Stanley Johnson spent one season as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers earlier on in the decade, and he agreed with one social media post that implied that Angel Reese’s numbers in her first WNBA season aren’t as impressive as they seem to be at first glance.
“Angel Reese’s game is what’s WRONG with basketball today,” the post on X reads. “She is praised for her boxscore numbers and all her double double streaks. But when you watch the games you realize how fraudulent it all is. This girl literally can’t make a shot from 2 feet and tips the rebound to herself 4 times which makes her rebound numbers look INSANE. Then she stat pads in games that are over to increase her points and rebounding numbers so she can reach a double double. This stems from all the worship of meaningless double doubles or triple doubles from fans and media! It is RUINING the beautiful game of basketball. Play the game the right way or don’t play at all 👊🏼”
Well said !!! https://t.co/aBdbFDxiq0
— 7even (@iAmSJ) August 26, 2024
Reese is averaging a double-double of 13.5 points and 12.9 rebounds along with 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.6 blocks per game so far in the 2024 regular season. But her scoring efficiency — both from inside and outside the 3-point arc — has been unsatisfactory.
She does most of her damage on the offensive side of the ball around the rim, as she has already taken a whopping 193 shots at the rim this season. But Reese has converted only 95 of those shots at the rim, which equates to a 49.2 percent clip.
From three to 10 feet away from the net, she is shooting the rock at an even more inefficient rate. Just 25.4 percent of her field-goal attempts from that range have went through the bottom of the net.
Finally, Reese has attempted just 0.4 shots from 3-point range per game this season but is shooting a subpar 18.2 percent from deep.
A good microcosm of Reese’s inefficiency woes as a rookie came in the Sky’s most recent game versus the Las Vegas Aces on Aug. 25. Reese converted only four of her 16 shot attempts from the field and finished with a double-double of 11 points and 22 rebounds in a game Chicago lost by two points.
Reese will try to be more efficient with her field-goal attempts in the next game on Chicago’s schedule, which is against the Washington Mystics on Aug. 28. Washington may be an ideal team for Reese to get her offensive rhythm back against, as the Mystics own the worst record of any team in the Eastern Conference at 7-22 and are 3-7 over their last 10 games.
While the fact that Reese is averaging a double-double as a rookie is impressive, when considering how inefficiently she’s been scoring the ball, it’s understandable why Johnson seems to believe that her stats are inflated.
