On the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Jackie Powell and guest Steve Jones Jr. from the Duker Spot give their predictions on which WNBA players will be named as All-Star reserves.
The pair starts by listing players they believe are locks to be selected. Their list includes players like the Indiana Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell, the Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas and the Seattle Storm’s Skylar Diggins, who teammate and All-Star starter Nneka Ogwumike revealed will make the roster. They also predicted that Angel Reese will earn her second All-Star nod.
“I have Angel Reese in there as well as someone who should be locked in and going,” Jones said. “The production has been there, and the growth has been there. And I think what gets hidden in Angel Reese’s season this year is she’s been asked to do some different things, moved around the court and put in different areas, and so that’s part of the development process.”
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Moving on from the players they think are locks, Powell and Jones switched gears to talk about some underrated All-Star reserve candidates, such as Kayla McBride from the Minnesota Lynx and Gabby Williams from the Seattle Storm. They also discuss how injury outlook could affect the chances of players like Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard and New York’s Jonquel Jones.
“We’re in this position of, okay, [Jones has] played maybe nine or 10 games. As you said with Rhyne Howard, could she even play? That’s the question,” Powell said. “So, do coaches reward her for what she was able to do before tweaking her ankle and her impact on the Liberty? I mean, if you look at those off on numbers, it is scary how much she impacts them.”
They finish the episode by talking about some potential high-profile snubs, one of which they believe could be Natasha Cloud from the New York Liberty.
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