Elite point guard? Cal alum focuses on being next one
SEATTLE — During the WNBA offseason, Atlanta point guard Layshia Clarendon was reading a Sports Illustrated article about the U.S. women’s basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics. The Cal alum came across a passage about the point guards on that team — Sue Bird and Lindsay Whalen — that surprised her.
“About halfway through, the article said there are no elite guards coming after Sue Bird and Whalen,” Clarendon said. It actually referred to there being few in the pipeline, but Clarendon took it personally.
“What do you mean?” she said. “I’m the next Sue, I’m coming up! Do people not see that?”
The reality is few people saw that before this season, which has been a triumphant one for Clarendon, 26.
Though Clarendon established herself as a starter for the Dream last season, this year she has led the WNBA in assists and assist percentage and earned a berth in the AllStar Game, where she put up 14 points and 10 assists in nearly 18 minutes.
In her first game after the All-Star break, Clarendon nearly became the sixth WNBA player to record a triple-double in a regular-season game, collecting 15 points, nine assists and 10 rebounds against the Phoenix Mercury. (Clarendon initially was credited with 11 assists, but two were taken away the next day.)
When evaluating the next great American point guard, the question now is: Why not Clarendon?
It has been a remarkable leap forward for someone who had not played the primary point-guard position in the pros until recently. At Cal, which reached the Final Four in 2013, her senior season, Clarendon shared distribution duties with Brittany Boyd, now with the New York Liberty.
“One of the reasons we were so good that year was that we essentially had two point guards on the floor at all times,” Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “Layshia was technically our ‘2’ guard, but had the green light to handle the ball and push in transition whenever she wanted. I think it made her a better player because she had to think like a point guard, but also play with the mentality of a go-to scorer.”
Still, that mixed role made the transition to the professional ranks difficult. Stuck behind point guard Briann January during three seasons floating in and out of the rotation for the Indiana Fever, Clarendon found herself competing for time off the ball in an offense that was slower-paced than she was used to in college.
Her three-point percentage had hovered around the low 30s in college, and she seldom got enough time on the court to find a rhythm for it with the Fever.
By 2015, her final year in Indiana, Clarendon had improved her three-point percentage to 40.6. Clarendon is built more like a point guard than the lankier “2’s” who populate the league, and she has struggled to add muscle to her frame. The Fever seemed to view her as a rotation player at most, and they sent her to Atlanta for a second-round pick in 2016.
Her new coach, Michael Cooper, thought Clarendon could be something more. He started her in 32 of 34 games last season, when she split time as primary ballhandler with Carla Cortijo and Angel McCoughtry, the Dream forward who took up a significant portion of the team’s offensive sets.
“I think her point-guard ability and her basketball IQ puts her on another level, because she’s a big guard, a physical guard,” Cooper said. “And the uniqueness we have with her is she’s able to take that shot up above the free-throw line and make it. But now, she’s proven she’s a very good assist person for us.”
Now, with McCoughtry taking the season off for rest and recuperation, Clarendon’s assist percentage is 39. That ranked best in the league entering the second half of the season, just ahead of, yes, Bird.
“When I go against Sue, I’m trying to crush her now,” Clarendon said of her childhood idol. “Because my first years in Indiana, it was tough, being a bench player, not knowing what your role is. But now, I know what my role is in this league.”
Clarendon’s play helped lead to All-Star Game appearances for Atlanta guard Tiffany Hayes and center Elizabeth Williams. Guard Brittney Sykes, who joined the starting lineup at the end of June, is making a case for Rookie of the Year.
They all credit Clarendon’s ability to see the game and recognize when they should receive the ball.
“Having someone who can read defenses really well is fun to play with,” Williams said.
The Dream have managed to maintain their offensive output from last season, despite McCoughtry’s absence. The development of Clarendon, Hayes, Williams, Sykes and Damiris Dantas give Atlanta five players younger than 28 around whom Atlanta can build.
Clarendon’s 2017 season, for all of its success, might be underselling her overall game — she has made 15.4 percent of her three-point attempts, by far the worst mark of her career, which she and Cooper believe is a fluke. So there is reason to believe her best days are still ahead.
She has yet to be invited to a USA Basketball camp. Even as she makes sure to stay in the present, Clarendon said she has visions of taking her place on the next national team, to prove that magazine article wrong, and to serve as the heir apparent to Bird.
“So I use that as fuel,” Clarendon said. “If I’m struggling, or it’s a really tough workout, it’s like: ‘There’s no elite guards. There’s no elite guards.’ I’m going to be that elite guard.”