Angel Reese's layup issues aren't as big of a problem as fans seem to believe

Angel Reese is having a stellar rookie season, leading the league in rebounding and putting herself in the Rookie of the Year race along with her old college rival Caitlin Clark. She recently became the first player in league history to pull down 20 or more rebounds in three straight games and is on pace to break WNBA records for offensive and total rebounds in a season.

Despite those accomplishments, Reese's season has been marred by a woeful shooting percentage, particularly from short range. She is shooting below 40% from the field, and her accuracy drops by half when she moves beyond the three-point line. Long-range shooting was never her forté, though, but her inability to score from close in is much more puzzling.

Reese currently has the worst shooting percentage in the league from five feet or closer at just under 44%. By contrast, the league average is 59.6% and Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner makes more than three-quarters of her shots from that range. The twitterati has jumped on Reese for her layup woes, and there are multiple YouTube lowlight videos of her most baffling misses.

Reese have a chance to work on shooting and other fundamentals in the offseason when she competes in the 3-on-3 Unrivaled Basketball league against fellow WNBA players like Jewell Lloyd, Kahleah Copper, and Jackie Young. Reese's shooting woes are dampening the Sky's playoff hopes, though. She shot just 4 of 16 in the two-point loss to the Aces on Sunday, and just one made basket of those missed dozen would have sent the game into overtime.

Reese is just 22 years old and has less than 30 WNBA games under her belt, so fans should be willing to accept some shaky shooting, especially considering her stellar rebounding. That's not happening, though. In 2024, negative stories generally outnumber positive ones, so it's not surprising that we're hearing as much about Angel's subpar accuracy as we are about her campaign to break Sylvia Fowles' six-year old rebounding record.

Teammate Chennedy Carter even mentioned Reese's layup issues after the loss to the Aces, although she couched it in praise for Reese's strong performance in the game. "Twenty rebounds, she had an incredible game, no matter if she finished at the rim," Carter said in a post-game press conference. "She’s doing the things that we need her to do in order for us to be successful."