Caitlin Clark’s ‘remarkable’ growth five games into WNBA career: ESPN’s Andraya Carter

WNBA

By Ryan Glasspiegel

The Indiana Fever started 0-5 in Caitlin Clark’s rookie year, but ESPN analyst Andraya Carter isn’t sounding the alarm.

Carter spoke to The Post in a phone interview Thursday about Clark’s trajectory in the WNBA — what went well and what could be improved — and whether opponents set her apart with added physicality in due to the attention she received upon entering the league.

“I think Caitlin is doing a phenomenal job. She came into the league with so much pressure – like literal pressure from the defense, dedicated to stopping her – and eyes on her,” Carter began.

“In every game except the first, she had at least five assists, so I was really impressed with her ability to find her teammates. His ability to read the defense and place the ball where it needs to be will only improve.

The Fever lost their season opener to the Sun in a 92-71 defeat, but were there until the final minute earlier this week in an 88-84 final.

“Obviously the turnovers are alarming early on when you look at the numbers, but the improvement she made from the first time against the Connecticut Sun to the rematch was remarkable,” Carter said.

“She faced one of the best defenses – if not the best defense – in the WNBA in two of her first four games. This is a very difficult sample to judge because four of his first five games came against the Sun and Liberty, two of the league’s best franchises.

Clark is averaging 17.8 points, 5.8 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game.

Carter said she “hangs my hat” on Clark’s “improvement, her connection with her teammates, her ability to get back up when she gets knocked down and her ability to literally get back on the court when she was injured and rolled her ankle against the ground. Sun.”

“Her resilience and her fight and her competitive spirit – she’s out there and she wants to win,” Carter said.

“She could easily come in with the attitude of, ‘No one expects us to win, we’re not that talented a team from top to bottom, we’re building for the future,’ but it seems like She wants to win.” right away. She’s frustrated that it’s not happening and that’s okay. This competitive spirit is what will lead to the success of this team.

Carter, 30, played at Tennessee from 2013 to 2015, but was forced to retire from basketball due to injuries.

She’s enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent years at ESPN, and this past March, she won acclaim as an analyst on the network’s in-studio coverage of the women’s NCAA tournament.

When Clark’s frustrations boiled over in Monday’s close loss to the Sun, she was assessed a technical foul for lashing out at the officials.

This in itself was not a concern for Carter.

“It happens to a lot of players. Players commit technical fouls in the heat of the moment. I wouldn’t even call it a rookie mistake. It is a mistake Veterans do,” Carter said.

“For me, I think her resilience and her improvement when she sees a team a second time, her fight and the way her teammates rally around her – Caitlin will continue to build on all of those things.”

As far as the relentlessness Clark receives from opposing defenses, there have been times where she’s been plowed through screens.

Carter believed Clark’s opponents weren’t picking her to hit, but that was the reality of ultra-physical play in the WNBA.

“I think it’s just the WNBA, to be honest,” Carter said, noting that recent Sparks-Aces and Aces-Mercury games were brawls.

“There is physicality all the time in this league. People control each other and hit each other. This Sparks-Aces game was extremely physical. Check on the screens, hit on the screens. You have to think about it: there are only 12 teams in the league, so there comes a point where these teams are very competitive with each other. It’s like that when you see teams over and over again.

“There are a lot of eyes on this when it happens with Caitlin because there are a lot more eyes on her in general, but the screen that Breanna Stewart projected on her – she didn’t leaned over, didn’t move towards her or throw her arms out It was literally just a screen The speed at which you fall on a screen will also determine its impact If she has no. idea that a screen is going to come, because her teammates did not signal it and her head was not turning, she is going to hit it very hard.

Carter thought this was another area Clark could improve in with more professional experience.

“When you stay in the league longer, you learn to avoid screens. And when you play longer with your team, the chemistry shows up where the communication is at a high level where you can avoid screens and no, they’re coming,” Carter said.

“For me (Stewart’s on-screen reaction to Clark), it was people making something out of nothing. I don’t think anyone went out of their way to hit Caitlin.

“Do I think people are doing their best to defend Caitlin? Yes. But the idea of ​​them being more physical with her than with anyone else, I think this league is just physical.