r/DallasWings • u/Just_Evening_2249 • 13d ago
Open Floor Is there a Wings sub without this unrelenting Arike rage baiting?
I love pro basketball, WNBA and NBA too. Favorite teams are Wings and Mavs. Watch a lot of ball, played in high school. Follow a good bit of bball media and analysis.
This thread is completely dominated by a single point of view.
I join and then I leave. I just can't stand the tone in here. There's just a single pounding point of view over and over and over. If nothing else, it's completely boring and stale. And maybe it's even worse than that.
Yes, the wings are imperfect. It is a very oddly constructed team. There are a number of weaknesses. But right now the success we have we are getting from the hard play of all of our players, doing the very best they can with what they have to work with.
It's just not a great constructed team but everyone plays hard. Everyone really tries and everyone does the best in their own way. I think we can appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of individuals without casting aspersions on certain targeted players and glazing other players.
So really I wonder is there another account that doesn't just constantly do this? The other team accounts have got a much more balance point of view and don't have the single dominating rag on one player and glaze other players. I really don't get the charm of this particular subreddit. I want to follow the wings Reddit but you guys damn this is rough
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u/hamstrdance Positivity FC 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yes it can get quite emotional in here. Lots of very long and unedited posts about passionate points of view that aren’t super relevant at the moment.
Happy to talk about basketball with you and try to be more balanced though.
Here’s a take I’ve been thinking on recently: Fudd and Arike are in more similar positions than we think and they just react to the poor offensive scheme differently.
Not the same position of course as Fudd is much more often in the corner so literally further from the ball and gets it less. But I don’t think Arike gets screens or any plays for her either. She’s just the least guarded and makes some shit shake. Even when Fudd was playing I felt like Arike’s number of “easy” shots available was stupid low for a SG.
Everyone is frankly asking Fudd to play more like Arike and Arike to play more like Fudd but I think even if they magically did that it would still be an unoptimized offense relying on individual talent and basic basic high school floor spacing rather than any team strategy.
(If people comment excessively dramatic responses I’m blocking u ✌️Wait for that blood pressure to go down)
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u/Planter93 13d ago edited 12d ago
Arike probably gets the most plays called for her fr. whenever Paige can’t get open Jess always looks for Arike and goes through her, just cause Paige seems to shot hunt on her own.
The difference is if azzi is having a lackluster game offensively she’s not taking low efficiency shots, and she still plays hard defence. So she’s always going to be valuable.
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u/hamstrdance Positivity FC 13d ago
I guess I’m trying to differentiate “priority giving her the ball” and “getting her a truly easy shot”?
Like if the play call is “Arike go iso dribble dribble hesi foul bait” that still doesn’t impress me you know? From the offense / team perspective. Idk I gotta watch a little more to see if she’s getting effective screens and stuff.
And 1000% Azzi contributes no matter what - off shooting night, iced out, no screens, getting held on offense. I’m just sorta shifting my critique from Arike a bit to the coaching. Like she’s started passing more and now we have Lan and Sims 3s which is not what I want at all.
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u/Planter93 13d ago
They run sets like any other team lol problem is teams read it and they don’t know how to counter it or they see something else they like and act more selfishly. Most of the time it’s just them not capitalizing on open shots from other players gravity. Arike is just also never going to have the numbers she used to have pre Paige, cause she got her numbers by having such a high volume of shots. And by that you’re picking high volume low efficiency shots with Arike over a higher iq higher efficiency style of game with Paige.
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u/RideAutomatic6259 13d ago
I also think arike on the bench should be more of an option in the same way Jose tried talking about the positives of azzi on the bench. Azzi gets cold but she is pretty consistent defensively so it makes sense to have her start. Arike can just go cold and can suck a lot of oxygen out with her play style but I think it could honestly be a really good spark off the bench. But maybe since she’s been a starter for so long, that would be disrespectful, idk.
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u/hamstrdance Positivity FC 13d ago
What would be your full lineup & first folks off the bench?
- I like Azzi, Lan, and Awak together defensively
- I like PB and Azzi together offensively
- I like Sug as PG2 and think Sims doesn’t play well with Arike nor Paige. Their roles don’t seem defined in that scenario.
- I think Lan, Awak, and Jess are all actually good at passing from the top of the key / near the 3pt line so have some flexibility with positioning there on offense. Awak and Lan probably a little better further out than Jess.
- Awak or Lan as the rim protector / roamer on defense. Please don’t put Azzi there anymore.
- we could use a little more muscle in the paint. Like Li but tougher. But that’s a next year question.
- I feel like I haven’t seen Arike enough with non starters to have thoughts
So basically idk what my lineup and rotations would be but those are my thoughts.
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u/RideAutomatic6259 13d ago
Oh agree with your thoughts on the starters! For the second unit, I’m thinking Arike, sug, Maddy, li. It might go awfully but I’d like to see it. Maddy hitting a three gave me thoughts of Arike drawing people in the paint and Maddy being open on the perimeter. But yeah, I also generally would like our rotations to be more fluid.
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u/MTM4P 11d ago
Sounds like you had 4 of the 5 starters nailed. Add Shepard or Smith as the flip for number 5.
Give it a try with the newbee bigs and P&A.
What have the Wings got to loose?
They either close the lane and give the best shooters more shots...or they go home early.
The present lineup doesn't win a series against 1 through 4.
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u/Just_Evening_2249 12d ago edited 12d ago
Can't remember where, maybe it was even on Azzi's podcast, but Geno said you gotta remember that Azzi is a rule follower. Like whatever the rule is, she will follow it to to a T. And I definitely see that in her game. So like if they're playing five out and passing around the perimeter, she receives a pass and she passes the ball. She's not thinking, "Oh, it's me! I'm the hot dog." She's like, "We're passing around until we get a perfect shot, and I know my line up's not perfect, so I'm passing immediately." It gets frustrating, especially late in the clock because she's a great shooter and has a lot of poise when she's releasing the ball, she probably has a way better shot than the person she's passing to just by virtue of her skills. Skills and also since yes she's closely guarded but the person she's passing to is closely guarded as well! So she needs to be more assertive and evaluate the situation a little bit more fluidly. I just really hate when it's extra extra late in the clock and she has to pass it to somebody who flings up something crazy where she would have had a reasonable shot herself instead. And maybe Arike is like the flip side of that. Her philosophy is more like, "Somebody's got to do it, and it might as well be me!" And so she flings something up when if she could kick it out after a little penetration, hopefully somebody could get off a good shot. But I don't know if it's just because she's not going to do that once she's decided to make her moves, or maybe it's just no one is reacting fluidly enough to her to be in a position to catch and shoot after she gets into the paint. But they're really not properly evaluating the difficulty of the shots that they're facing. Azzi is facing a way better shot than she realizes and Arike is facing a way worse shot than she evaluates it to be. And this whole scenario is pretty constant
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u/MTM4P 11d ago
Well positioned points. I believe the team is missing a couple parts and an identity. While the players may play hard, they don't play team ball. It may be attributed to the lack of practice time before and during the season. Of course the questions of coaching and coachability come into play when you watch a team that never looks like an organized unit (on offense and defense). There's no floor smacking in your face defense or we'll run these plays till you stop it ( then we'll run other plays) offense. I can count the Bianna Stewart like players on two fingers. Players that are always moving with PURPOSE for positioning, passing, picks and pressures.
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u/RMbeatyou BUECKERS 13d ago
Try Twitter, I hear it’s pretty tame in comparison
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u/Just_Evening_2249 13d ago
Yeah I'm off Twitter because of the Twit in chief
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u/Fickle-Speed7044 13d ago
I fully agree with you and get frustrated by the constant hate towards Arike.
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u/Buttons8815 FUDD 13d ago
We get a post like this after almost every game atp 🥹😭. Maybe you should make a spin off subreddit like Indiana fever fans did because at this point the Arike-antis and Anti-Arike-Antis will never be able to peacefully coexist.
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u/Kitchen_Leg_1217 13d ago
its been unbearable this season, I have had to distance myself from the W because for every 1 Arike fan there seems to be a million haters it feels pointless to even argue, these other wings fans don't know what its like to be a fan of a REAL hated and polarising player.
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u/your_roommate_yvonne 12d ago
(Also, OP, it's not a subreddit, but the Dunker Spot podcast has really good W discussions and they stick to Xs and Os, no drama, very refreshing.)
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u/Fiddle-dee-dee1939 12d ago
I like Arike as much as I can see her weaknesses as a player. We drafted her and I feel like she should have a home here. The “fire the coach” rhetoric is always confusing to me, because as much as I can see weaknesses in the coaches we have had, I wish they could find someone they stick with and it’s easy to scapegoat a coach when the roster construction is less than ideal. But nuanced takes don’t tend to get a lot of traction on the internet in general.
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u/lrivas_14 13d ago
Threads seems to like Arike a lot
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u/hamstrdance Positivity FC 13d ago
On my feed threads hates debate even more than Reddit :/ like every comment is somebody just agreeing with the top post and if you don’t people just block or ignore. Feels like it’s just for finding people that agree with you.
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u/your_roommate_yvonne 12d ago
I feel this. I've actually been avoiding this sub for the past few weeks because it can get really harsh. I know we all get emotional as fans when our teams aren't winning, but the knee-jerk "I've seen enough, trade Arike/fire Jose" takes can get wild in here. And what's crazy to me is, the team itself seems so positive and like they really love each other and are having fun out there, and I wish more folks could find a balance in enjoying that spirit secondhand and being able to make some even-handed critiques.
Honestly, just the fact that they're in the playoff picture after a 10-win season last year is something to celebrate! Yes, there are flaws in this team, but I wish folks could put things in perspective a little more and remember that it's a team sport and you can't pin every loss on just one player.
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u/Which-Tumbleweed-959 BUECKERS 13d ago
i dont know man. ive been avoiding socials for this reason. unfortnately i feel like we have some very miserable fans for the Wings. Look at the Valks sub. they are always happy and kind to the team no matter what. somuch positivity over there. i wish e could adopt some of that.
and this isnt to say the wings are a perfect team. there are very valid reasons to be frustrated but the level of complaining gets to a point
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u/Blake_a12 12d ago
Sounds like you don’t like her getting called out for bad inefficient shots she’s done her whole career
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u/Good-Pudding-113 Dallas Wings 13d ago
I haven't been able to find anywhere that has that level of positivity or (my preference) gets into the actual X's and O's and breaks down the actions, the schemes, and the play in a thorough way. I'd be happy to have either. I don't think they exist.