If you’ve noticed some additional scoring in your WNBA matchups this year, it is not your imagination.
Offense is more prevalent across the board, not only in total but in efficiency as well. And a survey of the league’s best minds, both players and coaches, offers a wide variety of causes for the jump.
There is the rules change that resets the shot clock after an offensive rebound to 14, not 24. But even that would only explain a potential increase in the total number of shots and is insufficient to explain the overall jump in pace and accuracy.
“The scoring jump can be directly attributed to the players,” Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told USA Today Sports. “They have worked tirelessly to achieve greatness in their individual games. Additionally, the WNBA’s presence for 20 years has created the evolution of the professional women’s basketball player - bigger, faster, stronger, more skilled.
“Lastly, I believe the shot clock reset rule change for 2016 has had an impact on scoring.”
The numbers are undeniable. The league’s teams averaged 75.1 points per game last season. Through Tuesday’s games, that average jumped to 82.2 points per game.
But there’s more than just extra shots at play. The league’s ORating, at an even 100.0 last season, is up to 104.6 so far this year. The league shot 42.5% from the field overall and 32.5% from three last season — those averages are up to 44.1% overall and 33.2% from three in 2016 to date. This, despite an increase in pace to 76.9 in 2016 from 74.5 in 2015.
“The biggest thing is that teams are getting out into transition a lot more this year,” reigning WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne of the Chicago Sky told USA Today Sports. “I’ve noticed, even in our scouts, where we’re discussing transition defense more than we ever have before. I think its just the speed of the game is going up.”
For her coach Pokey Chatman’s part, it’s an evolution that the fast-tracked Sky have been deploying for some time now. As much as anything, pace-wise, this is about the rest of the league catching up to Chicago.
“I think some different teams that used to play at a slower pace, they (have) made a concerted effort to play faster,” Chatman told USA Today Sports. “I think it’s a concerted effort because transition game is before teams can get their defense set, so I think people are really pushing pace a lot.”
Realistically, though, there’s something deeper in the numbers. It’s generally posited that the WNBA is getting better all the time, an article of faith both among the league’s greats of yesterday and the current crop of players.
What this offensive explosion does is put some numbers behind that assertion, one that isn’t in dispute among the league’s observers.
So while someone like the New York Liberty’s Tina Charles once stood out for her ability to finish, she now finds herself in a league where many others can keep up. Accordingly, she’s diversified her game as well, stretching out beyond the three-point line for the first time in any extended way—and becoming a more efficient offensive player in the process.
“You have players who are emerging, players who are more efficient, better at finishing around the basket,” Charles told USA Today Sports. “That’s what’s really important. For instance, you have Nneka Ogwumike, who’s been very, very efficient scoring this year.
That may be an understatement. Ogwumike’s true shooting percentage is 75.5% this season. No one in league history has cracked 70% in that statistic. And yet, Erlana Larkins of the Indiana Fever is at 70.7% in true shooting percentage so far this year as well.
Ogwumike will not take sole responsibility for the dramatic upward pressure on the league’s offensive prowess either, however. Not when there were 21 different 30-point games posted by WNBA players over the league’s first 106 contests, an all-time high for the league through that number of games.
“I attribute the scoring jump to the evolution of the game,” Ogwumike told USA Today Sports. “Most dedicated fans appreciate the women’s game for its fundamental nature. Though that serves as a foundation that speaks toward the character of our league, our league has revolutionized. This movement we’re witnessing and are now a part of celebrates a young league that fundamental playmakers and a new and gradual wave of athletic finesse.”
