It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast. Today’s episode features host Alex Simon, who is joined by The Next’s Las Vegas Aces beat reporter, Matthew Walter. Alex and Matthew discuss the Aces, including their recent Commissioner’s Cup victory, how immensely the players want to be in Vegas, and whether or not the Aces are the favorites to win the WNBA title this season.
Matthew on the Aces’ top-heavy rotation working hard, and how their “young veterans” help with that:
All of their starters are under the age of 30. They want to run, they want to play. It’s three No. 1 overall picks in the last couple of years. It’s not an older veteran [team.] Like, they’re veterans but they’re also young veterans. They have a ton of experience. A’ja Wilson is an MVP, you have four [2022] All-Stars. All five of their starters have been All-Stars at some point in their career.
Matthew on the construction of this year’s Aces team, and what it means for them going forward:
This is a team that’s a homegrown talent team. You look at Chicago: Emma Meesseman, Candace Parker, those are free agent additions. You look at some of the other really good teams in the WNBA, it’s adding players into the team to make them better. [For the Aces,] four of the five starters were drafted by Las Vegas or San Antonio. These are players that were drafted by this organization, have been developed by Bill Laimbeer and now Becky Hammon. They want to win in Las Vegas.
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