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The unexpected rise of the Connecticut Sun
Courtney Williams (#10) and Jonquel Jones (#35) of the Connecticut Sun with their teammates are seen during the game against the Seattle Storm on July 12, 2017 at Key Arena in Seattle, Washington.  Joshua Huston/NBAE via Getty Images

The unexpected rise of the Connecticut Sun

The WNBA announced its All-Star Game starters recently, with quite a few future Hall of Famers due to run the court in Seattle later this month. As in any other exhibition game for a league, there is usually a player or two who represent a team that has shocked the world a bit, and this year’s game is no exception thanks to the Connecticut Sun.

The doormat of the Eastern Conference in recent seasons, the Sun looked well on the way to another season of struggle after a 1-5 start to the season. Fast forward to mid-July where the team has not only won eleven of its last 14 games, but sits atop of the Eastern Conference ahead of the retooled and much-hyped Washington Mystics.

You can pretty much thank the ‘next woman up’ mentality for that.

It’s not that all was left for dead when Chiney Ogwumike was declared out for the season after rupturing her Achilles tendon while playing in China. The younger sister of the reigning MVP and L.A. Sparks star, Nneka, is a good player in her own right, as her 2014 Rookie of the Year award can attest. But since a high mark of 25-9 in 2012, the Sun has been running in quicksand for the last four years with a total record of 52-84, no playoff appearances, roster upheaval and two coaching changes. Last season, Connecticut’s balanced offense was tied for fourth-best in the league (83 points per game), but conversely, the team had the third-worst defense, allowing 84.3 per contest. The hopes were that Ogwumike would have improved further on her 12.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in 2016. Drafting Brionna Jones from Maryland back in April signaled hopes that the team would groom her into a franchise cornerstone at center while hoping she’d blend with Ogwumike when she returned to the floor in 2018.

So when Jonquel Jones was thrusted into starter minutes, you could have easily asked why she hasn’t been fully unleashed before. In a competitive MVP race, the second-year forward/center has emerged as a dark horse candidate with strong interior play. With her minutes going from a shade under 15 in 2016 to nearly 30 in 2017, Jones has impressive increases across the board with per-game totals of 15.9 points, a league-leading 11.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks. The Bahamas-born Jones has notched ten double-doubles in the Sun’s 20 games so far and has 14 games of double-digit points and a minimum of seven rebounds. An efficient touch around the rim, Jones is also someone who can knock down free throws when fouled as an 83.1% shooter from the charity stripe.

We’ve also witnessed Jasmine Thomas really hit an impressive stride this year en route to her first All-Star nod. A solid scorer in her first four seasons with Washington and Atlanta, the sixth-year point guard from Duke has taken advantage of the attention opponents give to Jonquel Jones and veteran forward Alyssa Thomas (a third Sun player with a ton of All-Star merit in her own right). Jasmine Thomas is averaging 14.8 points, 4.9 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, very good numbers across the board. Yet, it’s her defensive tenacity that has given Connecticut a different edge this season. Her speed and quickness are incredible assets as she has been a one-woman fast break on more than one occasion.

For Connecticut, their All-Stars are far from the only contributors, yet how they have not only made up for Ogwumike’s absence, but pushed the offense to greater heights is worth celebrating in the Nutmeg State. Again, this is a team that was in the upper half of several offensive categories in 2016 due to having five players averaging between 10.7 and 12.9 points per game. While his hand was forced a bit due to Ogwumike’s injury and Alex Bentley temporarily leaving the Sun to play internationally in the FIBA EuroBasket tournament, head coach Curt Miller has made the right lineup adjustments this season. He kept Courtney Williams in the starting lineup in place of Bentley, moving the former All-Star guard to the bench to give some scoring punch to the second unit. Miller also had to replicate the production of Lynetta Kizer and Morgan Tuck, who have both missed time due to injury. Enter guard/forward Shekinna Stricklen, whose perimeter shooting has her playing her best offense since starting 21 games for Seattle back in 2013. It certainly helps to have two good passers in both Thomases – Alyssa and Jasmine each average 4.9 dimes per contest – to keep the ball moving, so long as their teammates are in the right place at the right time.

It was a month ago after handing the Minnesota Lynx its first loss of the season where the Sun started to capture wider attention. While the dynastic Lynx rarely loses at home and stacks accolades upon accolades, it was the lesser-experienced, but impressively cohesive Sun that closed out the game with strong defense and fresher legs. Ned Griffen of The Day (New London, CT) highlighted a tremendous kinship among this group of players that showed itself in the waning moments of that win. It speaks to Miller’s other job as the Sun’s general manager, putting together the right mix of experienced players just hitting their peak with brimming youth.

Recently, there have been major injuries that have impacted several teams – most notably, Phoenix Mercury center and leading MVP candidate, Brittney Griner, will miss 3-to-4 weeks. In relation to the Eastern Conference, the Washington Mystics just lost starting guard Tayler Hill for the rest of the season and Elena Delle Donne is once again dealing with ankle woes. Add the underachieving (and hobbled, to be fair) New York Liberty team and barring any setbacks, a Sun team that was not supposed to make an impact can shockingly run away with the top record in the East.

Of course, every game becomes mission critical in the second season with the controversial playoff format. In the 12 games after the All-Star break, the Sun play three of the four other teams in contention for the top two seeds – Washington one more time, Phoenix three times and the defending champion Sparks in Los Angeles to end the season. In spite of some lesson-learning defeats, the Connecticut Sun has proven that it can run with just about any team in the league, a confidence based on great camaraderie and that winning absolute of ‘next woman up.’ 

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