Comments
Great breakdown looking forward to more and learning the WNBA!
Major Powers
2025-05-21 06:13:53 +0000 UTCGrateful for you doing these breakdowns
Thomas Ogas
2025-05-19 21:06:12 +0000 UTCThis is great
joss gitlin
2025-05-18 07:03:26 +0000 UTCTip will be fine, she becomes more effective over the course of a season.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:47:46 +0000 UTCKelsey Plum played all 40 min and had 37. Wtf
Kenny Bobby
2025-05-18 04:47:10 +0000 UTC*Flemish :)
wcd
2025-05-18 04:35:32 +0000 UTCVery good idea. Give everyone a chance to learn to pronounce their names properly and get their resumes straight
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:28:23 +0000 UTCJocyte has been playing in Europe professionally since she was 14 and she’s a 6’2” guard/forward. I love HVL, but I’m looking forward to seeing Jocyte.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:26:31 +0000 UTCShe was drafted #30. Only 20 draftees made it to opening day and that was the most in a while. It’s very common for most draftees not to make it their first year. The only reason Kate Martin made it during her draft year was because she played with Caitlyn Clark.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:24:11 +0000 UTCI really wish we could have gotten Kelsey Plum. All in good time. Hopefully she wants to play with Nakase again.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:20:24 +0000 UTCI’m hoping Vanloo plays better because she seems to understand the assignment. I’m getting the feeling that many of these players were under the impression that no one would care about this expansion team and they could kind of do whatever they wanted or experiment without being watched. The fact that they are playing to a full house and the crowd is so loud is a bit daunting I think. Some of these WNBA teams only play in arenas or gyms that hold less than 5000 people, so for a brand new team to be selling out every seat in the house that Steph Curry built might be a type of pressure that none of the players were anticipating. So the fact that Vanloo not only recognized that, but started playing into all of it makes her the leader in my mind.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:19:20 +0000 UTCLove that you're also making Valkyries' breakdowns; was a ton of fun to be their live last night. Vanloo in the 2nd had the crowd at playoff Warriors volume, which was great to see.
Lincoln Lo
2025-05-18 04:18:28 +0000 UTCLol. “Wildfire zone”. So true! Honestly, I’m here for the fan base, they are super into it, I hope they show out every single home game.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:11:33 +0000 UTCThat should be a great game, Kiki Iriafen (who was at Stanford her junior year with Cameron Brink, and who played last year with JuJu) and Sonia Citron are lighting it up. They were both just drafted this year.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:10:45 +0000 UTCI'm so glad that you are covering Valks games. Been a fan of the W since Chamique Holdsclaw. There has been a lot of ups and downs with the league but over the last decade it's allowed the players to be more free with their personalities which makes the game more fun to follow. Valkyries have a uphill battle this year (would be nice to see them win 10 games) but I'm holding out on enthusiasm until next year. Many of the ladies have signed 1 year deals due to the upcoming CBA negotiations and so free agency will be nuts and you'll see quality players on the move, hopefully to GSV. As for the game, its was expected. The turnovers were definitely a factor of inexperience together. Think that will improve. Also Kate didn't have great success with taller players in Unrivaled either, so that was expected. Vanloo and Femí will be a good combo, KT usually starts slow, but will she will produce later in the season. Tip Hayes game is exactly what you described, but my fear is she will breakdown with the extra pressure on her to make it happen. Overall, wishing good luck for the ladies this year. Alch, glad you're bringing new eyes to the league. P.S. check out Sonia Citron on the Mystics. She might have been the steal of the draft and could be a top candidate for ROY. She popped at Notre Dame every time I saw her despite being 3rd fiddle there. ✌🏿
Nos Dollas
2025-05-18 04:09:52 +0000 UTCPaige was alright, it wasn’t magical or anything. She still trying to get comfortable being a number one option.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:09:00 +0000 UTCIsn’t JuJu going to be recovering from surgery most of next year?
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:08:01 +0000 UTCMost of our taller players are recovering from injury.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:07:29 +0000 UTCSame! I started laughing at all the same mistakes the Warriors make. Valkyries played much better in the preseason games, this was not nearly as good. Home games will either be nationally televised or on KPIX locally. Have to check the schedule, WNBA has really weird media stuff. The Fever game will probably be on ESPN or a Disney affiliated channel. Or all of them. Not clear what’s happening with our number 1 pick Juste Jocyte, she’s in Lithuania preparing for Eurobasket her national team. She’s been playing professionally since she was 14 and some people have dubbed her Lady Luka. Not a lot of defense in the clips I’ve seen, but she’s over 6 feet and I think she’s a guard. They said she might be back by July, but I’ve also heard she’s not playing at all this season. I guess we will see.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 04:05:49 +0000 UTCSo, do you want us to let you know correct pronounciations and whatnot? Just asking, some people would rather figure it out as they go. You’re going to have to really pay attention to the jersey numbers because Mo #25 and Kayla #5 have similar build, height, hairstyle, and play style, so you are going to confuse them A LOT. Generally, I find that Kayla tends to be more aggressive than Mo, Mo is usually catch and shoot and rarely involved in the defense, while Kayla is extremely proactive defensively and will power to the rim (so far). So that steal to the lay up that put them up to 17 in the first was Kayla, not Mo Billings.
Irritated Inanimate
2025-05-18 03:58:23 +0000 UTCI didn’t watch the game live cuz I forgot about it but also don’t know what channel it’s on lol. But I did watch the highlights on YouTube and it was hilarious cuz I thought the exact same thing: undersized team, settling for jump shots and committing lazy turnovers. It brought a tear to my eye…..it’s like the season never even ended! Hahahah But yeah I’m not gonna pretend like I know who’s who on any team besides Plum and Clark and other big names. And man Plum is a beast! Hayes was nice for us and I had no idea about our #1 pick ghosting us. That’s tough. Why did that happen? I literally know nothing about WNBA drama lol. Anyway. Thanks for the breakdown Alch! I look forward to learning about the game and getting familiar with this team with you! Tough first loss but there was a nice “Steph”-like run there with those crazy threes. That was fun to see. Go Valks! (are we allowed to call them Valks?)
Jansen E
2025-05-18 03:03:03 +0000 UTCJK flexing with the big homie 😂
Ejikeme Uzoigwe
2025-05-18 02:30:57 +0000 UTCplease don't let this valks team have size issues too omfg
Johnny Marko
2025-05-18 02:24:29 +0000 UTCA lot of fun vibes compared to regular season NBA, just excited for the competitiveness and physicality on a game to game basis. If we can put a fun, competitive product on the floor but still be bad enough to land Juju next year that’d be the move 😂
Luke Zhang
2025-05-18 00:55:01 +0000 UTCW games are a real breath of fresh air compared to the NBA. Some real ugly stuff. But they seem to flow much better from an officiating standpoint. Comparatively little flopping and most excitingly everyone seems to hustle and play with energy for the most part. Almost everyone books it back down court on D once they have scored or missed. Would love you to cover some Caitlin C and Paige B (who I understand had a rough debut) games if you get the chance.
Alasdair Macdonald
2025-05-18 00:04:27 +0000 UTCHey Alc, I think W fans just call Fagbenle by her first name, Temi. But I’m glad you’re covering the valks, it’s cool to see a new team come to the bay. Gonna try to get to the mystics game on Wednesday
Branden Taylor
2025-05-17 23:14:36 +0000 UTCbruv say fuck it and breakdown caitlin clark games
richard phan
2025-05-17 22:57:17 +0000 UTCbroooo lmaoooo alch the goat ong😭
retirefn
2025-05-17 22:56:21 +0000 UTCChase turned into Oracle for a hot sec
Abhi Kelkar
2025-05-17 22:29:49 +0000 UTCcompletely new to WNBA stuff so im grateful for this way to get into it
MQ
2025-05-17 22:17:15 +0000 UTCI don't watch WNBA, but this was still a great and entertaining breakdown to watch Glad to see the Warriors there too
Dan Truong
2025-05-17 21:33:22 +0000 UTCAlc love that you're doing this for the Valkyrie! I'm dying from the first joke where you had to explain yourself
Andy Chen
2025-05-17 21:05:25 +0000 UTCCongrats bro!
ethangray
2025-05-17 20:53:00 +0000 UTCThanks for the breakdown, Alch! I was there - the scene was lit. I’ve never seen a crowd cheer so loudly through an ENTIRE game. You could see how connected the Sparks’ (one of the dumbest nicknames - esp for a wildfire zone) defense is - Valks offense kept getting stuck. But LA’s largely been playing together for a while and Valks just met 3 weeks ago. We won’t know enough ‘til the injured players return, but it’ll still be fun.
wcd
2025-05-17 20:33:07 +0000 UTCWent to both the pre-season and season opener. The atmosphere is so far removed from an NBA game because of the different fan-bases, but once it comes time to cheer the team on the energy is 100% there. Lacob set some lofty goals for this team (lead the W in revenue, win a chip in 5 years etc.), so I'm glad to see such a big turnout at the start. This team isn't going to win a lot of games, so I hope the marketing machine can keep interest high. From a basketball perspective... If we're going to be running 3 guard lineups with some combination of VanLoo, Martin, Burton, Leite, and Hayes, we're going to be in a tough spot. In the first half, those three guard lineups over-helped, leading to easy dump-off passes to the dunker spot off of drives, or kick-outs that force us into rotation. Whatever changes got made in the locker room at half-time lead to less of that, but then KP could just get in her bag coming off these screen actions. So long as these guards are required to dig down so aggressively from the perimeter and corners, it's going to be tough to have a consistent defense. Very Warriors-esque lol I'm probably going to get some flak for this opinion because she was so electric last night, but VanLoo reminds me of Chris Chiozza. She can penetrate any time she wants to, but due to her size, can't finish and is always looking to kick out. Even these look-away skip passes on the perimeter are a consequence of this. Sparks were sitting on her passes all of the second half. Admittedly, I only watched a couple of her Mystics games last year, but I saw much of the same. Dis-interest in finishing, and a couple hot streaks from behind the arc. Lots of ghost screens, which makes me think that's a game-plan, but I wish Fágbénlé would stick some now and again. When her defender is late to the action and her teammate has a chance to get downhill. Maybe that's too much to ask of her :| All-in-all, I think we'll win a few games we shouldn't just by virtue of getting up a bunch of threes and getting hot, which is going to make for some fun basketball to watch! Can't wait to dive into this season in earnest.
Sean Kneeland
2025-05-17 20:26:29 +0000 UTCEvery lady hooper I’ve met has been so dope lol
Connor H
2025-05-17 20:25:29 +0000 UTCWhat do you think about Kaitlyn Chen being waived? It’s been all over my fyp
Elias Candelaria
2025-05-17 20:22:26 +0000 UTCJust had a daughter so great way to get into wnba!
Nigel Hall
2025-05-17 20:19:20 +0000 UTCVanLoo speaks English, Flamisch (Dutch), French and some words Italian. And as a dutch speaker, they always can understand German. VanLoo is 'the connector', because she can translate a lot. Specialy for Carla Leite, who is still learning English.
Erwin Brouwers
2025-05-17 20:16:43 +0000 UTCThanks Alc. Looking forward to following the valkyries this year. I already have my WNBA team but the valkyries will be my 2nd. It's gonna take a few years for them to grow into something but I'm convinced that ownership will put everything into making them a contender as soon as possible just like the did with the warriors
Carla Davis
2025-05-17 20:12:15 +0000 UTCI agree. Every year in amazed at who they have to cut
Carla Davis
2025-05-17 20:09:13 +0000 UTCThought they shouldve picked up HVL over that Lithuania unknown.
Kahlil Baker
2025-05-17 20:08:47 +0000 UTCLove it Alc, keep it up.
AJ M
2025-05-17 19:50:10 +0000 UTCI would have liked to have Amihere. It's tough competition for young women in the W. Go Valks.
LonTheThird
2025-05-17 19:46:18 +0000 UTCExcited to have an opportunity to learn the women’s game! Appreciate the content Alc 🙏🏾🙏🏾
Alaase Shambe
2025-05-17 19:42:39 +0000 UTCI like the logo they just need to incorporate more gold colors
Mello Wyatt
2025-05-17 19:40:03 +0000 UTCYo Alch its awesome you're gonna be following the season! I haven't been real big into wnba games but figure I gotta give the Valks a shot since they're the local team now. Would you consider doing a wnba primer video or anything to give guys like me some more background into the differences from the NBA besides just the athleticism?
Francis Arachea
2025-05-17 19:34:44 +0000 UTCPeeped some of the game, I’m so down for this
MaxShade18
2025-05-17 19:25:03 +0000 UTCThat Vanloo back to back to back stretch gave me Steph vibes 🔥
Mitch Coob
2025-05-17 19:23:23 +0000 UTC
