Chicago Sky Midwinter Musings | CHGO Sky Podcast

Stephen and Chris talk offseason and overseas Sky news with guest Ian Carter-Hamilton, and delve into some WNBA news as the “warm oven” heats up on the CHGO Sky Podcast!

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#Sky #ChicagoSky #skytown

What is up up folks we are back once again like we left something it is the chg sky podcast right here on the All City Sports Network I am Chris pennet at home alongside the man the myth the legend I got to go the other way because

It’s mirrored the second coming of tiny archal our starting point guard if Odyssey ever agrees to play us in that basketball game that I just made up that we’re gonna play them in a in a fantasy basketball game contest anyway step Garner is here today with us and and

We’ll get our special guest on in just a moment Stephen what’s good with you man what’s up my guy how you feeling I’m great doing okay all things considered got my uh 1980s mustache ready to go Riz man huh yeah we’ll call it that our special guest today yall know

Him is Sky writer blog on Twitter he’s covering all things overseas Sky basketball and in the season very glad to have him on Ian Carter Hamilton in the building Ian what’s going on thank you for having me guys I’m looking forward to this it should be great to

Catch up with you guys like I said on Twitter I’ve listened to your guys show for a long time so I’m definitely happy to be chopping it up with you guys appreciate you coming on with us man it’s great to have you on let’s give respect to our producer going wild on

The dials today Mr gr BR Jr Greg BRS Jr how are wasn’t ready I didn’t know that was my to jump in ready for that now Greg thanks for coming on with us today as always thank you to Sky town for listening to the show catch us chg

Sky on YouTube at chor Sky on Twitter and chor sports for all things all City Sports Network on Twitter the X let’s jump right into it y’all it’s overseas as as I said in the uh the header the warm oven as opposed to the hot stove um and I think it works

Because a lot of scy players are cooking right now legitimately um I Ian you’ve had a lot to say about uh Dana and lie Yuri at bashus Dana Evans and lie Yi what they’ve been able to do together um since both of them came over in October

I believe it was uh I know Marina Ma and Elizabeth Williams are also in Turkey Courtney Williams just joined shanki in China and mo bur and Rebecca Gardner together in Spain seea Con in in Spain as well there’s a lot going on I let’s start with Dana and Lee what have you

Seen uh those two able what have you seen them be able to accomplish right now at Bashas yeah for sure I think as a Duo it’s been interesting to see you know we saw the pick and roll game was so important in what the sky were trying to

Do in the second half especially after emay took over he wasn’t there no secret about the importance of that and obviously Lee wasn’t a part of that but Dana was gaining that experience as a pick and rle player continuing to mature as kind of a decision maker because we

Know she can score the basketball we know she can pass the basketball but sometimes it’s that decision-making process between which one do I want to do in the given scenario and having a piece in the post like Lee to work with I think has really exposed new sides of

Her game that we didn’t always get to see because Lee is so gifted in the post as a big that’s what I’ve really seen from her is that her ability to manipulate angles and create opportunities for herself to score around the basket you know she’s got that Big Frame wide shoulders and she’s

A very strong player so if you can have a point guard who can then feed you in the post on those opportunities who can play really good entry passes which I think Dana especially the game at the weekend I was really impressed with the entry passes she provided and like that

Continued maturation of Dana as a decision maker because she has the skill set it’s just a matter of you can only gain experience by playing the game right there’s no other way to do it so continuing to get those reps with other great players around you not to say the

Sky second unit doesn’t have great players but the higher level of players you have the more options you have the more types of passes you can throw things like that Stephen I know we had a chance to talk about Dana I mean most of the season but I think that one uh Reddit

Post that we discussed on the last show that was so out of pocket really feeds into that discussion um have you had a chance to check any of the of the clips from from Turkey so far and and what does it sound like uh with that maturation that Ian mentioned that goes

Into what Dana’s involving game yeah I’ve I’ve got to catch a handful of uh not full length games per se but I’ve been able to see like a handful of her offensive possessions especially the possessions with Lee and um Dana is falling right in the alignment with what

She was mentioning to me in the exit interviews and then in their final game against the aces in terms of what her approach was going to be uh going overseas and that was being able to marry the successes that she saw in the latter half of the W season at the

Basket with efficiency from deep and being able to better marry the aggression versus U being a true point guard per se uh being able to find both ways to to play both hats over the course of a game without there being like hiccups and without the process uh

Part where she stops and she’s thinking the game through and she’s just playing off of what the defense is suggesting to her to do so she seems like she’s been um processing the game better in that respect and it just like the game she’s she’s just so much quicker than

Everybody it’s not even necessarily her processing the defense it’s more so just understanding the advantage that she is and understanding not just mentally but also based off of like her feel for the game more than anything else and I think that’s really evolving and you marry her and everything that she does downhill

With a widebody center that can do all of the things that does in terms of screening and then posting up and when Dana is able to come off and engage Le’s um Le’s check because they had to fight over the screen to kind of get behind Dana now that’s a mismatch Dana’s

Working on engaging that big Defender that’s enabling a switch now she’s been able to play in advantages off of that between her against the mismatch or Le versus the mismatch and just the marry of those two and everything that Dennis talked about is just really coming about

Together yeah I know we got got stats for both of them from uh the totality of of the games this year both uh Turkish League and the Euro Cup that second tier of um Euroleague play right now and Dana has got some interesting stats on all in

Her own she’s shooting it better from three-point range in League Play in um domestic League Play than she is from two-point range which you don’t see that often and yet it seems kind of EX almost not almost expected for Dana just because of what her dribbling ball

Handling and footwork is able the space she’s able to get on the three-point line plus I think it also speaks to the gravity of Lee and some of the other players that they have on Bashas but I want to talk about this stat with the asterisk in 17 games overseas she’s

Played 40 minutes all 40 minutes of the game does does that worry you guys at all I don’t think so I I mean it’s she I think she’s Elite physically conditioned and so for that reason it doesn’t worry me as much obviously this isn’t something you want to be doing for 10

Years of your career this is something you want to do the whole time but at this point in her career I think to be on the court as much as possible learn as much as possible and for this team lead as much as possible for bikas I don’t think it concerns me too

Much I think there’s been some blowouts proba could have come out of that they didn’t take her out of so maybe that’s where you could look to get those minutes back but I don’t think it worries me too much this early on in a career yeah for me I I wonder if that’s

Dana’s uh asking because there was a clear emphasis um pretty much the entire season that Dana had a chip on her shoulder that and it was a itch that she was scratching profusely and I’m just wondering for her P from her perspective if that’s a a thing that she took overseas with her

In terms of her approach to this season not wanting to play um like in a in a rotation per se getting as much experience and game like reps as she possibly can because like like and just said she’s well conditioned I mean I think optically that’s rather obvious

But if you need to see it look at how her pace of play doesn’t stagnate the more she plays so just kind of looking at it through that lens I’m just I honestly will on and being Dana’s choice and the team agreeing in terms of what

They need from her to win it kind of marries both of those things together and it it just works to where she’s able to play pretty much entire games like you both just said and again if you’re focused on skill development and you’re T toes down about trying to get better

Which is abundantly obvious that Dana is all you have to do is listen to one conversation with her and you receive that energy uh this fars again like I said in the opening directly in alignment with everything that she’s attempting to uh turn as far as Corners go in terms of her skill

Development so no not concerning to me sorry no no you’re right you answer the question I think 10 toes down is an important phrase uh because it’s not it’s not the same as as geared up but we can all tell that that’s what Teresa Weatherspoon is looking for from her

Players and her team after that introductory press conference you’re all in with the sky or you’re or you’re all out I think is is going to be the the mo going forward uh going to Le her play it’s I think all the more impressive because not only has

She been able to utilize her footwork her size um and her ability to keep going after the ball with the Relentless motor that is the gift of Youth but she’s added a jump shot to her repertoire she’s hit two threes a three of seven in in domestic play and we we

We can’t pull up the clips but there was a game where she scored 20 two and three qus and she had a 12-footer in that where she stepped out to the Elbow took a pass not from Dana on a drive to the basket but stepped out to the elbow and

Just calmly hit a jump shot um are fast becoming a uh a hub for information eang Lee who is covering all things in the Chinese women’s basketball league said recently that there’s a lot of interest from teams in the WNBA about acquiring lead for the upcoming season

It’s hard for us to get a gauge on on the truth of that but what do you guys think start with you Stephen that Le’s U her growth in her game both in overseas play in international World Cup play do you think that it fits with what the sky have moving forward

And just what are you seeing the growth of her play overall yeah I think if it’s not exactly or directly Lee that the sky bring back per se I think they need somebody of that same like ilk or archetype so for example I think a good comparison would

Be somebody like Kanani Brown that they could bring in a player that has that type of size to where it’s something that teams have to game plan for and past game planning and watching film it’s something that you physically and mentally have to deal with over the

Course of a game because she’s an abundant presence on the glass and just that physicality like we talked about with screening you don’t you can’t just squeeze her when she’s setting screens especially if she’s doing so with with solid angles within that you have to legitimately navigate around and all of

That is all those little things especially at the pace that a player like Dan works with generates advantages Galore for your team and then if you add to that the graceful skill that players like Lee or Kanani have inside the paint that just makes for a ton for a team to

Have to deal with and so I think I think Leah is GNA generate a lot of attention I don’t know if she comes back to the sky because that was very much a James Wade rendition type of move in terms of who brought her in and things like that

So I’m not sure if she comes back for this team and if she falls in alignment with what teaspoon has in store um nonetheless this team definitely needs a player that’s a little bit bigger than the size that the sky were playing with in their front Court last

Season yeah I I back pretty much everything Stephen said I think they’ll be looking for a center who gives them a little bit something different Right In terms of when that person comes on the court it creates that mismatch and colani brown is a perfect example of the

Type of player you know obviously in Dallas she’s kind of piggybacking on what the starters doing but for a team like the sky could do something a little bit different and I think Lee could fall into that category as well I also don’t know how the Olympics factors into at

Least her 20124 plans if that impacts what she’s going to do so that makes things even more complicated but yeah there’ll be a market for her in the WNBA if it’s not with the sky and like you said I think the three-point shooting as well like just to have that in the back

Pocket like maybe every now and then she’ll step out and hit a three like that’s a headache just for teams to deal with even if it’s a bench player so I definitely think there’s a market in the W and I think this guy could find a way

It’s just like Stephen said we don’t know exactly what they’ll want to do with that role right it’s like where does she fit in and thanks Greg for pulling those stats up that’s 61% I think is not a miss you know it’s not misleading I think sometimes overseas

Stats people dismiss them because they think because they believe the competition’s easier but Lee’s getting double and triple team and a lot of these are coming off of miss baskets and just her being able to post up down low and there there would be she wouldn’t be playing 25 minutes a night next

Year but she is able to post up get open for uh passes down to the post she runs the floor well and we alluded to it already the the connection between her and Dana is really good they look really really seamless and I think it’s interesting but because you have those

Two players available to you depending on what the prices that you could bring back and if you put them together Stephen you talk about things like this a lot those running these lineups together and shifts and how it changes the complexion of an offense and a

Defense so if you can put Dana and Lee together for 45 minutes per game you know what that does to your team’s plus minus how it affects the other team substitutions all of that it’s really interesting to think about yeah well said well said and like like

We both like I think all three of us have mentioned in our own unique ways like those type of players that are the size of Lee you have to like you’re gonna feel them you’re gonna feel them for every minute that they’re on the floor whether that be offensively with

Them screening and crashing the offensive glass or working in the post or defensively if they’re trying to get to the basket and they’re funneling players to drive directly into that and you have to deal with that size if you’re trying to get up floaters that’s probably not going going to work if

You’re trying to bang with them in a post that’s not going to work to your advantage either like obviously there’s limitations to that in terms of if you can manipulate switches but those things are a lot harder to navigate when you have Defenders the likes of Kalia copper Dana Evans Rebecca Gardner hopefully

Like that like it just it’s just a perfect type of piece to complement and even supplement some of the other things that this that the guy would want to do moving forward moving over to uh same another team in Turkey meren who have uh Marina Ma and Elizabeth

Williams there was I I want to talk about this just because it’s funny Marina May got kicked out of a game recently which I think at first glance you would kind of say oh you know that’s Marina but it was within that same time frame as there were all the official

Ejections in the NBA and uh Ian I think it was even I believe it was you who pointed this out it said he like y’all want to see a wild ejection it was it was right after um the yic one in Chicago the yic one in Chicago and then

You posted that one from Marina where she got she C of she got pushed before that and she went to kind of put a hand on and then her her Mark just like damn near went into the front row um we we we we can’t really get into whether officials are over overreaching

Their power right now because that’s a a 30 minute conversation for all three of us to go on but what’s the news on Marina and Liz yeah I I think for Marina for me what stood out is like the improvements I saw her making in Chicago as a season

Went on I think she’s continuing on with those things so like one of the things that stood out to me personally with her was as the season went on I saw her kind of disassociate her offensive and defensive performance more I felt like early in the season if she had a bad

Shooting night defensively she just wasn’t as switched on which is understandable you got a lot in your head as the game goes on but everybody on the sky k m Ray everybody talked about next play next play throughout the season that was a focus for everybody and I thought she showed tremendous

Growth in that in the WNBA season in terms of by the end of the season I felt like she could have a bad shooting night and she would still give you that because like she has the potential as a Defender nobody’s watching her saying that’s a bad Defender she can be a

Really good Defender but if you’re not engaged doesn’t matter how good you are it’s hard to perform at that top level and I think that improved in the W season and just continuing overseas like what I’m seeing is she’ll have off shooting nights and it doesn’t matter like she switched on defensively in

Passing Lanes she can be physical player defensively which I think she can be a lot more physical than other perimeter players especially overseas you have a lot of more like diminutive uh perimeter players and she’s stronger than a lot of them so she can overpower them do a lot

Of different things and I guess the same thing with her shooting I kind of felt like as well at times with the sky especially in the middle of the season I think she even spoke to this I wanted to see her just keep shooting even when she

Was missing like get to that next hot streak because she has all the ability as a shooter and maybe in like that middle stretch of the Season where she really struggled she kind of maybe doubted herself just a little bit and didn’t pull the trigger and then by the

End of the season we saw her more consistently just shoot the ball if you’re open shoot the ball you’re too good to pass these looks up we’re seeing the same thing overseas she can start the game one for six and then you look

Up at the end of the game and she has 25 points on an efficient night and you’re like that’s why you keep shooting because when you’re that skilled of a player that next hot streak is always around the corner that’s cool information how’s that Fallen to what you uh were able to

Get in your exit interview with her Stephen yeah that’s that’s some of it she talked about essentially being able to compartmentalize her game so like Ian say she’s having a bad shoo T night is that going to impact her playmaking which is as important as anything she

Brings because of the attention that she Garners and even past the attention the extra attention um and obviously the defensive side can she stay engaged for the duration of her shifts within her rotation of a game those are things that I think needless to say teaspoon is

Going to demand not just ask for but demand out of her like I don’t think there’s any way to any player under teaspoons coaching is going to get playing time consistently if you can’t put forth the same efforts on the offensive side of floor that you do on

The defensive side um and that’s just the that’s just the foundational piece that’s not even talking about the intellectual level of defense that you have to play to sustain a a spot in the rotation uh so I think Ian hit that out the ballpark in terms of speaking to

That uh but to answer your question Chris um I’ve been seeing she talked about with uh in the exit interviews about working in pick and roll and the extra attention that I just mentioned that she Garners um she talked about her Pace she talked about her decision

Making and trying to continue to evolve that process as she starts spending more time as a primary ball handler and I think I’m seeing just that from her uh she’s doing a much better job of taking those extra dribbles or being even the slightest bit more patient to allow for

Help defense as she draws two to the ball to set within where they rotating to kind of cover up for the advantage that is behind that action and past that being patient he’s also making better and more prompt decisions and who she’s getting the ball to and she’s also

Manipulating the defense with her eyes and hitting players with uh no look passes to allow for them to then attack within that advantage and it’s just those little things that Passat just passing the ball where it needs to go helping to get somebody more open and they typically would be if you just

Looked right at them and threw it right to them I think those playmaking um those playmaking uh Dynamics within her overall game are definitely evolving and I think I’ve enjoying the pace that she’s moving at in now pick and roll when she’s drawing two to the ball as

Well uh a lot of times last season she would move a little bit too slow or she would go too fast she’s found that sweet spot in between and then she’s taking good angles to stretch those Defenders out as well not just dribbling directly into them and again those are the little

Things especially when you’re a player like Marina that’s drawing this extra attention that allows you to be efficient not tur the ball all over but like I also mentioned generating good shot quality for your teammates outside of that and then the last thing with her they’ve been using her a lot as a

Screener and then flowing her into actions off ball as well so she’ll screen for any given player on her team and then she’ll come off of screens herself or just come off with staggers in different alignments as well and I think that off ball Dynamic with her in

Addition to everything she say she wants to do on the ball is equally as important because I think there were portions of the season last uh under emay where they wanted to move Mo her off the ball and allow for her to work with that gravity kind of like Ali

Quigley did for so long yes and that’s not necessarily what Marina does because she’s better with the ball than allly was with it and vice versa in terms of allly being a better off ball movement shooter than Marina nonetheless Marina has that Dynamic to her she just has to

Tap into it more and get a feel for it and I think she’s starting to ingratiate that Dynamic into her game as well it was an interesting game early in the season with those two teams being in the same league uh Bashas and Marine mercine where three Sky players are on

The floor at the same time and you really just had a lot of talent out there if you add in uh the the veteran if y’all have not seen Aaliyah yova play you need to watch her play because you’re G to be hoping and wishing that you could have like a million dollars

And say hey come over to the W right quick uh but having those four players uh playing against each other in that game back in October was really cool uh Dana put up 29 had four boards and six assists uh and four steals don’t want don’t want to forget that against four

Turnovers Lee had a good game uh 21 points seven of nine from the free throw line or free throw shooting is has been really good uh overseas and then Marina was very efficient just like you both talked about 20 points on uh 18 shots 12 of which came from three-point range and

Then had nine assists and six rebounds and then Elizabeth Williams Off the Bench had four blocks nine points you know a typical Elizabeth Williams Performance uh not going to necessarily do too much especially when you have those Shooters on your team and she’s coming off the bench which I think

Scottown isn’t necessarily expecting to see but she’s in there for defense and to make things easier on on the perimeter players so if you get a chance go back and watch that game mercine versus basik just from October 29th uh quick whip around before we pay some

Bills and you’ve talked a lot about what Robin parks and Morgan bur have been doing as well both of those players came on Morgan had some time early with the injuries uh in the sky rotation then Robin Parks really came on late and I think you made an interesting point

Recently about how she’s been used as a Defender because when we saw her play in Chicago a lot it was to have that that outside shooting presence Off the Bench but uh talk about what you’ve seen both with her offensive play and her defense yeah yeah for sure I think offensively

Uh as a three-level scorer it’s impressed me because I didn’t watch her that much last season in Italy when she was with compo baso and that was kind of where she put together the season that got her in the WNBA last year and EMR had talked about it a little bit in the

Press saying that he wanted to see her score at the other two levels more because he felt like for stretches of the Season it was just stand in the corner and shoot threes which is’s good at but he felt like there was more there that they could unlock and overseas you

See that I mean you talk about going from a team like compo baso who are further down the table in Italy to SK who are one of the best sides in Europe period that’s a huge rooll adjustment we don’t I don’t know if we have a full appreciation for that because not the

Same like the tiering in European Sports is so important for the teams so to take on a big role at a team like that is a tough tough task and to be the first second third name on The Scouting Report for the other team is a completely different game than being the eighth

Person Off the Bench or third person Off the Bench eighth player in the W and her ability to score off the dribble come off of screens and score like she has such a diverse ability to score for the basketball even if the shots aren’t falling from three she can get to the

Basket she can make things happen and that’s where I think sometimes the Box scorers don’t always tell the true story because she’s had some games where maybe the shooting numbers are kind of so so when you see the types of looks She’s creating with her ability to dribble and

Pull up it’s really impressive and then as you said as a Defender I just think like I’ll watch entire games where I’m focusing on her at the defensive end I just don’t really see mistakes I think her her attention to detail on the defensive end is really really good and

That’s what impresses me most is like there’s you’re never watching a play and it’s just she’s out of position she’s falling asleep she’s not doing what she needs to do she’s just always in the right area and then obviously you look at the physical tools she has long arm

She’s quick in transition so she can create a little bit of Havoc defensively that way as well so I’m admittedly very biased uh because Robin always interacts with everything I post on social media so I appreciate all the support she shows as we show support to her uh but

I’ve been really impressed with what she’s shown as a player averaging over a steal of game so far in Italian league play Stephen we have hadn’t really talked about Robin as much as some other names in terms of free agency and what with the sky who the sky were looking to

Really focus their attention on but based on what based on what Ian just said how do you feel like Robin fits into the team’s plans for next year Well I first of all I’ll preface by saying I’m I’m happy for the successes that Robin is sustaining over in Italy I

Think that for her just player archetype she has to be able to nail things defensively in addition to what she wants to bring to the floor on the offensive side as a wing I think the the the way that the W is trending they’re looking for kind of um a little bit

Behind in terms of where the NBA is but that that uh that need for wings and just Wings in abundance they can do multiple things on the floor can guard up can guard down can guard their matchups even more so be a um be a athlete in space in terms of Defending

As a rotation Defender and then on the offensive side being able to score at two to three levels um and be able to do so off the dribble even more so I think those things are the specifically the dribbling to navigate herself to scoring positions is going to be as important as

Anything else that she brings outside of consistency from Deep on the offensive side so seeing what she’s doing in that and then also marrying more defensive activity and a sustained manner is important um I don’t think she’s in the plans for the sky um going forward and

Not by her doing I think that’s naturally going to come because she’s going to want more minutes and more opportunity and I think that with Rebecca Gardner and me predicting and assuming that she’ll end up being back with the team uh returning from injury a lot of the minutes that Robin got

Typically would have gone to Rebecca and even on a higher volume in terms of the total of minutes eating up within the rotation so I just don’t see where the opportunity for her would be with this team but if she was to come back uh I

Didn’t think she would carve out a rle as quick she did with the Sky last season so who’s it say she gon’t do that again yeah it was really fun watching Robin Parks kind of get that love from the fans as as time went on her notching

The double digit games and just really take off in in the second half of the Season Stephen I know you got festivities that you need to get to soon um you feel like you got any time to talk about see con right quick because I know Ian’s got some exciting stuff and

Sea was on the team’s um schedule announcement very very uh very plainly on that third page so she’s definitely somebody that they’re I think putting some they’re gonna put some stock in the sea as as time moves on next year and and further on yeah I got a couple more minutes we

Good all right Ian let’s go man see con was like hot cold Fire and Ice whatever you know whatever adjective you want to use for last year but she was exciting to watch how she development yeah overseas I think the like the rate at which she’s developing especially like

Mentally reading the game really impresses me because she’s another player who’s making a jump similar to Parks from a team further down the table in Spain to one of the better teams in avenita where K played two seasons ago now when she won MVP of the Euro league

So this is a top top team like this is serious stuff and even then when she went there she was second kind of amongst The Bigs and then they have a long-term injury to the starting center and suddenly she’s thrust into this brand new role and they had played a lot

Of their offensive possessions through the post and so I kind of expected with seea coming into the lineup maybe they’ alter their offense a little bit play differently instead they just kept working the ball into the post and it was like you saw this player evolve really quickly before your eyes so with

Everything that she can do like if you look at the onoff rebounding numbers obviously it’s a small sample size last season but the onoff rebounding numbers with her on the court last year are ridiculous like I think the sky were the best rebounding team in the W with her

On the court and they’re like one of the worst with her off again small sample size so we can’t read too much into it but when you watch a rebound the ball overseas like that’s not an accident that those stats were like that because just her athletic ability is incredible

And I think what we saw last season like you said hot and cold is the perfect way to describe it she’d get an incredible block and then the next possession K would have to like shove her across the court to get her to the right area to be

Guarding the right person but I think you can see her reading the game better like the early game she was playing in the Euro league teams were targeting her clearly like with pick and roll when they could get switches or she would hedge and she would over hedge so then

The guard would just go right by her but like little things like that are getting cleaned up and clearly the veteran players on that team you can just see on the broadcast watching them talk to her it’s clearly important to them to try to help her they see she can be a piece

That can help them and I think if she can get that type of help overseas and get it in the W from Liz or k or whoever it is I think there’s a lot that sea can become as a player because the physical tools are all there and certainly I

Think her reading of the game for it to improve as much as it has so quickly has surprised me and if it can continue on that trajectory the sky’s really the limit so I feel like if the sky choose not to develop seaone I think somebody

Else in the W will and I hope that’s not the case but if that is the case so be it but I think she’s going to be a really really good player in the w i just it a lots of things would have to go wrong for her not to be a great

Player that’s the way I see it with all the potential Stephen I want to get um an idea before we we do uh Bid Farewell you for this show and uh we’re gonna talk about it more as as the offseason goes on what’s your in on Teresa weatherspoon’s plan and patience for

That kind of development of younger players because James Wade said that seea con could be one of the best players in league history and that’s why this Sky got her and with the team kind of where they finished last year with the new um ownership group with the

Plans for practice facility I think they’re in kind of a win we want to make a showing next year and sometimes that leaves those types of players not in the team’s plans so based you know just based on what we saw from sea what she’s been doing overseas and

Then um The Impressions that we’ve gotten from tpoon and Jeff Paglia what do you see her future is being with the team or elsewhere uh I think of across the entire W sea is one of the p that stands out most in terms of raw talent that

Just has to be um that just has to be brought in and kind of honed in on through obviously game reps and watching film and letting the game kind of come to her uh she has the athleticism that would make you think she was like an Olympic Athlete like

She’s she’s lean she has a wide ranging wingspan she has quick twitch she has the lateral Mobility to stick with guards she has the length to fluster bigs she can stick with any pieces in between and that that shooting guard small for realm she she has it all in terms of

Athleticism now it’s just marrying the understanding of the game and marrying a feel for the game within all of that that nley is gonna take time but I think that first of all she’s James Way’s paron gift for the sky so that’s that’s 110% that for for sure um she came out

Of the Blues signed I think she got signed after um after some injuries if I’m not mistaken yeah because it was really early in the season within that first month and a half where he brought her in and it was just kind of um spontaneous and you know her first

Couple of minutes I think she may have played against might have been maybe the aces if I’m not mistaken and she came in and she upu Tempo instantly she like Ian said she came in James Wade customary to him had her HED in immediately and she’s

Out there speeding up the clock of every guard that she’s hedging out on she’s getting back she’s causing deflections and just generally making things more positive for the sky on defense and even more so when it comes to the 50-50 balls and she was literally in everything anything that was involved where there

Was the ball was in flux she was right there next to it and um I think that’s just something that you can’t teach if if a player has that at their Foundation you can work on dribbling you can work on passing you can work on shooting what

You can work on is effort that’s should be at the foundation and just looking at that as her base in her foundation I think she fits right in alignment with with everything that tpoon would would like to have within her rotation and specifically with a coach and not just a

Coach but a coach plus Jeff being two pieces that are have a history and skill development as trainers in U multiple capacities I think she’s the type of quote unquote project that they would love to invest in uh internally and to hone in on her skills have her as a

Piece stash for the future but also able to contribute in the now based off of the things that we mentioned I like the way you term that project and investment because this is an ownership group that is typically based on in business n rollinson came up as a business person uh Michael alter

Made his money in in business a lot of the other people that joined the sky ownership group last year came up in business even Dwayne Wade has definitely developed his off-the court business practice over his career and Jeff has his own business as a basketball trainer before taking on this role as general

Manager so it’s funny because we’re talking about a team and a group that wants to increase their footprint in the city and increase their marketing and the best way to do that in sports is winning you know putting banners on the table but I think that they do have the

Patience to say okay this player could be this for us and we want to make sure that we keep that player and develop them to the best of their ability uh Greg I think that’s something that’s very not not dissimilar to the other teams in Chicago but unique in a sense

We’ve seen a lot of teams recently let go of talent before they have the chance uh the bulls the bulls had a kind of a bad track record with that right with just letting go of players before they developed going back to Jamal Crawford and then in the recent years with Tyson

Chandler yes I don’t want to think about that Rec Carter and you can keep going on and on well and now the Bears have this big decision coming up this off season with Justin Fields so you know it’s it’s always a tricky game to play when you talk about cutting bait I mean

The blls with Lori marinin same thing you know I mean um you just it’s hard it’s a it’s a tough game of H poker you got to play there and the guy I have a track record with it too they had Candace Dupri when she came in they had

Sylvia fouls who was a defensive player of the year but then wanted out Elena delaun was an MVP then wanted out so there’s definitely an emphasis I think we’re seeing we’ve seen over the past few years even before now that the sky making a commitment to these players but

It’s interesting about with the free agency decisions and with what we’re talking about and overseas how that factors into what they’re trying to build for the future uh Stephen appreciate you coming on you know you got your holiday party man we want you to enjoy yourself on a Tuesday afteron

As much as you can enjoy yourself on a Tuesday afternoon and evening um any any final thoughts before we let you go before we come back to the show in the near future um no I’m just excited to see uh what’s coming for the team as free agency uh jumps off next month

And um just seeing where those conversations go what players teaspoon has in mind in terms of who she wants to bring under her tree and even before then we’re still waiting to see how she fills out the rest of her Brain Trust in terms of coaches uh so kind of seeing

How things fall in the line from that and then how that transitions from the coaching staff being filled out to the players that they want to bring in um it’s going to be intriguing and I think there’s a lot for this team to get to obviously we’re only having a handful of

Players actually under contract that leaves it to um that leaves a lot of changes to come but I’m just I’m just really curious to seeing where that goes and um before anything else regarding the free agents and whatnot bringing back Rebecca Garner um as a player that you have essentially quote unquote first

Dibs on uh I think just having her come back and obviously she naturally fits into anything you might think that a defensive minded head coach would want um just seeing her brought back immediately um and as soon as possible and then kind of work from there it’s

Going to be fun to see um fall out from there it’s dibs man it’s the Chicago way you got to utilize it when you have a chance as always Stephen Garner we look forward to your post in the um in the NBA season on the Suns keep following

Stephen at stay true s do3 that’s stay true s do3 and Stephen always has something good cooking up in the hopper writing wise and film breakdown wise so please follow him Stephen go go get a a non-alcoholic beverage man listen this listen this work party

Is at work and then I’m going to work and cracking in right after that oh I don’t know where your imagination is but it’s definitely I’m headed to so I saw your face I was like why is this man looking so D about this bro that’s

Not right man yeah man it is what it is though we here ambition I feel you all right Stephen all right y’all peace peace we gonna pay some bills as we finish out the show so we want to take some time and thank Midtown Athletic Club based out palatin in the northwest

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Next year and listeners right now can lock in favorable rates if you join before the end of the year there’s something at Midtown athletic clubs for everybody whether you’re single whether you have kids whether you’re looking to make a lifestyle change get in the gym or whether you’re looking for holistic

Wellness because Midtown athletic clubs has a lot for everybody they have pickle ball courts that a location on Fullerton you’ve seen the tennis courts inside and outside they have high-intensity interval training within the arena samati for yoga uh boxing for everybody fights Spin and cycling classes cross

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That you’ve got Midtown can help you fulfill them so please head over to midtown.com chgo to find out more and to tour the Midtown Athletic Club nearest you again that’s in Palatine banck burn Willowbrook or the flagship location right in the middle of Chicago off of 9094 Midtown Athletic Club proud sponsor

Of chg sky and chg sports and a few things before you finish out didn’t get a chance to ask you earlier because I wanted to Jump Right In how’d you get started on this game man because you’ve talked about in your columns um and we want to make sure

That everybody checks in uh columns out on medium.com how difficult it can be to watch overseas basketball and we know the struggles about getting women’s basketball on um on TV on any kind of visual medium so how’ you get into writing about overseas ball yeah I mean

I think at the end of this Sky season for whatever reason even with the recent success like the championship in 2021 and 2022 team was very good for whatever reason this team like a lot of the players like I talked about Robin Parks you know seea con really struck a chord

With me and so thinking that you know these players are going to go and play somewhere else like we don’t really have any other opportunity like in sports where you get to see players go have a completely different role and during the offseason so knowing that they were

Going to be out there playing I was like this seems like something I would want to watch and I just got the feeling that there’s other people on social media you can see it who love the players on this team too and whether that’s people who

Are also able to watch the games find the games and want to discuss it or just people who aren’t able to watch the games that just want to keep tabs on what’s Happening I figured if I’m going to be spending the time watching these games anyways it’d be good to share this

Information because there’s other Sky fans out there there who want to follow along with it and I’ve written about sports for like as long as I can remember but never basketball specifically even though it’s pretty much always been my favorite sport just for whatever reason I hadn’t and so this

Just felt like the perfect opportunity to kind of marry something that I was already going to be spending time on with you know other people out there looking for that information so yeah I mean like you said it’s it’s not an easy task finding all the games but there

Also is you know a post that I have on if you go check out my blog the pined post has kind of information on the links I try to share the links on Twitter too so can go and watch the games too because the more the marrier

Honestly like we just want people to watch as much as possible get people more excited about the sky no doubt I mean that’s what we’ve been trying to do on the show I mean anybody I think who covers this team is always one eye on the actual information

Dissemination and one eye on spreading the word about the team it’s not marketing per se but it’s the idea of agenda setting you’re you’re telling people reading what to think about and you’re trying to get them to think more about the guy the WNBA and women’s basketball in general yeah 100%

Agreed anybody else I know we talked about the big names Dana Marina Liz Lee um and we get spent a good amount of time on Robin Parks but I know you’ve you’ve written about Morgan bur and I checked her numbers in Euroleague I think it’s been somewhat up and down

Just because of her time in the lineup depending but what have you seen from Morgan bur’s game as she develops a Jona uh both prior to a Gardener’s arrival and after yeah 100% And I think you spoke to it there the role right is what’s really I think I don’t want to

Say gotten in the way of her like fully spreading her wings but the they’re actually undergoing a coaching change right now so we’ll see who the new coach is going to be and what that means in terms of her rotational role moving forward but there’ll be games where

She’d start and play 30 minutes and then the next game she’d play like eight minutes and not because she played poorly from what I saw like she was still playing well it wasn’t like she was missing things defensively so but her ability to perform even in spite of

That I think is what really stuck out to me because realistically that’s probably going to be her role with the sky if she’s back or with any other WNBA team right is inconsistent is you know we saw her coming in that key game against the

Sparks late in the season and do a job that the sky desperately desperately needed in that particular game and she’s showing a capability to do that you in the last few games she’s played way more minutes especially since Kelsey Mitchell left the team uh even though it’s obviously not positionally equivalent

But there’s just been more minutes to go around so that has given her an opportunity to kind of boost up her numbers a little bit but I think this is one where the box scores wouldn’t really tell you the true story because in the games where she’s playing I think her

Help defense similar to this something we’ve talked about a lot with Atlanta I think during the season was her help defense at the four Morgan Burch I think it’s very similar help defense is really good and her passing Herona played Four out a lot so she’s spending a lot of

Time with the ball outside the three-point line trying to pick apart the defense with passing which you wouldn’t say as her primary skill set but like skip passing things like that showing the ability to move the ball around the perimeter and get good looks her teammates has really impressed me

And then from a shooting perspective she shot the ball so efficiently both from two and three I’m not sure her season numbers but on a game to game basis like five for seven four for six things like that so she’s never having a game where she shoots herself out of the game which

You wouldn’t expect from her but I just think the floor with her is so so high and that’s what could be exciting for her to continue with the sky next season if she does yeah that’s really um that’s good news for Morgan for sure because we

Want to see her continue her career no matter what but that efficient scoring is so there’s such a heavy emphasis on it now that not to necessarily go back to Dana but that’s what I’m looking for is like how is she scoring is she scoring efficiently um and some of those

Numbers sometimes she’s shooting nine for 21 sometimes she’s shooting five for 16 so she’s getting her points but she’s getting her points on a high volume of shots uh for Morgan I think for a player who has not necessarily garnered that cache that Dana has like Dana when she

Goes somewhere she’s gonna be high minutes or high rotation it’s important for her to have economical production where she can if she’s putting the ball up it’s going in because otherwise it’s hard for her to stick right 100 per. yeah agreed and and I think that’s that’s exactly it like like I said

Before and you kind of piggyback there if she wants to have a WNBA career longevity in the W there’s going to be nights where she plays five minutes and if she comes in and takes two shots they need her to make at least one if not both of those shots right and then

There’s going to be nights where she plays 20 minutes so she gets the chance to develop Rhythm and it’s not easy to do that like to just come in off the bent and not know when you’re going to come in when the r is inconsistent it’s

Not like you know six minutes in the game I’m always coming in there was one game I watched she played I think two minutes in the first half total and then she played 16 minutes in the second half so it’s like how do you develop Rhythm when your role is so inconsistent and

Yet she still is putting up good numbers efficient numbers so if I’m teaspoon and I’m like oh I have a player that you know maybe I can’t promise them anything but they’re still going to come in and produce that’s an asset but like might not be a paid asset like Kia copper

Right but it’s still an asset to have on your team it’s an important player to fill out your rotation anything else interesting that you’ve seen overseas uh from any other players I know we haven’t mentioned Taylor Soul yet and uh Courtney Williams it’s shanki but any other players that

You were able to to catch that either had some interesting games or had some just cool stat lines Dro I think I mean cool stat lines Atlanta Smith has put up some obviously we don’t know what her future with the sky is but anymore from a stats perspective she’s

Put up crazy numbers but Taylor I think you hit on has been like showing she didn’t really get the opportunity to play in The W last season so whatever her W future is uh overseas she’s definitely gonna have a future because all the things that made her a valuable

Player to a team that went to the final four in college she’s showing she can do all those things at the professional level in whatever capacity you know just I feel like she’s the way I would describe it is she’s like in control but also Reckless at the same time it’s like

That bull in a china shop analogy where she just causes so much Havoc her ability to get in the passing lanes and it’s like what will that translate to for the sky it’s hard to say you know is that somebody that spoon says if we can

Keep that at the back end of the rotation and kind of like saika and I think Stephen made a great point about you have a GM and a coach whose background is now in skill and Player Development is Su a player that you look

At and you say if we throw her out there for eight minutes she’s going to give us eight minutes of really really good defensive effort and we’ll figure out all the other stuff as we go maybe maybe not we’ll see and then I think courtne was the other one you mentioned I mean

In the Chinese League she’s no disrespect to anybody else but she’s by far the best player on the court every game so it just leads to a lot of shots some of which are maybe not always the best looks but you’re just trying to create offense so it’s hard to look at

The box scores and criticize it we know what Courtney has as a player she’s fantastic I think pretty much everybody would be happy if there’s a way for her to be back with this guy next year and I don’t think we’re learning a whole lot about her game at this point in her

Career from these games in China she had um evening leap posted that she had a buzzer beater to send the game into OT Y and I think it was nice a really heartwarming in a way to see that that Courtney Williams energy was not lost anywhere on that 15h hour flight uh

There was a a good article from a few years ago when uh Stephanie Dolson was still with the sky about kind of the uh the loneliness and isolation that players get uh playing in China where they typically don’t speak the language and sometimes can just go back to hotel

Room and I had that in the back of my mind when I watched that because the crowd was into it with her she was into it with the crowd like they were both hyping each other up and for that contagious Courtney Williams energy which meant so much to the sky as she

Was playing point guard last year to not be uh dis diminished in any way was really cool yeah and she wants to see others succeed right and that’s what I I love about Courtney as a player as just a person right is that like when her teammates make threes she’s celebrating

Those those threes in the same way she celebrates her made threes and she trying to put other players and that’s really her Evolution as a point guard put those other players in a position to be successful even if like I said she’s taking a lot of shots she’s also dishing

Out some really good assists or could be assists if the shots fall sometimes they don’t and that to me that’s part of what I think Courtney provides for this guy even if she is an average player which we know she’s not she’s much better than that even if she was an average player

Who she is as a person her attitude her positivity is really important for a team and I think that is one thing you definitely see in China like she wants others to do well not just herself and it would be easy to go over there collect your check for six months and

Then forget all about it but she’s trying to make a positive impact while she’s there and that’s just that that speaks to who Courtney Williams is perfectly M doubt an Carter Hamilton really happy to have you on the show man again follow Ian at skyriter blog that’s

Skyriter blog Ian let them know where to find your writings and anything else you’re doing please yeah so on there is a link on my Twitter page just the normal website link that you can check check out the blog it’s over on medium.com I believe it’s just skyriter

Blog over there as well um and then on there there’s two posts a week right now there might be more or less as the offseason goes on but I’ve been doing player reviews on every Monday so that series just wrapped up so if you want to

Go and read about any player what I saw from them this season in the W those are over there and then every Friday there’s a new post recapping everything that happens overseas trying to keep it a little bit analytical too like I said obviously you we can all see the box

Scores but sometimes the box scores don’t always tell the true story sometimes one 9 for 20 performance can be better than another 9 for2 performance so I try to dive into that a little bit like Dana’s a perfect example you you kind of talked about her just a

Little bit like this weekend’s or this uh Friday’s post I think you’ll see she shot N9 for 23 I think last weekend but watching the game I was like she’s making or taking the right types of shots even if they’re not going in because it created space on the floor

Created space for a teammates so try to highlight that stuff over there so if you’re not able to spend time watching eight games a weekend of all these different players overseas you can still kind of get an IDE of what’s going on no doubt man very excited to have you

On and very excited to keep reading about um anything going on overseas and when the season starts I know that free agency is going to be heating up as soon as the calendar turns over to 2024 for the big producer Greg brags Jr always modest never overstepping this

Has been the chg sky show not very modest Craig in the back like nah this has been the chto sky show uh we will be back soon enough get us on Twitter at chor Sky let us know which of those playback games you want to watch because we will be watching One game

From the 2021 playoffs your choice your choice of which game to watch personally I say game three of the semi-finals because that’s one of those games where one bounce really seal things and the championship that we have known and loved for two years now might not have

Happened had it not been for some very funny things in that game so we’ll post that poll you let us know which game you want to watch and we’ll watch it thank you to everybody who came in and listen regen rev out and Gary Sean Spurlock ET

Train Elliot and Taj Mahal and of course to our special guest Ian and the co-host with the most Stephen Garner I’m Chris pennet this has been the chg sky show until next time folks be good do great things and keep your head above the clouds [Applause] we all sting like the May