Early in Cloud’s career, it wasn’t clear if she could be a long-term WNBA veteran. But she made significant strides in 2018 to put any doubts to rest.
On this Wednesday edition of Natasha Cloud Week, we’ll revisit the year that would be the turning point of her professional playing career: 2018.
When it ended, the 2018 WNBA season was the best in Washington Mystics history. In that season, Washington went 22-12, tying a franchise high set in 2010. They also made the WNBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, finally getting a monkey off their backs as the only franchise without such an appearance. And it was also their last season playing at Capital One Arena full-time before moving to their current home at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
On Aug. 17 that year, the Mystics played their last game at Capital One Arena, a regular season match against the Los Angeles Sparks, which they won, 69-67. Due to renovations at the Chinatown arena, Washington would play their postseason games at George Washington and George Mason Universities. So it was nice to see the Mystics finish 2018 with a win.
Washington didn’t just win that last home game with a win over the Sparks. Natasha Cloud made the game winning shot, which made then play-by-play announcer Frank Hanrahan go bonkers.
NATASHA CLOUD CALLED GAME
( : @WashMystics)pic.twitter.com/7klehbvfAN
— SB Nation (@SBNation) August 18, 2018
At the time, I wrote about the significance of Cloud’s shot against Sparks guard Alana Beard, who is also one of the Mystics’ all-time greats. But I could not predict that Cloud would remain with the Mystics for five more years and be one of the starting guards on their WNBA championship team the following year.
On that note, here are some other things that Cloud did from 2018 on vs. her career in the years before then.
First, the 2018 season was when Cloud became a perennial starter on playoff-caliber (or better) teams. Though Cloud started 50 of 65 games in 2015 and 2016, they were the rebuilding years before Elena Delle Donne and Kristi Toliver came to town in 2017. Toliver and Tayler Hill were the starters for all and most of that season, respectively.
Second, Cloud became a more reliable scorer and assister, differentiating herself from other rotation guards. When she first came to the Mystics, I felt Cloud’s game as a defense-first guard was quite similar to Tierra Ruffin-Pratt, or TRP as Mystics fans called her. TRP was also a defense-first guard, though she was not a point guard like Cloud naturally was.
TRP and Cloud were also both unreliable shooters. Neither shot above 40 percent from the field, and neither averaged one made three-pointer per game. TRP was an offensive liability on the court, but she was a tenacious defender who wouldn’t let the opposition walk over her. I think it was TRP’s tenacity that helped her become a perennial starter for Washington between 2015 and 2018.
In 2018, while both Cloud and TRP remained known for their defense, Cloud’s offensive game was much more efficient, where she averaged a then-career-high 8.6 points and 4.6 assists per game on a career-high 43.6 percent shooting. She also shot a career-high 38.6 percent from the three point line, making an average of 1.2 threes per game. TRP averaged 7.3 points and made 31.4 percent of her threes but shot 34.1 percent from the field.
After the 2018 season, the Mystics matched an offer sheet Cloud signed with the New York Liberty, while TRP left in free agency to go to the Sparks. I think that was the right call from hindsight, given how the 2019 season went.
How do you feel about Cloud’s 2018 season compared to the rest of her career, especially after that? Let us know in the comments below.