00:00What's happening, though, interestingly enough, out in the streets is Paige Beckers,
00:05who many moons ago was as heralded of a women's basketball prospect as we've ever seen.
00:15Paige is someone who was like, oh, she's going to be a superstar by her sophomore, junior year of high school.
00:23She won AP Player of the Year her freshman year at UConn.
00:27A lot of injuries, though, happened throughout that run.
00:32Kaitlin Clark obviously took the world by storm in her two seasons at Iowa.
00:38But we feel, or we're seeing now, JY, comparisons of Paige rookie season to Kaitlin Clark's rookie season.
00:48And maybe who's the better player?
00:50Who's the better player moving forward?
00:52Has Paige been better through her rookie season compared to Kaitlin Clark through her, you know, rookie season,
00:59or at least up until, you know, where CeCe was through her first 23 games?
01:04What do you make, JY, of the Paige Beckers-Kaitlin Clark comparisons?
01:10It's such a dynamic thing because, let's be honest, Kevin, this has been going on since high school, right?
01:16Obviously, you know, there was always a rumor that, you know, Kaitlin didn't go to UConn because she wasn't a UConn kid as opposed to Paige.
01:26But when I, I remember last year, I was on a show and a host thought I was crazy when I said that.
01:34I thought that Paige was going to have the better WNBA career.
01:38And I caught a lot of flack, even on social media with this.
01:42And I want people to understand this, this has never been a knock on Kaitlin Clark.
01:46Because I think Kaitlin Clark, if you look by just the metrics of the numbers of her rookie year at 19.2 points, 8.4 assists in her rookie year,
01:56with a usage rate of 27.5%, but with a 17.5 PER, those are, like, ridiculous numbers, right?
02:04And even the elevation of getting that team into the playoffs.
02:08Now, when you go to the other side and you go to Paige, Paige does not have the numbers, especially with the assists, 18.2, less assists at 5.5.
02:16But the usage rate is higher at 29.2% with a PER at 20.5.
02:22So, if you look at the numbers, and this is how it gets interesting because it's, like, what do you look at?
02:29Is it the numbers or is it the efficiency and the usage?
02:33Because if you look at the pure numbers, then it's Kaitlin Clark, right?
02:38But if you look at efficiency and usage, then you go to Paige.
02:43But it's almost like splitting hairs.
02:46It's 1A, 1B.
02:49And I think what you have to look at is we have to see the rest of the year with Paige Beckers.
02:54We know that they've had some pretty good wins.
02:56That win, 92, 82 win that they had over the Liberty last week was a good win for them.
03:01They've played better since she's been hurt.
03:03But to me, what may get not looked at is that Paige is a very good defender.
03:14And that's where people kind of knock Kaitlin.
03:16At the end of the day, as a coach, a coach that's trained and worked with women for a majority of my life,
03:23I will say this, it don't matter.
03:27I'll take either one of them two kids.
03:29I'll take one.
03:30I'll take both.
03:31But don't tell me I can't take neither.
03:34These two are the faces of the WNBA for the next decade plus.
03:40But there's other kids that are coming up the pipe.
03:43There's Juju Watkins, right?
03:45I want to make sure you watch Olivia Miles this year at TCU.
03:49And then I'm going to give you a name that's going to be in college in a year, like a year, 2026.
03:55Saniya Hall.
03:57She just signed, just verbaled to Lindsey Gottlieb in USC, which gives Lindsey Gottlieb,
04:02the number one player in the country three of the last four years, puts pressure on USC.
04:06Remember, no Juju this year.
04:08So we're talking about 2026, 27.
04:10But to me, the WNBA is in great hands, Kevin, and they're in great hands, mainly because of these two kids.
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