Paige Bueckers continues to prove she’s one of the most well-rounded players in the WNBA, especially on offense. Bueckers has primarily been a scorer. She’s as good as anyone in the league at getting to her spots. Her playmaking has also stood out. On Monday, WNBA reporter Seerat Sohi compared her to reigning two-time NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Sohi replied to a post from StatMuse on X that asked who would be called the “Paige Buckers of the NBA.” Sohi took a slight dig at Gilgeous-Alexander’s foul baiting, saying:
“ethical shai but better playmaking”
Bueckers and Gilgeous-Alexander have been compared before. Both are efficient in the midrange. However, there’s room to debate who the better playmaker is. When primarily playing at the point guard position, Gilgeous-Alexander can be pretty efficient at creating opportunities for his teammates.
Last season, he averaged 31.1 points and 6.6 assists, while shooting 55.3% from the field, including 38.6% from three-point range. Meanwhile, Bueckers is averaging 20.9 ppg and 6.2 apg, shooting 51.3% from the field, including 39.7% from three-point range this season.
While Paige Bueckers doesn’t make as many trips to the foul line (3.6 per game this season), she’s efficient from there, shooting 85.7%. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander attempted 9.0 free throws last year, making 87.9% of them.
Some analysts hail Gilgeous-Alexander for his ability to play aggressively, which often gets him to the free-throw line, but most are critical and call him out for foul-baiting too much.
Paige Bueckers names her WNBA Mount Rushmore
Paige Bueckers named her WNBA Mount Rushmore on Thursday during the All-Star weekend’s orange carpet event. Before Bueckers dropped her mentions, she made it clear that she had immense respect for all players who have helped the league grow. The former UConn star also admitted her biases towards Huskies players.
“Let me just state this and preface this – I have a bunch of respect for all the women of WNBA who built this league,” Bueckers said. “I personally have grown up watching like Maya [Moore], Sue [Bird], Diana [Taurasi]. Obviously, I’m a little bit biased towards UConn, too. … I’m a switch it up and say Candace [Parker] for the fourth.”
Moore, Bird and Taurasi were also Huskies legends. However, Bueckers may have balanced it out by throwing in former Tennessee star Parker in the mix. UConn and Tennessee women’s basketball teams had one of the tense rivalries when Parker was in college.
Nevertheless, Parker would make a lot of WNBA Mount Rushmores for her spectacular pro career, so it isn’t surprising that Bueckers, despite her UConn bias, mentioned the Hall of Famer.
Read more:
- “Monica McNutt Provides Nothing to ESPN”: OutKick Reporter Slams Analyst For Saying Caitlin Clark Needs to be More “Accountable”
- “My Goat”: Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Several WNBA All-Stars Drop Heartfelt Comments on Kelsey Mitchell’s All-Star Game Recap
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