While Angel Reese has largely been very successful in her young WNBA career, she also had one glaring weak spot she desperately needed to improve. A major knock on Reese’s game was her inefficiency as a scorer around the basket. She only shot 39.1 percent from the field as a rookie. The issue persisted early in Reese’s sophomore season.
In May, Reese shot only 31.8 percent in the restricted area and 33.3 percent in the paint. She improved those numbers significantly in June and even further in July.
Reese has put together a string of very efficient scoring performances, turning around her biggest weakness.
Angel Reese has been on a tear lately
Over the last eight games, Angel Reese played her best basketball of the season. Not only did Reese record eight consecutive double-doubles, but she also scored more than twenty points three times and led the Sky to four wins, including a big victory over the Minnesota Lynx.
The most remarkable aspect of this stretch is Reese’s improved field-goal percentage. Since the Sky’s loss to Atlanta, Reese has not shot worse than 43.8 percent from the field. Twice, she even hit the 60 percent mark.
Her efficiency marks a big turnaround compared to the start of the season. In May, Reese only shot better than 40 percent from the field once. After that, she also shot less than 30 percent from the field a few times.
It looks like that may be a thing of the past, and fans will have to find another aspect of Reese’s game to criticize. Coming into the WNBA as a forward is not easy because it means going up against some of the best players in the league game after game. Nevertheless, Reese was granted little grace and criticized heavily on social media. She couldn’t have given a better response than improving her shooting percentages so significantly.
All the best bigs in the WNBA are efficient scorers
Most of the best players in the WNBA right now are bigs or forwards. Those players also tend to put up good field-goal percentages. Aliyah Boston, Natasha Howard, Dearica Hamby, Alyssa Thomas, Napheesa Collier, Brionna Jones, and Nneka Ogwumike are all shooting over 50 percent from the field for the season. Brittney Griner, A’ja Wilson, and Breanna Stewart aren’t far behind, converting at least 46 percent of their shots from the field.
If Reese can keep up her efficient scoring, there should be no doubt that she is one of the best young bigs in the league and consistently belongs in the All-Star conversation.