Stacey Dales: Caitlin Clark’s Early WNBA Struggles are Not Unexpected | The Rich Eisen Show 

She's not struggling.... 17 points, 5.5 rebounds in first 4 games is one of the best rookie starts of all time.

2 months?????? she had 3 or 4 weeks!!!!

She is leading her team in scoring, assists, and threes made, not to mention being near the top of the WNBA in those categories as well. If she is struggling, just imagine what the rest of her team who are returning WNBA players are doing.

D1 all time leading scorer. 3950 points. Second all time assists. 2x National player of the year. 2x Naismith. 45 NCAA records broken. Only third true rookie to have 50 pts and 15 assists in first 3 WNBA games. Over 35 million in endorsement deals inked. She’s struggling so bad, I want to struggle like her please.

Fever's only problem is they have a clueless head coach

her first 3 road games over 20 pts ....thats struggling? She's a superstar already....

The sky is falling with the WNBA? Really? How about who is responsible for the scheduling in the WNBA? Who's the genius that decided it was a good idea to schedule the top rated teams in the league at the beginning of the Fevers season? If you're trying to promote the WNBA and ride the wave of interest this years rookie class is bringing. You don't setup your #1 pick and the leagues bottom tier team to fail. Caitlin and the Fever are going to be just fine. I don't believe Connecticut or New York feel they played the same team the second time around. Connecticut was luck to have won.

I saw these stats, that don't include last nights game against Connecticut, but it compares Caitlin Clark to the other 144 players stats and shows her relative position. Even though her team isn't winning yet, and turnovers are too high early on, her individual stats are very good for a 3-game rookie. How Caitlin Clark Ranks among the 144 players in the WNBA as of 5/20/24: Mins played - 97 (5th) Assists - 17 (2nd) Rebounds - 13 (22nd) Points - 51 (7th) F T % - 100% (Tied 1st) 3 P M - 9 (1st) F G M - 16 (13th) EFF - 40 (18th)

Yeah, I bet most players can accept struggling being 7th in scoring and second in assists for a rookie guard. She's having a horrible season🤡

This lady is full of crap. The Fever have had to play two of the best three teams in the league 4 times to start the season and she is still averaging 17 PPG, 5 APG and almost 4.5 RPG now I have no idea how they call this struggling.

Nice to hear Stacey Dales offer up a little understanding, compassion, and grace.

What is most staggering isn't that CC is struggling but how others are reacting. We expected her to have adjustments but not have everybody put so much pressure on her is too much. 1. The refs calling her game is too lopsided. CC is getting called for little things. 2 fouls in 10 minutes stops CC every night. On the other side, CC is getting bodied by double teams that even LBJ can flop easily. Not to mention the missed calls such as the kick balls in the Connecticut Suns game. It's like the refs also wants recognition. 2. CC's own coaches are scared and don't know how to draw plays for her. How many pick and rolls do you see being called for CC. High screens? Also, why is CC playing the two (SG)? Why is CC handling the inbound pass instead of receiving it? Usually it's the SF that is inbounding the ball. PG usually receives the pass to drive or pass. The SG usually receive the pass to shoot or pass the ball. Only time CC handles the inbound pass is under the basket where the Center or PF can streak towards the basket for a layup or shot, or a SG can spot up for a 3 point. 3. The game management and playing calling is abysmal.

2:29 Taurasi’s rookie season was so hard that she won ROY and was 3rd in MVP voting. That second reason is why I thought she was the wrong person to deliver the “it’s going to be so terribly difficult” message to CC. The league is also immeasurably more competitive and has such better athletes (and players in general) than it did 20 years ago when DT was a rookie.

Jordan lost early in his career. Wemby has too.

Thank you for supporting CC

Basketball is a TEAM sport ...

You are so right about fans and the media and the pressure Caitlin puts on herself ❤️❤️❤️Nj

It's not Caitlin. It's her teammates. The other teams key on Caitlin and other teammates not enough threat to not cover as hard. Caitlin getting grabbed a lot as well. Not good defense by teammates.

What?Do you know women haters Bill burr said that it best women can't come together as a team without destroying each other.😅😅😅😅

I want to hear you make those same excuses for A gel Reese.

Great interview! Thanks SD !

It's another 11 teams and 140 players in the wnba that needs acoverage..pls media you are killing us with these CC overdose

Caitlin Clark is top 5 in assists, top 15 in points and putting up better numbers than Taurasi and somehow she’s struggling. Clearly she is the GOAT bc the media is holding her to the highest possible standard

What struggle I think the points total and everything else she does is better than what a regular player is doing

Thank You Stacy for the most intelligent insight of Caitlin Thank You !

Sides has to go.

I don't like basketball, I don't follow basketball but Caitlin Clark caught my attention and got my respect..

I THINK HER PASSING IS GREAT , HER TEAMMATES HAVE TO BE READY FOR THEM ! A LOT OF HER PASSES ARE TURNOVERS ! BUT NOT BECAUSE OF HER PASS ! THEY HAVE TO BE READY FOR A QUICK PASS ! CAITLIN KNOWS IN THIS LEAGUE , THEY GOTTA BE FAST ! THE LAST 2 GAMES WERE WINNABLE GAMES , ESPECIALLY THE LAST ONE ! BUT THEY SHOULD HAVE WON BOTH OF THEM ! BUT I HAVEN'T GIVEN UP !

Agreed. Well said👏🏻💯

Thank god social media didnt exist when magic and bird came i to the league. The daily insanity is crazy.

Physicality and speed are tougher. It will take a little time.

She's learning, and when all the fevers have trust in her games and mates , they will be phenomenal

What struggles? Last time I checked she's doing her part?

She had 1 month between NCAA Championship game and WNBA Game.

Caitlin's early performance is only seen as subpar because she is being held to superstar standards. She is averaging a very solid 17pts a game, leads her team in pts & assists, etc. She also only had 5 weeks in between her NCAA semi-final game on April 7 & the start of the WNBA season on May 14, and that time was inundated with a volume of non-stop appearances that *none* of the other WNBA players or rookies had to deal with.

Player-coach?? Why not? Better than sitting her on the bench or playing her as the two guard.

Folks forget that there’s a reason why the Fever had the top pick. 😆

Stacey Dales Canadian legend.

Stacey Dales was a BALLER!!

Why is it that so many people have to be all or nothing? Caitlin Clark has not had the start that she was hyped up to. However, in that sense she was probably overhyped (as the media tends to do). It was completely ridiculous to make the comparison between a college player and a man recognized by most as the greatest to ever play the game. At the same time, the sky is hardly falling. Caitlin Clark still looks like the best player on the court for decent stretches (and the best player on the Fever whenever she is out there). For someone who has played all of five professional games that is very impressive. Some of her struggles (such as the turnovers) are pretty much to be expected. The team had less than a month to gel and practice together...so it's not at all surprising that she and her teammates may be a bit out of sync and there's an expected adjustment period to a new league. At the same time, Caitlin needs to show some leadership by working with her teammates to either adjust her own gameplay (ie, not so many sudden, hard passes) or practice more with her teammates to improve that connection...this is part of being the leader/face of the franchise. However, that's not something that you expect any rookie to just jump into in the first month of the first season. Overall, Caitlin Clark isn't the female Michael Jordan but she is off to a very promising, strong start to her young career. Fully expect to see her shining by the end of the season and I expect (or at least hope) that the Fever will make moves in the offseason to build around her.

Stacy is that girl

She's playing the top 3 teams back to back. Sometimes she only has a 24hr gap between games. She has the most tough schedule and she has to play more than 30mins everytime and can't miss a game. Comparatively she has it difficult more than some rookies. Even mentally she has it tough that any other rookies in the WNBA.

You are right.

After 10 games Out of 128 players in league per game stats 4th in Assists 11th Usage % 13th in Blocks 18th in scoring 27th Efficiency 30th in rebounds 30th in steals 47th player impact top 10 in turnovers along with Arike Ogunbowale, Skylar, Diggins-Smith, Alyssa Thomas, Sabrina Ionescu, Dearica Hamby.

Stacey Dales is a legend

The great white hope has failed

Love hearing from Stacy!

Aside from the turnovers (some of which shouldn't be attributed to her), she's had a pretty great start...the team...yes struggling...but her personal numbers are great for a rookie.

Caitlin will be fine’

Other teams are double teaming her and guarding her hard.

The Bears were 7-10 and the Fever 13-27 not even close to comparable.

Good thing it's an Olympic year and the wnba season will pause. She will get a break. At first I thought she should be on Team USA but there will be plenty of Olympics in her future. Right now she could use the rest.

CC is getting mostly praise, and she deserves it. But she’s still a rookie, playing against the best of the best, and with a weak team. Defense was never her strong suit, and the Fever as a team play lousy defense. If they keep letting CC get crushed on picks and screens, she won’t last the season.

She's struggling in the game!! She wasn't referring to offense, but she is. 5 and a10 turnover game.

Struggling? Not one bit. Look at her numbers she's scoring almost 1 point more per game then Taurasi did as a rookie, 91% from the line to T's 71%. The only thing Clark is behind in is turnovers. Her "team" is not good. They could have a few W's by now if she had some more help.

Remember this is WNBA's worst team.

She has Never said anything bad about anyone!!!!!!

only haters and racist are believing CC is struggling...in reality, she is doing fine for a rookie and is doing better than most wnba veterans LOL struggling players are associated with the majority of the veteran wnba players LOL

"early wnba struggles" doesnt equate to being only the 3rd player in wnba history to score atleast 50 points in the first three games...you dont struggle and yet become only the third player in the wnba to score atleast 50 in its first three games...if anything, its the team and coaching and being the worst team in the wnba, not CC

Taruasi was so smug in how she talked about wat she said bout Clark. Taurasi is just pissed caues UConn no longer rules the Womens basketball world

Let's compare her to Michael Jordan, he was rookie of the year in 1985, but his stats were nothing to write home about. Also, the bulls had a losing season and didn't get past the first round of the playoffs for 5 seasons. People have very short memories. Someone please name one of your GOATs that had a more than mediocre rookie year. I'll wait.

She’s not struggling.

Caitlin isn’t used to playing prison bal or bully ball even the refs are ought to get her

The Storm have BECER sold out their arena-NEVER. Yeah, it’s HER elevating the entire league. Shut up and enjoy the ride ladies-please quit trashing Caitlyn- what she has done has gotten people like me(never watched WNBA) locked on-watching every game I can find

Caitlyn will put on some weight,toughen-up and quit letting the opponents man-handle her. It’s coming,have no doubt-

She'll be fine

Bunch of clowns! Caitlin is doing great and getting better every day!!

Caitlyn looks about 10-15 lbs lighter. Of course she’s tired-probably exhausted.

Struggles mainly due to coach!!!!

Struggles ???? She is averaging 17 PPG, 5 APG and 4.5 RPG

Stacey knows what she's talking about, from experience.

I sure do hope they win a game with all that hype she has lol

This girl is all offense and no defense at all. I mean her defense is horrible.

To show how out of Wack are all these Podcasts and Sports pundits . Here is the latest headline. The Rookie of the Year may be one of 3 players and one is not CC. but Kate, her friend. Really, a determination is made about Rookie of the year after 1 game. Side bar: I wanted to add just what determines who becomes Rookie of the Year. But I forgot. To me that is an example of the talking heads creating stories to just cause controversy. Whatever people are stating about how she is not living up to the hype is factually inaccurate. As of 3 days ago on the OFFICIAL WNBA statistic chart, she is the only ROOKIE out of the first 30 players at # 18. to make the chart. Taurasi who a 20-year pro is # 16. CC is also 1 3 pt basket behind Taurasi. The top 10 players are averaging between20 to 32 pts per game. CC is averaging 15.3. However, she has taken half as many shots and played have as many min. In assists she is in the top 7 and in Rebounds the top ten. In addition, the top ten players play on the top 4 teams. Under the guise of this is how rookies are treated when they come into the league, as the games go by The OLD PROS emphasis on OLD are resorting to mash mouth play. This may be because the rookies and 2- or 3-year players are faster and coming from a different style of play. The average WNBA pro has played between 7 and 20 years in the league. As a result of their diminishing skills, they have taken to playing street Basketball. The people who will not accept that role in which she is playing on the team is confusing, her. She does not know whether shoot or pass. What this causes is hesitation and that leads to a turnover. Also, coaching and the way the refs are calling the game are the elements contributing to her lack of success. It also appears some just to want ferment dislike toward CC. More folks other than I have noticed how many times she is open and is frozen out. It seems there are people on her own team who are making life difficult for her. If this dislike keeps up more and more people become less interested. It is a fact the majority of the new fans are white. You upset that fan base and bye, bye private jet, or exposure on You Tube as well as cancelled endorsements. Some will start yapping about Racism, but the fact remains the majority of the new fans coming out to see CC are white. It has nothing to do with race but what sells. And if a White girl can crush it in a sport dominated by people of color, then more white folks than ever will come out to watch. Take CC out of the equation what do you have. Another wonderful fine, smart, athletic group of women who excel at Basketball. Sorry to say but that's old news. The others are caught up in the draft The players who came before were just as good or better and it did not attract attention to the WNBA. So why? Was it again racism the reason why the WNBA was a joke. It was because they just didn't play good basketball. Thus, it was not entertaining. Thats not just my opinion. In addition, after all this adverse reporting, I wonder what will be tickets sales mid- season. WNBA players enjoy your brief moment in the sun because it may soon fade away.

2 weeks maybe a month not 2 months, she was playing in a w game, I’d like to see her in the Olympics, another change and a hard schedule, it’ll be tough!!

What were hearing sane takes about Caitlin Clark I’m truly shocked hey Stephen A skip bayless Kendrick Perkins Jason Whitlock mike Greenberg colin cowherd Keyshawn Johnson Shannon Sharpe watch this you may learn something

The hype around Clark has begun to super exceed the ability. That's never been the case with Magic, Bird, MJ, SHAQ, LeBron etc. The shooting splits + efficiency are concerning.

CC was tired last night, it shows in her shooting, but she will make up for that some with her feeds, rebounds, steals ect, ect, she’s played every other day for almost 2 weeks, back to back tonight, very little practice to get to know her teammates, trial by fire!!! She has handled it pretty well, and she was warned,

The nba season is 82 games.....the college season is 35 or so games and the wnba season is 40 games.....stop making excuses for her and tell her to play the game.....Clark is the most overhyped and overrated player ever but shes been good for womens basketball.....

Caleb is a horrible comparison to Caitlin

Where is Rich Eisen? This interviewer sounds like she is totally bored with this.

it’s basketball… stop making excuses

Logo Caitlin turning her ankle was probably due to her increasing fatigue. Hope she stays healthy. But if she goes down, I'm not watching WNBA.

What struggles? 17 points a game.

Wow your still tired from a game from 2 months ago.

Struggling? Lmao…yes 17 ppg., 6 assists, leading the league in 3 pointers made, 1 of 3 rookies EVER in the WNBA to have 50 plus points, 15 assists. DT never did it,…haha

….and WHEN she gets acclimated-look out.

Reese and others are having success. These are excuses. She was built up so she needs to hold up.

Candace Parker won the NCAA championship her senior year and had to play two-months later in the WNBA. She won rookie of the year and league MVP her rookie year. Stop making excuses for Caitlin Clark.

Boycotting Fever games got change the machines agendas and propaganda numbers. She is not the only player Drafted yall are trying to rewrite history right before our eyes. This has gotta stop. Everybody didn't come for Clark. Already got media machine. Dont need me no more.

Of course they are, no one is not disappointed. The hype is rapidly dying

They gotta stop trying to convince us she's playing better than she really is. She's lost literally every single game she's played and has had mediocre numbers AT BEST every game...yet we're still rewarding her.

Indeed, starting out 0-4, apparently being a distraction for the Entire Team, horrible turnovers, hogging the BALL to get her SHOTS far too many times, etc, etc. So until her TEAM actually starts getting wins, it's going be more than just horrible.

I honestly think Caitlin Clark at this point she just up and quit …… maybe start our own team and the WNBA in the black culture can totally support their own.

Wait a minute, having to play a game with only 2 mos off is exhausting try working a job 50-70 hours a week with no months off for 45-55 years then come holla at us junior

This woman knows nothing about the game. Why would you have someone who is absolutely clueless?