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📍HILLSBORO, Ore. — The Fire were one of the most well-represented WNBA teams at the just-wrapped FIBA World Cup tournament in Berlin.
They weren’t represented on the gold medal-winning Team USA, but Portland had six players in the tournament, including Amy Okonkwo (Nigeria), Carla Leite (France), Frieda Bühner and Luisa Geiselsöder (Germany) and Megan DiLeo (Spain).
And Iyana Martín.
Five months ago, Fire general manager Vanja Černivec made Martín the new expansion team’s first-ever draft pick, taking the 20-year-old Spanish point guard seventh overall. The pick was not well-received at the time by fans, especially the season-ticket holders who packed Moda Center for the team’s official watch party and were hoping one of the American college stars still on the board would be the choice.
At the time, Černivec begged for patience and promised the skeptical public that Martín was a “generational talent” and would be worth waiting a year to see in the WNBA.
The World Cup, where Spain won the bronze medal and Martín took home the tournament’s Rising Star award, was vindication for a front office whose most polarizing early decisions have mostly worked out.
There’s no doubt Martín’s talent was worth a top-10 pick. The question of her fit with this roster is another matter entirely.
Because even Černivec, who took Leite in two expansion drafts with Golden State and Portland, didn’t anticipate the French point guard’s leap happening this rapidly. Leite has thrived as Portland’s lead initiator, getting to the free-throw line at will and becoming a legitimate three-point shooting threat.
“I guess it’s a good problem to have,” head coach Alex Sarama said Monday after practice of the “unique challenge” that will come with playing the two ball-dominant guards together.
Sarama also said the quiet part out loud about why their on-court fit will have to be carefully managed: neither Leite nor Martín are great defenders.
“Defensively, we’re going to have to find some really creative solutions,” Sarama said. “But the offense should be really fun.”
During the tournament, Martín displayed a similar penchant for making tough shots to what Leite has shown in her second WNBA season. Sarama sees the two as complementary of each other despite their similar skillsets. He saw Leite’s improved defense in the World Cup and sees the potential that another ball-dominant guard taking the pressure off of her will lead to improvements at that end in the WNBA as well.
Offensively, it will be a balance.
“When you’ve got two players who are so good on the ball, you don’t want to waste either one of them doing things off the ball that aren’t their best strength. But what I see with Iyana is she can play well off the ball with shooting and coming off screens. At the same time, if you look at her pick-and-roll creation, it’s fantastic.”
Sarama pointed to his previous two seasons as an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, where head coach Kenny Atkinson built an Eastern Conference contender around two smaller, offense-first guards in Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland.
Putting the kind of defenders around those two guards that can cover up for their weaknesses at that end will be Černivec’s top priority this summer. Those Cavs teams were able to get away with playing Mitchell and Darius Garland together because they had Darius Garland and Evan Mobley up front; Portland will need to seriously upgrade its rim protection next year to make the pairing workable.
They know it.
“I do think seeing what we can do with Iyana and Carla does change how we approach other positions and what we can do defensively to get away with playing two lead guards,” he said.
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