Caitlin Clark and the Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers are rebuilding. They also may be rethinking how to rebuild. There are reports the team has scouted a prolific college shooting guard – Caitlin Clark. Yes, that Caitlin Clark. who will be the spotlight player in tonight’s NCAA Women’s Final Four games.

The 6-foot Iowa Hawkeye senior will finish her college career this weekend after helping her team reach the finals by scoring 41 points, dishing out 12 assists and grabbing seven rebounds to defeat LSU, last year’s national champion.

Tonight’s game will feature Clark against another college standout guard, Paige Bueckers, often called Paige Buckets because of her prolific scoring ability for the UConn Huskies. Clark and Bueckers have both won player of the year awards.

During the season, Clark eclipsed the NCAA record for men or women in scoring, breaking the record held by “Pistol” Pete Maravich and earning Clark the nickname “Ponytail Pete”. She also has broken Women’s Final Four tournament records for most three-point shots and assists. Clark eclipsed the three-point tournament record formerly held by Diana Taurasi.

But what Clark is really known for is launching “logo” three-point shots far beyond the three-point line – for men or women. Her average three-point shot is from 26’1”. The NBA three-point line is 22’ 3” in the corners and 23’ 9” elsewhere on the court.

NBA and the Three-Pointer
The NBA introduced the three-point line in the 1979-1980 season. Early skepticism was erased when long-distance shots by Steph Curry and Klay Thompson propelled the Golden State Warriors to championships. The Trail Blazers cashed in on the trend by drafting Damian Lillard, a little known guard from Weber State. Lillard went on to drain 2,597 three-pointers in his pro career.

Lillard’s best three-point shooting percentage was 40.1 percent in the 2019-2020 season. Clark’s three-point shooting percentage in her freshman year was 40.6 percent. In her senior season, she averaged 38 percent. So far in the NCAA Women’s tournament, she has averaged 37 percent.

The Iowa-LSU game attracted one of the largest audiences on ESPN for a women’s college or pro basketball game with a peak viewing audience of 16.1 million.

You can appreciate why the Trail Blazers scouted Clark. There is some indication the San Antonio Spurs have scouted her, too.

Women Players in the NBA
If selected, Clark wouldn’t be the first female player drafted by an NBA team. The Golden State Warriors drafted Denise Long, a 5’11” teenager from Iowa, in the 13^th round of the 1969 draft. That was the same year Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) was drafted. However, Long’s draft choice was voided by NBA Commissioner Walter Kennedy, who called it a publicity stunt.

Years later, Long (now Denise Rife), told the Des Moines Register she would have tried out for the Warriors if allowed. She was a prolific scorer, accumulating 6,250 career points over her four-year high school career – before there was a three-point line. Long once scored 93 points in a game.

Until 1993, Iowa high school basketball teams had six players on the floor – three players on each end of the court. Players could only dribble twice before passing or shooting. (Personal sidenote: My mother played guard for four years for her small-town Iowa high school.)

Lucy Harris, a 6’3” center who played at Delta State University, was selected by the New Orleans Jazz on the 137^thpick in the 1977 NBA draft, The choice wasn’t voided, but Harris never played for the Jazz. She was pregnant when drafted.

Ann Meyers, a star player at UCLA, tried out in 1980 for the Indiana Pacers and signed a $50,000 free agent contract. However, she never made it onto the team roster. Meyers was a the first woman to receive a full-ride scholarship at UCLA and went on to become a four-time college all-American. She was the first player drafted by the Women’s Basketball League and was the most valuable player in her first year playing for the New Jersey Gems. She went on to become a sports broadcaster and vice president of the Phoenix Suns. Meyers was married to Baseball Hall of Famer pitcher Don Drysdale.

Women, including Nancy Lieberman, have played on men’s teams in the United States Basketball League. Known as Lady Magic, Lieberman was a 5’10” point guard who learned the game on courts in Harlem, which enabled her to shoot with contact and drive to the basket. She starred in the Women’s National Basketball Association.

Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, now a star player for the WNBA’s New York Liberty, has earned respect for participating in a three-point shootout with Curry during halftime at the most recent NBA all-star game. Curry won, but Ionescu’s three-point total equaled the winner of the actual three-point contest. Ionescu took her shots from behind the NBA three-point line.

Clark and Pro Basketball
One reason Clark might consider a career in the NBA is money. The top 21 players in the WNBA only make more than $200,000. Top draft picks in the NBA last year scored contracts from $10 million to $5.5 million. Curry earns almost $52 million per season.

Clark’s situation is different from most college or professional women basketball players. As a college player, she earned an estimated $3.1 million from NIL deals with Gatorade, State Farm, Nike and Xfinity. Her State Farm ad features her with NBA all-star Jimmy Butler and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller. Clark also has a posse – 1.5 million followers on social media.

Ionescu reportedly has a $24 million deal with Nike for a signature shoe line to go along with other endorsements. Her annual WNBA salary is $205,030.

Another factor is wear and tear. NBA teams play an exhaustive 84-game schedule before the playoffs. WNBA teams play 40 games per season with a more limited playoff schedule.

The first pick in this year’s WNBA draft goes to the Indiana Fever, which also had the top pick last year when it selected Aliyah Boston from South Carolina. Boston, a 6’5” forward, was this season’s WNBA Rookie of the Year.

The Fever coaching staff is drooling at the chance to see Clark run the pick-and-roll with Boston.

But so is San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, who could see Clark teamed with his star rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama, a versatile and athletic 7’4” center-forward who shoots, rebounds and passes better than most big men.

The Trail Blazers may be eyeing Clark as Lillard 2.0 who can shoot far enough away from the basket to avoid physical defenses and adept at dribbling and driving to the basket for easy shots.

RipCity Radio posted a comment attributed to NBA great Paul Pierce about Clark’s overall basketball skills after he watched her Iowa team defeat LSU. “He made no bones about being impressed that a white player could be that great, especially against a team consisting of mostly black players. She’s proving that the color of her skin has no bearing on her ability to hoop like no other.”

Clark has made herself available for the WNBA draft April 15. The NBA draft won’t occur until June 27. A lot can happen between now and then, starting tonight in Cleveland when Iowa and Clark clash with UConn and Bueckers. A lot of people will be watching. Some of them will be NBA scouts.