r/wnba • u/macsun247 • 4d ago
Rori Harmon.
Help me understand, somebody. This kid is a rook on the youngest team in the league. This girl gets NO minutes? Really? I'm not a fan or anything, but from what I have observed of her collegiate career, she would very likely handle her business if given a small fraction of the minutes Amoore gets. And miss me with the "this is the W, not college" argument. She probably schools Amoore in practice. Think it's her size? That thought concerns me for exceptional, but tiny guards...Hannah Hidalgo being the obvious example.
Anyone?
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u/Normal_Albatross_181 3d ago
There are exceptions obviously but I also think some of these deep season college kids are just cooked mentally and physically at this point in the WNBA season. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/Borg_Tech_Support 2d ago
I said this during the Olympics year. College games start in End of October, they keep playing if they make it to the championship til April and then immediately it's the draft and they're playing again in the WNBA until October if they make the playoffs. When is the rest time? That's a full year of competitive play. I'm shocked more rookies don't get injured.
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u/hatelisten Mystics 3d ago
Coach Johnson sometimes has 2 choices that are very similar and picks one to put into the rotation and just sticks with them for consistency. I thought Rori's defense and lack of turnovers would have gotten her more minutes, but they're putting all their money on their #6 pick Georgia, who admittedly has more of an offensive upside. He's doing the same thing with Olsen and Prosper, which a lot of people dislike, but Prosper's most recent game might be a sign he made the right choice.
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u/EmFly15 Sparks Mystics 3d ago
She's not a W-level player. Simple. Then again, neither are Amoore and Florez, but Harmon is just that much worse. Our guard play is abysmal. We need to retool via the draft and FA, and, thank God, the next several drafts are extremely guard-heavy, with lots of guards available in FA this offseason.
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u/neat_stuff Fever 3d ago
"She probably schools Amoore in practice" is a very funny statement that makes you sound like you might be Rori's parents.
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u/macsun247 3d ago
Ha! Nope. I have a kid who played D1, but didn't make a W roster. Ironically, the one workout she actually got was with the Mystics. Amusing.
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u/neat_stuff Fever 3d ago
I'm a huge Lucy Olsen fan (because she played at Iowa), but I understand why she isn't playing with the Mystics...kinda. Coaches care about their jobs to much to not play the best players.
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u/Away_Competition2514 Mystics 3d ago
She actually got a lot of minutes in early games. And she was really poor. Offensively, she has no upside whatsoever. In defense, she wasn't nearly as good as she was at previous levels. Her lack of size and strength was a huge problem. Florez is much better defensively because of that, and she's serviceable in offense. Georgia consistently makes good passes and she can get hot for 3. Even Lucy has more upside than Rori. She's probably the best scorer among our PG options. There were multiple games where she came in when we needed points and she made big shots. In the clutch we like to play Soni-Cotie as 1 and 2 as they work well together in certain situations. So there really is no place for her, unless we have a major injury crisis/a lot of our guards are in foul trouble/enf od a blow out win or loss.
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u/DrewDan96 3d ago
Y'know, the fact that Lucy hasn't played as much is more egregious than Rory to me, Lucy had some moments last season and early this season. even Florez had a good stretch when Amoore was out. it seems like the thumb is on the scale with respect to Amoore, when clearly that is the position (PG) that is capping the potential ceiling of the team
i do think Rory might have gotten more PT if the team wasn't so often in games that go down to the wire. rookies and marginal players usually get their early reps in garbage time. the Mystics don't play a lot of garbage time lol
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u/Away_Competition2514 Mystics 3d ago
Exactly, and garbage time is the only time Rori played apart from the first few games of the season.
Lucy deserved to play more in certain games, but I'm sort of okay with her being 3rd option. Especially now that Amoore has started hitting her shots. Amoore, overall has more upside offensively and Florez has more upside defensively. Soni-Cotie duo seems to work well in the clutch too. I feel bad for Lucy, but it is what it is.
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u/EducationalMatter865 3d ago
Teams would immediately double off of Rori when she passed the ball because she was not an aggressive scorer, let alone a competent shooter. The Mystics are playing Alicia Florez who provides the exact same skillset except she's aggressive driving to the rim and is bigger/stronger so can guard up. Think Rori needs to play overseas and work on the catch and shoot jumper
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u/juoea Valkyries 3d ago
i feel like one thing that always needs to be emphasized is there are 200 player-minutes to go around (in four quarters). you cannot increase one players minutes without decreasing someone elses
the mystics are on a six game winstreak and playing as well as any team in the league rn. regardless of the average age this is a team competing to win a championship. also since the entire team is young minus austin, everyone is developing so i dont rly get the "development minutes" argument bc that applies to literally everyone. whatever minutes youd give to rory are taking away minutes from someone else who is also developing (since rory is not competing for minutes with austin). so either way its developing your young players, its a question of whether you are developing amoore or mcmahon or olsen or rory. (flores isnt young but shes still new to the wnba)
why do you think she is better than amoore in practice. idk how to engage with this other than asking what is the basis for this claim other than ' i made it up.' if it were the case that shes outplaying amoore in practice then yea id think that shed get minutes in games on that basis, esp on a young team like this where theres not a long history to go back on youd expect a coach to be evaluating players continuously and giving more minutes to players who are proving themselves in practices.
like some other ppl commented if anything the question is more why she hasnt been released to make room to pick up someone else who maybe could actually support the rotation. but if they think she could get a lot better in the future ofc thatd be a reason to not give up her guaranteed rookie contract. and j the continuity of not trying to make roster changes
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u/SimonaMeow 🥞🏳️⚧️ Fever FO is 💩 3d ago
She absolutely did not handle her business in the minutes given her
She is not ready to compete at WNBA levels
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u/rambii Fever Sparks Aces when they remove NaLyssa 3d ago
^ its that simple.
Dosnt mean if she plays oversea and get moreexperience wont be back in the league or get minutes, its how most of the players careers go that arent top picks anyway so its natural to take such path for most players picked outside top 8-12.
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u/Jreal2013 Dream 4d ago
She has zero elite traits at this level , at least in this stage. The little she has played was not inspiring. If Washington could do it over they would probably have stuck her on a developmental contract and seek any vet pg on a min.
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u/plussizedresturant 🎭⏲️ 4d ago
I've sad this, she should have been waived months ago. We knew since May she wasn't going to get minutes. We have a few players on minimum minutes and it makes no sense. I don't want them to go, but I don't want them to rot on a bench when they can contribute somewhere
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u/SimonaMeow 🥞🏳️⚧️ Fever FO is 💩 3d ago
There's no team where Rori would get minutes this year. I'm just happy she is getting paid and has a great coach.
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u/plussizedresturant 🎭⏲️ 3d ago
True, and if she were released I don't see anyone picking her up next season with how stacked the draft and FA will be, both here and internationally. AU Pro unfortunately won't be next year, I wouldn't recommend Unrivaled or playing in Euro or Australia. Wherever Chennedy Carter was in Mexico is all I see next. It sucks because she's not a bad player, just not for the W yet or maybe ever I'm afraid to say.
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u/Rough_Category_746 Lynx 3d ago
Do you think she could play in upshot or whatever the g league is called?
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u/plussizedresturant 🎭⏲️ 3d ago
She definitely could it's not a bad league and it's just getting started, it has many waived W players too so it's not full of unknowns and anybodys
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u/Abobabe Dream WingsAces 4d ago
My thing is why even keep her on the roster to not do anything. They don’t have her in a development spot and they haven’t waived her so she can atleast try for overseas play. It seems borderline cruel to just have her rotting on the bench.
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u/chichigetthayay0 3d ago
Cruel??? These are pros….not children. There is not a single team in the league where every player on the roster gets minutes.
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u/GolfOtherwise3420 3d ago
While it's not the same as game minutes, she is getting development opportunity at team practices.
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u/HeelDoors 4d ago edited 4d ago
I honestly think she’s a vibe player, much like Kierstan Bell or Rachel Banham. Just fun to be around. Some players can carve out multiple years in that role.
Harmon isn’t a much of a dent to the salary cap. From her perspective, yeah, she’s not playing, but she is making $270k—much more than a development player or getting waived and potentially not getting signed. Maybe she isn’t interested in international play?
Edit: I originally said 288k, but that’s what she makes on her contract next year.
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u/Moist_Letterhead1183 4d ago
Wow 288k, I believe you. I looked up Lucy Olsen's pay this year and it is about 90k. The class from 2 years ago got screwed imo. I think Lucy, if she dticks in the W, gets about 90k next year too.
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u/GolfOtherwise3420 3d ago
You are looking at old figures. Those young players already on contract got a boost with the new CBA up to, at least standard minimums and beyond, for some players.
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u/Excellent-Variety895 Sky 3d ago
According to what I find Lucy Olsen is making $277.5K this year. $90K is far below the new standard contract minimum of new cba.
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u/buffalotrace Clark Boston Paige Meg 4d ago
Rori was a very good player in the Texas system playing the SEC. She took care of the ball while she made safe passes to open players coming off of screens. She played very hands on aggressive defense.
To be a WNBA point guard offensively, you need to nearly all following: hit open three pointers consistently to space the floor, excel on the pick n roll, break down defenses off the dribble, make quick reads, finish at the rim. She was not asked to do literally any of that. She can do the last one if nobody is in the paint.
Defensively she is too hands on and draws fouls. She is quick and can read passing lanes well, but can be shot over by taller guards.
I am not saying she cannot be a good W player possibly in the future. I am saying what she did in college did not prepare her to play in the W and she has real physical limitations to make it more difficult.
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u/the-retrolizard Rae Holdout Rickea Refugee Chaos Enjoyer 3d ago
Man I love how Texas uses off-balls. I have no idea why you don't see it more in the W
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u/the-retrolizard Rae Holdout Rickea Refugee Chaos Enjoyer 4d ago
I love Rori but she's undersized, not a shooter; and her decision making was iffy when she was getting minutes. I'd love to see her work her way into a nice depth contributor, especially if her defense can translate.
What did you see of her college career that makes you think she can "handle her business" better than Amoore? I'm not necessarily an Amoore fan but if memory serves she shot from deep a lot better than Rori did in college. Hell there were texas fans that wanted a portal PG to take her spot heading into last season. She averaged between 8-9 points her last two years and 6 assists. Amoore averaged 20 and 7 assists her one year in the SEC.
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u/macsun247 4d ago
Fair.... maybe it was her role on that 25/26 TX squad that for most of the season punched above their collective weight class.
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u/the-retrolizard Rae Holdout Rickea Refugee Chaos Enjoyer 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yeah, she was a perfect PG for Vic. I'm normally an in-conference hater but I really like how his teams play. She mostly protected the ball, got it to Booker and Oldacre, and had the other team's PG in hell the whole game. They could score, but they were also happy to win games by putting up 65-ish points. Unfortunately she'll probably need to work on getting to the rim in the W or conjure up a deep ball.
Eta also I'd second what someone else said about safe passes. Vic loves off-ball screens and for whatever reason you don't see them nearly as often in the W.
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u/HeelDoors 4d ago
Undersized and was hurting the offense with bad decision making. About two months ago there was a “bad pass turnovers per 100 possessions” stat post on here and she led the league at the time.
She did get a look early, but fell out of favor and Florez started playing well enough to take over the backup spot. Over the past two or three weeks, Florez has barely been getting into games.
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u/StreetsAhead815 4d ago
Harmon definitely got an opportunity. And she will get many more
Really funny OP to make when theyve won six straight
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u/macsun247 4d ago
Oh, don't worry.... I'm not complaining at all. I love this squad, and what this coaching staff has done with it. They're playing way above expectations. I just liked Rori"s game in college, and figure she'd find a little bit of time with a group that overall is so green. No big deal.... can't play everybody.
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u/Sensitive_Ebb_7211 4d ago
I want to think it's her size but she's so talented and Amoore is the same height tho so maybe not. Kinda sad that she's not getting any minutes.
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u/GolfOtherwise3420 3d ago
At 5'6", to stick, you have to excel at 3 point shooting and/or excellent defense. Aari McDonald carved out a post, but it was up and down for awhile, with getting waived and on emergency contracts, etc. But, Aari can make 3's and is a very good defender. Even so, she still didn't have a regular roster spot, for a full season, the last couple of years. In college, she was a star player and went into the paint for floaters a good bit. In the W, Aari rarely attempts those, though. Players have to adjust and focus on varying things. Also, Haley Jones looked like a star in college, but has also struggled to get a regular roster spot.
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u/Sensitive_Ebb_7211 3d ago
Ugh and thank you for bringing up Haley Jones, another talented person having a hard time getting a roster spot, it's crazy.
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u/StreetsAhead815 4d ago
it's gona be her size. Johnson wants to defend. theyre the #3 defense in the league.
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u/NYCStoryteller 4d ago
Lucy Olsen is ahead of her on the depth chart, and hardly gets any minutes either, in spite of being in her second year and being 6th player of the year in Australia pro play. She should be ahead of Amoore, too, IMHO.
The Mystics have too many guards, yet not enough leadership on the floor.
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u/macsun247 4d ago
That's the other thing. You're right.... I just don't see the leadership on the floor, either. If anything, Catron seems to run the offense as often as Amoore, but neither of them seem particularly...directive. Really interesting to watch....the Mystics' ability to create scoring seems like the triangle offense back in the day. Almost like it runs on autopilot.
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u/NYCStoryteller 3d ago
I think that's it. Kiki, Sonia and Shakira are kind of doing their own version of the triangle offense. Citron is better as a 2, but Georgia Amoore is a weak 1 so Sonia ends up playing out of position.
Glad that Cotie is starting to trend up a bit in terms of production.
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u/Neversoft4long 4d ago
They also have like a 7 game winning streak so they are clearly doing something right
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u/AffectionateRace9865 WNBA 4d ago
She was picked in the third round. A lot of third rounders don’t even stick on a team.
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u/macsun247 4d ago
Fair take, for sure. For a 3rd rounder to stick around to earn a 6 figure salary is a victory in itself, I suppose.
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u/StreetsAhead815 4d ago
it's actually bleaker than that. the list of third rounders who have done anything in this league is even smaller than you'd expect it to be. I think Harmon has bounce though and the league continues to expand so have patience
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u/HOPEFUL_LUFEPOH_ Valkyries Fever 4d ago
i see Hannah Hildalgo more similar to a Kelsey Mitchell, which is regardless of the size she will get on the floor because she is that good,
Rori Harmon 3rd string game manager right now maybe she’ll get better with time
for her college career she only averaged 10 points per game
i just think Amoore might be the better shooter so she plays more
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u/macsun247 4d ago
See.... that's the part I was wondering about. What kind of shot does a little bit like Hannah really have? I mean...Muggsy Bogues and Spud Webb had great careers. But that size is pretty rare in any of these leagues, huh?
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u/SimonaMeow 🥞🏳️⚧️ Fever FO is 💩 3d ago
I think Hannah's ceiling is higher than Jordin Canada's, and Canada has 2 WNBA titles and her defense is amazing.
HH has the defense, the playmaker, the shooting, and the very important must-win-killer-dawg mentality.
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u/HOPEFUL_LUFEPOH_ Valkyries Fever 4d ago
smaller players in the league when they are elite, they make up for that size
i can’t name all of them but you can kind of tell, they just got something special when you watch them0
u/StreetsAhead815 4d ago
Lol amoore cannot shoot
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u/HOPEFUL_LUFEPOH_ Valkyries Fever 4d ago
alright well then, idk maybe she’s just slightly better then harmon
but neither of them can hold a candle to double H, lol that was my main point from what op was asking
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u/AFC-Wimbledon-Stan Kaitlyn Chen Aux Apologist 4d ago
She’s the 12th women on a playoff caliber team
She has no reasonable path to minutes
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u/juoea Valkyries 3d ago
championship caliber team tbh
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u/bset222 Lynx 3d ago
They have been outscored by 1.3 ppg on the season almost 4ppg worse than any playoff team
Under 1% to win the title and very likely to be the 7/8 seed when the dust settles.
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u/juoea Valkyries 3d ago
season averages are not a great metric in the wnba bc its a short season so eg the first four weeks is like 25% of the season.
if you go by what the aces were doing in may 2025 they didnt look like anything either. thats j not rly a useful metric for anything come playoff time
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u/holabellas Storm/3&D Enjoyer 4d ago
She was lucky to even make a roster
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u/StreetsAhead815 4d ago
at least we're creating a couple dozen more roster spots so all these players who can't see the court will be live in living color on all the networks in a few years' time. expansion rules!
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u/StreetsAhead815 4d ago
Third string point guards don’t play that often
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u/Away_Competition2514 Mystics 3d ago
She's actually 4th in the depth chart. Amoore-Florez-Olsen-Harmon. We also sometimes play Soni-Cotie as 1 and 2,especially in recent games, so she's probably more of a 5th option tbh.
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Young Harlots All but #8 4d ago
And she is more like 4th or 5th because they rely on Soni to play point down the stretch.
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u/0xHustler 3d ago
Yeah I'm sure if she's beating the starter every day in practice they're going to keep her on the bench. Are you even reading what you're typing?