Scott Agness, Fieldhouse Files Fever Reporter

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Hire high-quality certified pros at Angie.com. Todd, how are you? Hey, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on.

Well, thank you for taking the time. Outside of what took place yesterday, we're heading towards the break. First full impressions on what we've seen of Kaitlyn Clark and how she's improved. Yeah, it's one of those things where I think she's only continuing to rise as she gains more familiarity with her teammates and vice versa there. Turnovers are still high, but I mean, you look back at this last week and it's been really, really impressive. The surprising thing, if anything, is the one game they lost is the one you would have almost guaranteed that they won.

But they've beaten three powers, you talk about New York, Phoenix, and Minnesota, and those have been some of their best wins and some of their best performances of the season. And it all starts with her. They're putting the ball in her hands more. She's now the WNBA's leader in assists per game, and she's been a big reason why the team is 9-3 since mid-June.

Miss Scott, Agnes is here with us. When you think about a team that started this season 1-8 and you just talked about their turnaround, were they just victims of that packed schedule? Is it familiarity? How would you weigh that out?

Yeah, I think it's definitely the former. And on top of that, there's not much of a break before you get into the WNBA season. Kaitlyn went home for a week and then training camp started. So, she's really not had much of an offseason since you go back to probably September or October. And then you play that vicious, inhumane schedule with 11 games in 20 days with a group that doesn't have much familiarity together.

You don't have practice time. You're basically playing every other day, and that was just set up for failure. You get why they do it, even though it didn't prove to be successful from a basketball standpoint for the Fever. It was certainly a dollars and cents success, I think, for the entire league in terms of exposure. And you consider the fact that the Fever had the top rated, 10 of the top 11 rated WNBA games. That's all been a huge success and now it continues. There has not been any wavering from that support. In fact, it's probably picked up even more as they continue to win and more people are tuned in.

Which basically almost is guaranteed probably 2 million viewers for any nationally televised game, which if you asked me a year ago, that's probably about 4x what anybody would have expected for any W game. Scott and Agnes is here with us from Fieldhouse Files. You talk about the fact that she hasn't had a break since prior to the college season. When you think about this break that is WNBA break, which is about a month long, what is she going to be up to? What is the team doing?

Anything? What is she going to do? Yeah, I think they all will be taken a couple weeks off.

I know she has a vacation planned and well deserved right there too. But then I think they will get a week to 10 days to get after it again with kind of a second training camp or maybe a full one for the first time for this group. I think that will be incredibly valuable and impactful for this bunch. The key thing too for them is they haven't really had a stretch of injuries. We've seen several teams face that. They have not.

It's only been to reserve Temefack Bentley and that's just about it. So the fact that they've had a healthy roster has been huge and now after playing on Wednesday, they'll have a month between games. They think that will be really valuable to a team that is really already advancing quicker than we all thought here in this first season with Kaitlyn a part of the bunch. You talk about her upcoming vacation, well deserved. Would you say that there is a slim to any chance that she ends up on this U.S. women's national team? I do just because we got first of all have to be tracking Diana. She has missed a handful of games including a rematch against the Fever here recently in Indiana and did not play in that one. They are a team that is about bother those bothered by injuries. And so Kaitlyn will certainly already be in Phoenix coming up this weekend because of all-star weekend.

And I don't expect anyone to have to bow out due to injury, but we saw that just a week ago with the men's team with Kawhi Leonard. And so I don't think you should rule anything out. Ms. Scott Agnes is here with us from Fieldhouse Files. When you think about the attention that she has garnered and the criticism that she's received here on the professional level, from when you started covering her, have you noticed any changes in her? She still hasn't said or done anything controversial? She hasn't lashed out? It seems pretty even. Is it that way when you're seeing her on a daily as well?

Oh absolutely. If anything she's loosened up a little bit. I think you're getting some fun playfulness out of her whether it's with stuff that's been going on or a lot more press conferences with her teammates rather than alone. I think they're enjoying those a lot more or just the way in which questions are phrased. Maybe she'll answer them in a playful way.

So I think that's in recognition of how more comfortable she's getting and maybe she's trying to let her guard down just a little bit. And in large part too that's because they're basketball questions. They're about what's happening on the court rather than contrived questions about how she should save the world or why she hasn't already. There's things like that that just do not make any sense and she hasn't had to face any of those silly questions in my opinion over the last three weeks or so and that correlates with this win streak too. Well Scott you talk about the turnovers and you said she leads the league in assists.

We know the turnovers are still high. What do you attribute that to outside of a little bit of inexperience here? Yeah, that's one thing. I think the length and quickness and speed and the angles that defenders play at you just can't replicate that.

It's much higher than it is at the college level. So I think that's the other thing. I think she is gambling a little too much.

I mean you looked at the last game. She turned it over on just a basic baby telegraph bounce pass going to one of her teammates on the first play of the game. That one's got to be cleaned up. Some of them aren't always on her either. She'll throw it ahead and put it in the pocket of her teammate and they'll fumble it out of bounds or she'll slice a pass when a teammate's making a 45 degree cut to the basket and they fumble it away.

So I think it's slightly higher than probably what is real but if anything that's the biggest thing that she's needing to improve upon in the next year or so. Scott Adkins here with us, the JR Sport Reef Show on the Infinity Sports Network. As we continue on with the season post-Olympics, we didn't even hit the break and there's so many conversations about Rookie of the Year. Ranger Reese went on that amazing streak, the double-double streak. Kaitlyn Clark has upped her numbers and moved into triple-doubles and what have you.

What are your thoughts as the season continues on in August? I say, hey, why not create a bigger story? Give them both Rookie of the Year, co-Rookie of the Year. Oh, you can't do that.

No. What I make most of that is people are paying attention enough that they're trying to discuss an award like that. I think any of the awards, it's far too premature to even discuss. We're not even to the All-Star break just yet. I think that just shows the level in which people are now finally paying attention to what Kaitlyn is doing out there and in large part trying to compare and contrast and in doing that you also try to create rivalries a little bit and again that generates more interest. I think that's the overwhelming takeaway there. To me, I'm not sure how you look at what the Fever are doing. You see how Kaitlyn's usage rate and how impactful she has been. I'm not even sure stats can put it into words and describe exactly what she's doing. I've just been stunned that it's been a discourse probably for the last month when we're barely halfway through the season.

Well, Scott, you want to talk about a team accomplishment right now? The Fever is sitting at 7th. The top 8 teams make the playoffs.

You have the Chicago Sky right behind them at number 8. What are your thoughts on what a playoff run would look like? We're going to get Kaitlyn Clark in the playoffs. I think that's almost a foregone conclusion bar an injury.

That's the hope. Going into this season, that's what they were talking about. I think they were smart to set realistic expectations and that was just get to the playoffs. They were wanting to make a steady incline in the direction they're headed, but things have been very dark, been very gloomy for this franchise in the last 10 years. So that would be a significant step for a group that back in the day with Tamika Catchings, I think made 11 straight postseason appearances, which is a WNBA record.

That's what they're trying to get back to. Could they make a postseason run? Perhaps maybe win a series depending on the matchup and injuries, but realistically, this team is not a contender and they're just trying to experience that for the first time.

Very much so, similar to how Tyrese Halbert and the Peasers. That's exactly what this season was about for them and they were ultimately able to exceed all expectations as well. So how does this team, Scott, get better? Are they going to have to draft a player in the summertime? Are we looking at free agency?

Does this young group grow into being even better together? How do they step into that Liberty Aces spot? They've been killing it for years now, but how do they continue to ascend? First thing is I expect them to have a really good draft pick this year, so you want to hit on that.

Second of all, you'll have growth from within, in particular your last two number one picks. I think a big reason early in the season why they struggled was Aleah Boston was just a shell of herself in the first couple of weeks. She even had to get off social media and just try to focus on herself and go into this year with a refresh mindset. She got to that. She was the outstanding performer in the last game, in fact. As much as we talk about Kaitlyn, it was Aleah Boston, I think, like 18 points and 16 rebounds and a big catalyst in that second half the other day.

So I think it's improvement from them. And then on top of that, here's the thing I'm curious to see. What veterans are watching this and watching sellout arenas and watching them play on national TV basically every game?

And they see Kaitlyn and they see the way Kaitlyn gets them the ball and say, I want to be part of that. That's the thing I'm most intrigued to be watching. Scott Agnes joining us from Fieldhouse Files. Well, we got one more game on Wednesday against Dallas. What the heck are you doing for the next month?

You get a chance to relax just a little bit? Not yet, man. I'm still on the go. I'm currently here out in Las Vegas for Summer League. I'll directly head to Phoenix to cover the All-Star Weekend and USA Basketball Women, then maybe head home.

But keep in mind, I got Tyrese in Team USA, so we'll be following along there. But you do hope things begin to ease back and you're able to play catch-up on some stories and look ahead to the schedule release here in less than a month. Hey, Scott, always keeping busy. Well, thank you so much. Where can people follow you and your work with Fieldhouse Files?

Yeah, just FieldhouseFiles.com and at Scott Agnes on social media. Hey, Scott, appreciate you, man. Safe travels. You bet.

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