Caitlin Clark & Angel Reese: WNBA Rookie Record Highlights
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Apr 8, 2025
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0:00
Last night, Kaitlyn Clark did something that's never been done before in WNBA history
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It took place in the Indiana Fever's last game before the WNBA All-Star Game and the Olympics
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giving them a month-long hiatus. And that special something was Kaitlyn Clark broke the WNBA
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assist record with 19 assists. She also finished with 24 points, 6 boards, and went 10 for 19 from
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the field and although the fever would lose 103 293 caitlin also broke another wnba record last
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night scoring or assisting on 66 points for indiana surpassing a previous record by diana
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tarassi from 2006 and with last night's game she also became just the ninth player overall in wnba
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history with at least 400 points and 200 assists in a season becoming the first rookie to do so
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and then another record was broken last night a rookie record by caitlin clark get up showed this
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graphic this morning i had to share with you guys she has scored or assisted on 915 points this
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season breaking the wnba rookie record set by brianna stewart keep in mind the indiana fever
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still have 14 regular season games to play this season and then on the other hand you have angel
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Reese, a rival of Kaitlyn Clark's since college, who broke the WNBA double-double streak with 15
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straight double-doubles. The conversation between Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese has been an
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ongoing one throughout the WNBA season, in a season that has experienced massive growth for
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the WNBA, tripling their viewership compared to last year. And with that growth comes more eyeballs
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more responsibility and more critique. So in today's video, we're going to look at the
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Kaitlyn Clark-Angel Reese problem, explain both sides of it, and finally determine who I believe
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is having the better rookie season to date. But before we dive deeper into all this, I have one
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disclaimer that I want to make. I absolutely love the rivalry between Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese
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So when you're watching this video, and if you happen to be on a particular side of this rivalry
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please hear me loud and clear i am not attacking angel reese as a person i'm not attacking even her
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game itself of course i think angel reese is a fantastic basketball player that shouldn't even
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have to be said this is a nuanced video so please listen to it in its entirety before commenting
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mad at me down below because there's a good chance i cover something that you're upset about
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while you're commenting all right so with the nice pleasantries and disclaimers out of the way
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It's personally, in my opinion, time that we stop pretending Angel Reese and Kaitlyn
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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
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andre drummond is better or at least on the same level as luka donjic and before angel reese fans
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think that this is some type of diss andre drummond was a two-time all-star third team
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all-nba player who led the league in rebounding for multiple seasons so you get the point i'm
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trying to make angel reese is a fantastic player she's going to be a superstar in the wnba she is
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a cultural superstar as well she's done a lot for the game of basketball but at the same time i think
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it's personally unfair to her unfair to caitlin clark and unfair to basketball itself to compare
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these two players so let's start off with angel reese and really breaking down everything that
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she's done this season the good the bad the ugly then we'll do the same for caitlin clark afterwards
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and hopefully by the end of this video you're not too mad at me if you're on the angel re side and
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before anyone comments that nobody is making this an argument that's just not true espn just a week
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ago updated their rookie of the year rankings putting angel reese above caitlin clark obviously
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caitlin clark's the betting favorite and i think a majority of people believe caitlin clark has had
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the better rookie season but there are enough people that try to argue the angel reese route
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that I thought this was worth making a video about. Just four WNBA rookies until Angel Reese this season
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have averaged a double-double in their rookie season, with Angel Reese being the fifth
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She joins them, averaging 13.5 points per game and 12 rebounds per game
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But perhaps even more impressive is her 4.8 offensive rebounds she averages per game
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And this is by far her best trait as a player. She's one of the best rebounders in the WNBA
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without a question the best offensive rebounder in the wnba in her rookie season she actually has
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the best offensive rebound rate in the entire league and it's really not even close matter of
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fact if she would have been in the wnba last year her current offensive rebounding rate would have
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also led the league and when it comes to her own misses we'll get to her scoring efficiencies in a
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little bit but i don't fully buy the fact that she's only a good offensive rebounder because of
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her misses matter of fact steven no of sporting news actually did the math angel would still lead
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the wnba in offensive rebounds even without her misses and then on the defensive side i think it's
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something that's not talked enough about when she's on the court the chicago sky have a 96.7
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defensive rating when she's off it jumps all the way up to 107.0 meeting the sky per average of 100
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possessions give up 10.4 more points with angel reese off the court so with that being said i'm
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pretty confident to say as of right now after everything good i've said about angel reese that
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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
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deeper at the advanced stats on the WNBA.com website, we can see that 77% of her shots come
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within less than 5 feet of the basket. She's shooting just 46% on those. And out of those 5
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WNBA rookies to average a double-double in WNBA history, Angel Reese's field goal percentage is
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by far the worst out of all of them. Matter of fact, in the entire WNBA, qualifying this with
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15 minutes per game and at least 12 games played on the year, she's in just the 14th percentile
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when it comes to true shooting percentage. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn Clark's true shooting
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percentage puts her at 20th in the WNBA, which is good for the 76th percentile at 57.2%
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And then if you think about everything a WNBA defense has to do to stop Caitlin Clark
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they literally will not crash the offensive boards because she is so lethal in transition
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which is why she's getting so many rebounds. She is quite literally the Indiana Fever's offense
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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
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fever on offense is caitlin turning it over or an indiana fever role player missing an open shot
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caitlin is currently averaging 17.5 points per game 8.4 assists and 5.9 rebounds 8.4 assists
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leads the wnba she is also averaging 5.7 turnovers a game which will break a wnba record and that is
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the biggest blemish on caitlin clark's record when comparing her to angel reese however at the end of
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the day. That's not a huge problem for me when I am asking a rookie to completely run my offense
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either scoring or assisting on a large majority of our plays. That's a super heavy burden to put
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on a rookie, and Kaitlin Clark is handling it super well. Let's not forget, just 11 days before
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she set the WNBA assist record, Kaitlin recorded the first ever triple-double for a rookie in WNBA
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history defeating the first place new york liberty in the process and i think one other very
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unappreciated part about caitlin clark's rookie season is that she has the highest unassisted
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two-point percentage in the wnba that is absolutely absurd she generates literally
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all of her own offense while generating her teammates majority of their offense as well
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She also has the highest unassisted three point field goals made as well with 43.7% of her threes being unassisted
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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
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the turnovers are absolutely an issue as well and although the rookie of the year odds do not show
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it Kaitlyn Clark is like minus a thousand before last night minus two thousand now to win it this
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discourse the entire season about Angel Reese being better than Kaitlyn Clark is just absolutely
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absurd to me i mean think about it you're a wnba gm right now take the money side out of it which
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player are you taking for the rest of their careers to build a franchise over a player that's
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one of the best rebounders in the wnba and hopefully is going to be an elite rim protector
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or a player that is literally generating all of the offense for your team and that defenses have
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to completely scheme around i'm taking the latter every day of the week i can fill in role players
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that can do those other things that angel reese does best you cannot replace a player that does
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what caitlin clark does on the offensive end i don't even want to necessarily get into it but
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i'll just mention it the angel reese chasing for that double double streak was honestly pretty
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embarrassing and i know if you enjoy angel reese you're going to hear the negative things i say
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about her in this video and take it as i have a bone to pick with her i absolutely don't remember
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she doesn't need anybody to defend her she can take the criticism i'm happy that we're at a point
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in the wnba where we can even make videos like this on youtube and like i said earlier i love
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the rivalry i think the rivalry is good for the wnba i just can't believe the hoops people jump
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through within their own fandom to try to say that angel race deserves rookie of the year over caitlin
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clark it's ridiculous i just don't see how you get to that conclusion given everything we've seen
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transpire to date throughout the wnba season now the wnba will get an entire month off which is
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pretty crazy that it's split up like that you have the wnba all-star game later this week and the
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olympics will take place thereafter i'll leave you guys with one crazy stat i saw the other day
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kaitlyn clark herself has made up for about one third of the entire revenue in the wnba this
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season which doesn't feel real but then you watch every one of the indiana fevers games and you see
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the crowds that she is drawing she's truly a once in a generation type of player she's not
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only been so good for women's basketball honestly she's been incredible for the game of basketball
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herself but what do you think am i completely off base here is there any part of this discussion
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i missed or didn't hit on i'd love to hear your feedback in the comments i'm sure that there is
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comment below let me know remind you always be respectful please and let's enjoy these olympics
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as they unfold we have just a week and a half until they start thank you guys so much and as
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As always, we'll see you on the hardwood
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