December 21, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Which 2025 WNBA draft prospects have disappointed so far?
By The Next
Evaluating how Kentucky's Georgia Amoore, South Carolina's Te-Hina Paopao and other 2025 WNBA draft prospects have played this season
In the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, Hunter Cruse, Emily Adler and Lincoln Shafer discuss how some 2025 WNBA draft prospects are faring this season, including some who have started the season more slowly than expected.
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One prospect they cover is Kentucky point guard Georgia Amoore, who the trio ranked as the 15th-best prospect for 2025 in the preseason. At the time, the trio noted her excellent midrange shooting but expressed concerns about her pull-up 3-pointer, and those observations have held up this season. Amoore is shooting just 29.6% from 3-point range, though she’s still averaging 16.3 points and 7.0 assists per game.
Here’s Shafer on how he evaluates her prospects:
“The 3-point shot just isn’t really falling right now, which is a problem for her prospects as a WNBA player, as a 5’5 lead guard. … I’ve actually really liked a lot of the stuff that she’s done inside the arc. She’s been super fun on the 8- to 15-foot range, working off the horns actions that [head coach] Kenny [Brooks] likes to run.”
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Later in the episode, the trio discusses several South Carolina players, including guard Te-Hina Paopao, forward Sania Feagin and guard Bree Hall. Paopao is averaging 11.3 points, 2.4 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game, and she’s making 53.8% of her 2-pointers and 42.9% of her 3-pointers. Her assists and 3-point shooting are down somewhat from last season, but her 2-point percentage is up.
Adler assesses what that means for Paopao’s WNBA future after the trio ranked her as the sixth-best prospect in the preseason:
“If she falls out of the top five, that is a problem on behalf of the [general managers] who are drafting in the top five. … I don’t see any universe in which she’s worse than [an average starter long-term] in the W.
“If you’re looking at [Notre Dame guard] Sonia Citron and you’re seeing a player who you’re like, ‘Hey, that’s a plug-and-play at the three in the W,’ Te-Hina Paopao is just like that but better. [She’s] not necessarily the same player, but it’s almost the exact same concept, but just with much better confidence intervals.”
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