Caitlin Clark has missed five games this season. Despite that, she leads the league in one fairly absurd volume stat.
So far this season, Clark is shooting 8-of-18 on shots from beyond 28 feet.
Maybe you look at that number, and you think, "okay, so ... what does that mean?" That's a fair thing to think, because numbers often need context, so let's bring in some context. That's as many as any single team has made this year and as many as the Sparks, Storm, Wings, Valkyries, Aces and Lynx combined. And the only team to make as many as Clark's made individually is Atlanta, a team that has been running a new offensive system that emphasizes the 3-pointer.
No one is able to draw the defense out as far as Clark, and it's a huge part of what makes her so dangerous.
Caitlin Clark loves to fire away from really, really deep
There's no player in the WNBA who is more comfortable shooting from anywhere beyond the arc than Caitlin Clark.
For instance, she leads the league in 28+ foot 3-pointers, but she's not just firing away from 29-feet over and over. She's shooting from even deeper. Clark is 2-for-6 on the season from 32+ feet. She's the only player to even attempt more than two shots from the 32-37 foot range this season, and the only player to make more than one shot from there.
In fact, WNBA shot data for distance goes back to 2018. She has the top two seasons on record for attempts from that deep, going 4-for-12 last year. Since 2018, only one player has more total attempts from that range than Clark: DeWanna Bonner, who has 19 attempts to Clark's 18. That's over eight seasons for Bonner, while for Clark it's over two.
Caitlin Clark's shooting is breaking the WNBA.
It's also part of why she's the league leader in assists. Defenders have to pick Clark up really, really far from the bucket, which opens up space for her teammates to get open. It's a bit of a cheat code for the Fever, because teams are having to use their best perimeter defender to slow Clark down, so by forcing the defense to pick her up when she crosses the halfcourt line, it essentially creates a 4-on-4 situation, with the opposing team's best defender not involved in that part of the floor.
And as long as Clark keeps hitting those shots at a high rate, defenders have to keep accounting for it. There's no other WNBA player who you have to worry about pulling up from 35 feet. A shot from anyone else from there is more than likely just a product of desperation and an expiring shot clock.
Not Clark, though. She's a threat from everywhere.