The WNBA lands on Radio-Canada Sports | You have seen?

The NWBA is a well-established league with 12 teams of 12 players, including the biggest stars in the world.

It’s a league full of talent. They are the best athletes and the best basketball coaches in the world. I’m not against the idea of ​​the league expanding more soon, but the fact that there are only 12 teams makes it very competitive. It makes things even more exciting. It’s really the cream of the crop in terms of talent that goes to this league. The matches are all really excitingexplains Rose-Anne Joly, who is also head coach of the Gee-Gees of the University of Ottawa and assistant of the Alliance of Montreal.

Of the 12 teams, the top eight in the standings qualify for the playoffs after a 36-game season.

The idea of ​​expansion is part of the discussions. Even just this week, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri suggested having a team in Toronto was part of his dreams.

Three Canadians

So far, only three Canadian players have made it to the WNBA.

Currently on the injured list for the Phoenix Mercury, Ontario’s Kia Nurse is hoping for a comeback during the season. The one who represented the maple leaf at the Olympic Games twice, in Rio in 2016 and in Tokyo in 2021, tore the cruciate ligaments of the right knee during a playoff game last October. The date of his return is not known.

Montreal’s Mael Gilles had been invited to the Mercury camp, but was cut before the start of the season.

The other two Canadians on the circuit, Natalie Achonwa and Bridget Carleton, play for the Minnesota Lynx. Without the team’s star Napheesa Collier, who will give birth to a baby girl in May, they could enjoy more playing time this season.

Nathalie was undoubtedly the best Canadian player of the last Olympic tournament. At 29, she’s no longer young, but she could impress. Carleton is an excellent shooter. It will be interesting to see what chances they have at the start of the season without Collier.comments Olivier Paradis-Lemieux.

We may have an idea of ​​what awaits them on Sunday, when they face the Washington Mystics in the first game webcast by Radio-Canada Sports.

It will be an interesting game because the Lynx will have to deal without their star player, Collier, and the Mystics will have to adapt to the return of a key element of their formation: Elena Delle Donnesays Olivier Paradis-Lemieux.

Delle Donne, 32, had to pull out of the 2020 campaign because she was among those at risk of serious complications if she contracted COVID-19.

She is a girl who has always had health problems because she has Lyme disease. Ever since she was in college, she’s always had to try to compensate for Lyme disease with supplements and such. Last year, she also missed almost the entire season due to various back injuries.says Olivier Paradis-Lemieux.

During the preparatory matches, she stood out by taking 1st place in the scorer rankings with an average of 21 points.

She’s a great player, but we don’t know yet if she will be able to play all the matches. We will have to see at what level it will return.

Star imprisoned in Russia

One of the stories that will probably be the most talked about this season is that of the star of the Mercury of Pheonix Brittney Griner, retained in Russia since last February 17.

According to Russian customs, the center player, two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested for having in her possession vapes and a liquid with a particular smell of cannabis. She was then at an airport in the Moscow region and was trying to return home after her winter season in the Russian league.

The United States also declared on Tuesday that it was wrongfully detained and that they intended to accelerate efforts to repatriate her to the country.

It’s a complex and political story, says Olivier Paradis-Lemieux. With the current climate, it’s hard to say when she will return and this cloud could hover all season above the WNBA, but especially the Mercury. They are going to be talked about every game. The subject will constantly be on the table.

According to the Radio-Canada Sports basketball specialist, Phoenix should certainly be a serious title contender this season, but without Brittney Griner, the challenge will be difficult to overcome.

Will the Connecticut Sun want revenge?

Although the championship was won by the Chicago Sky, last season’s favorite team was definitely the Connecticut Sun. With 14 straight wins in their last 14 games before the playoffs, many already saw the Connecticut representatives lift the cup.

In the end, the Chicago Sky muddled the waters and defeated the Sun in the semi-finals to sneak past the final round and win against Griner’s Mercury.

This season, with a roster similar to last year and with the return of Jonquel Jones, last season’s most valuable player, the Sun are expected to be among the top three teams in the standings.

Olivier Paradis-Lemieux’s attention is also turning to the Seattle Storm because of the return of Breanna Stewart, one of the players who impressed the most during the Tokyo Olympics last summer.

The key element of the training had missed the end of last season, victim of an injury to the left foot which required surgery of the tendon of Achilles.

It’s a worrying injury because there’s always the possibility of it coming back. We do not know if it will find the same levelsays the descriptor.

Stewart will share the Storm field with Sue Bird, a historic Team USA player.

A Japanese rookie to watch

Even if the league is mainly made up of American players, some rare international pearls have managed to carve out a place for themselves. This is the case of the Japanese Rui Machida, favorite of our commentator Olivier Paradis-Lemieux, who is one of the 2022 recruits of the Minnesota Mystics training.

Will she play a lot or not? Well, we don’t know yet. It is sure that she is a rookie this year. But it’s such a different proposition that I can’t wait to see how she carves out a job because she really is the ultimate WNBA anti-player.says Olivier Paradis-Lemieux.

Normally, we see big, athletic players. Rui, she’s a 5’4″ girl, fast turbo. She’s able to move around and turn around those big towers. It’s going to be fascinating to watch her take to the pitchhe adds.