Caitlin Clark - NBA

5,467 Views | 43 Replies | Last: 27 days ago by South Platte
Macarthur
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So, I've been seeing more and more folks talking about her being able to play in the NBA. Am I living is crazy world? Are there really people that think she could contribute on an NBA roster and not be a gigantic liabililty? Am I the one that's crazy here?
Enzo The Baker
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AG
FWIW I would take Clark over any of the shooters the Spurs currently have.
Macarthur
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Enzo The Baker said:

FWIW I would take Clark over any of the shooters the Spurs currently have.


The spurs are not a good shooting team but just to be clear, you're being sarcastic, right?
CC09LawAg
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There are absolutely people that believe this.

They typically also believe girls can be boys and boys can be girls.
Enzo The Baker
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AG
She would get hunted on defense the entire game. She would only be able to catch and shoot as the size and athleticism of the nba would just overwhelm her, and she would not be able to create her own shot. She would also need to get used to an NBA ball. It's not happening.

With that being said, she is a better shooter than anyone the spurs has and it would be fun to see what she could do.
Macarthur
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Agree. But i question if she would still be a great shooter w the bigger ball and having to work around NBA picks.

I mean, even if we assume she could still shoot at a similar rate, she would such a liability in every single other facet of the game, there's no way a coach could leave her in the game.

The other thing is she puts up a lot of shots to get her points. I haven't looked up any sort of efficiency ratings for her, but I get the feeling she's a volume player. And that volume wouldn't be there on an NBA floor.
mavsfan4ever
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AG
I don't think she'd even be able to get a shot off in the NBA. She also wouldn't even be able to get the ball past half court in 8 seconds if a team really pressed her. She would be the worst player in the league, and it wouldn't be close.

I hadn't heard of this discussion, but it's absolutely ridiculous.
Macarthur
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mavsfan4ever said:

I don't think she'd even be able to get a shot off in the NBA. She also wouldn't even be able to get the ball past half court in 8 seconds if a team really pressed her. She would be the worst player in the league, and it wouldn't be close.

I hadn't heard of this discussion, but it's absolutely ridiculous.
my thoughts exactly. Glad I'm not the only one that thinks it's crazy talk.

EastSideAg2002
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I think the Spurs should sign her anyway.
Matsui
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AG
Same
Iowaggie
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AG
It's not even a given she will do well in the wnba. There aren't many teams and the talent is pretty stacked for women's players

My guess is that some of the best defense that Clark faces during the season are whatever practice guys Iowa women's basketball finds among the general student body. Guys that probably were average HS basketball players in Iowa....
MookieBlaylock
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AG
The Globetrotters has a girl
The Porkchop Express
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So I'll drag out the old story just so we're all clear on how this would go.

Two friends of mine worked for the Rockets / Comets in the late 90s when the Comets first got in the league. The Comets had one of the best collections of talent ever assembled on one tea - Sheryl Swoopes, who to this day is a top 5-10 all-time female college talent; Cynthia Cooper, the surprise best player in the league the first couple of years in the WNBA, Tina Thompson, and Kim Perrot. In one form or another that was the core of the group that won the first 4 WNBA titles. In Seasons 2-4, they went 80-14 in the regular seasons and were unmatched by anyone.

In the first season, they scrimmaged against the teams loosely made up of young women who played locally at UH, TSU, or Rice, as it was the summer and none of them had restrictions.

However, the playoffs of that first season were held in late August, by which time the college girls had gone back to school, which meant they were now "in season", and playing pickup vs. professionals wasn't going to happen.

So to hastily prepare for the post-season, they recruited a team of Rockets employees - all men - who had played either high school or some level of college ball. There were no ringers on this team; maybe 1-2 had played some D-1 at a small school and most were in their 20s. One of my friends had played 4 years at a 4A high school and had played intramurals with me at A&M. He was a solid player for a pickup game, but he wouldn't have even made it as last guy on the bench for the Aggies.

The first scrimmage between the two teams was somewhat of a novelty for the organizations and plenty of people went to see the Comets mop the floor with the guys, except that didn't happen. Not even a little bit .While I've lost what the final score was over the years, it was somewhere around 113-71 for the men. That's right kids, 12-15 guys who had never practiced together even once, nor played in at least 2-3 years on any sort of competitive level were destroying the soon-to-be WNBA champions by 40 points.

And why was that? The same reason Caitlin Clark would have no shot in hell in the NBA. Bigger, stronger, faster, more aggressive. Nothing sexist there, just millions of years of evolution and gender roles. My friend says he had 10 blocked shots in the first two quarters, and they were eventually told to "stop doing that" because it wasn't a realistic representation of the New York LIberty.

They were all told not to talk about it, which as you can see worked great since I remember the story 25+ years later. The next day, the doors to the Summit were locked, no one was able to wander over, and the men were not allowed to try to block shots or run fast breaks. They also didn't keep score, although I heard it wast still a blowout, but not quite as bad.

I really like women's basketball at a high level, but having her play in a real NBA game would make women's athletics look like a snail racing a Ferrari. There's nothing to be gained from it.
WARNING: I have a deep-seated desire for others to love the Star Wars franchise as much as I do, in exactly the way I do, and get snippy and sensitive and passive-aggressive when they don't.
Sea Speed
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AG
When Ronda rousey was at her peak weren't there people talking about how she could beat floyd Mayweather or something like that? So absurd and ridiculous. Hell even the 15 or 14U boys soccer team beat the USWNT.
South Platte
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She would score zero points all season if a moderately athletic high school freshman guarded her. This doesn't mean she shouldn't be applauded for her incredible talent playing women's basketball.
AggieEP
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I offer a slightly different take, first yes Caitlin Clark would get destroyed in the NBA, but when it comes to pick-up ball, I've played against and with some pretty good female athletes over the years that were smart enough to take advantage of what they could do well. Mainly that means good positioning (i.e. floor spacing), moving the ball well and getting their shot up when open. If I was standing at the A&M rec center right now picking teams, and I had my choice of Caitlin Clark or a rando dude that played high school ball, I'm taking Caitlin Clark.

The ball size thing is overblown a bit, because any girls that like to play pick up ball, likely have played hundreds of games with the Men's size ball.

The NBA is a different beast because the "small" guys are all still 6'3'' and the big guys are 6'10'' and as quick as the small guys in high school ever dreamed of being. The length is just incomprehensible for someone who has never played against it.
NoahAg
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lol. She would sit the bench on a below average boys AAU team.
MookieBlaylock
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AG
Y'all suckers fell for the get clicks mad lib

Every year just blank would win blank

Rinse repeat new batch is suckers
nbbob
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Let her make the Iowa men's team first…..
alvtimes
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Swoopes says Clark aint for real!!! lol
JW
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AG
She couldn't start for a high level high school team.
AustinAg2K
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Saying she can play in the NBA is stupid, and takes away from what she is doing for women's basketball. Generally, I think women's basketball is boring as F, and many of the WNBA players are just flat out bad. That said, Clark is legit a great shooter, and is actually fun to watch. People should quit trying to compare what she is doing to anything done in the NBA or men's college basketball. They are two separate games. They should just enjoy what she is doing right now. It's very impressive.
CrawlingNo5
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AG
Her ability to flop should generate some NBA interest.
MookieBlaylock
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AG
She has a better chance at the NBA than Btonnie tho
AgDad121619
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AG
mavsfan4ever said:

I don't think she'd even be able to get a shot off in the NBA. She also wouldn't even be able to get the ball past half court in 8 seconds if a team really pressed her. She would be the worst player in the league, and it wouldn't be close.

I hadn't heard of this discussion, but it's absolutely ridiculous.
she would not get a shot off in an ncaa game. It is beyond ridiculous to think she could sniff time on the court in the NBA. She wouldn't start for any of the top HS teams in Texas
Head Ninja In Charge
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AG
Quote:

She wouldn't start for any of the top HS teams in Texas
Stop it.
AgDad121619
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AG
Head Ninja In Charge said:

Quote:

She wouldn't start for any of the top HS teams in Texas
Stop it.
USA Soccer U15 team dominated the world champion women's team. She would not start for any of the state champion 6A teams. I'm dead serious about my opinion
AustinAg2K
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AgDad121619 said:

Head Ninja In Charge said:

Quote:

She wouldn't start for any of the top HS teams in Texas
Stop it.
USA Soccer U15 team dominated the world champion women's team. She would not start for any of the state champion 6A teams. I'm dead serious about my opinion
Just because a soccer team got dominated by a HS All Star team doesn't mean she couldn't start for a good Boys HS team. Even the top HS teams have weak players.
mavsfan4ever
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AG
He's 100% correct.
Iowaggie
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AG
Some of the incredible appeal of Caitlin Clark shows how hungry many college sports fans are for a celebrity.

She's played 4 years of college ball with the last two years achieving some celebrity status that tremendously impacted attendance and tv viewership numbers.

It kind of reminds me of the men's college basketball greats that played 4 years in the era when college basketball was significantly more popular then the NBA.
Infection_Ag11
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AG
Caitlin Clark wouldn't be able to get a shot off in the NBA in a half court set.

These sort of discussions are always so silly. If you took a team made up of the best 14 year old boys from any major metro in the United States, they would beat a WNBA all star team so badly that they'd stop keeping score. A state championship level men's varsity team could literally shut them out if they ran a full court press the whole game.

Basketball is a game based around the skill set and athleticism of tall, explosive men. The nature of the game renders even the best women hopelessly overmatched against any group of modestly skilled boys or men following the onset of puberty.
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Infection_Ag11
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AG
AggieEP said:

I offer a slightly different take, first yes Caitlin Clark would get destroyed in the NBA, but when it comes to pick-up ball, I've played against and with some pretty good female athletes over the years that were smart enough to take advantage of what they could do well. Mainly that means good positioning (i.e. floor spacing), moving the ball well and getting their shot up when open. If I was standing at the A&M rec center right now picking teams, and I had my choice of Caitlin Clark or a rando dude that played high school ball, I'm taking Caitlin Clark.

The ball size thing is overblown a bit, because any girls that like to play pick up ball, likely have played hundreds of games with the Men's size ball.

The NBA is a different beast because the "small" guys are all still 6'3'' and the big guys are 6'10'' and as quick as the small guys in high school ever dreamed of being. The length is just incomprehensible for someone who has never played against it.


Ok, but I'm not really sure what the point of this is. She's now universally regarded as one of the greatest women's basketball players ever, and the best thing we can say about her with respect to men is she'd be competitive in pickup games?

Yes, in a vacuum Caitlin Clark is a better basketball player than the average college dude hooping on a Wednesday afternoon at the rec. But groups of random college dudes regularly pummel women's scholarship teams in practice every day all over America. They scrimmage against rec league caliber guys because they are as a team better than any women's teams they will ever play. That's the relevant takeaway.
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
jonb02
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AG
This is only a thread because she somehow broke the men's NCAA scoring record without playing against men.

She wouldn't last one NBA practice and most likely would end up in tears or in the hospital.

The physicality at the NBA level would break her, probably literally but definitely mentally.

MookieBlaylock
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AG
Spurs are going hire Becky Hammond and bring in Clark- she will be dominant when she plays the 2 with Wenby as PG and Angel Reese at the 4
BudFox7
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The NBA is a shell of what it once was. Just dudes jogging around playing matador defense. A woman that can shoot might actually be competitive in this league.

I don't know how ppl watch the current game. They're playing with less intensity and effort than rec league.

Some random dude is scoring 50-60 every week
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