Paige Bueckers Came to Puerto Rico as a Scorer, But Left Looking Like One of the Best Two-Way Guards in Basketball

Let’s give a quick scout on Paige Bueckers.

Elite ball handler. Silky smooth jumper. Can attack off the dribble, catch and shoot from anywhere on the floor. Loves getting players involved.

ELITE TWO-WAY GUARD. WILL LOCK YOU DOWN AND SHUT. YOU. THE. F**K. UP.

Maybe they didn’t write that last part in the official scout. But they should have. Because Puerto Rico just showed the world a version of Paige Bueckers that a lot of people weren’t ready for.

For most of her basketball life Bueckers has been known for one thing above all else: buckets. Pull-ups, crossovers and silky mid-range jumpers that look like they were designed in a lab somewhere in Minnesota. The female version of Kyrie Irving, except she’s more complete, more unselfish, and now she’s added one more thing to the resume.

Two-way monster. Yeah, you read that s**t right.

During Team USA’s run through the sunny skies of San Juan, Bueckers put up 10.6 points while shooting 50% from the floor. Bueckers also was very efficient as she knocked down 40% from three. Defensively though she thrived and averaged 2.3 steals and blocks combined per game. Only one player on the whole roster was more disruptive defensively.

Nine steals over five games. She also kept her turnovers to just 0.7 per game, which among the team’s guards was the best mark on the roster. Among USA’s top guards against FIBA World Cup qualified teams, Bueckers finished second in efficiency at 13.7, behind only Kelsey Plum.

That’s not a scorer finding her footing.

That’s a two-way guard announcing herself.

“Everybody Here Can Score 30”

The Team USA locker room is a humbling place.

Copper is scoring 12.8 a night on 56% shooting. Plum is putting up 11.2 on 56% from the field. Howard is shooting 64% from three. You are not the best scorer in that building. Nobody is.

So when everybody can score, the question stops being how many can you get. It becomes what else can you bring?

Bueckers found her answer immediately and didn’t hesitate about it.

“I feel like obviously everybody here can score 30 a game if they wanted to. So for me it was what else can I bring? And that’s the intensity on defense,” Bueckers said. “I’m going to just try to stand out that way and set the tone of what we want to do. Be disruptive, get steals, get deflections. I think I’ve taken a great pride in that.”

Safe to say she accomplished that, but that’s what nine steals in five games will do to you. Zero hesitation. She said it and then she went and did it every single night. That’s the part that stands out, she didn’t just talk about defense, she lived it.

I’m just trying to do whatever it takes to win on any given night,” bueckers said. 

It might be different. It might be scoring one night, assisting one night, being a playmaker.

But sort of pull it all into one and just be able to play with any different lineups and do whatever it takes.

That’s a player who has figured something out.

And figuring things out at 24-years-old on an international stage with this level of competition around you is not a small thing.

paige & the Point GAWD 

One of the biggest perks of being on Team USA, especially as a younger player, is who you get to learn from every single day.

For Bueckers that meant a front row seat to Chelsea Gray, one of the smartest guards in the history of women’s basketball. And I mean big brains. Like genuinely one of the best decision-makers this sport has ever produced.

Gray averaged 5.6 points and 4.8 assists per game over the tournament, posted a +76 plus-minus across five games and had the kind of quiet control over every game she played in that only the most experienced players can pull off. She was never rattled. She always made the right read.

Those aren’t exaggerations, that’s just what Chelsea Gray does. Bueckers noticed every bit of it.

 

“I think just her composure and her voice and her leadership and the commitment she has amongst everybody on the team,” Bueckers said. “Just for who she is as a basketball player also.”

Gray’s experience and play gives younger players, guards in particular what it really means to have control of a basketball game without needing to dominate the ball. That’s a lesson that sticks around.

That’s the kind of stuff you carry into the next season and the one after that. Which is exactly why Bueckers said this when asked what she’ll remember most from this whole experience.

 

“Just the pride you feel and the sense of joy you feel when you put on this uniform,” Bueckers said. “You represent your country. So you just never want to take that for granted. Just having this honor at the highest level.”

These moments follow players. They become part of how you carry yourself the next time you step on the floor anywhere. And in Puerto Rico you could see that evolution happening in real time. This version of Bueckers doesn’t feel like the one people first got introduced to a few years ago.

The scoring is still there…silky, surgical, available whenever she needs it.

But now there’s something extra. A hellacious bite on defense.

She’s not just scoring anymore. She’s controlling games.

And funny enough, that’s exactly what’s always made the best players impossible to stop.