BIG THINGS ON HORIZON?

Personality for Giants, size for Warriors, Clark turning pro top wish list for 2024

Somewhere between the extremes — the Super Bowl-caliber San Francisco 49ers and the dead men walking Oakland Athletics — we find two Bay Area teams that need to start clarifying their identity. In that spirit, let’s proceed with the Things I’d Like to See for 2024:

• In the galaxy of baseball stardom, the San Francisco Giants are a little cluster of meteors, seldom burning hot for long. This has become a matter of grudging acceptance for frustrated fans, and it’s a long road back. But there’s another component to first-rate entertainment, and that’s personality.

It comes in many forms, always delightful to watch and a trigger for jersey sales in the merchandise outlets. Baseball is a beckoning canvas for showmen, eccentrics, firebrands, quirky late bloomers and those possessed of a certain genius, with the full range of body types.

When the Giants put together three World Series titles in five years, they weren’t just an endearing group of players, they were a traveling vaudeville show. What a cast: Tim Lincecum, Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence, Brian Wilson, Madison Bumgarner, Sergio Romo, Barry Zito. They filled the outfield with unbridled passion: Angel Pagan, Gregor Blanco, Andres Torres. The more you learned about the heartof-gold Jake Peavy and Michael Morse, the more you savored their success. (For a while, that even applied to Aubrey Huff.)

Scouts don’t scan the landscape in search of personality — it’s all about the “tools” that make a ballplayer — and a number of those Giants were buried in draft-day obscurity. Pence was a 40thround pick his first time around, Lincecum a 48throunder. (Neither signed at that time). The Giants snagged Wilson in the 24th round, Romo the 28th.

As such, there’s no set formula for the Giants to become more interesting. Lest one fear they have no eye for such matters,

they’re already on the right track with the freeagent signing of Jung Hoo Lee, who lives to entertain. In the long history of the game, that never has been a bad thing.

• When it comes to the Golden State Warriors’ identity, something that doesn’t actually exist at the moment, it’s not just a matter of sorting out an awkward-fitting roster. There are enough cool heads in Chase Center to build something cohesive and playoffworthy in the coming months.

No, it’s more about the Warriors getting trampled, literally, by a trend.

As noted in this space a month ago, the NBA has become a big-man’s league. It’s not enough to just fire off 3-pointers and hope for the best; the secondary gold mine is around the basket, and if you check the points-inthe-paint numbers as of Friday morning, you find the Warriors dead last in scoring and 16th in points allowed.

Considering how often their opponents score at will on attacks to the basket, it’s surprising the number isn’t more glaring. As Denver’s Nikola Jokic bullied his way to a

34-point performance during the Nuggets’ 130127 win Thursday night, TNT’s Kenny Smith pegged the Warriors as “a bunch of skinny guys” trying to guard him without Draymond Green — and Green is hardly a true center.

The postseason future isn’t as clear as, say, an inevitable Bill RussellWilt Chamberlain or Kareem Abdul-JabbarRobert Parish matchup. The big-man names are scattered about, some of them (or their teams) not fully equipped for the big stage. But they are everywhere, and recent images show exactly where this league is heading: Giannis Antetokounmpo going against Victor Wembanyama, Jokic squaring off against Joel Embiid, Chet Holmgren facing Zion Williamson, with big-man scorers and rim protectors at every turn.

What makes it all so fascinating is that the league, as always, is a haven for spectacular young guards — a category in which the Warriors’ Splash Brothers routinely made opponents look sick. But as under-25 backcourt stars Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony

Edwards and De’Aaron Fox chart plans to take over the Western Conference, Golden State has no players in this realm. Charles Barkley might harbor an insipid bias against the Warriors, but when he dismisses them in the sense that “it’s a young people’s league,” he’s absolutely right.

How does a team get big, in a hurry, with Curry still at his best? Don’t ask me; I defended the draft of James Wiseman and argued against trading him until he had lost everyone’s faith. But this has to become a priority in future drafts and trade discussions. The Warriors would hate to see the league evolve without them.

• Caitlin Clark, the biggest story in women’s basketball, turns pro and launches her WNBA career with Indiana.

If you’re somehow unaware of Clark’s performances for the University of Iowa, it was best summarized by Big Ten Network announcer Mike Hall during Clark’s 40point masterpiece Tuesday night against Michigan State: “We are watching one of the greatest basketball players of all time.”

That’s right — including the men.

Nobody, including Curry, Pete Maravich and Larry Bird, ever shot better from way outside than Clark. Forget the routine 3-pointers: Clark is flat-out deadly from 30 feet and beyond. Her footwork and shot release are absolutely textbook. Even from the “logo,” which is just inside midcourt at Carver-Hawkeye arena, this is a routine jump shot for Clark.

That’s where she found herself Tuesday night in the game’s final seconds. The halfcourt stripe is 47 feet from the basket, she cast off from about 10 feet inside that. “I knew it was going in when it left my hand,” she said after the buzzer-beating shot gave Iowa the victory, and so did everyone in the building.

This is where Clark’s admirable perspective came into play. “Honestly, I just look around and I get to play in an arena full of little kids, a lot of little girls who admire our team,” she said. “Fans that are here at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night in the beginning of January. That’s rare for women’s basketball, but it’s becoming the norm.”

The collegiate game has become the province of great athletes with superb skills (personal favorites: Colorado’s Jaylyn Sherrod, USC’s JuJu Watkins, South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley and UConn’s Paige Bueckers), but

Clark’s talent is such that she rises above them all. Even as she leads the nation in scoring (31.5 points per game), her first instinct is to find an open teammate — and she’s an NBA-level passer in strength and timing, leading the country in total assists (111) heading into the weekend.

Clark has another year of eligibility remaining at Iowa, but this would be an awfully good time to turn pro. Indiana has the first pick in the draft, and Clark cherishes her Midwestern upbringing and values. She always has had a knack for passes of all varieties to players around the basket, and Indiana has a real gem in WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston. (All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell and former Stanford standout Lexi Hull also are on that team.)

Clark would be an invaluable addition anywhere, even with WNBA superpowers New York and Las Vegas. But she would unquestionably be the focus of Indiana’s offense, and the crowdappeal factor would be a blessing for the league.

And if she stays in college? More sold-out arenas, NIL endorsement money and must-see television. Can’t go wrong.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle Even in his brief time as a Giant, Jung Hoo Lee, seen being introduced at a Warriors game, has injected a much-needed spark of life into the club.