[2006alum]

I agree. Kiana was a nice player, but not super efficient. A career 40% over FG and mid thirties from 3.  That insight about minutes is definitely true. Her stats per minute were pretty average. She did not have a particularly good final 4 last year, either shooting or as a ballhandler.  What she did provide was a terrific decoy and someone that other teams had at the top of their scout. That in and of itself became very useful and helped the rest of the crew tremendously.  Card didn't have that presence at the point this year (although Lacie and Ana did very well adapting to what wasn't their natural position) and other teams were able to better focus on everyone else.

+1 to all of this. Want to post more when I finally have time, but for now, will add that Ki's greatest gift was that she was a credible threat to the defense from everywhere: three pointers (including long ones), pull up jumpers, step aside (or back) jumpers, and slashing/driving to the rim. She could also create one on one better than everyone on our team last year not named Haley Jones. 

I'm hopeful Nivar will have a similar skillset, with perhaps more size and slightly less speed, because as much as I love Jones, having at least one pure guard who has that kind of offensive variation (and trigger finger from outside) keeps defenses honest in a way no one on our team did this year. 

And yes, I'm hopeful Jones keeps working on a three point shooting. It's hard though, because her natural jump-shot arc is shockingly flat and only seems to be good to about 15-18 feet out, so she effectively has to shoot with a slightly different motion to connect from outside.

[2006alum]

I agree. Kiana was a nice player, but not super efficient. A career 40% over FG and mid thirties from 3.  That insight about minutes is definitely true. Her stats per minute were pretty average. She did not have a particularly good final 4 last year, either shooting or as a ballhandler.  What she did provide was a terrific decoy and someone that other teams had at the top of their scout. That in and of itself became very useful and helped the rest of the crew tremendously.  Card didn't have that presence at the point this year (although Lacie and Ana did very well adapting to what wasn't their natural position) and other teams were able to better focus on everyone else.

+1 to all of this. Want to post more when I finally have time, but for now, will add that Ki's greatest gift was that she was a credible threat to the defense from everywhere: three pointers (including long ones), pull up jumpers, step aside (or back) jumpers, and slashing/driving to the rim. She could also create one on one better than everyone on our team last year not named Haley Jones. 

I'm hopeful Nivar will have a similar skillset, with perhaps more size and slightly less speed, because as much as I love Jones, having at least one pure guard who has that kind of offensive variation (and trigger finger from outside) keeps defenses honest in a way no one on our team did this year. 

And yes, I'm hopeful Jones keeps working on a three point shooting. It's hard though, because her natural jump-shot arc is shockingly flat and only seems to be good to about 15-18 feet out, so she effectively has to shoot with a slightly different motion to connect from outside.