Best Ever
The incredible concentration of talent on the 2013 Sky
On April 5th, Sylvia Fowles was selected for enshrinement into the Naismith Hall of Fame. That same day, Elena Delle Donne announced her retirement from basketball. Pair that with Courtney Vandersloot recently deciding to return to the Sky and my hope that Allie Quigley joins her back on the court, and it’s a good time to share the argument from my forthcoming book, Skytown, that these four one-time teammates are the best to ever play their respective positions. It might be a losing argument, but let’s try it anyway, position by position.
Sylvia Fowles, Center
What do you want a Center to do? Rebound, make a lot of shots in the paint, and protect the rim you say?
Well then, you want Sylvia Fowles.
Rebounding ✅
At 9.82 rebounds per game, Fowles averaged the most boards in WNBA history. She pulled down 4,006 of them in her career, the most ever at the time of her retirement, despite not even cracking the top 25 in games played.
Efficient scoring ✅
How about scoring? Fowles made 60% of her field goal attempts, the highest rate ever and it’s not particularly close1.
In fact, even though Fowles only attempted one three-pointer in her entire career (she made it), she also leads the WNBA in effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the added value of a three. For good measure, she’s also first in true shooting percentage which accounts for threes and free throws, so Foul-a-Fowles didn’t work either.
Dominant defense ✅
On the defensive end, Fowles is fourth all-time in blocks, swatting away 721 in her career. In her 15 seasons, she won four Defensive Player of the Year Awards (2011, ‘13, ‘16, ‘21) and was named to 11 All-Defensive teams.
If you want rebounds, scoring, and defense, you want the only player ever to lead the league in all three of those categories, Sylvia Fowles.
Oh, you probably want your Center to help you win too. Well here’s the punchline:
Fowles is first in offensive win shares and first in defensive win shares amongst Centers2. She won two championships and two Finals MVPs.
Fowles retired in 2022, but she could have kept going. In her last season, at age 36, she led the league in rebounding and field goal percentage yet again, was named an All-Star, and made her eighth All-WNBA team. She is undoubtedly the best Center of all time. And now she is a Hall of Famer.
Courtney Vandersloot, Point Guard
Assists ✅
A Point Guard’s main job is to run an offense and find their scorers for easy shots, which shows up in the box score most obviously as assists. Is Courtney Vandersloot good at assists?
Yes. Sloot is second only to Sue Bird in career assists, but Bird played 150 more games. Looking at assists per game, Vandersloot is tops, averaging 6.6 dimes, 0.7 more than second place Sabrina Ionescu. That’s an extra 1.6 points per game3 over the second-best option ever.
In 2017, Sloot broke Ticha Penicheiro’s 15-year-old record for assists per game, notching 8.1 on average.
Then she beat her own record in 2018. Then she beat it again in 2019.
And then again in 2020, when she exploded to became the first player ever to average 10 (we’re rounding) assists per game.
Then in 2021, she once again had more assists per game than anyone else in WNBA history.
Passing Ratios ✅
If you want to talk advanced stats, Vandersloot leads the WNBA in assist percentage, which tracks how many teammate field goals came as a result of her passes: She’s assisted 37% of her teammates’ made shots when on the floor, significantly better than Penicheiro’s 35% and Bird’s 33%.
Sloot also turns the ball over less often than most Point Guards, posting a 2.5 assist to turnover ratio, fifth all time and ahead of Penicheiro and Bird at 2.3.
Everything Else ✅
It’s also great if your Point Guard can score and rebound, and Vandersloot can, averaging 10 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game. That's more points than Ticha and more rebounds than Sue.
Vandersloot is the only one of this elite Point Guard trio to achieve a triple-double and she has recorded 68 double-doubles, 2x as many as Bird and 4x as many as Penicheiro.
Seattle and Sacramento may disagree, but Vandersloot does not get the Point God credit she deserves. Courtney Vandersloot is the best Point Guard of all time.4
Elena Delle Donne, Forward
Here’s what the WNBA posted on their Instagram when Elena Delle Donne announced her retirement:
Seems like her case as the best Forward ever should be easy to make. But it gets tough when you consider the competition: Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, Tamika Catchings, Lauren Jackson, Swin Cash, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore, Nneka Ogwumike, and Candace Parker all played most of their career at Forward. Today’s best players (Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, and Alyssa Thomas) are also all Forwards. Arguing for the best Forward of all time is essentially arguing for the best player of all time.
So let’s do that.
ELITE Scoring ✅
To start, Elena. Can. Score. Her 20 points per game is fifth all time through the 2023 season, behind A’ja Wilson (a Center), Cynthia Cooper and Arike Ogunbowale (Guards), and Breanna Stewart.
But … Elena only played 30 minutes per game while the four players above her each played 32 or more. Elena’s 0.65 points per minute trails only Angel McCoughtry and A’ja Wilson in production.
But … McCoughtry and Wilson also happen to have the highest usage rates ever. Adjusting for number of possessions using offensive rating, a measure of a player’s efficiency at producing points per possession, Elena is number one all time on offense:
And she’s number one by a W I D E margin. The difference between EDD and Cynthia Cooper in second place is the same as the difference between Cynthia Cooper and 14th place Brittney Griner.
Shooting ✅
Elena’s elite scoring comes from her efficiency. While not a 60% shooter like Fowles, she is solid from every spot on the floor: twos, threes, and especially, free throws. Based on a logistic regression to estimate a player’s shooting performance from various spots on the floor5, Delle Donne dominates. If an average player makes 50% of her shots from a given location, EDD would make 63%. That’s an extra point every four or so shots.
In 2017 she became the first and only WNBA member of the 50-40-90 club, and she did it easily, making 52% of her field goals, 43% of her threes, and 97% of her free throws. Only nine NBA players are card-carrying members of the club, and none had a higher percentage sum than Elena’s 52% + 43% + 97% = 192%:6
About that 97% free throw percentage:
It is the highest rate ever for a player taking more than 100 free throws in a season.
It is ridiculous. In 117 attempts, she missed three times! Three!
It is not that ridiculous, for Elena. Over her 10-year WNBA career she made 94% of her 1,190 free throws, meaning she missed only 75.7
Three dribbles, lift your arm into an L, elevate, and flick. A simple mechanic that no one else in basketball has ever mastered like Elena.
Winning ✅
Getting back to “she’s the greatest player of all time” and all that, Elena does so much more than just score. She is 24th all time in rebounds per game and 14th in blocks while averaging two assists and the lowest turnover rate of all time. That all adds up to the best Player Efficiency Rating amongst Forwards, essentially tied with Lauren Jackson.8
In win shares, Tamika Catchings is first all time with 94, while Elena “only” accumulated about 50. But Catch has played so many more games it’s not a fair comparison. Looking at win shares per 40 minutes, Elena tops Tamika 0.29 to 0.26, and is again ~essentially~ tied with Lauren Jackson for highest amongst Forwards. Here are the top 50 players by win shares in WNBA history, plotted by the number of regular season minutes they played:
Oh, hey again Sylvia Fowles.
Delle Donne accumulated fewer minutes than the rest of this “best of the best” group, partially because she played fewer seasons, but more so because she was limited by injuries. Plagued by chronic Lyme disease and a host of unfortunate twists and turns, Elena missed about 1/3 of her potential games. Some may view this as a knock (really the only one), but at the same time it’s inspiring how extraordinary Elena continued to be despite the injury battles.
She played 30 or more games just three times in her 10-year career. The first time she won Rookie of the Year. The next two she won MVPs. When she was on the court, Elena Delle Donne was no doubt one of the best players of all time.
Allie Quigley, Shooting Guard
And finally, Allie Quigley is the best Shooting Guard of all time.
Ok, Allie Quigley is not the best Shooting Guard of all time.9 It’s Diana Taurasi. Or maybe Cynthia Cooper. But, Allie Quigley may be the best pure shooter of all time.10
The Stats ✅
As of 2022, Quigley’s last season in the WNBA,11 she has made 510 three-pointers, good for 18th all time, and her 39.4% three-point percentage ranks 21st. Very good, but not elite. Until you realize that none of the 20 players ahead of her in percentage have made even half as many threes as Quigley has.
Looking at it the other way, of the top 50 players in career three-pointers made, none have shot it at a better clip than Quigley.
Oh, hey Elena Delle Donne! Nice to see you here too.
From the free throw line, Quigley’s 89.3% success rate is fifth in WNBA history, and she made them when they mattered most. In her peak Sky years from 2015-2021 she didn’t miss a single free throw in the playoffs. Let me repeat that: she went half a decade without missing a playoff free throw. She was a perfect 37 for 37.
Quigley came oh so close to beating Elena to the 50-40-90 club, missing out by a single free throw in 2017. Two years later, she missed it by just three free throws and three field goals.
Overall, Quigley is one of just two players in WNBA history with shooting splits of 45% from the field, 39% from three, and 89% from the free throw line. Can you guess who the other is?
The Stories ✅
Outside the live game environment, shooters can really show off - think Steph Curry’s warm up tunnel shots. Allie Quigley has shown off, winning the WNBA three-point contest an unprecedented four times!
Finally, the emotional appeal: even though he passed away when Allie was young, she insists her shooting comes from her dad:
“It was almost like it was genetics. Like he had just passed it down to me, somehow. Passed down this one skill that had become so important to me, and that my dreams and future would eventually become so wrapped up in ... That’s why I’ve known that there was one thing, always, I could count on no matter what: my jumper.”
Allie’s Dad helped her become the best shooter in WNBA history, agree?
So there you have it. The 2013 Sky featured four players who were the best* ever at their positions.
What’s that asterisk for? Well, this entire argument requires a fair amount of goalpost moving and cherry picking. Are all four actually the greatest of all time at their respective positions? Maybe not, but you could make the argument without being immediately laughed out of the room. For one of your players to be in that conversation is great. Two is practically unheard of. Three is a ridiculous notion. And four is this. The 2013 Sky. The modern 1990s Mariners.12
Brittney Griner is second at 56%.
She’s also first in total win shares if you were unsure.
Assuming 27% of shots are threes, league average in Vandersloot’s time in the WNBA.
Sabrina Ionescu and Caitlin Clark may have something to say about this in a few years, but for now the title belongs to Sloot.
Thanks, Pete!
I admit this is a made-up stat that doesn’t actually mean much, but still impressive!
Shaq missed 75 in his first 16 NBA games.
Technically, Jackson edges Delle Donne by 0.2%, but they are both over 5% better than third place so I’m calling it a tie.
Sorry Allie. You’re still #1 in my heart ❤️
Quigley has said herself that Taurasi is the best pure shooter of all time, but let’s write that off to humility and ignore it.
So far. Please come back!!
Thank you to Dorktown and SB Nation for the inspiration for this analysis, and for the four hours of my life I wasted spent learning about the history of the Seattle Mariners. For those curious, the 1993 Mariners had Ken Griffey Jr. in center field, Edgar Martinez at designated hitter, Randy Johnson as a starting pitcher, and Alex Rodriguez at shortstop. Ok, enough baseball.