Does French teen phenom Dominique Malonga have the biggest upside in the WNBA Draft?
Does French teen phenom Dominique Malonga have the biggest upside in the WNBA Draft?
The 2025 WNBA Draft is here, and UConn's Paige Bueckers — fresh off a national championship — is widely projected to go No.1 overall to the Dallas Wings.
But another name to keep an eye on will be 19-year-old French power forward Dominique Malonga, who already has four seasons of professional basketball and an Olympic silver medal under her belt.
Advertisement
On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant discussed why Malonga might have the highest upside of any player in the draft.
Keita: I want to know more about Dominique Malonga. One of the things he talked about at length, with the pun intended, is that as tall and long as Dominique is, the fluidity of her movement is surprising. She moves like a guard at 6-foot-6. It's crazy how she comes off pick-and-rolls and drives to the basket. Everything about her game is very smooth, and she's so young, so there's still so much more to develop. Ben, you're our international player expert. Give us some insight as to why Dominique Malonga is so special.
Pickman: A few years ago, when I first met Sabreena, it was like, 'Hi, I'm Ben, have you heard about Dominique Malonga (laughs)?' That might have been our first conversation to a T. I remember a couple of years back when executives started telling me about her, and what kind of prospect she could be. People were like, 'Hey, have you heard about this player? If not, go and watch some of these videos and all this tape on her.' That was when she was put on my radar. It's been fascinating to watch her explode from there and suddenly make the French Olympic team, and she's having a really good season in France right now with Lyon in Eurocup play. She's almost certainly going to be the No.2 or No. 3 pick in this WNBA Draft. Some people even think she could be the best prospect in this draft when we look back in five to 10 years, she has that kind of talent. Because physically, there are not a lot of players in the WNBA who have the raw athletic tools that she possesses. When we think about the NBA Draft, for example, you see that a lot of these high-upside athletes get chosen early. But traditionally in the WNBA, you either don't have that kind of prospect, or teams don't settle on them early.
Advertisement
But Dominique is definitely an exception, because we've seen just how skilled and impactful she already is at 19 years old playing professional basketball. Our colleague Mike Vorkunov, and this is a little bit of a tease here for Monday, spent some time earlier this year in Paris doing some work on the WNBA and NBA during the Paris Games. And during that time, he sat down with Dominique and learned more about her story. I would recommend people who are curious to learn more about her as a person and her interests to come back to the site on Monday morning to read a bit more about her journey. But also, to learn who she is as a person, her work ethic, and how she feels about being compared to Victor Wembanyama, obviously another French star for the San Antonio Spurs. She's been a prospect on people's radars for a while, and she could be the best player in this draft when it's all said and done. It's just again; she's 19 years old, so people have not heard about her. But she's had a lot of success in Europe already for someone so young. It's why so many people are so excited about her prospects and have been for three or four years now.
Keita: I just love that France is showing up and showing out. I didn't quite get the same water that Victor Wembanyama and Dominique Malonga did when I was growing up, but clearly France has just elevated all of their basketball prospects, particularly on the men's side. But now we're starting to see this with Carla Leite, Janelle Salaun and now Dominique Malonga on the women's side. Everyone keeps saying, 'She's amazing, she's a great prospect.' But Sabreena, I want to know in a forward dominant league — you think of players like A'ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, who are all killing the game and leading their teams — what can Dominique bring to a WNBA roster?
Merchant: I think all of that. She has the skill set to do everything that those great power forwards are already doing, or great centres, depending on how you want to classify A'ja Wilson. She's capable of running an offense, running a pick-and-roll and coming off the pick-and-roll. She can do a little bit of the guard stuff and a little bit of the big stuff, and she's already a pretty good rim protector. She is quite skinny right now. She has the Sylvia Fowles length with her height, but not the toughness and build of a strong defensive rim protector yet. But she's still just 19 years old, so it will take some time for her to grow into that body. But if she does end up in Seattle (who hold the No. 2 overall pick), it's a great landing spot for her because they've seen this growth trajectory also with Ezi Magbegor. They drafted her very young and allowed her to develop in their system, and she's another long, athletic big with many tools. Dominique is just a better version of what Ezi was when she came into the WNBA, so it would be a really good spot for her. Especially in terms of an organization that knows how to give her some space and time, but also put her in situations that are going to allow her to succeed at a really high level.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Seattle Storm, WNBA, Women's College Basketball, No Offseason Podcast
2025 The Athletic Media Company
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
8 minutes ago
- USA Today
Caitlin Clark's new line of Wilson basketballs reflect who she is off the court
INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark's favorite color is blue. Outside of the gym, she's happiest being on the water or a golf course. She says the same thing to teammate Aliyah Boston before every Indiana Fever game. When you buy one of the basketballs in Clark's new line from Wilson, you're not just getting a ball. You're getting a glimpse of Clark herself. The colors, the patterns, the detailing — all are the result of months-long conversations between Clark and Wilson's design team about who she is, what she likes and what messages she wants to send to young fans. 'It was a really fun process for me to go through,' Clark told USA TODAY Sports. 'It's things that are super important to me and all very different things, too, throughout my life. So hopefully they can make an impact on whoever's going to pick the ball up.' Clark joined Michael Jordan as the only athletes to be brand ambassadors for Wilson, signing a multiyear sponsorship deal in May 2024 with the official manufacturer of basketballs for the WNBA, NBA and NCAA. In part because of the short turnaround time before the release of her first signature ball last October, Clark's first line leaned heavily into history. The records she broke at Iowa. Her historic rookie season with the WNBA's Indiana Fever. But Clark and Wilson knew they wanted future lines to be more personal, reflecting who Clark is as a person as much as a player. 'She's actually influencing this. It's not just people at Wilson picking the design,' Hudson Vantrease, director of product design at Wilson, said. 'We never wanted to just put her name on a ball and call it a day,' he added. 'We want to tell the most compelling story, and having her as part of that is a positive to it.' Wilson invited USA TODAY Sports to attend the design team meeting in April where Clark saw the finished basketballs for the first time. The design team also gave USA TODAY Sports a behind-the-scenes look at the collaboration process with Clark for the latest collection, which will be released June 23. There are four balls in the collection, and they differ in both purpose (one is an indoor-only ball, one is outdoor-only and two can be used either indoors or outdoors) and price point. One, the Embrace, is an Evo NXT basketball, meaning it has the same construction as a regulation W ball and could be used in official games. 'Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome,' Clark said when she walked into the Indiana Fever's practice gym and saw the four new basketballs. 'You guys killed it.' The team responsible for developing Clark's line has about a dozen core members. They met with Clark at last year's All-Star Game and got her initial thoughts about the collection, including what a young Caitlin Clark would have wanted. 'I think she said a blue ball,' said Hailey Reines, the product line manager at Wilson. Afterward, Reines and product designer Julia Muscarello sent Clark a detailed questionnaire, asking her everything from her favorite color (blue) to her hobbies outside of basketball (golf, being on the water) to what she'd be if she wasn't a basketball player (chef). They also monitored social media, taking note of Clark's clothes — there's an Instagram account devoted to her fits — and what she does off the court. 'I don't want to say borderline stalking, but yeah,' Muscarello said with a laugh. 'I was trying to stay on the Caitlin pulse.' Those answers and details drove the design process, which involved 'hundreds' of hours. Christopher Rickert, the senior director of global production at Wilson, said the team began with 50 design ideas and whittled them down. Sometimes the color wasn't right. Sometimes the pattern didn't work. Sometimes what seemed like a great idea on paper didn't quite translate into reality. When the team had 10 ideas, they sent the designs to Clark for her thoughts. There were further tweaks, and prototypes were made to make sure the designs looked the same on an actual basketball as they did in drawings. The four designs ultimately chosen for this year's line all have very different looks, but there's a commonality to all of them. Clark. 'Whenever I do something, I want to make it the best product possible for people. But also I feel like this is an easy way for me to connect with my fans,' Clark said of being so involved in the design process. 'I want it to feel very personal for them, too. They can connect with me, not just by watching me on TV or coming and buying a ticket to a game.' Take the Oasis ball, which can be used indoors and outdoors. Clark told Reines and Muscarello that her favorite color is blue, she likes pastels and her happy places are the water and golf course. So the panels of the Oasis ball are white and light blue, and the light blue panels have what looks like pink and green splashes of paint but is actually an abstract drawing of a golf course. Clark picked up on it right away when she saw the ball. 'That looks like a hole on a golf course!' she exclaimed. Light blue is also the shade used for the pattern on the Envision, an outdoor ball. At first glance, it looks like a maze, but it's really the words 'DREAM BIG.' That phrase is also on the Aspire, an indoor/outdoor ball that at first appears to be white or grey. Put it in the sunlight, however, and the phrases 'Dream Big,' 'Keep Going' and 'You're Going to Be Amazing Because You Are Amazing' emerge in bold, Fever-red letters. That last phrase is what Clark says to Boston before every game. 'See, she loves it!' Clark said, pointing to a picture of her and Boston on the bench that was on the design team's planning whiteboard. 'We'll get her a free basketball. She'll love it. I'm going to put it in her locker.' Because the Embrace is an official basketball, it cannot have any obvious detailing. Look closely, though, and you can see a pattern — again, light blue — within the Wilson logo and in what looks like a sunburst around the airhole. Both are the visual representation of the decibel level at a Fever game; the Wilson team took an audio file of the sound and made a graphic out of it. 'Fans really admire how she just plays so well under pressure,' Muscarello said. 'Sometimes it's OK to embrace the noise.' Though Clark had been involved in every step of the design process, seeing the basketballs on a computer screen is very different than holding the finished product. Clark picked up each of the basketballs and examined it, taking note of the different details. She spun each ball and shifted it from one hand to the other. She also studied the design team's white boards, pointing to some of the notes and photos. Though she initially seemed most taken by the Oasis ball, she was fascinated with the Envision's UV technology and said she'd have loved to have had a basketball that revealed 'secret' messages when she was a kid. She also was impressed that Wilson's design team was able to turn a decibel meter reading into a design. 'They're all unique in their own way. They all have different things I love about them,' Clark said. 'I think they each serve their own purpose and are different. 'So I guess you have to buy 'em all!' she added, laughing. While there will be some fans who buy the whole collection, whether to use or keep as memorabilia, Clark was conscious of not pricing any fans out of the new line. Two of the balls are less than $50, with the outdoor Envision ball costing $27.95 and the Oasis indoor ball priced at $49.95, while the Aspire outdoor ball is $54.95. The Embrace, which is Wilson's premium Evo NXT basketball, costs $124.95. All the balls will be available on Wilson's website and at retail sporting goods stores. Last year's collection sold out almost immediately and, given the appetite for all things Clark, it's a good bet this one will, too. 'It's kind of cool to see how the balls came back and they feel very `me,'' Clark told USA TODAY Sports. 'That's what I love about it. I feel like I'm sharing part of my life and my journey with people. "I could have never dreamed (as a child) to have something like this," she added. "It's pretty special." Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
L.A. Olympic organizers confident they will cover estimated $7.1 billion cost of Games
Casey Wasserman, LA28 chairman and president, is confident the 2028 Olympics will generate the most revenue ever for a Summer Games. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Three years before the Olympics, LA28 organizers gave International Olympic Committee officials the kind of Games preview that even Hollywood's best scriptwriters couldn't plan. To begin a visit to check on LA28's planning progress, the IOC coordination commission attended a game at Dodger Stadium and watched Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off double in the 10th inning to defeat the New York Mets in the same stadium that will host Olympic baseball in three years. Advertisement The electric celebration, passing grades for an advanced venue plan and a growing corporate sponsorship portfolio keeps LA28 on track approaching the three-year mark until the 2028 Olympics open in a dual-venue ceremony at SoFi Stadium and the Coliseum. Read more: Athletes, artists and celebrities create unique logos for the 2028 L.A. Olympics 'We are really confident in the progress we've made,' LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said after the coordination committee's three-day visit. 'We're focused on what we've always done to deliver the greatest Games we are capable of delivering in this city in the most fiscally responsible way that pays dividends for every member of our Olympic movement and our community.' With the city of Los Angeles facing deep financial problems and transportation updates lagging behind schedule, LA28 is under pressure to deliver a completely privately funded Games. The private group says it remains up to the challenge as fundraising for the L.A. Games has been 'going gangbusters,' John Slusher, chief executive of LA28's commercial operation, said in an interview with The Times. Advertisement With six new partnerships this year — matching the total number of deals in all of last year — LA28 has contract revenue worth more than 60% of its total $2.5 billion sponsorship goal. Slusher expects an estimated seven to nine more deals coming this year, and the group is on pace to reach its goal of $2 billion in corporate sponsorship dollars by the end of the year, Slusher and Wassserman said. 'I would tell you where I'm sitting today, we feel very confident we can either meet or exceed that $2.5 billion target,' Slusher said, 'which I think people would have called a stretch target in November.' A major partnership with Honda signaled a boon for business as it was the first founding-level partnership for LA28 since Salesforce signed on in 2021. The cloud-based software company backed out of its deal in 2024. The sudden split raised eyebrows about LA28's fundraising progress, casting doubt whether the committee could fulfill a promise of a privately funded Games that shielded local and state taxpayers from picking up any debt. But organizers remained undeterred. Advertisement Read more: Coliseum, Arena and Long Beach waterfront among 2028 Paralympics venues Such twists have marked LA28's long-planned Olympic journey. The L.A. Games were awarded in 2017 in a rare dual-city announcement that also placed the 2024 Games in Paris. Instead of the typical seven-year lead-up time, LA28 preached patience through an unprecedented 11-year planning period. 'More time is always better than less time,' Wasserman said in an interview with The Times. 'The only negative of selling is there's more distance between deals, so everyone's like, 'You're not doing well.' Which is never how we've been feeling. … My view is judge us when we get to the startline on how we did on sponsorship revenue.' Judgment time is creeping ever closer. The Olympic Games will open on July 14, 2028. Advertisement Although the city has agreed to cover the first $270 million in debt incurred from the Games if LA28 goes overbudget, Wasserman said organizers don't intend to come close to the financial backstop. According to the latest financial report filed to the city in March, LA28 plans to cover the proposed $7.1 billion cost with about one-third of the projected revenue coming from domestic sponsorships and another one-third coming from ticketing and hospitality. 'The caliber of new domestic partnerships this year highlights the power of the Olympic Games to bring people together, create long-term value and reflect growing national engagement with LA28's vision,' said Nicole Hoevertsz, the IOC coordination commission chair. To begin the 2025 sponsorship momentum, LA28 announced an official partnership with AECOM in March as the engineering company will support venue infrastructure for the Games. Advertisement Mortgage company Pennymac, mattress brand Saatva, cloud-based data storage company Snowflake and aviation company Archer signed on as official supporters, one tier below a partnership such as AECOM. While not specifying the financial details, Slusher said he estimated LA28 would make three or four times as much sponsorship revenue this year compared with all of last year. "Our job is to maximize revenue,' Wasserman said. 'I am very confident in our ability to generate, frankly, more revenue that's ever been generated for a Summer Games in the history of the Olympics. I have no doubt about that." While a smaller portion of the budget than sponsorship, merchandise and licensing is gaining momentum as well, Slusher said, as companies clamor for a chance to issue official pins, T-shirts, programs or plush toys. Advertisement LA28's financial report states that it has signed commercial or retail agreements with several companies, including Cisco, Dick's Sporting Goods and Skims. Licensing and merchandising is projected to bring in $344 million, according to LA28's latest annual report. Read more: Visa approval crisis threatens to cost 2026 World Cup and L.A. Olympics millions The next major piece will be ticketing, which, with hospitality, is slated to generate $2.5 billion in revenue, a $569 million increase from a June 2024 estimate. LA28 expects to begin registration for the ticket lottery in early 2026. While LA28 and city officials have hailed the Games as a moment to welcome the world to L.A., concerns about international travel have mounted under the current administration. Delays in visa processing prompted Congressional action ahead of next year's World Cup. President Trump signed a travel ban Wednesday that bars citizens from 12 countries from entering the United States. On Sunday, the Trump administration deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles amid protests over immigration raids. Advertisement The latest Trump order targeting visitors from 12 countries includes exemptions for certain athletes, including those traveling to the United States for major sporting events, and Wasserman was not worried about visa issues affecting the Games. 'It's very clear that the federal government understands that that's an environment that they will be accommodating and provide for,' Wasserman said of the recent travel ban. 'So we have great confidence that that will only continue. It has been the case to date and it will certainly be the case going forward to the Games.' Because Wasserman anticipates the majority of ticket sales to be domestic, he said he is not concerned with a potential drop in revenue if international fans don't attend amid visa or safety concerns. But Paris 2024, which sold a record 12.1 million tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, sold about 38% of its Olympic tickets to fans living outside France, according to the IOC. The successful event exceeded its ticketing and hospitality revenue target by $397 million and brought in a roughly $30-million surplus . Advertisement Read more: LA28 adds Honda as founding level partner, bolstering push for more funding Continuing the Olympic movement's success has been at the top of LA28's mind while bringing the Games back to L.A. for the first time in more than four decades. The 1984 Games were also privately funded and hailed as a massive success for their $225 million surplus that was invested in youth sports. The opportunity to use existing venues in 2028 dramatically reduces potential costs by avoiding new, permanent construction. 'I fully expect that LA28 will be successful in meeting its revenue goals, and I fully expect that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be a financial success," Paul Krekorian, Los Angeles executive director for the office of major events, said in a statement to The Times. "Twice before, Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics, even in the face of adversity, and both of those Games were a huge success for our city and its residents." Still, city leaders face enormous pressure to ensure that streets and sidewalks are safe and accessible for the millions of people expected to visit L.A. during the Games. Mayor Karen Bass recently unveiled a citywide initiative called 'Shine L.A.' that encourages volunteers to beautify the city with clean-ups and tree plantings ahead of next year's World Cup and the Olympics. Advertisement With city and federal funding, L.A. has planned to overhaul its public transportation system, including a long-awaited Metro station that opened Friday at Los Angeles International Airport. But other updates such as an electrified bus network, expanded rail lines and the LAX people mover have lagged. While the city's transportation plan is outside of LA28's Games operation and budget, Wasserman expressed confidence that L.A. will be able to repeat its transit success from the 1984 Games. But the Olympics have grown larger than ever. A record 11,198 Olympians will compete in 2028. The Paralympics will be the city's first. Especially with L.A. still recovering from devastating wildfires and a nearly $1 billion deficit, the threat of taxpayers absorbing any costs for the Games looms large. With financial momentum growing behind the 2028 Games, Wasserman wants to put worried minds at ease. 'The last thing a taxpayer should be worried about is us,' Wasserman said. 'We know how to do this. We are proving that every day and we will prove it all the way throughout the process and we are in every sense of the word, giving to the city, not taking from the city.' Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
USA Today
22 minutes ago
- USA Today
Adaptability keeps Pacers coach on cutting edge of NBA change
Adaptability keeps Pacers coach on cutting edge of NBA change What makes Indiana coach Rick Carlisle unique is the way he has engaged with modern disruptions in the NBA, the way he has reimagined his philosophies to suit different teams in different eras. Show Caption Hide Caption Pacers and Thunder NBA Finals is better than it's 'small-market' billing USA TODAY Sports' Jeff Zillgitt breaks down the star-studded NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder. Sports Pulse OKLAHOMA CITY — The reporter called out Rick Carlisle. His Indiana Pacers had staged yet another improbable come-from-behind victory in the playoffs, this one in an epic Game 1 of the NBA Finals — a series they entered as overwhelming underdogs. In the first few questions, Carlisle matter-of-factly had downplayed the frenetic pace of Indiana erasing a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter against a Thunder team that rarely squanders leads, especially at home. 'I know you're being Cool Hand Luke and all that,' the reporter began, 'but at any point did you stop and say: 'Damn, that was a hell of a comeback?' ' The way Carlisle opened his answer, in essence a shrug, was quite revealing. 'No, no,' Carlisle began. 'Listen: I've been through too much of this, you know, over the years.' In what is a fascinating NBA Finals matchup of contrasts, Carlisle, 65, is a mainstay, a proven commodity and hoop lifer, a coach with a deep mental archive. But what makes Carlisle unique is the way he has engaged with modern disruptions in the NBA, the way he has reimagined his philosophies to suit different teams playing in different eras. OPINION: Pacers cannot keep relying on crazy comebacks. They must start quicker, finish stronger. And now, Carlisle's Pacers will try to pull off another improbable feat Wednesday, June 11, and go up 2-1 on Oklahoma City (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC). 'He's got unbelievable endurance in the league,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Wednesday, June 4. 'What I'd also say is, he's kind of out in front of some trends in the NBA right now. To be somebody that has the experiences that he has, that's very impressive that he's been able to evolve and be a trendsetter even as he's been one of the longest-tenured people in the NBA.' Carlisle has been a head coach 23 seasons. He was an assistant 11 seasons before that and a player the five years prior, though his first year as an assistant was unique. He began the 1989-90 campaign as a 30-year-old shooting guard for the Nets. However, he played just 4.2 minutes per game across five contests before he switched over to the coaching staff, becoming an assistant to the very players he had just called teammates. During his four decades in the NBA, Carlisle has played alongside legends like Larry Bird, only to later serve as an assistant under him in his first stint with the Pacers; coached Hall of Famers Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki to a NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks; and is 11th all-time in coaching victories, with 993. Carlisle always has had a strong aptitude for offense. It helped that he played for the great Boston Celtics coach K.C. Jones and with Bird and Kevin McHale. Their offensive acumen shaped Carlisle's offensive philosophy. Still, despite that influence, Carlisle has seen offenses evolve. Not only has he adapted over the years, but his offensive vision has put him at the forefront of innovation, including the pace and effort in which his teams play. Throughout his coaching career, Carlisle was adamant about making offensive calls from the bench, instructing the point guard what play to run. Pacers center Myles Turner recalled a game in 2021-22, which was Carlisle's first season in his second stint with Indiana. "Rick was a coach that he used to like to call a play every single possession," Turner said. "Even Rick's first year here, we had a game where he did that. He stopped us and called a play every single possession. "In the dawn of this new NBA, especially in the playoffs, that stuff doesn't work. It's easy to scout. But when you have random movement on offense, guys that are someone like Tyrese (Haliburton) who wants to pass the ball, it makes the game a little bit easier, especially for a guy like myself who thrives with space." It was with Kidd that Carlisle's philosophy of player empowerment began to take root and he ceded some control. 'What I learned my first year in Dallas was to give J-Kidd the ball and get out of the way, let him run the show, let him run the team,' Carlisle said Thursday, June 5, before Game 1. With the Pacers, Carlisle has entrusted Haliburton, an All-Star point guard in 2023 and 2024, to dictate the pace and structure of Indiana's offense. Haliburton is able to operate with significant freedom, choosing when to push up the floor off of rebounds and how quickly. And while the Pacers do have plenty of set plays, they most often rely on flow and feel, allowing players to instinctively move without the ball and play off each other — almost always with Haliburton taking lead. 'It's pretty clear, when you have a player of that kind of magnitude, that kind of presence, that kind of knowledge and vision and depth, you got to let them do what they do,' Carlisle continued. Throughout the playoffs, regardless of score, the Pacers have played their game, which has allowed them to secure multiple comeback victories, including their thrilling 111-110 victory against the Thunder in Game 1. During a replay challenge with 22.5 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Carlisle made the decision not to call a timeout following Oklahoma City's possession. "If we get a stop and get the rebound, we're going to go," he explained to reporters. "Hopefully get the ball in Tyrese's hands and look to make a play." Carlisle let Haliburton create, which led to the winning shot with 0.3 seconds remaining. Carlisle's imprint, no matter what happens in the rest of the series, will undoubtedly be palpable. In the 2025 playoffs, the Pacers are No. 2 offensively (117.1 points per 100 possessions), No. 1 in 3-point shooting percentage (40.5%), No. 1 in field goal percentage (49.6%), No. 1 in assists per game (27.8) and No. 3 in pace, which is possessions per 48 minutes. "The skill aspect is the thing that's the most compelling part of the game, and we're getting to a point now where everybody on the floor, not a 100% of the five men, but all the guys, one through four, can make 3, drive it, make plays," Carlisle said. "And we're getting to a point now where more of the five men can do that than not. It's made the game a lot more difficult to defend, obviously. "But the skill aspect of it is, to me, always going to be the most compelling part about the beauty of watching the game and the challenge and the beauty of teaching the game." It's Carlisle's eye for beautiful offense — and his composed assurance to entrust his players — that now has the Pacers three victories from their first NBA title.
