Caitlin Clark & Angel Reese: WNBA Rookie Record Highlights

Last night, Kaitlyn Clark did something that's never been done before in WNBA history

It took place in the Indiana Fever's last game before the WNBA All-Star Game and the Olympics

giving them a month-long hiatus. And that special something was Kaitlyn Clark broke the WNBA

assist record with 19 assists. She also finished with 24 points, 6 boards, and went 10 for 19 from

the field and although the fever would lose 103 293 caitlin also broke another wnba record last

night scoring or assisting on 66 points for indiana surpassing a previous record by diana

tarassi from 2006 and with last night's game she also became just the ninth player overall in wnba

history with at least 400 points and 200 assists in a season becoming the first rookie to do so

and then another record was broken last night a rookie record by caitlin clark get up showed this

graphic this morning i had to share with you guys she has scored or assisted on 915 points this

season breaking the wnba rookie record set by brianna stewart keep in mind the indiana fever

still have 14 regular season games to play this season and then on the other hand you have angel

Reese, a rival of Kaitlyn Clark's since college, who broke the WNBA double-double streak with 15

straight double-doubles. The conversation between Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese has been an

ongoing one throughout the WNBA season, in a season that has experienced massive growth for

the WNBA, tripling their viewership compared to last year. And with that growth comes more eyeballs

more responsibility and more critique. So in today's video, we're going to look at the

Kaitlyn Clark-Angel Reese problem, explain both sides of it, and finally determine who I believe

is having the better rookie season to date. But before we dive deeper into all this, I have one

disclaimer that I want to make. I absolutely love the rivalry between Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese

So when you're watching this video, and if you happen to be on a particular side of this rivalry

please hear me loud and clear i am not attacking angel reese as a person i'm not attacking even her

game itself of course i think angel reese is a fantastic basketball player that shouldn't even

have to be said this is a nuanced video so please listen to it in its entirety before commenting

mad at me down below because there's a good chance i cover something that you're upset about

while you're commenting all right so with the nice pleasantries and disclaimers out of the way

It's personally, in my opinion, time that we stop pretending Angel Reese and Kaitlyn

Clark are the same level of talent as a player or that they have the same impact on the floor Number one they two completely different type of players i mean just think about it from an nba perspective and obviously there no apples to apples comparison but imagine nba fans trying to say that peak

andre drummond is better or at least on the same level as luka donjic and before angel reese fans

think that this is some type of diss andre drummond was a two-time all-star third team

all-nba player who led the league in rebounding for multiple seasons so you get the point i'm

trying to make angel reese is a fantastic player she's going to be a superstar in the wnba she is

a cultural superstar as well she's done a lot for the game of basketball but at the same time i think

it's personally unfair to her unfair to caitlin clark and unfair to basketball itself to compare

these two players so let's start off with angel reese and really breaking down everything that

she's done this season the good the bad the ugly then we'll do the same for caitlin clark afterwards

and hopefully by the end of this video you're not too mad at me if you're on the angel re side and

before anyone comments that nobody is making this an argument that's just not true espn just a week

ago updated their rookie of the year rankings putting angel reese above caitlin clark obviously

caitlin clark's the betting favorite and i think a majority of people believe caitlin clark has had

the better rookie season but there are enough people that try to argue the angel reese route

that I thought this was worth making a video about. Just four WNBA rookies until Angel Reese this season

have averaged a double-double in their rookie season, with Angel Reese being the fifth

She joins them, averaging 13.5 points per game and 12 rebounds per game

But perhaps even more impressive is her 4.8 offensive rebounds she averages per game

And this is by far her best trait as a player. She's one of the best rebounders in the WNBA

without a question the best offensive rebounder in the wnba in her rookie season she actually has

the best offensive rebound rate in the entire league and it's really not even close matter of

fact if she would have been in the wnba last year her current offensive rebounding rate would have

also led the league and when it comes to her own misses we'll get to her scoring efficiencies in a

little bit but i don't fully buy the fact that she's only a good offensive rebounder because of

her misses matter of fact steven no of sporting news actually did the math angel would still lead

the wnba in offensive rebounds even without her misses and then on the defensive side i think it's

something that's not talked enough about when she's on the court the chicago sky have a 96.7

defensive rating when she's off it jumps all the way up to 107.0 meeting the sky per average of 100

possessions give up 10.4 more points with angel reese off the court so with that being said i'm

pretty confident to say as of right now after everything good i've said about angel reese that

she is not a good offensive player of course she impacts the game on offense in other ways but when it comes to scoring her field goal percentage is a big problem especially when you take into fact that she never shoots threes She shooting just 40 from the field and if we take a look a little

deeper at the advanced stats on the WNBA.com website, we can see that 77% of her shots come

within less than 5 feet of the basket. She's shooting just 46% on those. And out of those 5

WNBA rookies to average a double-double in WNBA history, Angel Reese's field goal percentage is

by far the worst out of all of them. Matter of fact, in the entire WNBA, qualifying this with

15 minutes per game and at least 12 games played on the year, she's in just the 14th percentile

when it comes to true shooting percentage. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn Clark's true shooting

percentage puts her at 20th in the WNBA, which is good for the 76th percentile at 57.2%

And then if you think about everything a WNBA defense has to do to stop Caitlin Clark

they literally will not crash the offensive boards because she is so lethal in transition

which is why she's getting so many rebounds. She is quite literally the Indiana Fever's offense

She's completely heliocentric, very similar to Luka Doncic with the Mavericks. And it's gotten to a point where the only thing that you can hope to stop the Indiana

fever on offense is caitlin turning it over or an indiana fever role player missing an open shot

caitlin is currently averaging 17.5 points per game 8.4 assists and 5.9 rebounds 8.4 assists

leads the wnba she is also averaging 5.7 turnovers a game which will break a wnba record and that is

the biggest blemish on caitlin clark's record when comparing her to angel reese however at the end of

the day. That's not a huge problem for me when I am asking a rookie to completely run my offense

either scoring or assisting on a large majority of our plays. That's a super heavy burden to put

on a rookie, and Kaitlin Clark is handling it super well. Let's not forget, just 11 days before

she set the WNBA assist record, Kaitlin recorded the first ever triple-double for a rookie in WNBA

history defeating the first place new york liberty in the process and i think one other very

unappreciated part about caitlin clark's rookie season is that she has the highest unassisted

two-point percentage in the wnba that is absolutely absurd she generates literally

all of her own offense while generating her teammates majority of their offense as well

She also has the highest unassisted three point field goals made as well with 43.7% of her threes being unassisted

Caitlin is generating literally all of her offense Nobody is helping her out That just shows you the amount of pressure is put on her on a nightly basis on the offensive end for herself and her team again the defense is not good

the turnovers are absolutely an issue as well and although the rookie of the year odds do not show

it Kaitlyn Clark is like minus a thousand before last night minus two thousand now to win it this

discourse the entire season about Angel Reese being better than Kaitlyn Clark is just absolutely

absurd to me i mean think about it you're a wnba gm right now take the money side out of it which

player are you taking for the rest of their careers to build a franchise over a player that's

one of the best rebounders in the wnba and hopefully is going to be an elite rim protector

or a player that is literally generating all of the offense for your team and that defenses have

to completely scheme around i'm taking the latter every day of the week i can fill in role players

that can do those other things that angel reese does best you cannot replace a player that does

what caitlin clark does on the offensive end i don't even want to necessarily get into it but

i'll just mention it the angel reese chasing for that double double streak was honestly pretty

embarrassing and i know if you enjoy angel reese you're going to hear the negative things i say

about her in this video and take it as i have a bone to pick with her i absolutely don't remember

she doesn't need anybody to defend her she can take the criticism i'm happy that we're at a point

in the wnba where we can even make videos like this on youtube and like i said earlier i love

the rivalry i think the rivalry is good for the wnba i just can't believe the hoops people jump

through within their own fandom to try to say that angel race deserves rookie of the year over caitlin

clark it's ridiculous i just don't see how you get to that conclusion given everything we've seen

transpire to date throughout the wnba season now the wnba will get an entire month off which is

pretty crazy that it's split up like that you have the wnba all-star game later this week and the

olympics will take place thereafter i'll leave you guys with one crazy stat i saw the other day

kaitlyn clark herself has made up for about one third of the entire revenue in the wnba this

season which doesn't feel real but then you watch every one of the indiana fevers games and you see

the crowds that she is drawing she's truly a once in a generation type of player she's not

only been so good for women's basketball honestly she's been incredible for the game of basketball

herself but what do you think am i completely off base here is there any part of this discussion

i missed or didn't hit on i'd love to hear your feedback in the comments i'm sure that there is

comment below let me know remind you always be respectful please and let's enjoy these olympics

as they unfold we have just a week and a half until they start thank you guys so much and as

As always, we'll see you on the hardwood