{"id":79747,"date":"2024-06-01T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=79747"},"modified":"2024-06-01T00:19:52","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T04:19:52","slug":"brink-and-reese-have-shown-theyre-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/01\/brink-and-reese-have-shown-theyre-ready\/","title":{"rendered":"Brink and Reese Have Shown They\u2019re Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/r\/reesean01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Angel Reese<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/b\/brinkca01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cameron Brink<\/a> are each having historical rookie seasons. Will either player win the rookie of the year award? With all the talent among the 2024 rookie class, it\u2019ll be a close race. Both Brink and Reese have shown they\u2019re ready for the big stage, and could potentially break some records before the season ends. Being a rookie in the WNBA is no easy task, but the Bayou Barbie and Killa Cam are ready for the challenge.<\/p>\n<h2>Brink and Reese Have Shown They\u2019re Ready<\/h2>\n<p>While everyone is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/22\/nba-lebron-james-why-rooting-caitlin-clark\/\" target=\"_self\">busy talking<\/a> about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/c\/clarkca02w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caitlin Clark<\/a>, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink have quickly carved out roles on their respective teams. Reese and the Chicago Sky (3-3) are currently 7th in the league standings. Brink and the Los Angeles Sparks (2-5) are in 10th place, but the season is young and both teams have plenty of time to improve. Anyone who follows the league can tell you it\u2019s highly competitive and any team can win on any given night.<\/p>\n<h3>Bayou Barbie Ballin\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Reese has displayed an outstanding ability for grabbing offensive rebounds. She is currently leading the league in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/years\/2024.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">offensive rebounding percentage with 16.3%<\/a>. On top of that, Reese has kept her composure despite veteran players disrespecting her.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Angel Reese reacts to Alyssa Thomas&#039; hard foul, ejection | SportsCenter\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mil8TQ5rLww?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That kind of maturity in a rookie holds a lot of value. The former LSU Tiger is sure to encounter more obstacles throughout her career, but she\u2019s no <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/31\/lsu-womens-basketball-hailey-vanl-lith-impassioned-response-racist-rhetoric\/\" target=\"_self\">stranger to adversity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone remembers Reese\u2019s celebration against Iowa in the 2022-23 National Championship. She has undeservedly been painted as a villain by certain fans. It didn\u2019t help that Reese\u2019s college coach at LSU, Kim Mulkey, was critiqued in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/sports\/2024\/03\/30\/kim-mulkey-lsu-griner-reese\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Post<\/a> in what Mulkey called a \u201chit piece\u201d. Regardless, \u00c1ngel Reese has proven she can handle the spotlight and doesn\u2019t seemed concerned with the outside noise.<\/p>\n<h3>Cam Brink Block Party<\/h3>\n<p>Brink has been stellar on the boards as well, as she is 2nd among all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/leaders\/rookie-records.html?utm_source=bbr_site&amp;utm_medium=yellowbanner&amp;utm_campaign=rookie_leaderboards\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rookies in rebounding with 5.4<\/a> per game. However, her defensive prowess is on another level. She is currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/years\/2024.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2nd in block percentage<\/a> among all WNBA players, at 9.3%. Also, she is 2nd in blocks per game with 2.7. It would be hard to break the late <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/d\/dydekma01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Margo Dyrdek<\/a>\u2019s rookie record of 3.8 blocks per game, but crazier things have happened. In case anyone still doubted Brink\u2019s shot blocking ability, she put that to rest with a game-winning block against the Mystics.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CAMERON BRINK GETS THE GAME-WINNG BLOCK VS. THE MYSTICS \ud83d\ude24 | WNBA on ESPN\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WTX3pIgXLRQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brink has an acute awareness on defense that\u2019s hard to find in first-year pros. The former Stanford Cardinal is a serious problem for opposing offenses in the paint, and she\u2019s just getting started.<\/p>\n<h3>Loaded Rookie Class Provides Fierce Competition<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/f\/fairdy01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dyaisha Fair<\/a>, who is 3rd all-time for career scoring in NCAA women\u2019s basketball, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/aces-waive-rookie-dyaisha-fair-1-day-after-her-wnba-debut-231809785.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has been cut<\/a> by the Las Vegas Aces one day after her playing debut. Rookies like Washington Mystic\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/e\/edwaraa01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaliyah Edwards<\/a> have struggled to get consistent minutes, even though Edwards was a star in college at UCONN. Getting playing time in the WNBA is hard, plain and simple. Limited roster spots and a large player talent pool filled with hungry vets don\u2019t do the rooks any favors. That makes Reese\u2019s and Brink\u2019s seamless transition to the big leagues all the more impressive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Angel Reese and Cameron Brink are each having historical rookie seasons. Will either player win the rookie of the year award? With all the talent among the 2024 rookie class, it\u2019ll be a close race. Both Brink and Reese have shown they\u2019re ready for the big stage, and could potentially break some records before the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5164,"featured_media":79806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608],"tags":[49157,2957,4298,49233,1632],"class_list":["post-79747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-angel-reese","tag-chicago-sky","tag-kim-mulkey","tag-las-angeles-sparks","tag-wnba"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}