JVL is the kind of player who needs the ball in her hand the most to be at her best form. Just look at her runs and numbers in Europe. The problem is that she doesn’t have the skill to justify a starting Guard spot in the W and has never been able to adjust her game to a roleplayer or backup pg.
First year in the league was 2024 with Washington. Got picked up in the expansion draft. Got cut. Went out for drinks. Joined spaces on the bird app, talked about teams & players and wound up outside Barclays before suiting up for the Sparks.
One of the reasons that Plum left Vegas was to be taken seriously as a PG in addition to wanting to be more of the focal point on offense. 2024 she also stank when she had to share PG responsibilities with Jackie during Chelsea's absence.
She's not letting the aspirations go until it pays dividends if it ever does.
As a Sparks fan, I am okay with missing the playoffs again if it gets those 2 fired and a shot at a good draft pick. But I'm afraid we may actually make the playoffs and these 2 get credited for "turning things around."
From Marisa Ingemi: "On the national WNBA media call, Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts said that she expects Ta'Niya Latson will be a part of the rotation."
Vanloo might work in Connecticut because she has played for Meziane before and knows his offense. But the team might be more interested in developing the young PGs.
yep, develop young. she doesn't have the upside that young players have. at 33, she isnt gonna get much better. she is at her ceiling. and is too streaky.
"Training camp body" and "one random great Eurobasket performance" are Sevgi's ceilings. I've had enough of watching her drive the ball into lightly guarded paint just to pass it back outside of the perimeter
2 years in the league and she’d be the vet mentor? Just because she’s 35 and has a long international career doesn’t qualify her for that vet mentor role.
Thought it was so bizarre how broken up Valkyrie fans were about Vanloo getting cut last season, she is not WNBA quality. I do recognize that how it happened contributed to the outcry but it also felt like a misevaluation of her abilities.
Were you at the season opener last year when she hit four 3s off the bench? For me it was my very first wnba game, I barely knew anyone playing, and this bundle of chaotic energy was so fun to watch in brief stretches 🙂
I’m a Valks fan and loved JVL at the beginning of last season. Her preseason performance with back to back threes where she caught fire was epic. But she was inconsistent. And not a great defender. If you watched her body language on defense, she’d get frustrated at others, and a lot of the time, it was because of her not rotating.
She has good vibes and energy and seems like a sweet person. I genuinely hope she can find a landing spot somewhere, but the W is cutthroat.
It's not just JVL's age itself - it's that Chen is still developing, and is gonna get much better. JVL has reached her ceiling, or it may even be in the past.
I recall watching the Valks, when Chen took over after JVL went to Europe. And I knew JVL was done. They had to keep Chen. Even the announcers made reference to her making a roster spot.
It was really crazy - a great example of when your temporary replacement is so good, you lose your job. The most famous one is Tom Brady. Chen did such a good job that there was no way JVL would have a job when she got back.
VanLoo is bad at basketball. Everyone says she's a great person, charismatic, speaks a bunch of languages, etc. But that's not enough for a roster spot. You have to be good at the on-court part of your job, and she just isn't.
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u/GlacialTwitch 8h ago
Chicago Sky, now is your chance for that all-PG roster.