{"id":297547,"date":"2025-11-17T18:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T18:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/297547\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T18:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T18:37:12","slug":"wnba-teams-may-be-hesitant-to-follow-dawn-staleys-advice-for-two-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/297547\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA teams may be hesitant to follow Dawn Staley\u2019s advice for two reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Carolina\u2019s roster features five seniors this season, including some talent that seems destined for a bright WNBA future. Ta\u2019Niya Latson is widely expected to go high in the draft\u2014just outside a lottery that is very likely to feature Awa Fam, Lauren Betts, Olivia Miles, Flau\u2019Jae Johnson, and Azzi Fudd. Madina Okot is projected to go late in the first round in ESPN\u2019s and Bleacher Report\u2019s latest mock drafts. Meanwhile, Chloe Kitts\u2019s draft status is up in the air <\/a>due to an ACL injury that will keep her out for the entire season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That leaves Raven Johnson and Maryam Dauda. The latter plays a rather small role for the Gamecocks, but Johnson has been a starter for three seasons now and played a big role in South Carolina\u2019s success in recent years. Nevertheless, Johnson isn\u2019t often cited as a potential first-round pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft.\u00a0Her lack of a consistent 3-point shot and inefficient overall scoring are common concerns and will likely still be an issue by the time the draft rolls around, barring some significant improvements in Johnson\u2019s senior season. <\/p>\n

Dawn Staley is not a fan of that evaluation. After South Carolina\u2019s win over USC, in which Johnson recorded a double-double, Staley issued a fiery defense of her point guard and a tip for WNBA teams. \u201cWhen you have a point guard like Raven who is a pass-first point guard\u2026and you hear so many people break her game down and minimize what she brings to the table,\u201d Staley said<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s disheartening. It\u2019s ignorant because if you really don\u2019t know what she\u2019s bringing to the table, you don\u2019t really understand the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on to say, \u201cRaven lost 11 games from 2017 till today. 11. And we want to talk about, can she score or not? Yes, she can score. She really can score, but when it comes down to winning, she makes the right plays whether that\u2019s scoring, whether that\u2019s defending, whether that\u2019s rebounding, whether that\u2019s getting other people involved\u2026.If WNBA teams want to be like us, meaning the amount of success that we\u2019ve had with her in the lineup, they\u2019re going to take Raven. They\u2019re going to take Raven in the first round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raven Johnson is closing out a very successful college career<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s numbers don\u2019t necessarily jump off the page. She averaged 8.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 2.1 steals in her first season as a full-time starter. South Carolina won a championship that season, and Johnson led the team in minutes per game. She shot badly in the championship game, going 1-11 from the field, but also recorded 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks in 37 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, she has rarely wavered as a steady presence for the Gamecocks. So far this season, she is averaging 9.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. Johnson isn\u2019t just a floor general, though. She can also defend well, earning SEC All-Defensive Team honors for the 2024-25 season.\u00a0Last season, Johnson also played a big role in South Carolina\u2019s run to yet another championship game. <\/p>\n

A lot of Johnson\u2019s draft stock will come down to how the rest of the season goes and what teams are looking for<\/p>\n

Despite Johnson\u2019s success in college, some issues might make WNBA teams hesitant to draft her in the first round. For one, Johnson hasn\u2019t been an efficient scorer over her time with the Gamecocks. She only shot over 40% from the field in the 2023-24 season. However, she has been efficient so far this season, shooting at least 50% from the field in three out of four games, including a 6-12 performance against USC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson also hasn\u2019t emerged as a true 3-point threat. She shot 24.1, 35, and 29.5 percent in her first three seasons. So far this season, she has attempted ten threes and made five of them. The question is just whether or not she can keep up that good shooting. If she can, it would definitely make her a more interesting draft prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2026 draft class features a lot of shooting guards and wings, but not many high-level point guards. Olivia Miles is easily the best point guard available. Iyana Martin from Spain <\/a>and UCLA\u2019s Kiki Rice also have strong cases to be first-round picks. That lack of depth at the point guard position could help boost Johnson\u2019s draft stock.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Carolina\u2019s roster features five seniors this season, including some talent that seems destined for a bright WNBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-297547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}