Though she was left out of the All-Star team, Cloud made up for it by being part of the WNBA’s best defensive backcourt and earning All-WNBA Defensive First Team honors.
On this Friday of Natasha Cloud Week, we will discuss her 2022 season when she made the All-WNBA Defensive First Team.
Former Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud was always known as a defense-first player her entire career. But I don’t think that she received enough respect as a two-way player until 2022.
In that season, Cloud averaged a then-career-high 10.7 points, and a league-leading 7.0 assists per game. Despite leading the league in assists midway through the season, she was not named to the All-Star Game. I was surprised that she was left out, and even more surprised that franchise player Elena Delle Donne was also left out. Only guard Ariel Atkins made the All-Star team for the Mystics, who would go on to win the No. 5 seed in the WNBA Playoffs.
Soon after being left out of the All-Star game, Cloud scored 18 points in a win over the Atlanta Dream on June 28. She then spoke to the media where she openly discussed her disappointment about getting snubbed.
Natasha Cloud on All-Star snub
“People don’t respect that I impact a full stat sheet. I play both ends of the floor, have to prepare for me on D, have to prepare for me on O regardless of if I’m scoring or not because I facilitate.”
On hot shooting: “I wanted to prove a point.” https://t.co/ing9rfaoH1 pic.twitter.com/iVFariZsWB
— Hoop District (@Hoop_District) June 29, 2022
When the season was over, Cloud wasn’t able to lead the Mystics to a deep playoff run, but she was named to the All-WNBA Defensive First Team along with Atkins. That’s not a bad way to end the year, at least individually.
When I look at the 2022 season as a whole from hindsight, I look at it as a period of transition for the Mystics. Delle Donne just came back from a back injury that kept her out for all of the 2020 and most of the 2021 seasons. While she had her moments, Delle Donne wasn’t going to provide the same kind of impact like she did in 2019 to help the Mystics win their championship.
But for other players like Atkins and Cloud, they stepped up and became the best defensive backcourt in the league that season. And for Cloud, 2022 she made the jump from being a consistent starting guard to being one of the best two-way players in the league. It still is a shame that she didn’t get an All-Star Game mention that year.