Life as a WNBA rookie can be tough — even for Caitlin Clark. Here’s how these Philly-area players adjusted.

It's a quick turnaround from the NCAA to the pros. Natasha Cloud, Kahleah Copper, and Maddy Siegrist reflect on their journeys.

by Aaron Carter

Published June 6, 2024, 2:33 p.m. ET

Mentioning Caitlin Clark’s name on social media has become akin to uttering “Macbeth” in a theater, “Voldemort” at Hogwarts, or “Dak Prescott” in a conversation about playoff success.

You do so at your own risk.

The uninitiated might point to Clark’s most recent performance: just three points on 1-for-10 shooting, including 1 of 7 from three, in a lopsided June 2 loss to the New York Liberty as proof the highly touted Indiana Fever rookie is overrated, struggling with expectations, or just dominated lesser competition at Iowa.

So area basketball stars Kahleah Copper, Natasha Cloud, and Maddy Siegrist were consulted to see how they adjusted to professional basketball.

“It took me three years,” Cloud said last week in Brooklyn after her Phoenix Mercury lost, 81-78, to the Liberty. “Every single one of us will tell you we had an adjustment period because from high school to college and from college to the pros you have to adjust. … But for me, it took three years for me for the pace of the [WNBA] game to slow down, especially as a point guard. …

“There is an adjustment period for every player. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care where you come from. I don’t care what greatness you had in college, there is an adjustment period, and players will tell you that. But that doesn’t mean that the greatness is not going to translate soon. Obviously, we’re talking about the debate. Caitlin is an amazing player.”

Cloud added that some don’t consider how well Clark facilitates while being guarded 94 feet for nearly an entire game, even when she doesn’t shoot well.

“She’s going to continue to grow and learn, and that greatness is already there, and it’s going to continue to grow and translate as the competition against her gets better,” Cloud said. “She’s going to rise to the occasion.”

Early clouds

Longtime St. Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin, reached via phone, added context to consider for any WNBA rookie, especially Clark, who led Iowa to another NCAA championship game run in April.

“I think it’s a disservice to the rookies because they are coming right off of their college careers and they don’t have a summer league to get ready for their season,” Griffin said. “They’re kind of thrown right into it, and that’s really tough. With any transition, with the physicality, with the speed of the game, it’s really baptism by fire, so it’s tough.”

Griffin added that most collegiate players make the most progress from their freshman to sophomore seasons.

Siegrist, the Big East freshman of the year and player of the year as a junior and senior Villanova, seems to agree. She was drafted third overall by the Dallas Wings last season.

“I think your freshman year is up and down, but my sophomore year I felt more in control,” Siegrist said via Zoom. “I never felt sped up. And it’s the same thing this year.

“It’s not instant, and there’s going to be moments that, you know, in camp, the first few games, you might feel great and then there’s times you’re like, ‘I’m in way over my head.’ It definitely takes some time. I think grace is the biggest thing.”

Cloud, the Broomall native who starred at Cardinal O’Hara, may have been aided by a built-in grace period. Per NCAA rules at the time, Cloud had to redshirt for a season after transferring to St. Joe’s from Maryland.

“I think that really benefited her as far as understanding how we wanted to play, continuing to get stronger, understanding the personnel we had on our team, and where she could be the most influential,” Griffin said.

That meant Cloud eventually played small forward in her first season at St. Joe’s, while sharing the court with veteran guards Erin Shields and Ashley Prim.

That might also have been where Cloud honed the defensive versatility that — in addition to her consistently being among the league’s assist leaders — makes her an asset in the WNBA, where she routinely guards all five positions.

Last week, Cloud also came to the defense of her WNBA “sisters.”

“The rhetoric around this league right now is extremely hateful,” Cloud said May 29. “Y’all want us to hate each other so bad, but it’s the furthest thing from the [expletive] truth. We love our sisters. This is a sisterhood; everyone that’s a part of this league …”

“I’m hoping the rhetoric with our new fans [changes]. This is all love. This is grit. This is an amazing league that has a lot of beautiful ass women of all different shapes, colors, religions, sizes, sexual preferences, orientations, all those things … so let it be [expletive] great. We don’t need to hate each other. We can go at each other on the court …”

Cloud’s comments came before Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter bumped Clark during a June 1 loss to the Fever that sparked national debate.

Carter was whistled for a foul, which was upgraded to a flagrant foul by the league a day later.

On Wednesday, Carter was harassed, according to teammates, by a man with a camera outside the Sky’s hotel in Washington ahead of Thursday’s contest with the Mystics.

Copper skies

The Mystics drafted Copper with the seventh pick overall in 2016, a year after selecting Cloud in the second round.

The North Philly native was a McDonald’s All-American from Prep Charter before starring at Rutgers.

“The physicality and the pace [of the WNBA] was the thing for me,” Copper said May 29 in Brooklyn. “I had to get used to playing with the best. … I think I’ve experienced that at every stage of my career, so I know how it goes and I just continue to adjust.”

Copper’s high school coach, Paul Rieser, still remembers the girl who was so competitive that she didn’t want to come out of a game Prep Charter led, 28-0, after the first quarter when Copper already had 23 points.

“She was a mean competitor,” Rieser said in a phone interview. “She was going to take it to you. And after that, she’d be the first one high-fiving and talking to people. She’s just a good person. She’s a very well-rounded individual.”

Early on, though, Copper’s game didn’t have as many layers.

She played mostly with her back to the basket for two years at Girard College, Rieser explained.

When she transferred to Prep Charter, Copper’s game expanded. It likely helped, Rieser said, that she played with several Division I players, including Bria Young, who played at St. Francis before becoming a Division II All-American at Philadelphia University (now Jefferson), and Tiffany Johnson, who helped Dayton make an Elite Eight run in 2015.

“She’s just a very tough North Philly kid,” said Rieser. “[Copper] was going to make it one way or the other. I just think she always accepted whatever work it was going to take to make it at whatever the next level would be.”

After one season with the Mystics, Copper was traded to the Chicago Sky, where she came off the bench for about three seasons before becoming an All-Star in 2021, leading the Sky to a WNBA title that same season while earning Finals MVP.

Now, Copper and Cloud, who helped the Mystics win the 2019 crown, are reunited in Phoenix.

“It hurts any rookie to get traded, but I think that trade was the best thing for her career because she went to Chicago, she made it her own, she won a championship there, she became MVP, so she just continued to grow, and that’s what I love about Kah,” Cloud said, May 29.

“That’s a testament to our Philly roots, too. We’re blue collar, so we’re going to continue to get it out the mud. We’re going to work our asses off and come back every single year, and Kahleah has done that … not only as a scorer, but as a defender, as a leader, and as an all-around human being. She’s continued to grow, so to team up with her when we’re both more seasoned … it’s a beautiful thing.”