Three things have been on every women’s basketball fan’s mind lately: the CBA negotiations, March Madness, and Team USA’s stint at the World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico. The latter prompted Candace Parker to push for a FIBA-style change to the WNBA.
“In FIBA, you get an assist if you pass to someone who gets fouled and makes a free throw, which I would like them to add to the WNBA because I know that I would’ve had a lot more triple-doubles,” Parker said on Post Moves, her podcast with Fever star Aliyah Boston, who had to miss the tournament due to an injury.
Parker isn’t wrong. If someone makes a great pass, but the player who received the pass doesn’t get an opportunity to score because of a foul, that doesn’t diminish the value of the pass. Awarding assists if the recipient of a pass makes free throws still rewards playmaking and court vision.
Candace Parker had a few triple-doubles in her WNBA career
Alyssa Thomas is the WNBA’s indisputable triple-double machine. She holds the league record for most triple-doubles and is currently the only player to have recorded more than one triple-double in the playoffs.
Candace Parker is one of the seven other players to record more than one triple-double in their career. Sabrina Ionescu did it four times, which is second-best to Thomas’s 25. Parker is tied with Caitlin Clark for third place with three triple-doubles. She did it twice in 2022 in wins over the Sparks and the Mystics and once in 2017.
Chelsea Gray, Courtney Williams, Courtney Vandersloot, and Sheryl Swoopes, who was the first player to record a triple-double in league history and the first player to get a triple-double in the playoffs, all have two.
If players got assists under the FIBA rules, there could quickly be many more triple-doubles in the WNBA.
Caitlin Clark led all players in Puerto Rico in assists
The reason Parker and Boston talked about the assist rules in FIBA was Caitlin Clark, who led Team USA in points and assists per game and finished the tournament with the most total assists.
She recorded 32 assists over five games. Chelsea Gray finished second with 24. Spain’s Iyana Martin and Mariona Ortiz were the only other players to record at least 20 total assists.
Clark, who just played her second WNBA season, should be able to soar up the triple-double leader ranks relatively quickly. She may not catch up with Thomas, who is far from done with being a triple-double machine, but overtaking Ionescu and firmly establishing herself as second on the list is very doable.