With A’ja Wilson leading the LV Aces, don’t overlook Kayla McBride
I mean… you did see her 3-point shoot-off with Allie Quigley at the All-Star game, right?
There is no denying that Kayla McBride is a shooter, but this year she has taken it to another level. McBride’s 5th season in the league has been her best WNBA performance by far and she was rewarded with her 2nd All-Star appearance.
McBride is making 1.6 threes per game in 2018, the same number as last year. The big difference? She’s cut her three-point attempts from 5.3 last season to 3.8 this year. Her shooting percentage from deep has increased from 31.0% to 40.9% to make up for fewer attempts.
Kayla can feel the difference on the floor. She told Her Hoop Stats “I’m taking better threes than last year. Last year I was settling a little more.”
Her improved shot selection from long range has shown. McBride hasn’t shot this well from 3 since her rookie year with the San Antonio Stars when she shot 39.6% on 4.2 attempts per game.
But unlike 2014, she has been incredibly efficient closer to the basket as well. Her 2-pt field goal percentage is through the roof at 48.2%. That’s a career high and well over her previous best of 43.2% last season.
The improved efficiency inside the arc is not a result of taking fewer shots. Despite Vegas’ all-star rookie addition in A’ja Wilson, McBride’s usage rate has not wavered. McBride has finished 24.9% of Aces’ possessions with a shot, free throw, or tunover which is slightly up from last years’ 22.4%. She’s also averaging 14.8 shots per game vs 12.6 last year despite playing slightly fewer minutes.
Instead, her shot selection has been a conscious effort on McBride’s part, who comments, “People have always nailed me down as a shooter. [I’m] just trying to get to the rim a little bit more… just diversify my game.”
It would have been easy for McBride to pass off her scoring duties to Wilson, but on the contrary McBride actually credits A’ja for her ability to score more points this season. “She takes a little bit of pressure off of me. I haven’t had to score like her on my team for a while,” says McBride. “She opens up the floor for us guards to penetrate and makes it a little bit easier when you know you can just dump it in to her and she can go to work.”
Aces coach Bill Laimbeer has noticed a shift in Kayla’s mindset on the floor: “She’s risking her mind and body every day.”
McBride’s offensive rebounding stats demonstrate her aggressive, leave-it-on-the-court mindset. She is averaging 1.0 boards per game on the offensive end, a figure which has doubled from 0.5 offensive rebounds in 2017. To McBride, offensive rebounds are key for young teams like Las Vegas who tend to miss more shots than veteran teams. Capturing those missed attempts gives the team more opportunities for second chance points.
Together McBride and Wilson are working culminate their franchise’s first season in Las Vegas with a run in the playoffs. With 9 games left to play, the Aces find themselves in 9th place, but with such a competitive league this year no team has clinched any of the 8 playoff spots. That means that Vegas is very much in the battle for the playoffs — and with McBride and Wilson’s competitive nature I wouldn’t count them out any time soon.
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All stats are compiled from basketball-reference as of July 31st, 2018.
