Friends, I am thrilled to introduce you to Valkyries Beat.
This is where I will be writing about the Golden State Valkyries this season, running a full beat and -- with your help as subscribers -- back on the road.
www.valkyriesbeat.com
Congrats to Lauren Betts and UCLA!
The Warriors organization asked me to make some videos for their YT channel. Here is the second video!
Explain: How Jimmy Butler III made Steve Kerr evolve the Warriors Offense
by Eric Apricot
On waterbenders and earthbenders uniting and electromagnetic celebrations
Olivia Miles Draft Profile: bit.ly/4rsWQFN
As someone who’s read a lot of your work over the years, I’m honored — and I heartily concur about the site!
For no reason discernible to me, my friend Chris Gunther at Charting Hoops—who does really incredible work—thought I was worth asking some questions in his newsletter. Read some GSV opinions, my Warriors background, and who the Dennis Schröder of 2K is: chartinghoops.substack.com/p/a-random-i...
I did a deep dive on Olivia Miles, including clips & data on her drive tendencies and common coverage counters, defensive pros and cons, and WNBA projection/fit for all six 2026 lottery picks.
For @herhoopstats.com: herhoopstats.substack.com/p/olivia-mil...
Got another scouting report dropping tomorrow, this time on Olivia Miles, which breaks down her drive tendencies and common coverage counters, defensive pros/cons, and WNBA projection.
In the meantime, here's the updated EuroLeague Women advanced team stats table:
Not much change in lottery luck this year, but Dallas picks up its second lottery win in two years.
Since 2010, the Aces have been one of the luckiest lotto teams, winning 2 of 5, while the Dream have dropped more spots on average than anyone (and the Sky are 0-fer).
Before tonight's WNBA draft lottery, a look back at which teams have fared best in the lottery since 2011. The Aces have been one of the luckiest lotto teams, winning 2 of 5, while the Dream have dropped more spots on average than anyone.
Data via @acrossthetimeline.com
Examining the UCLA star's game and how it projects to the WNBA level.
Newsletter by Josiah Cohen: bit.ly/44cK0By
This is very well done and absolutely worth your time to read.
For @herhoopstats.com, I did a deep dive on Lauren Betts' draft profile: where her game stands on both sides of the ball, its statistical comparisons to previous highly drafted 6-foot-7 players, and how she projects to the WNBA. herhoopstats.substack.com/p/lauren-bet...
Serious basketball content (some might even call it scouting lite) coming tomorrow morning.
Great stuff by Josiah! Great follow for WBB Analytics!
EuroLeague Women four factors and team ratings through regular season round five.
EuroLeague Women advanced team stats, including Team/Opponent 4 Factors and ratings/100, and looked at a few early team storylines. Then, a breakdown of the conceptual and practical execution of Galatasaray's offense against a Schio defensive coverage. riseofthevalkyries.substack.com/p/how-many-v...
Ok, wrapping this one up. I'm going to break down how Galatasaray exploited and executed enough upon Schio's defense to get the win in tomorrow morning's post, but until then, some nice plays from Cecilia Zandalasini (always poised in the paint) and a nice 3 off Zoom action for Kitty Laksa.
Schio again with the sequencing: nice start-of-quarter slice to get Conde a post up and an even nicer turnaround make. Then, post touch again for Conde with a weakside pin-in screen slip.
Talked more about Conde's game here: riseofthevalkyries.substack.com/p/the-on-sea...
Great chess match. Schio (ATO) goes flex (screen) reject pindown, forcing the rotation and finding the open corner three. They run it again, and watch #11 (Derin Erdogan) recognize the action & call out the reject and follow. Galatasaray executes defensively and gets a stop.
Awak Kuier attacks and finishes at the rim. Two bad closeouts. Badiane stunts at the elbow and, flipping her hips/top foot twice, loses leverage integrity. Then Shepard rotates on the backside of a trap and overruns it by a foot—nice by Kuier to get middle twice and convert.
Clever from Maria Conde/Schio. They show the Spain action early (backscreen roll, pop), and Jess Shepard gets fouled. Then, off a BLOB, they show the same action, but Conde slips the back screen.
If Shepard fades wing, she might be able to hold Kuier and negate the recovery to the paint/contest.
OK then, Serena Sundell!
Nail tag w/ice coverage, recovers on the blind pig handoff, uses length to get the block from behind, drives the play in transition off the rebound and kicks it to Steph Talbot for three.
Obrigado!
Geelong (WNBL) - SLOB - Box Zipper Ricky Exit (strong)
Jaz Shelley inbounds and gets an exit screen to the corner, creating a good look from three. Sequenced after wheel concepts that flow into empty pick-and-roll with Mackenzie Holmes finishing in the paint.
This is pursuant to my earlier discussion of Fenerbahçe’s skillful and meticulous offense, as well as Leïla Lacan and Basket Landes’ defense Fenerbahçe, unsurprisingly, leads the pack; always nice when the eye test and the stats align.
bsky.app/profile/josi...
EuroLeague Women offensive and defensive ratings through October 27. Fenerbahçe leads the pack offensively, while Girona has impressed in a group with Praha, Bourges, and Gdynia.
Using a simple possession estimator and data from EuroBasket.
Finally, a nice Fener play I didn't get to dive into—all the movement and quick touches up top off the Iverson/blind pig/wide action get a corner help defender having to choose the quick slip or corner; she picks the slip, Meesseman just misses the wide open shot.
Good fastbreak looks from Venezia's Francesca Pasa—gotta like the aggressiveness to go at, and finish over, bigger defenders and make the right reads at high speed. Play-driving is such an important quality.
Murjunatu Musa had a huge and-one offensive rebound to seal the win, with a neat boxout-beating technique (that I'll maybe talk about down the line).
