Josiah Cohen

Nobody cares about preseason results, because when you lose, it’s just preseason, and when you win, it’s a complete and utter vindication of everything you’ve been working on and you’re going undefeated. Actually, it’s still just preseason, and the results deserve little attention, as any coach will tell you in their post-game media availability. 

Head coach Natalie Nakase had a lot of interesting things to say in her post-game press conference after the first preseason win in Valkyries history (go watch: the repartee is amusing). She stressed connectivity, camaraderie, and attention to detail, and it’s the latter—especially offensive attention to detail—that caught my eye in the Valks’ second-half comeback in Phoenix.

Let’s dive in.

Threes, threes, and more threes

I talked in the first preseason recap about the Valkyries’ three-point shooting. Well, to no one’s surprise, they did even more of it in game two, taking 43 three-pointers in their 72 field goal attempts. That, as far as I can easily check the data from, is a modern record.

We previously focused on the bigs spacing the floor. That persisted, but this game was all about the guards: Migna Touré went a team-best 4/9 from deep, Veronica Burton and Tiffany Hayes both took seven threes, and Kayla Thornton added six attempts.

Here’s the highlight of the game. Temi Fagbénlé, who will surely continue starting in the regular season, gets a steal in the post defensively and then stops up top for, eventually, a confident three (of her four shots, three were from deep).

Look at the contrasting spacing in that clip. Phoenix’s ball reversal gets Burton (helping up top) behind the play and Sevgi Uzun a step on her, but Thomas, posting up, cramps the spacing, and Fagbénlé’s quick hands win the battle for the tight entry pass.

Offensively, the Valks flow into another empty ball screen (“empty” here means that the strongside, where the ball is, has no one in the corner). They did this a lot in game 1, as I noted, but it was extremely pronounced in game two. Phoenix shows the same nail help (“nail” is the middle of the free throw line, where Thomas positions herself) that landed Burton a step behind the drive in the Valks’ defensive sequence. Here, however, Fagbénlé is spaced beyond the arc and hits the three. (There’s more to unpack, like the screen flipping to counter Phoenix’s intended icing—pushing wing—of the action, but we’ll put that aside for now.)

Offensive details

The Valkyries are hammering empty ballscreens for two reasons. They’re easy to execute conceptually and they enable the Valks to play the kind of space-heavy, drive-and-kick, extra-pass game that will likely be the bread and butter of the offense.

Same look here. Burton blows by her defender, Phoenix has a help miscommunication, and Burton makes the read to the wing which turns into an extra pass and a corner three for Thornton. Hayes, top of the arc, is so spaced so far out here, and it wasn’t the only time, which makes me wonder if GSV is really being careful about opening the passing lane to the wing.

Another empty ballscreen, this time with a downscreen from Touré to kick things off. This was Bibby’s first offensive play of the game, so I think this was designed to get her a look. The advantage of the downscreen is that it makes the recovering defender (here #24, Kathryn Westbeld) more frantic and gives her less time to be detail-oriented in guarding the action. There’s less time to talk and think, so when Bibby ghosts the screen (doesn’t really set a screen but rather runs or fades off), she gets a wide open look, and there’s no corner available to help because the Valks ran an empty-side action.

Putting it all together

The saying goes that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. In basketball, success is when preparation meets execution.

Because the bigs have such strong spacing orientation, and because the offense is particular about maximizing that spacing, GSV gets good, frequent looks from three. Let’s take Kyara Linskens as an example of how the implementation matches the actualization.

First clip: another empty pick and roll. Westbeld, the low defender, helps on the drive. But look at Linskens, Westbeld’s responsibility, shake up to the top of the arc. That creates defensive confusion: Westbeld tries to switch it, Uzun tries not to and then can’t find her new assignment quickly enough when Celeste Taylor, #12, switches onto Linskens from Leite. The result: Leite nails a wide open three.

Second clip: hey, it’s an empty pick and roll. Here, just a simple big/small exchange on the weakside creates the wide open look. Mack, whose responsibility is Linskens, is the low defender, so she helps on the drive. But McConnell, #16, wants Mack to take Linskens going up to the wing in an exchange with Vanloo. Look at Leite, top of the arc, space it super far out just like Hayes above. Like the Burton clip above, the drive-and-kick is wide open, and Linskens gets a wide open look from three.

Let’s close with the Touré dagger. It’s not an empty ballscreen this time, but Cunane pops to the top after setting the run-up screen. The corner respects it and steps up, but Vanloo makes the skip pass to the corner herself and Touré drills it for the winner.

Shoutout to Julie Vanloo for throwing some absolute gas on drive-and-kicks to the opposite corner (and also for boxing out much better in game 2—I just know that was a player development clip).

The Valkyries are going to have to rely on their offensive philosophy and execution coming together to overcome their lack of a star bucket-creator. Seeing the Xs and Os start to appear on court this early is a great sign.

Extra notes

GSV has to do a better job getting back in transition, and then hyper switching in the halfcourt, if they’re going to crash the offensive glass with three or four people… Veronica Burton is struggling with entry passes inexplicably, nothing a little gym work won’t fix… going to be a very difficult roster decision, and prospective rotation pieces Cecilia Zandalasini and Steph Talbot haven’t even played yet… preseason reps against the backup twos and threes can be deceptive… don’t let Carla Leite go right!