Feature update: OT counts, margin of victory, Commissioner's Cup standings, and more

In case you missed any of the latest WNBA feature updates at AcrossTheTimeline.com, I thought I’d take some time today to outline the most recent changes:

A WNBA place to land

The WNBA landing page now includes links to every data set and tool – from transactions to records and attendance charts – for easy navigation. On top of that, quickly search for any player (and perhaps more soon!) in the search bar at the top of any of the WNBA pages. Clicking or tapping any of the search results takes you to that player’s page full of career stats, game logs, transactions, awards, and more.

Cups and downs

As the season goes on, you’ll want to keep up with where every team stands:

• Overall league standings: An up-to-date reflection of each team’s current regular season record
• Commissioner’s Cup standings: An up-to-date look at each team’s record in Commissioner’s Cup games, separated out by Eastern and Western Conference
• Lottery records: A convenient summation of each team’s two-year records as will be used to determine draft lottery odds for the four teams who do not make the Playoffs

2022 WNBA Draft look-ahead

Speaking of draft lottery odds, it’s never too soon to look ahead to the 2022 WNBA Draft. The order won’t be set until the season ends and the Draft Lottery is completed, but with all the 2022 picks being traded, it can be easy to lose track of who has picks (and whose picks they were) in which rounds. The 2022 WNBA Draft page tracks that in real-time as new trades go through.

• Their Own: Each team starts with a pick in each of the three rounds. This column tells you for each team which of their own picks they still own in that round. For example, as of the time I’m writing this, Chicago only has their own 2022 1st round pick, while Connecticut, Las Vegas, and Seattle each have all three of their 2022 picks still.
• Acquired: This column lists any 2022 picks the team has acquired from someone else along with the team that pick belonged to originally. The orange text is clickable/tappable so you can see the full trade trail that got the pick from its original team to whoever owns it now. For example, Phoenix’s 2022 1st round pick currently belongs to Minnesota, and it has had quite a ride:

Data sets

All of these data sets are live, meaning they update based on current team rosters and games played. All data is sortable by clicking/tapping the column name. You can sort by multiple columns by pressing CTRL (or your OS equivalent) while clicking/tapping multiple columns.

Age is just a number

One thing that comes up a lot is relative team ages and experience, so there is a data set on the website focused on that. This data, like the other data sets I’ll describe

• Team Ages: Average team ages, along with oldest and youngest currently on each rosters
• Team Experience: Average seasons played and number of regular and postseason games played for each team
• Active Players: Individual players listed with their current team (if any), age, and experience
• Known Player Ages: Birth dates and ages for each known WNBA player
• Known Drafted Player Ages: Same data, but pared down to just players who were drafted
• Player Ages When Debuting in Team’s Season Opener: Very specific look at each player’s age when debuting in their team’s opener
• Player Ages in First Regular Season Game: Similar, but just based on each player’s first regular season game, not required to be in the team’s first game of the season
• Player Ages in Most Recent Regular Season Game: Similar again, but each player with the age they were in the most recent game they played

No time like overtime

2021 is on pace for a record number of overtime games (13.2% of the 53 games played so far have been tied at the end of regulation), so it’s a good time to make the OT breakdowns public:

• Regular Season OT Counts by Season: Number and percentage of games that have gone to OT, along with counts for 1OT, 2OT, 3OT, and 4OT
• Regular Season OT Counts by Team: Same data, but broken down by teams all-time rather than season
• Regular Season OT Counts by Season and Team: You get it by now, right? Same as before, but broken down by season and team
• # Regular Season OT Games by Date: Each date that has had at least one OT WNBA game, along with how many OT games there were on that date
• Use the drop-down to navigate the other data in this set, including all the same breakdowns for postseason and All Star

Keeping it 100

WNBA pace and scoring has been on the rise for years, and a good sign of that is the number of games getting to the 100s:

• At Least One Team Scoring 100+ (Regular Season): Totals and percentage of games where at least one of the two teams scored 100 or more
• Both Teams Scoring 100+ (Regular Season): Same data, but counting only games where both teams score 100 or more
• The drop-down also includes data for postseason games.

No room for error

Games have also been incredibly close (for the most part) in 2021, with (as of right now) 22.6% of the 53 games played having been decided by three points or fewer. The next closest season was 1998, when 18.7% of the regular season games were decided by three or fewer. The Dallas Wings are ending games (win or lose) with an average margin of 6.8 points, on pace for a record all-time. A lot of games still to go, so the data will update as we go along:

• Margin of Victory (Regular Season): League-wide average margin, counts and percentage of games decided within several margin categories, by season
• Regular Season Margins by Team: Breakdown of total and average game, win, and loss margins by season and team
• The drop-down also includes data sets for postseason games.

Stay tuned

There’s a lot more to be added and updated over the course of the season, so keep an eye out here. If there is specific data you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to email mail@acrossthetimeline.