Drop Off: Las Vegas Aces win two straight, figuring it out offensively

On the Las Vegas Aces playing through A’ja Wilson, and figuring out ways to best incorporate everybody else:

A’ja Wilson carried the Aces to their Tuesday overtime win in Indiana against the Fever. The 2018 No. 1 pick got hot with her jumper, then continued to shoot over the top of Indiana’s small-ish front line. Though this team still is not completely whole — Moriah Jefferson may be back soon, no timetable yet on Isabelle Harrison — they’ve landed on a starting five that balances the floor with more scoring punch around Wilson.

The Aces started each of the last two games (and Wednesday’s second half) with a split action for Kelsey Plum and Kayla McBride run through JiSu Park at an elbow, to the delight of everyone other than Liberty head coach Katie Smith.

These are the kinds of staples that good teams need to avoid scoring droughts. The Aces can easily flow right into this stuff, which leverages the shooting abilities of their two best perimeter threats.

Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. Wilson still probably is their best scoring option from the perimeter. She isn’t shooting threes (yet). It might not ever matter. Her release point is so high that she’s been able to can jumpers right over people and muscle her way to the rim when teams overplay her to shoot.

There are some spacing concerns at play. Teams aren’t guarding Tamera Young or Lindsay Allen at the three-point line. Park and Wilson are both natural midrange shooters, so they’ll need more reps together to avoid bumping into each other when they both see the same open window to hunt one of those shots:

McBride is getting chances to attack, which will allow her to build on last season’s demonstrated improvement in getting to the line.

Any quick action with McBride and Wilson will likely net the Aces something good. Park may develop into a nice pick and pop threat. And this team needs more ways to weaponize Plum’s shooting when the ball isn’t in her hands.

With Plum in the starting lineup, the Aces finally have a unit with enough collective shooting to may defenses pay for lapses and unnecessary blunders. On about three attempts per game in 2017, Plum connected on 36.5 percent of her three-pointers. McBride has drilled 10 of her first 27 — more representative of her first two seasons rather than her past two, where she barely scraped 30 percent.

Wilson alone gives both guards a chance to prove that they can be efficient on a more balanced team. Offensive efficiency, even if it doesn’t directly result in winning right now, ought to be at a premium right now for Vegas, especially with Moriah Jefferson still working her way back.

Seemingly everybody has gravitated back to the same question with this team for the past year: How much are Plum, Jefferson and McBride going to play together, and will that trio be good enough on both ends to produce a winner?

Jefferson has already been forced to miss a big chunk of the 2018 season, which stinks. We may still not have much of a sample size by season’s end. The way Bill Laimbeer has built this roster and divvied out minutes thus far, though, has also shown that there’s reason to get excited about other combinations. That largely has to do with Nia Coffey, a seldom-used backup four last year as a rookie that has really impressed playing almost exclusively on the wing. Laimbeer has also had good things to say about rookie Jamie Nared, namely for her defense and energy.

Let’s bring it back to Plum, who’s looking to build on her strong showing in the second half of last season. Her size may limit her from scoring as much as some may have initially expected from her at this level, but it doesn’t preclude her from making good reads once she gets into the lane and delivering the ball to the open player:

The player that has really infused this team with the extra scoring punch it has needed is Dearica Hamby. She’s 6-for-16 on three-pointers through 10 games this season. Her career high in attempts: 17 in 31 games in 2015. Perhaps more importantly, Hamby is fluid enough to get all the way to the rim when she sees a crack in the defense, or when somebody simply overplays her.

It’s been two games. The first victory came in overtime against the winless Fever. The second against the Liberty, who laid a total egg offensively. Vegas is inching closer to having everybody available, though, and they’re getting people involved to put pressure on defense beyond just dumping it down to Wilson.

Links I like

Here’s Mechelle Voepel on Anne Donovan, who passed away late Wednesday.

Here’s Howard Megdal on Donovan, who had a remarkable impact both as a player and coach.

Here’s Erica Ayala on Donovan’s undeniable legacy.

Yesterday’s Drop Off: on the 2016 draft class.