Is Atlanta Dream center Angel Reese really a WNBA superstar? A closer look at her statistics, offensive limitations, rebounding, Finals performance, and the debate surrounding her popularity.
We’re talking about a player who’s essentially the WNBA version of Andre Drummond, since we love this NBA comparison thing so much. An elite rebounder, no one’s taking that.
One of the best rebounders the league has ever seen. But outside of rebounding, what exactly are we celebrating here? You cannot point to one single thing.
Angel Reese: Angel’s Stats: The Problem With The WNBA Superstar Narrative
A post player shooting 51% true shooting despite taking the overwhelming majority of her shots around the basket. For context, that’s abysmal; anyone else wouldn’t see the floor with that. Unplayable. An 18% turnover rate from someone who isn’t even responsible for running an offense.
We’re watching a player struggle with some of the most basic aspects of offensive basketball. Somehow she’s being marketed and discussed as one of the premier talents in women’s basketball. Her game is a conflict of interest.
If you stripped away the celebrity, the social media following, and the manufactured superstar narrative, nobody would even be having these conversations. Reese is an elite rebounder with significant offensive limitations. That’s not hate. That’s an evaluation.
The gap between the player Angel Reese actually is and the player her supporters desperately want everyone to believe she might be the biggest disconnect in the entire WNBA.
Angel Reese: Reese’s Finals Performance And The Superstar Debate
When people take an honest step back and remove all biases, Angel has managed to create superstar popularity and fandom solely by instigating and attaching herself to Indiana Fever point guard Caitlin Clark. It has never been about basketball for one side of this rivalry.
We all watched her in these WNBA Finals, and it was historically bad. It became a meme. It wasn’t serious basketball. It was just “PLEASE, Atlanta Dream, win!” so people could call Reese a winner and Clark a loser. Terrible.
Angel Reese: Whose Fault Was Game 7? Why Blaming Rhyne And Gray Ignores Reese
In four of the finals games, Angel had more turnovers than she did field goals made. She set a record for most turnovers in a WNBA Finals series. Her fans usually love to talk about turnovers, but they were silent about this achievement.
Reese got away with bad shooting games all season because she had Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard, and Jordin Canada. They’re throwing Rhyne and Gray under the bus after losing the Finals.
It’s Rhyne and Gray’s fault they lost Game 7, but Reese is the reason why they won Game 6, right? The Dream fans forget it was Gray and Howard’s three-point shooting that carried them in Game 6. Especially that first quarter.
End Of My Angel Reese Superstar Debate Rant
With Reese’s basketball game being so tremendously limited, it was only a matter of time before it all blew up on her and her fan base. It exposed the antics for exactly what they were: ANTICS.
And that’s what makes the entire situation so fascinating. You can manufacture a rivalry, manufacture narratives, and manufacture an image of superstardom. But there’s one thing you cannot manufacture: the ability to back it all up on a basketball court.
Remove Caitlin from the conversation, and what exactly are we left celebrating? Because at some point, the basketball has to speak for itself. And when it finally did, the silence was deafening.
