MEDLEY, Fla. — Angel Reese was heated.
Rose BC couldn’t stop Rhyne Howard. The Atlanta Dream star was slicing up the court after knocking down 14 points in the second quarter to give Vinyl BC a two-point edge.
Reese pulled Rose coach Nola Henry in a huddle with an insistent demand: She wanted Howard as her defensive assignment for the rest of the game.
Henry delivered. And Reese did too. Howard went scoreless in the final quarter, trying and failing to work around the relentless defensive pressure of the Chicago Sky star.
“She wants to take on that challenge,” Henry said. “Always. That’s what makes her different.”
Unrivaled offers WNBA players plenty of perks — warm weather, shiny new facilities, a lucrative contract without the need to play abroad. But for Reese, the league’s most important benefit is the opportunity to develop her game ahead of her second season with the Sky.
Reese is dominating in her comfort zone in Unrivaled, averaging 13.3 points and a league-high 12.1 rebounds. But with only one week left in the Unrivaled season, Reese faces a new question: Can that success translate to the WNBA?
Henry felt like she understood Reese well before she became her coach with Rose. As an assistant for the Los Angeles Sparks, she spent plenty of time scouting the rookie last year. But over the last two months, Henry and the entire Rose staff and roster have gained a new level of familiarity with Reese — both her strengths and her room for improvement.
Henry found new strengths in Reese’s offensive rebounding: “It’s insane how quickly she gets to her second jump off the floor.” Teammate Brittney Sykes was similarly surprised by Reese’s ability to move the ball, a strength the forward has shown in flashes throughout the season with full-court passes and backdoor feeds.
“She’s a sneaky facilitator,” Sykes said. “I didn’t even know that until the beginning of the season. She has a pretty good IQ to be able to make passes and see passes — even if it might have been a turnover, just the idea of seeing the ball go to where it should be.”
Unrivaled coaching staffs don’t directly collaborate with the WNBA coaches of their respective players. However, Reese is regularly communicating with new Sky coach Tyler Marsh, who is providing feedback and insight that she can communicate to Henry to create a cohesive coaching plan for her offseason development.
Reese’s main weakness on offense is her form at the rim. As a rookie, she initiated her shot below her chest and placed her shots just over the rim, resulting in the lowest-efficiency rim shooting in the WNBA.
This is a weakness Reese acknowledged — and used Unrivaled to tackle head-on. Throughout the season, Reese has worked with shooting coaches and retired players such as Lisa Leslie to lift her release motion and shot target. Henry noted that Reese also attempts many of her layups underhanded, a technique that places the ball low enough for smaller guards such as Skylar Diggins-Smith to block her shot.
It’s hard to a change a shooting habit. For example, five of Reese’s 16 shots at the rim in Friday’s game against the Lunar Owls were underhanded. One of those shots was improved by switching to underhand — Reese utilized a scoop shot to stretch around Shakira Austin in the post, creating an angle to avoid a block from the taller forward. The rest of those underhand shots resulted in misses while six of her makes on a 7-for-16 shooting night came off overhand layups.
As she cleans up her shooting form, Reese also is using Unrivaled to improve her ability to finish through contact. Reese still lets herself get sped up at times under the rim — especially when guarded by keen defenders such as Napheesa Collier — but Sykes praised her for improving her ball placement and patience in those opportunities.
Unrivaled provides a unique coaching dynamic. In a month, Reese will become an opponent again for Henry, who is an assistant coach with the Dallas Wings. But for now, their goals are aligned. Henry might be improving her own opponent for the upcoming season — but that’s all part of the job.
“Despite having to compete against her in the WNBA, I still want her to be the best basketball player possible,” Henry said.
Reese also had the opportunity to build familiarity with two new teammates through Unrivaled — guards Ariel Atkins and Courtney Vandersloot. Atkins was an injury-replacement addition to the Rose roster, giving the duo valuable time to work on their two-man game. Vandersloot spent minimal time working with Reese as an opponent on Mist BC, but the veteran guard feels the pair will be an automatic fit when they link up in Chicago.
Those two veterans will be crucial for Reese, who will be asked to play farther from the basket as more of a wing than a traditional forward this season. Although she took only 80 jump shots last season, the Sky will need Reese to diversify her shot selection to space the floor with teammate Kamilla Cardoso.
“Being able to stretch her range is going to be a big thing,” Vandersloot said. “It doesn’t have to be a 3-pointer now, but she needs to be consistently knocking down elbow jumpers. I’m going to get her a lot of catch-and-shoot shots. Her being able to knock that down will make us a really hard team to guard.”
Improving this shot is also one piece of Reese’s offseason development that wasn’t necessarily aided by the format of full-court, 3-on-3 basketball. With only two passing options and a switch-heavy style of defense, catch-and-shoot opportunities are extremely limited for Reese.
Reese showcased an improved technique in practice and warmups, starting from a higher release point closer to her chin, hands staying separate all the way through the shooting motion. But she rarely took jumpers in Unrivaled — and typically reverted to her old form during games.
Still, Atkins and Vandersloot weren’t concerned about Reese’s growth this offseason. Both praised her work ethic, a trait that led to lengthy workouts and extended sessions in the weight room.
Reese’s competitiveness earned immediate praise from her new teammates — and is something both players are eager to experience as a teammate, rather than an opponent, in Chicago.
“As a rookie, not a lot of players know that,” Vandersloot said. “They don’t have it. They have always been really good and they take it for granted. But she wants to expand her game. Everybody talks about her competitiveness. I see it as an opponent. I love that. I love that energy.”
