[TheFarm07]

A few quick thoughts from skim-watching:
Kiana Williams has no fear taking it to the basket or shooting it from outside, and she has a great shot. She dropped treys easily and from well behind the line in a manner very reminiscent of Karlie. All swish on a couple of them. She'll be a of exceedingly large proportions, of exceedingly large proportions and immediate contributor on offense. I think she may resemble Candice Wiggins more than any other guard we've had since, notwithstanding the height difference. I can't remember any of our other guards in the years in between who could run the point, drops treys with such ease, and also go inside in traffic when necessary. I'm really encouraged by her performance.

I had assumed given her 1 assist that she mostly looked to score, but actually she passed quite a bit. Despite being pretty thin, she has a really strong arm and can make half-court passes with ease. In fact, if anything, she was too strong: she had a number of really wild half-court passes - I think at least 3 or 4 literally flew right by the hands of the intended recipient and went out of bounds past the basket. I imagine once she gets some good coaching to help her control these it will allow us to really take advantage of some fast breaks. Just imagine her dishing half-court shots to Britt off a steal! She played for a while with Mikayla Coombs and they made a really effective duo outside, both passing well to each other and scoring from everywhere. If Marta can develop a little more offense to keep defenses honest, the two of them could be a great 1 2 combo because they're both fast and can be very aggressive passers.

I think the key for her immediate development will be defense - she had 4 fouls and let her target go by her a few times for pretty easy baskets. She also had 4 fouls in 19 minutes (and really basically 13 minutes, because she picked up her fourth in the third quarter).

Maya Dodson didn't have as many highlights because in these kinds of games with few sets and relatively little coaching, the post players don't really get as many opportunities. This was especially so for the East team - they had only 8 assists in the entire game, compared to West's 28! However, she's a fantastic defender, got several really nice, clean blocks, and grabbed an offensive rebound and turned it around for a basket. She's also really, really fast and athletic for a post player. She reminds me a lot of Kayl with more athleticism.

If I had to venture a guess, I imagine we'll see Kiana rotating at the 1 with Marta and 2 with Wilson (assuming she's healthy), and Dodson playing the four or possibly 5 with Kayl. Dodson didn't seem to have instincts to shoot from outside, so I don't think she's even a stretch 4 - I think she's a legit post player even more so than Nadia, who still sometimes wants to shoot from the perimeter.

Thanks for the analysis! If Kiana is going to get minutes this fall, she'll have to up her defense it sounds like, considering Tara's emphasis on defense.

With the Ogwumikes and McCall, we've had a couple athletic, fast post players who can run full-length downcourt to score on an easy basket off of a steal or rebound or if the defense is a bit slow getting back. It sounds like Maya might be the next one in line for those types of plays.

It's interesting with HoopGurlz characterizing her as a wing and "perimeter prospect" that she didn't seem to shoot it from further out.

[TheFarm07]

A few quick thoughts from skim-watching:
Kiana Williams has no fear taking it to the basket or shooting it from outside, and she has a great shot. She dropped treys easily and from well behind the line in a manner very reminiscent of Karlie. All swish on a couple of them. She'll be a of exceedingly large proportions, of exceedingly large proportions and immediate contributor on offense. I think she may resemble Candice Wiggins more than any other guard we've had since, notwithstanding the height difference. I can't remember any of our other guards in the years in between who could run the point, drops treys with such ease, and also go inside in traffic when necessary. I'm really encouraged by her performance.

I had assumed given her 1 assist that she mostly looked to score, but actually she passed quite a bit. Despite being pretty thin, she has a really strong arm and can make half-court passes with ease. In fact, if anything, she was too strong: she had a number of really wild half-court passes - I think at least 3 or 4 literally flew right by the hands of the intended recipient and went out of bounds past the basket. I imagine once she gets some good coaching to help her control these it will allow us to really take advantage of some fast breaks. Just imagine her dishing half-court shots to Britt off a steal! She played for a while with Mikayla Coombs and they made a really effective duo outside, both passing well to each other and scoring from everywhere. If Marta can develop a little more offense to keep defenses honest, the two of them could be a great 1 2 combo because they're both fast and can be very aggressive passers.

I think the key for her immediate development will be defense - she had 4 fouls and let her target go by her a few times for pretty easy baskets. She also had 4 fouls in 19 minutes (and really basically 13 minutes, because she picked up her fourth in the third quarter).

Maya Dodson didn't have as many highlights because in these kinds of games with few sets and relatively little coaching, the post players don't really get as many opportunities. This was especially so for the East team - they had only 8 assists in the entire game, compared to West's 28! However, she's a fantastic defender, got several really nice, clean blocks, and grabbed an offensive rebound and turned it around for a basket. She's also really, really fast and athletic for a post player. She reminds me a lot of Kayl with more athleticism.

If I had to venture a guess, I imagine we'll see Kiana rotating at the 1 with Marta and 2 with Wilson (assuming she's healthy), and Dodson playing the four or possibly 5 with Kayl. Dodson didn't seem to have instincts to shoot from outside, so I don't think she's even a stretch 4 - I think she's a legit post player even more so than Nadia, who still sometimes wants to shoot from the perimeter.

Thanks for the analysis! If Kiana is going to get minutes this fall, she'll have to up her defense it sounds like, considering Tara's emphasis on defense.

With the Ogwumikes and McCall, we've had a couple athletic, fast post players who can run full-length downcourt to score on an easy basket off of a steal or rebound or if the defense is a bit slow getting back. It sounds like Maya might be the next one in line for those types of plays.

It's interesting with HoopGurlz characterizing her as a wing and "perimeter prospect" that she didn't seem to shoot it from further out.