You can go anywhere for draft analysis of the NFL, and the NBA has its share of draftniks, but I haven't found a true draft analysis for either women's pro hoops leagues. So call me the Mel Kiper, Jr., of the ABL and WNBA.
If you read my bio, you know I have allegiances to the ABL. However, since the WNBA draft came first, we'll pick it apart now and get to the ABL later.
First of all, you can't help but look at this year's signings between the two leagues without saying that the WNBA made significant progress in closing the talent gap between the two circuits. As one current ABL team exec said, 'They're kicking our butts this year.' I'll save analysis of that trend for later, but it's something to note.
Here's a team-by-team analysis of who made out big and who didn't get game this year:
Charlotte Sting: B
The Sting were a middle-of-the-pack squad last season who brought back a solid base of players, particularly the trio of Vicky Bullett, Rhonda Mapp and Andrea Stinson, who each scored in double figures. That's two post players and a combo guard, for those of you scoring at home. In first round pick Tracy Reid, the Sting got the best local player and one of the better athletes in the draft. If she can adjust offensively to facing the basket, she could be a dynamic small forward who can give the team an up-tempo dimension. In Christy Smith, Charlotte got a guard who can light it up from the perimeter (something they really needed - import Andrea Congreaves was their only perimeter threat, and she's not a guard), and in Pollyanna Johns (a talented headcase/post player) and Sonia Chase (guard from Maryland), they deepened their bench. This could be a great draft...if Reid can adjust to the 3 position, if Johns and Reid can help a surprisingly weak rebounding team, and if Smith and Stinson can figure out who can handle the point. Of course, you hat to come away from a draft relying on ifs...
Cleveland Rockers: C-The Rockers were in the middle of the same pack as the Sting at 15-13 last season with a balanced attack featuring no star and seven players who averaged 6 ppg or better. They lost Lynette Woodard (who used to play against Margaret Wade) to expansion, so that's a plus right there. They drafted short (5-5 Suzie McConnell-Serio), slow (Maine superstar Cindy Blodgett, who can shoot the lights out IF she ever gets open), and generally unimpressive (ABL castoff Tanja Kostic and old Georgia banger Tammye Jenkins). Maybe Blodgett becomes the hersey Hawkins of the women's game, but I see her name and think 'Jerry Sichting.'
Detroit Shock: D-
Last year, Nancy Lieberman-Cline proved that she can't play anymore. This season, she'll get to prove that she can't coach, either. In between, she proved that she's an awful talent evaluator. That leaves announcing. This expansion team has former ABL All-Star Cindy Brown, who is too talented to be remembered only as Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil's punching bag. She can play all five positions on the floor, but unfortunately for Shock fans, not at one time. The Motor City has seen Brown's game before (Grant Hill), but also her attitude (Derrick Coleman), and it will be interesting how a rookie coach with an ego handles her. She'll have some big bodies to help her out inside (Taj Abraham and the Bosnian Big Girl), and Rhonda Blades is a solid player, but Lynette Woodard is better than anyone Lieberman-Cline drafted. She got the younger, moderately more polished Branzova sister (Gergana), two Australians who aren't Michelle Timms, and Korie Hlede of Duquesne, whose name I won't pretend to recognize. Look for lots of post-game press conferences in which Nancy and Lynette explain that women's basketball has come a long way from when they started out playing in the dirt to getting booed by 8,000 people during another blowout in the Palace.
Houston Comets: C+ (but they weren't asking for much)The Houston Comets win the WNBA title in the inaugural season behind the league's MVP (Cynthia Cooper) and best player (Sheryl Swoopes, returning from maternity leave midway through th year). Their only knock is that they lack a true center. They return their top seven players. Wouldn't you do what Van Chancellor did - pick three centers and hope one pans out? I think you'll see Nyree Roberts pick up some boards, and maybe Pollina Tzekova will be the Bulgarian Bulge in the middle. The non-center, Spaniard Amaya Valdemoro, could be a surprise.
'Los Angeles Sparks: A-'
The Sparks, who should have been the league's premier team, weren't. Bad outside shooting and too many plodding post players made the Sparks too stoppable, I guess. So they unloaded Heide Burge and deafted some perimeter players who can speed things up a little. Everybody sings the praises of Allison Feaster, who led Harvard past Stanford in the ultimate David-Goliath matchup of geek schools ... just like they did for Tamecka Dixon, one of the three best collegians signed by the WNBA last season (behind Tina Thompson and Jamila Wideman). Dixon scored, but had worse than a 1:1 assist:turnover ratio, and she's a little short at 5-9 to play shooting guard. That said, I think Feaster helps Dixon on the outside, and the team tries some more athletic lineups where the put those two, Toler, and either Wideman (as a point) or ABL castoff Reheme Stephens (as another athlete who can run the floor on the break) around Leslie. Octavia Blue gives the team a power player who isn't grotesquely large or painfully slow, and Erica Kienast is from Santa Barbara.
New York Liberty: A
The New York Liberty were the anti-Sparks. They were the other marquee team (funny how the WNBA puts its marquee teams in the two largest media markets, as opposed to Columbus, Ohio, and Hartford), and they played like it. The Spoon sisters (Teresa Weatherspoon and Sophia Witherspoon) played so well that they even figured out how to make Rebecca Lobo look like a real basketball player, something the 1996 Olympic team couldn't, while Kym Hampton and Vickie Johnson were the gritty role players that every top team needs. The knock on this team was that the bench had very little going for it. The Liberty tried to bulk up their numbers by drafting some extremely talented players -- Alicia Thompson and Vanessa Nygaard give the Liberty a potential lineup of five scorers, which they didnÕt have last year. Nadine Domond should help as a reserve guard, where Cassandra Crumpton and Kisha Ford are both big dropoffs from the starters. Albena Branzova (who turned down the ABL at its outset) is the older Branzova and brings bulk to help take the heat off Rebecca.
Phoenix Mercury: B+ (I suppose.)
The Mercury were successful last year with a team that was quick but short. Jennifer Gillom was their only real interior threat, and the guard combo of Timms and Pettis went 5-6 and 5-9, respectively. So the Mercury drafted to make their team more versatile, picking up a 6-8 Russian and some 6-0 swing players about whom I know exceptionally little. Hey, that's the difference between Mel Kiper, Jr., and me...I can only make things up for so long before I admit the truth....An A if any of the kids they drafted can shoot, because Timms and Pettis each shot below 34%.
Sacramento Monarchs: A+
I thought the Monarchs would be Da Bomb of the WNBA. Instead, they just bombed, losing nine straight in the middle of the season and four more toward the end. Ruthie Bolton-Holifield was Mitch Richmond, and Bridgette Gordon and Latasha Byears were adequate pros, but everybody else looked like Alton Lister ... even the guards. So the Monarchs picked up another premier player in Ticha Penicheiro, who fits great with Ruthie, since Ticha is too big to guard point guard and Ruthie is too short not to. Tangela Smith and Quacy Barnes have got to be better than Pam McGee, who was the Heidi Burge of her era, and Taj Abraham, who never played as well as I thought she would. And Adia Barnes will be the third option this team nees to take off, the Adrian Dantley of the WNBA. Long live the Queens!
Utah Starzz: F
They were pathetic last year, at 7-21. They had two players (their eighth and ninth options) shoot better than 39%. They had two players average more than 3.1 rebounds per game. Their assist:turnver ratio looked like Mario Mendoza's slugging percentage. So they had to get better. Right? Right?? Their first pick was Malgorzata Dydek, who is 7-2. Of course, their only two returning scorers are post players, too. Their second pick was Olympia Scott, also a post player. They didn't pick a guard until the fourth round, and Tricia Baber is 5-4 and from Boise State. Too refer to their NBA counterparts, this is like the Washington Bullets drafting Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues. You know how that turned out.
Washington Mystics: B-
After sparkling outside of the media spotlight for the ABL's Columbus Quest, Nikki McCray gets to be a star in her own right now. Only the Quest players could play. And Brian Agler could coach. So well, in fact, that they won the ABL crown without her last year. But that's OK. Better to be a star on a stinker than one among many on a winner, right? Ask Ron Harper. Or Mark Jackson. Or Vin Baker. After the expansion draft, the Mystics looked almost as bad as the Shock. I mean, they got stuck with Heidi Burge. Yeah, they got the Brazilian center, but they had no guards, and McCray's Quest team set her up for success by providing too many perimeter options for teams to play box-and-one successfully against her. But the draft helped them look more like a real team. Murriel Page is either a big forward or an athletic center. Rita Williams is a capable point guard. Angelas Hamblin and Jackson will struggle to adjust to pro life, but Page and Williams, should be enough to help Nikki rise above the Shock and the Starzz, at least.
Disagree? Let me know! jjohnson@muw.edu
