WNBA

Kia Nurse, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, turned out to be one of the lone bright spots in a frustrating year for the New York Liberty.

The team is still for sale by owner James Dolan. They were ushered into a lesser facility, the Westchester County Center, after many years at Madison Square Garden. And the team plummeted in the standings after three consecutive top-four finishes.

Nurse was expected to be ready to contribute at the next level right away with her defense and spot up 3-point shooting. The team’s internal read on what she showed elsewhere will have a big impact on what they elect to do in the offseason as they aim to reload around superstar forward Tina Charles, who’s entering her age 30 season.

Nurse was an effective finisher within five feet of the rim, where she took about 30 percent of her field goal attempts and converted 61 percent of them, per Swanny’s Stats. Her free throw rate of 30.1 was one of the highest on the team and about on par with that of All-Stars Kayla McBride and DeWanna Bonner. Nurse is very quick in a straight line, shook defenders off of her one-on-one with a nice right-to-left crossover and was able to get to the rim to score in limited chances as a pick and roll ball handler.

She was very right-hand dominant as a finisher and will need to add some variety to cash in more of those looks over and around bigger players, particularly if the Liberty plan to ramp up her usage. Some of the tougher misses will go away when she sees the open player right away.

Those reads varied in complexity depending upon the personnel Katie Smith put on the floor. Amanda Zahui B opened up a lot of seams for the team playing alongside Charles, who has made the 3-pointer a bigger part of her game in recent years. The waters were muddied with one of their other bigs, who tend to hang around closer to the basket, on the floor.

Though Nurse shot below 30 percent from deep in total, she flashed some versatility by hitting difficult attempts on the move.

When defenders respond to the threat of her jolting around a screen or using a dribble handoff to step into a triple, more driving lanes opened up.

Nurse looked comfortable reading the defense as an option in their ‘Iverson’ series. One good read can open up a flurry of possibilities. Open 3-pointers and basket cuts for Nurse were just an early peek at the many options they can cycle through.

They also had her initiate that action from the top of the key. After making the initial pass, they had some quick wrinkles to free her up to step into a 3-pointer.

Perhaps this all was just be the beginning for Nurse. The team may not have a more traditional break-you-down pick and roll guard on the perimeter. They have some versatile shooters that can attract a lot of attention running around screens. She’s the one that was already getting to the rim and the foul line with some regularity.

Moving those players around can disguise some screen the screener action with the option to get Charles deep post catches or an open jumper when the defense locks in on that initial threat. You’ve probably seen this action before in some form from other teams including the Minnesota Lynx, with Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles in place of Nurse and Charles.

For all we know, the Liberty will have a new owner and an entirely different roster by the time they are on the clock with the No. 2 overall pick.

They’ve accomplished the most difficult part, landing an MVP-caliber player in Charles. They have young players with upside in Nurse and this future No. 2 pick. They have veterans to station around them that have contributed to winning basketball at this level.

The Liberty have experienced both extremes to end a season with a 10-game win streak to close 2017 and a 13-game losing streak in 2018. More of what we saw from Nurse’s rookie season may be the spark needed not just to get back into the playoff picture, but to stay there and maximize what’s left of Charles’ prime.