Rec’ing on…”Paul Ball”

As I write this, Phoenix has just lost their second game of the 2006 season, and I’ve got to say that my misgivings about “Paul Ball” were way too optimistic. The idea of taking rushed shots and pressing seems like a possible way to win provided you happen to make all of your shots and your opponent has an off night.

Unfortunately, in the WNBA, your opponents actually possesses team basketball skills and fundamentals. A press doesn’t rattle them. They will wait to take a good shot, and they are sufficiently conditioned that you aren’t going to tire them out. Another side effect is that in order to play run-and-gun, you have to have a smaller team. Unfortunately for Phoenix, most of their opponents in the west, and most in the east for that matter, have very fit, very strong, and very skilled post players. They will get rebounds and a surfeit of layups.

Admittedly, Phoenix has had early injuries, and is missing key players. Even so, they’ve been looking pretty bad. I think it’s the system. Looking a Paul Westhead’s record, its clear that “Paul Ball” fails more often than it succeeds. Perhaps there’s a reason for that–it’s not a good system against good teams that know what to expect. It might be best to dump Westhead early in the season and put in someone who actually knows women’s basketball and has coaching experience (i.e. stop all of this hiring NBA hacks crap).

My prediction of the Mercury just missing the playoffs might have been a little optimistic. Maybe they can pull something out (there are still 32 games left to play, after all), but at the moment, it looks like they are over-matched. I know Seth Sulka was hoping for 100-point games, but I don’t think he wanted those to come from their opponents.