloot is currently just under a 1,000 assists behind Bird and is catching her at a rate of 70-100 per year. Sloot is averaging 250-300 assists per year over the last 5 years (including this one), hence the 4-5 years need to catch Bird after she retires. Sloot is currently 32 years old, so while I can see CV playing another 4-5 years (as long as she remains healthy), I would not count on her playing much more than that.

Yes, Kelsey look really good tonight, considering that she did not start the game and still played more than 30 minutes. If she plays as well as she did tonight, she will be back in the starting line-up shortly. Perhaps the best thing, as you said, was she was smiling and playing with confidence.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Sloot is getting warmed up. Another double-double, 11 pts/10 assists. Another win for they Sky. 4 in a row? They trailed the entire first half, surged ahead by 13 late in Q4, then saw the lead get sliced down to 6 in the final minute. At least they didn't figure out a way to blow it this time.

[ZagDad84]

Good and Bad for the Sky Last Night:

Good - Beat the 2nd (now 3rd) best team in the WNBA.
Bad - Had their lunch handed to them by the Sun bigs.
Good - Chicago only had 12 turnovers. Much easier to win when you don't turn the ball over 20+ times
Bad - Chicago only shot 21+% from 3. Won't go to far if you can't shoot better from long range.
Good - Everybody is healthy, at least for now.

What was interesting is that with Candace Parker (6'4"), Ruthy Hebard (6'4"), Astou Ndour-Fall (6'5"), Stefanie Dolson (6'5"), & Azurá Stevens (6'6") on the roster, who did the Sky elect to take the opening tip? Yep, Stephanie Dolson, probably the least athletic of the Sky bigs. I bet that Diamond DeShields (6'1") could out-jump Dolson.

Another interesting tidbit. Katie Lou Samuelson who was drafted by Chicago out of Connecticut and never fit in was traded to Dallas and showed absolutely nothing for the Wings is now starting for the Seattle Storm, the best team in the league. Hmmmmmm.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Connecticut was even missing one of the leading POY candidates in Jonquel Jones. If the Sun bigs dominated the Sky without her, that's a really, really bad sign.

Yeah, about KLS. She is starting. She's been up and down this year, there have been some good signs at least. But she's averaging 6.8 ppg as a starter, that's nothing to write home about. And a supposed 3 point specialist is hitting 36%, not exactly great. She's not making anybody forget Alysha Clark. If she wasn't starting, Stephanie Talbot would be. SOMEBODY has to be the starting 3. I can't believe KLS is all they managed to get in a trade for the #1 draft pick, even though that pick isn't doing much so far. She appears to be one of those UConn players that was definitely much better in college than as a pro, I don't see her ever being anything other than a role player.

[seacatfan]

Sky vs. Sun is on CBS right now. I turned the game on just at halftime. Chicago used a big 2nd quarter (+15) to take the lead going into the break. My jinx was in full effect. Connecticut started Q3 on a 10-0 run and the Sky looked awful. I turned it off and they recovered. It's amazing how often I can do that.

Sloot doing Sloot things. 13 pts/8 assists (and no TOs!) nearing end of Q3.

[seacatfan]

Not watching the game worked like a charm. Sky win by 10. 18 pts/11 assists for Sloot.

5 straight wins for Chicago. Probably all credit will be given to Parker, but I think getting Quigley back has been at least as important. Candace scored 3 points today.

[ZagDad84]

Not watching the game worked like a charm. Sky win by 10. 18 pts/11 assists for Sloot.

5 straight wins for Chicago. Probably all credit will be given to Parker, but I think getting Quigley back has been at least as important. Candace scored 3 points today.

Yup, good game from Sloot. To further her stat line, 18 pts on 6-10 shooting overall, 2-2 from 3 and 4-4 from the charity stripe. Her 11 assists came with only 1 turnover and 5 rebounds and a steal.

Stat of the game, Sloot added to her WNBA record for double-doubles (points & assists) up to 43.

Great team win. Everybody who played not named Parker or Cooper shot essentially 50% or better. Sloot led the team with 18 points on 60% shooting. Don't discount Ruthy Hebard who is one of the most efficient scorers in the WNBA & today gathered 13 points on 6-7 shooting overall and 1-1 from the charity stripe to go with 4 steals.

Once again, Sky got manhandled in the paint with the Suns Brionna Jones (C), Kaila Charles (SF) and DeWanna Bonner (PF) who gathered 49 points and 20 rebounds compared to the Sky's starting bigs, DeSheilds (SF), Parker (PF) and Dolson (C) with 17 points and 15 rebounds.

The Sky better keep shooting well because they can't stop anybody inside.

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Is Ndour injured? I'm not convinced that the Parker/Dolson duo is any more effective than Ndour and Hebard, who were starting in their absence.

Even Stevens, who hasn't been particularly good, chipped in 11 off the bench today.

[Spike#1]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/courtne...202400064.html

[ZagDad84]

Thanks Spike,

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Sky continue their hot streak. So lopsided against the Liberty, several of the starters got to rest the entire 4th quarter. Sloot had a double double before the end of Q3. She's only played 23 minutes. Big game for Parker as well, also a double double in limited minutes.

[ZagDad84]

Sky won their 7th in a row today 91-68 over the NY Liberty. None of the starters for the Sky played much over 27 minutes and most played less than 23 minutes.

Sloot just missed a double-double today with 13 points (55.6% overall, 50% from 3 and 100% from the charity stripe), 9 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals with only 1 turnover on the debit side of the ledger.

Sky now in 4th place behind the Storm (3.5 games), Aces (2.5 games) and Sun (1 game).

Next up is the Connecticut Sun on Sunday.

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

Voting is out for the WNBA All-Star team.

If you want Sloot to be selected for the team, you can vote for her here: https://www.wnba.com/players/

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

Sloot named Eastern Conference Player of the Week (last week).

The Sky went 3-0 during the week and CV averaged 13.3 ppg, 11.3 apg and 3.0 spg.

Link: https://www.wnba.com/news/courtney-v...ayers-of-week/

Congratulations Courtney,

ZagDad