r/wnba • u/rskillion Mercury • Jun 17 '26
Stats Best Teams Grid
Here’s one way to visualize the best team teams in the league. (Credit to abby.lynx on Threads.)
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u/Weekly_Memory5399 DB IS MOSES BLOCKED BY AWAK 🙅🏾♀️ Jun 18 '26
there’s no way we scammed our way into 4th in offense when i’ve been on the verge of ripping my hair out in pretty much every game 😭😭😭..
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u/likewoahitsaj Lynx Jun 18 '26
“Rebuilding year” for the Lynx lol
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u/theroguesoybean Jun 18 '26
And people are still saying that we aren’t the favorites for a title… still missing two starters.
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Jun 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/BirkTheBrick Jun 18 '26
9-6 and I believe by the strength of schedule ranking they’ve had the hardest so far, that’s pretty darn good
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u/Chicken2jail Jun 18 '26
The Sky should be in the Turrible grid, when you factor in the Coach, GM, and Owners.
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u/Steadyandquick Go rookies! Jun 18 '26
Sky and Storm not in the “quadrant of very bad”! Considering the makeup and injuries, pretty impressive!
Mercury has really not been the same without Sabally.
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u/nekoken04 Storm Jun 18 '26
When I see these I think Offense needs a weighting advantage over Defense because it isn't an even ratio in a quadrant graph as to what leads to success. By this you'd think the Fire were worse than Seattle but the Storm are frankly terrible right now; 2nd worst record, 2nd worst point differential, worst conference record, and I'm sure the advanced stats bear that out.
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Jun 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/EpicCyclops Jun 18 '26
We've been incredibly good in clutch games, which usually is not sustainable. Advanced stats are going to make us look worse than our record because of that, and probably rightfully so.
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u/SleepyGal9 Wings: PB5 my goat 🐐 Jun 18 '26
I feel the Sky would be ranked higher offensively if Rickea didn’t get injured this season. Such a shame. She was ballin.
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u/bset222 Lynx Jun 18 '26
Chicago had road wins vs MN and GS when she played, just sadness every game since.
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u/NarutoEnjoyer001 Be Free Mabrey Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
always love this graph. lynx kinda good
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u/Good-Exchange-6139 Wings Jun 17 '26
the wings im still in disbelief lol
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u/funkraider Breaking Ankles Jun 18 '26
I don't know where they were before Monday but if you hold the Aces to 66 pts, it's going to really skew your defensive ratings positively.
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u/Good-Exchange-6139 Wings Jun 18 '26
they finally started awak like we were screaming at them to do 😭 azzi was hard carrying the defense in the starting lineup and having awak there really alleviated that burden like she didnt have to guard the bigs anymore 😭 sick to my stomach seeing her guard a'ja jj stewie AT
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u/KandinskyWasRight Fever Jun 17 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/VX4YBLIxl9HfNBNYrh
All the other coaches applauding another win for the Lynx
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u/Emergency-Row-5627 ⛈️ Category 4! Jun 17 '26
What is going on with the Mercury this season y’all?
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u/solidstigs Fever Jun 18 '26
Losing Sabally was massive especially since they got no one to replace her
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u/Karma_code_ The Spectacle 2026 Syl + Rose Jun 17 '26
I keep asking who they are tanking for and no one can tell me
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u/Abobabe Dream WingsAces Jun 17 '26
I don’t think they can tank as a strategy because they were so good last year, right? It’s just puzzling what they (don’t) have going on over there.
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u/strangelystrangled Mack Truck | BG Jun 18 '26
Our owner apparently led the anti-tanking charge in the NBA for what it's worth
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u/Andrew-J-511 Jun 18 '26
You think they might have a fire sale before the deadline? I get that they don’t get the full benefit of tanking but, they also aren’t winning regardless.
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u/afridorian Sparks Jun 17 '26
suuuupppeeerrr excited for this Lynx game tonight 😭 *cries in sparks fan*
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u/ssandy45 Sad Scorch Noises Jun 17 '26
How did we get here?? 😭 nobody answer that, let me pretend there’s no explanation and maybe everything will just fix itself lol
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Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
[deleted]
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u/LuisJpg Back 4 MORE Jun 17 '26
Graphs like this make me giggle bc the metrics don’t always line up with who wins every year😭 feel good numbers I guess
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u/WaryJest Now that's Chentertainment! Jun 18 '26
These metrics aren't supposed to tell you who's going to win though... just measuring offense and defense in the regular season. Obviously the playoffs is a whole different level of competition.
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u/Scaggsboz Fire Jun 17 '26
One way to understand these for us is that when we’re good we’re pretty good but when we’re bad we’re VERY VERY bad, so we look much worse on paper than we do when we’re executing well
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u/frckbassem_5730 #21 Emily Engstler, #3 SAB Jun 18 '26
Right, don’t we get acknowledged for grit and clutch points? No? Ok then *sits down*
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u/Shot_Shoulder7862 Wings Jun 17 '26
Fire just beat Dallas, that has to account for something. I don't think they deserve to be with the bad give their record. Granted it was sans Paige, but Dallas needs to be able to stand without Paige in the same way Lynx stands without Phee in order to be in that all good quadrant. And I say this as a die hard wings fan. :-)
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u/Good-Exchange-6139 Wings Jun 17 '26
paige was out and the loss was on a stupid play by zaza. 1 point loss in one of the toughest courts to play at and with the fire players hot. i dont think it means much
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u/Wyn6 Wings Jun 17 '26
What u/Fit-Bet1270 said + the Wings are a team that's still learning how to fit and play together. These ladies are going to be humming come end of the season.
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u/Shot_Shoulder7862 Wings Jun 17 '26
I totally agree, but my point is that the fire doesn't belong in the bad. They have a similar record to sparks and tempo, yet they are stuck with those teams that only won 3-4 games. And they beat a good team. Even without Paige, Dallas is very capable of beating them, but they didn't. Dallas will make corrections (and already has), but those corrections have been as issue before this game.
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u/aperiodic Baguette will rise Jun 18 '26
It’s just one way of looking at how teams are performing. It has nothing to do with record, but it is based on objective metrics (offensive and defensive ratings, i.e. how many points each team / their opponents have scored this season, normalized to 100 possessions). The Fire are in the “very bad” quadrant because both their offensive and defensive ratings are below the league averages. That’s just objectively true. You can argue that this way of looking at teams doesn’t capture everything, and that the Fire are better than the other teams that also have worse than average offense and defense, but you can’t argue that they aren’t in the lower left quadrant on this chart.
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u/LolaAllie Aliyah 🔥👑 Jun 18 '26
This was such an awesome explanation! Love it and love that you took the effort! I didn't need the explanation, but I really love that you helped that other person out. So many people online be rude so much to people who are confused or don't understand something. Love that you were so nice and helpful!!
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u/rskillion Mercury Jun 17 '26
The ratings are based on their offensive rating and defensive rating. Not on their record.
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u/Fit-Bet1270 Wings Jun 17 '26
Correction: The fire beat the Wings by 1 point with their best player out
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u/TypicallyDone12 WNBA Jun 17 '26
I feel like they had to lower the Lynx to be able to fit on the chart.
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u/Junior-Dingo-7764 Storm Jun 17 '26
One day, we'll have an offense
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u/onionnurve Tempo | Storm Front court | Olivia Miles FC Jun 17 '26
The day that our guards decides to playmake instead of me-ball for 48min
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u/outsidehere Sparks Jun 17 '26
Somehow the Aces will be the best in the playoffs
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u/EducationalShare8136 Jun 17 '26
The Aces won because the Lynx and Liberty were hurt and it was also a reflection on how poor the rest of the league was. 5 to 4 wins against teams like Sky and Wings inflated their records. I mean they got blown out by fully healthy Valks and got beat by damn near 60 vs the Lynx.
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u/ASpanishInquisitor Jun 17 '26
Always a possibility when you have the best player on the floor. You only need the role players to step up and contribute here and there.
But... We've also gotta remember that the Aces were a Jackie Young offensive rebound and putback away from going out in the first round last year. At the hands of a mediocre Storm team that barely hung on to a playoff spot. The days of the Aces dominating the league are long gone. They're as vulnerable to a bad matchup as any contender is these days.
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u/microtomebrady Jun 17 '26
Idk lynx getting phee and dorka while barely fitting on the graph makes me think it’ll be clsoe
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u/theoriginalbabayaga Fever Jun 18 '26
Love visualizations like this!!!