2024 LA Sparks Season

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This is the most stacked Sparks team since the last championship team. Many players from last season have left but the Sparks got really lucky in the draft.

Last season, the two biggest deficits were interior defense and playmaking. They've addressed the interior defense problem with the additions of Brink and Li Yueru and they've addressed the playmaking problem with the addition of Allemand. Last season's team also struggled to score when Nneka was out of the line-up. The addition of Rikea and others should offset that completely.

Right now, there are 19 players competing for 12 spots. I don't know most of the foreign players but I have seen Li Yueru play 2 complete games in the Euroleague. She dominated in the post so I think she'll make the roster.

The starting five should be:

Li (center)
Brink (pf)
Rikea (sf)
Rae (sg)
Allemand (pg)

This is a tall line-up and should give the Sparks a huge rebounding advantage and rebounding is even more important in the WNBA.

The biggest challenge this season is finding someone who can guard Breanna Stewart and Aja Wilson. Can Brink and Rikea defend these types of players?

Sparks lacked depth last season but now they have Lexie, Zia, and Kia - all competent shooters. On paper, this team is far better.

This team is a contender, barring injuries.

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The Sparks won a close one vs the Storm. Cameron Brink and Rikea Jackson both played well. Brink provided much needed interior defense and Jackson scored easily off the dribble. The Storm struggled to score in the paint because of the tall line-up but they were in the game because the Sparks turned the ball over 17 times in the first half and ended up with 24 turnovers total.

The Sparks don't have a competent playmaker. Clarendon struggled on offense against ball pressure but she was excellent on defense. They tried Cooke, McDonald, Clouden, and Dietrick at pg. Dietrick is probably the best ball handler of the four; Cooke and McDonald should never play the point. Clarendon is not starter material, but they don't have anyone else.

The positives were the 3-pt shooting and the defense (shot blocking/altering and rebounding). The cons were the playmaking and the coaching.

Coach Miller: You need to tailor the offense to the talents of your players. Brink only took 1 shot in the first half and you had Jackson coming off the bench when she's the most talented scorer on the team. There wasn't a single pick and roll play or a single cut to the basket.

It's just preseason, but if Rikea doesn't start and they don't run the offense through Brink or Rikea, they're going to struggle.

The most urgent need is a point guard who can distribute the ball and make shots. Dietrick can dribble and pass but she doesn't take shots. What happened with that Belgian guard? Is she not with the team yet?

The Chinese player, Li Yueru did ok. She missed shots at the basket but she played good defense.

Billings had a good game as well.

In the first post, I said they were deep and could contend on paper. After seeing them play, they're middle of the pack but they're one good point guard away from contending. I see them making the playoffs but getting bounced in the first round.

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The Sparks won fairly easily because of a large rebounding advantage due to Griner missing the game. They outrebounded the Mercury 42 to 20.

This game was very similar to the last game. The Sparks turned the ball over 21 times but were very efficent shooting 3s (52%) and played great defense.

The standouts were Hamby, Nurse, Cooke, and Billings. Brink got in early foul trouble and sat most of the game; Rickea looked sluggish for some reason and took some bad shots.

Once again, McDonald and Clarendon struggled to play the point. That's on the coach. McDonald's a good scoring sg but she's asked to play the point and her ball-handling is terrible.

Right now, with Allemand out due to an ankle injury, the Sparks only have one decent ball-handler and that's Dietrick. The offense looked much better in the 6 minutes that she was on the court.

I hope Billings and Dietrick don't get cut because Billings is a very active rebounder and I think she's a better defender than Stevens by a wide margin.

I don't know how long Allemand will be out and Dietrick is the only capable ball-handler on the team. After 2 pre-season games, I don't have much confidence in the coach because I saw very little adjustments to huge problems. They need to sign another pg if they're not going to play Dietrick.

Players I would cut: Clouden, McDonald, Talbot, Burrell, Forbes. Defense wins championships so if they need to cut another player, I would cut Azura Stevens.

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They've cut the roster down to 12 players. I think they made 3 big mistakes - cutting Monique Billings, Blake Dietrick, and Julie Allemand.

Billings is a rebounding machine and high energy type player. Judging from the 2 preseason games, she's easily better than Stephanie Talbot and Azura Stevens on defense. I hope Billings gets picked up by another team.

Dietrick was the only capable point guard in the 2 preseason games. If the coaching staff thinks McDonald or Cooke can play pg, they are going to be very disappointed.

Allemand was the other point guard they cut. She was injured.

In both preseason games, the team had over 20 turnovers/game because their guards can't dribble and pass. Clarendon very frequently jumps and spins to throw passes and she passes not to make plays, but just to get rid of the ball when there is defensive pressure.

If you look at all their guards: Nurse, Cooke, Browne, McDonald, and Clarendon - these are players who can score and play defense, but have zero playmaking abilities. Unless there is a trade for a pg or if they pick up a waived player, the Sparks are going to struggle on offense. This is sad because there is no one to feed the post to Brink and no one to run the pick and roll with Jackson. The coaching staff had the exact same problem for all of last season and they still haven't made any personnel changes. I'm disappointed.

On the other hand, Paige Bueckers is worth tanking for, so maybe that's the goal.

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Sparks lose in the season opener vs the Atlanta Dream. Both rookies had good games, especially Brink. She made 2 threes and had 2 blocks and 4 assists to go along with 11 pts. Unfortunately, Brink got 2 fouls in the first 4 minutes and only played 20 minutes. Jackson looked active tonight but only shot 3/10; that's not a concern because she was able to get good looks.

Hamby, Nurse, and Clarendon had great games. Hamby's conditioning this season is much improved. She defended Tina Charles well and grabbed 14 boards. Nurse made 5 threes, and Clarendon had her first career triple double.

Brown scored all of her 8 pts in a 3 minute span but disappeared the rest of the game.

The rest of the team didn't contribute much. Cooke, McDonald, Burrell, Yueru, and Talbot scored a combined 1 point. Yikes.

The game was tied at the end of the 1st quarter, the half, and the 3rd, but the Sparks gave up 11 pts to start the 4th (when the starters were out) and never recovered.

As I pointed out, the Sparks need another ball handler. You can't play Cooke and McDonald at the same time because neither are playmakers. When both players are on the court, the offense looks disjointed. So far, I haven't seen adjustments from Coach Miller.

They should probably try Talbot at the point with one of either Cooke or McDonald. I think they made a huge mistake in cutting 2 point guards.