Analysis: Gray ready to put on a show with new-look Aces

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

Chelsea Gray attempts a pass or two per game that might make most coaches scream or cringe on the bench. But not Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon.

The Aces’ fourth-year coach not only endures letting her longtime point guard’s creativity flow, she embraces it. Gray has the proverbial green light when it comes to facilitating a Hammon offense that has helped transformed the WNBA since the coach joined the Aces after a eight-year stint as an assistant with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.

“She’s gonna let it fly,” Hammon said of Gray’s style with a laugh at Aces’ media day earlier this month. “I think she gets bored with her own (normal passes). She gets disinterested. It’s kind of like, ‘I’m just going to be doing this,’ and in it goes. We’ll roll with it.”

Gray should be back at her full powers on a WNBA court for the first time in nearly two years this morning when the Aces open the season on the road against the New York Liberty. Tip-off is scheduled for 10 a.m. PDT at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., with the game airing on ABC and streaming on ESPN+ and Disney+.

Nothing should give Las Vegas more confidence heading into the year than Gray being fully recovered from a lingering foot fracture she suffered at Barclays against New York in Game 3 of the 2023 WNBA Finals.

The Aces famously upset the Liberty in the next game to win the championship series, dedicating the victory to Gray, but the ill effects of her injury took hold the next season. Las Vegas finished fourth in the standings — its worst placement since 2018 when Most Valuable Player A’ja Wilson was a rookie — and fell in four games in another best-of-five series to New York in the playoff semifinals.

Gray, now 32, returned about midway through the season but was still hampered and saw her statistical production dip to their lowest levels since her first two seasons as a professional.

“Last year, I was barely able to walk,” Gray said at media day. “Today I can sprint down the stairs and come back up. I feel good. When you’re talking about professional athletes, your body is your work, and my body just wasn’t right last year.”

Professional athletes often chalk up a down year to injury, sometimes even optimistically when a natural aging curve better explains the decline.

But there’s scant evidence to suggest Gray’s best days are behind her.

On the contrary, she’s coming off some of the best basketball of her career — just not in the WNBA.

In the inaugural Unrivaled 3-on-3 league founded by superstars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart earlier this year, Gray led her Rose BC team to the championship. She scored a league-record 39 points in a semifinal win and claimed Most Valuable Player honors in the Finals.

“Nothing really shocks me seeing her be Chelsea Gray out on the court,” Hammon said. “The world just kind of forgot for a minute about this woman, and I think Unrivaled was a nice little reminder of who she is.”

Now Gray is out to showcase the return of abilities that already made her a six-time WNBA all-star to a wider audience.

She said recovery was the primary focus of the offseason, but her largest share of on-court work went to an area this year’s Aces will need the most — three-point shooting.

Gray has always been capable to outstanding from beyond the arc — she finished fourth in the league with a 42.1 three-point percentage in 2023 — but her volume may need to increase this year. That’s because the Aces traded their top 3-point shooter, Kelsey Plum, to the Los Angeles Sparks in a three-team deal that landed star veteran guard Jewell Loyd.

There’s a lot of speculation about the new dimensions Loyd could bring to the Aces and, naturally, how she pairs with the reigning MVP Wilson and versatile star Jackie Young.

But Gray is the one who’s going to be tasked with putting it all into motion, and she couldn’t be more excited to welcome the challenge.

“I’m in shape and able to go for longer and sustain for longer,” Gray said. “I’m just in a good space right now.”

Las Vegas initially wooed Gray away from the Sparks, where she was a reserve on the 2016 WNBA championship team, in free agency ahead of the 2021 season. She fit in as the final piece of the “Core Four” that eventually won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 alongside consecutive No. 1 overall picks Plum, Wilson and Young.

Gray arrived in Las Vegas a year before the franchise brought on Hammon, though that’s hard to believe now given how inexorably linked the pair have become.

Wilson is the face of the Aces and one of the best players in league history, but there’s no more perfect match than Hammon and Gray.

Hammon’s scheme demands ball movement and spacing above all else, and there’s no better director for that philosophy than Gray.

The coach is so aware of that fact that she’s willing to give her a point guard free rein to run the offense.

“I haven’t tried too many crazy things yet,” Gray said of her performance in a pair of preseason games this year before later hinting more of her viral passes are coming.

“You’ve got to try stuff.”