Welcome to Four of a Kind, a two-part series detailing how the core of the Las Vegas Aces grew into the dominant group we see today. Nekias Duncan and Mark Schindler each wrote about a pair of Aces, highlighting key growth areas for each player. Mark concludes the series by highlighting Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum’s strides.

Kelsey Plum Playing Through Contact

After putting together one of the greatest shooting seasons in league history in 2022, Kelsey Plum took her game to the next level in 2023 inside the arc. Plum shot 55% on twos this season, a career-high, up 5% from last year’s new career mark.

“Every year, I’ve tried to come back and be more efficient. I feel like last year, I didn’t do a great job of finishing through contact, and throughout prior years, I haven’t been great at finishing in the paint. I made that a priority in the off-season,” says Plum.

“Having a better focus and intentionality on rim reads when to finish… I feel like I’ve always taken contact well, but in terms of finishing the play, it was a big emphasis.”

She spent the off-season working on her strength and honing her balance with core workouts. She’s able to use her lightning-quick first step in tandem with refined footwork and pacing as a driver to finish through contact rather than trying to finish around it.

Jackie Young has been impressed with Plum’s driving ability this year and highlighted her improvement with rim reads.

“Whenever she’s getting downhill, she’s making the right reads… seeing if there’s a big down there (the paint), seeing where your man is whenever you do get past them or if they’re on your hip, seeing how they close on you because you might have a drive and dump off to your big or a kick out three… seeing the defenses and making a quick decision,” says Young.

Plum took 13.4% of her total shots at the rim this season according to basketball reference, the of her past three seasons. However, she took more shots from 3-10 feet than she ever had in her career (31.1%), while shooting a career-high 72.9% at the rim and 52.8% from 3-10 feet, both excellent marks.

“So much for me was focusing on that second line of the defense, because I worked so much on my first step, getting by my defender, now evaluating that next big and seeing how much they’re coming over… I think when you’re more poised and under control, you’re able to see those things in real-time. I feel like the game has slowed down for me a little bit.”

Those straight-line drives hit even harder with Plum’s jitterbug jab-and-go game, punctuated by her counters on the way into the paint. She illuminates the sheer versatility of the Aces, one of their best and primary screeners, capable of running the offense, but also of sprinting off of screens herself into her jumper. She is always a threat, and her improvements in attacking the interior is another facet added to Plum’s well-rounded game.

Jackie Young: The Ultimate Outlet

Amongst players who logged at least 500 minutes this season (regular rotation player), Jackie Young finished 2nd in the league in true shooting percentage. Her 65.7% TS was 6% above her extremely efficient 2022 season and 11.6% above league average.

To put that into perspective, 6 players in the W’s history have played 500 minutes or more, had a usage rate of 20% or higher, and finished with a 65% true-shooting clip or higher: Nneka Ogwumike, Jonquel Jones, Sylvia Fowles (4x), Lauren Jackson, Chiney Ogwumike…. and Jackie Young, the only player who isn’t taller than 6 foot or a true post.

Young’s shot growth from 2022 continued into 2023, shooting even better from beyond the arc, while also taking more shots from deep off the dribble. She’s been tasked with running even more of the offense, carrying the highest usage rate (% estimate of possessions the player uses in the offense) of her career. 

In the off-season, Young spent countless hours continuing to refine her jumper. She’d established herself as a shooter in 2022, in 2023, she and the Aces knew she would start to be guarded differently.

“We worked on getting it off in tight spaces, making the right reads, because now, people will sometimes go over (screens) sometimes go under… so making the right read and a quick decision,” says Young.

With a quickened release, increased confidence, and defenses finally starting to adjust this season to her prowess, the biggest adjustment and growth came for Young: reading closeouts.

She felt that was something she didn’t do well enough last season whenever the opposition did guard her as a shooter, and came into the year determined to better her decision-making and reading of a defense.

“It’s just cool to see that hard work pay off… people have to decide which way they want to guard me now, it makes it easier for us, it opens up the floor even more,” says Young.

When she comes off of a pin-down (a screen set towards the baseline as she comes from that direction) or staggers (a pair of screens), she draws the defense with much more regularity this season.

She has options; she can shoot it coming off the screen if a defender goes under, she can step in and take a pull-up, she can dish the rock to the screener as they roll or pop, and she can attack the lane if the defense goes over.

If she’s spaced on the wing or in the corner, she draws the closeout from a defender and can make the read from there. She spent hours this off-season repping out game-like situations with coaches, with random coverages thrown at her. Sometimes a short close, daring her to shoot. Other times, a hard closeout to run her off the line and if she still shot the ball and made it, it didn’t count as a rep.

“It wasn’t the right read… so maybe adding in a shot fake and a dribble for some separation,” says Young.

“It took a while, and sometimes I would get frustrated in workouts, but a lot of reps helped me to come into games and make the right reads.”

Considering that much of the Aces’ offense is built upon making reads off the initial action, it can’t go understated how substantial this has been from Young. This is one of if not the best passing teams the league has ever seen; offensive continuity is a huge part of that.

What do I mean by that? The ability to keep the ball flowing, moving, popping, and keeping a defense in flux. 

Given that Jackie is now not just a capable shooter, but one of the best in the league, one of the fiercest drivers in the W, a heady passer with growing aggression as a playmaker, she commands attention on every square inch of the court, and is perhaps the most vital cog in Las Vegas’ space and pace machinations. 

WNBA reporter Mark Schindler writes columns on WNBA.com throughout the season and can be reached on Twitter at @MG_Schindler. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its clubs.