Top questions Sparks must answer during the 2024 WNBA season
With Nneka Ogwumike in Seattle, who will emerge as the team’s leader on offense and defense? That’s just one question the franchise faces as it looks toward the future.
TORRANCE — The Sparks have several questions surrounding this year’s team, including who will replace Nneka Ogwumike as the team’s leading scorer, will rookie forwards Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson be a part of the organization’s long-term “core four” and will an up-tempo style of play result in the franchise’s first winning season since 2020.
“Certainly a team without a bonafide superstar so we’re going to see a lot of team basketball,” Sparks coach Curt Miller said. “We’re going to be best when we’re sharing it, unselfish, not playing through one person. I look forward to seeing who steps up. There are a lot of really good pros in our locker room that have been complementary pieces, not they have a chance to be even more prominent roles.
“I love how we’re going to be underappreciated and undervalued and I look forward to how all of that comes together, that chip on the shoulder, it’s almost an us-against-everybody mentality because we’re going to be undervalued.”
The Sparks are rebuilding around the 6-foot-4 Brink and Jackson, the No. 2 and No. 4 picks in the 2024 draft, respectively, who the team’s front office believes can be the foundational centerpieces of the team’s transition to modern basketball, where every player on the roster can shoot effectively from 3-point range and the team’s top six players could be starters on any team across the WNBA.
“Realistically, I’m a rookie so I expect to have those ups and downs but it’s all about managing it,” Jackson said after Tuesday’s practice at the team’s training facility at El Camino College. “I’m looking to have fun. I’m looking for us to win and be competitive and I’m looking for us to shock a lot of people.”
Sparks guard Lexie Brown believes the rookies can help the team push the pace.
“We want to have a lot of spacing, we want to have a lot of shooting and we want to run and Cam can do all of those things and Rickea is also coming (along) and starting to get a little bit more comfortable being more aggressive and confident in herself but at the end of the day, we just want to run,” Brown said. “We want to be a hard team to play against. We want people to pull up to L.A. and be like ugh we have to run with these girls. We want to get after it defensively as well.”
However, if the Sparks want to improve on last season’s 17-23 record, in which they missed the playoffs for the third straight season, at least one or two players on the roster must emerge as All-Star-caliber players.
This year’s starting lineup includes 2017 All-Star guard Layshia Clarendon, 2019 All-Star guard Kia Nurse and two-time All-Star Dearica Hamby, who earned those honors in 2021 and 2022, after being named the WNBA’s Sixth Woman of the Year in 2020 and 2019. Brown and Brink are also expected to be a part of the team’s first unit.
“Cam is our rookie in the lineup but the rest of us have been around the league a long time,” Nurse said. “Me and Lexie joke about it, our chemistry is probably from guarding each other all these years. … I’ve played with Layshia in New York, had that opportunity, and we’ve worked really well together and Cam fits in perfectly with us.”
For Jackson, a 6-2 small forward out of Tennessee, it will be the first time since she began playing organized basketball, she will consistently be asked to come off the bench.
“Literally, doing whatever the team needs,” Jackson explained. “If I’m playing well at that, Sixth Woman of the Year, there’s always something for something but just knowing Curt says all the time, start in the role that you have but continue to work for the role that you want.”
“Just knowing that at the end of the day, they drafted me for a reason,” Jackson continued. “They remind me that as well, we drafted you because of this, go get that bucket so that means (a lot) when they do say things like that.”
Who will be the Sparks All-Stars?
“I think Dearica (Hamby) has shown that right out the gate,” Clarendon said. “I think Lexie would have had an All-Star year last season if she didn’t get hurt. I think Nurse has the ability to be there, I think myself have the ability to be there, so I think you have those four.”
Nurse believes there will be room for several players to stand out.
“If you play in the way that we want to play, which is sharing the ball, getting out in transition, playing fast, playing tough hard-nosed basketball, it allows an opportunity for everyone to shine. Everyone shining can become multiple All-Stars, so I do think there’s an opportunity here for this team as we kind of grow,” Nurse added. “It’s not a rebuild year. I think you’re growing and I think people are talking about us a little bit lower than they should be.”
Rookie of the Year Candidate
“I think Cam (Brink) can be Rookie of the Year too,” Clarendon shared. “I keep telling them why not you, I want her to dominate down there, so I definitely think out of that starting group, you have four out of us who could easily get there. It’s how you perform the start of the season.”
Can the Sparks have a winning season?
“We’re going to have to play hard every single night,” Nurse said. “That’s the beauty of the WNBA is that on any given night, it’s anybody’s game and the more that you play hard on the defensive end, the more you’re going to give yourself an opportunity and we can knock down the 3-ball, which gives us a chance in a lot of these games but it is going to be a lot about playing hard.
“I know everyone is talking about the super teams and all these different rosters. I like our roster. I like our starting five. I like our bench unit. I like the ability for us to play with one another. Right now, you see the ball moving around a lot, flying around, the sharing of the ball, the unselfishness. That stuff is hard to defend.”
What is the Sparks’ identity on offense and defense?
“Offensively, is the big thing. I feel like the ball is not sticking right now,” Miller said. “We’re being unselfish, really sharing it. We have more shooting on this year’s roster. We don’t play through one person and so it’s been a lot of fun with the free-flowing, more five-out offense at times.
“I think we can be better in transition than we were last year. A lot of excitement at the offensive end. Defensive end we’ve got to find our identity. We lost two incredible individual defenders that anchored our defense (Nneka Ogwumike and Jordin Canada). Our defensive philosophy is really strong but we’ve got to build our new defensive identity with our length. Our length is more impressive, more shot-blocking, rim protection, so excited to see where that takes us.”
What does Year 2 look like for 2023 first-round pick Zia Cooke?
“Every year I work to be better,” said Cooke, a guard. “Year One was a teaching year, year two I’m learning but I’m getting better, by Year Four I should be the player that I want to be so it’s all about getting 1% better each and every day, taking every offseason seriously and working on the things that you need to improve on, so when you come to training camp, everybody sees the improvement.”
How will charter flights affect the WNBA?
“When we took the charter back from Edmonton (for the WNBA Canada Game on May 4) our trainer walked by and I literally was like ‘we deserve this’ and that was before I knew we were getting charters. I was like ‘this is the way we deserve to be treated’ is that energy after that game that we spend sitting in airports and trying to find food,” Clarendon explained. “We deserve to be treated like professionals and with dignity so I’m really glad the league stepped up and met the moment right now because the union has been arguing it’s a player safety issue, it’s health. Our league is growing now, so you just don’t want to wait until some kind of incident happens or so many injuries.”
ATLANTA AT SPARKS
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Where: Walter Pyramid, Long Beach State
TV: Spectrum SportsNet