September 9, 2023
Locked on Women’s Basketball: Seimone Augustus, the WNBA’s best isolation scorer and bucket-getter
By The Next
'The ideal shooting guard prospect but in a big wing's body'
Our WNBA Retrospect series continues at Locked on Women’s Basketball! The series reviews game film, stats, news articles and more to determine who has been the best prospect in WNBA history. Last week, Em Adler, Hunter Cruse and Lincoln Shafer discussed Alana Beard, the 2004 No. 2 overall pick. This week, they turn to the No. 1 pick in 2006, LSU guard Seimone Augustus.
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As a college senior, Augustus averaged 22.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game, shooting 56.1% from the field and 45.0% from 3-point range. The Tigers advanced to the Final Four before falling to Duke, and Augustus won several national player of the year awards.
Em talks about Augustus’ elite athleticism as a professional prospect:
“We’ve covered some ridiculous athletes in this show, but in many ways I would say she’s probably the best lateral athlete that we’ve covered so far … [2001 No. 3 pick Tamika Catchings] is better in her own ways, but just in terms of the raw speed, stop-start, lateral quickness, athleticism, Seimone Augustus has ungodly burst and possibly, again even including Catch, the best sort of hip flexibility [and] hip mobility that we have seen of anyone that we’ve done on the series so far. And it’s just ridiculous the way she contorts her body and how absolutely smooth she is on everything.”
Lincoln points to Augustus’ dribbling ability and how it helped her be an elite scorer:
“She’s like the ideal shooting guard prospect but in a big wing’s body. That’s the first thing that stood out to me is she looks enormous on the college court running at 6’1. And she’s just getting buckets in so many ways. The creativity of her handle is so advanced for a college player, especially someone who’s primarily playing off the ball. It’s like, if you take all of the 6’1 college basketball players in women’s basketball history, I’m not sure how many you’re finding with a better and more creative handle than Seimone Augustus.”
Augustus was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx and played 14 seasons there before spending her final season with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2020. She won four WNBA championships with the Lynx, was named Finals MVP in 2011 and was an eight-time All-Star. In 391 career regular-season games, she averaged 15.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists and shot 36.4% from 3-point range.
Related reading:
- LSU erects statue to honor the great Seimone Augustus
- ‘I don’t know if there’ll be another’: Seimone Augustus becomes second Lynx player to have jersey retired
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