{"id":941300,"date":"2026-07-09T23:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/941300\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T23:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:54:15","slug":"espn-host-paige-bueckers-everything-we-expected-caitlin-clark-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/941300\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN host: Paige Bueckers &#8216;everything we expected Caitlin Clark to be&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every day, we hope the Caitlin Clark Hyperbole Train will pull into the station for a bit, but instead it just keeps chugging along.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, it was former NFL wide receiver Harry Douglas\u2019s turn to offer an eye-opening take on the Indiana Fever star and the focus of <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/wnba\/emmanuel-acho-better-without-caitlin-clark.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">so many narratives<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/wnba\/colin-cowherd-caitlin-clark-paranoid-weird-insular-league.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">that it\u2019s hard<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/wnba\/sports-media-criticism-caitlin-clark-new-not-unique.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to keep track of them all<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During Thursday\u2019s episode of ESPN Radio\u2019s Freddie and Harry,\u00a0Douglas praised Paige Bueckers after Dallas defeated the\u00a0New York Liberty, after finishing with 15 points and helping the Wings improve to 14-8 amid a three-game winning streak.<\/p>\n<p>Douglas noted that the Wings have gone from having the worst record in the WNBA last season to competing for a playoff spot this year, largely thanks to a renewed sense of confidence and Bueckers\u2019s inspiration for her teammates.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cEverything we expected Caitlin Clark to be, Paige Bueckers has been in the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/WNBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#WNBA<\/a>.\u201d \ud83d\udc40<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HDouglas83?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@HDouglas83<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNRadio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@ESPNRadio<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/leLrd1ezo1\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/leLrd1ezo1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Freddie and Harry (@FreddieandHD) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FreddieandHD\/status\/2074984372273610757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He then took things a step further, outright saying, \u201cEverything we expected Caitlin Clark to be, Paige Bueckers has been in the WNBA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no doubt that Bueckers has been a star for the Wings in her one-and-a-half seasons in the WNBA. She\u2019s averaged 19.5 points and 5.6 assists, has two All-Star selections and was named Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>Clark, for her troubles, has\u00a0averaged 19.0 points and 8.4 assists per game, is a three-time All-Star and was also named Rookie of the Year. You could also make the case she\u2019s performing under much harsher duress and pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Bueckers\u2019 team has Clark\u2019s beat in the current WNBA standings by 2.5 games, but otherwise it\u2019s a bold claim to say that the UConn product is miles ahead of the Iowa grad. That said, things are shaping up for them to be rivals on the same level this season and in the years ahead. So perhaps one day we\u2019ll have the answer to the question of which one is better, but in this moment, that debate is decidedly unsettled.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every day, we hope the Caitlin Clark Hyperbole Train will pull into the station for a bit, but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17596,16958,7,124760,30482,6,16858],"class_list":["post-941300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-espn-radio","tag-football","tag-freddie-and-harry-show","tag-harry-douglas","tag-nfl","tag-paige-bueckers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116892720395242618","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}