FINALLY!!! This has been a pretty delightfully ridiculous winter/spring, but worth every hard, exasperating, inspiring moment. And getting a chance to walk up a mountain and see these gentlemen?
Well, that just puts the cherry on top.
Oh, and the W season is about to start, and the Lib are BACK in the Garden and BACK in black… Let us see what magic Trader Bill has wrought.
The start of the season means it’s preview-pa-looza time.
Over at WNBAlien, Richard is back with a vengeance:
WNBA 2014 Last Minute Awards and Season Predictions
MVP
It seems like a relatively short list of candidates this year, compared to usual. Someone like Tina Charles or Tamika Catchings might be in the fold again if their teams do surprisingly well, but otherwise I see five likely possibilities: Elena Delle Donne in Chicago; Angel McCoughtry in Atlanta; Maya Moore in Minnesota; Candace Parker (again) in LA; and Diana Taurasi in Phoenix.
The biggest news of the WNBA’s draft night this year had nothing to do with the players being selected.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Tulsa Shock
The rebuilding – or just ‘building’, if you don’t count the Detroit variant of the franchise – continues for yet another year in Tulsa. They’ll tell you they’re aiming for the playoffs, but it’s going to be hard work achieving that barring some serious collapses elsewhere in the West.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Seattle Storm
I may have been the only person on Earth who predicted the Storm would make the playoffs last season (I kept pointing it out when analysts claimed no one had, because it’s nice to be right once in a blue moon).
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: San Antonio Stars
San Antonio’s season last year was an uphill struggle from the beginning. Sophia Young (now Young-Malcolm after her marriage) tore her ACL before the season even began, and Becky Hammon played a grand total of 12 minutes before suffering the same fate. Any team, shorn of their two veteran leaders and best players, would’ve struggled from that point on. So given that both are now back in the fold, the youngsters have an extra year of experience, and there’s another high draft-pick to add to the mix, they should bounce right back to being the 21-13 team from 2012, right? Well, maybe.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Phoenix Mercury
After being the darlings of many experts and fans in preseason a year ago, the Mercury have been lost in the shuffle a little bit this time around.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Minnesota Lynx
At some point, there’s not much more to say about the Minnesota Lynx. If you’re reading this, you probably watched them play last year, and the year before, and the year before that – you’ve seen how overwhelming they can be.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Los Angeles Sparks
The Sparks were a very good team last year. They had their flaws, and some ugly nights, but based on points per possession over the course of the regular season they were the second-best offensive team in the league, and the second-best defensive team. Of course, with the way American sports works, their season was defined by the disappointing first-round playoff exit at the hands of Phoenix, rather than any success they’d had before that point.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Washington Mystics
After a couple of embarrassingly terrible years, Mike Thibault took over and made this franchise respectable again last season. He turned over half the roster, created a cohesive and deep team, and just flat-out got them playing again.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: New York Liberty
There are lots of positives for the New York Liberty heading into this season….So why does it still feel like this team has a lot more questions than answers circling around it going into 2014?
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Indiana Fever
While there is turmoil everywhere else, the Indiana Fever, Tamika Catchings and Lin Dunn just keep chugging along, showing up and winning games. That said, 2013 was a difficult season for Indiana.
2014 WNBA In-Depth Previews: Connecticut Sun
Well if we thought Chicago’s offseason was messy, welcome to a team where a bomb went off.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Chicago Sky
Last year was meant to be the breakthrough for the Chicago Sky… It’s kind of a shame that the offseason hasn’t managed to carry that positivity through to 2014.
WNBA 2014 In-Depth Previews: Atlanta Dream
Dream fans were starting to get a little worried early in the 2014 offseason. For a squad that had reached the WNBA Finals in three of the last four years, there was still a clear weakness in perimeter shooting that needed to be addressed, and some question marks around their guard corps.
Not to be outdone, Swish Appeal offers:
2014 WNBA Eastern Conference Predictions and 2014 WNBA Western Conference Predicted Standings
2014 WNBA: Michael Cooper era for Dream begins Friday night against Stars
WNBA Friday Game Preview and Open Thread: Five games start at 7 p.m., three on NBA TV
The .com has Top Storylines of the 2014 WNBA Season and the always insightful 2014 WNBA.com GM Survey
And what say the ESPN experts? 2014 WNBA season predictions
New to the scene Andrew Lovell writes: Ogwumike ready to start pro career – No. 1 draft pick helps lead young Sun squad into Friday’s season opener
Chiney Ogwumike stood near the free throw line, hands planted firmly on the hips of her 6-foot-4 frame.
Sweat dripped from her braids down to the already-saturated white WNBA headband as she listened to every word leaving Katie Douglas’ mouth.
It wouldn’t be fair to say Ogwumike was angry. But you better believe she wasn’t pleased.
Mechelle says the Dream are favorite in the East
At some point, we might start wondering if the Atlanta Dream have “Alydar” syndrome. For you youngsters, that’s the horse that finished second to Affirmed in all three Triple Crown races in 1978.
Alydar was a very talented colt, good enough that he could have won the Triple Crown himself. It was just his bad luck he happened to be 3 years old at the same time as Affirmed.
Michelle says the Lynx are in front of pack in tough West
The WNBA is at its best in the West again in 2014.
There can be little argument that the power in this league continues to lie in the Western Conference, but there might be some argument about which West team reigns supreme.
Minnesota — its star-studded roster largely intact — is coming off another impressive title run, a sweep in the WNBA Finals against Atlanta last fall that sets up the Lynx as the early favorites to repeat.
And yes, brilliant headline writer: Bird’s return should bolster Storm
Sue Bird is a believer in chemistry. To a point.
“Sure, you have teams that might be less talented that can get farther than a team with more talent because they know how to play together,” Bird said. “But there’s definitely a happy medium. We want to have both.”
As the Seattle Storm retool for a new WNBA season and prepare for a brutal opening stretch, a happy medium would probably suit them just fine.
Another newbie, Melissa Isaacson adds: Stronger Delle Donne ready for tipoff- WNBA’s 2013 Rookie of the Year remained in Chicago, bulked up in offseason
At 6 feet, 7 inches and roughly 300 pounds, Miles Bankston was his usual formidable obstacle in Elena Delle Donne’s path, but common sense and team protocol dictated he not flip the franchise player on her head as she drove toward him 10 days before the season opener.
Last year it would not have mattered because Delle Donne would have avoided contact, team scrimmage or otherwise, and settled for her patented fadeaway jumper.
“This time,” Chicago Sky assistant coach Christie Sides said with a satisfied smile, “she turned the corner, hit the big boy and finished over him.”
A little video: Mechelle & Michelle: WNBA Players To Watch
A little audio: Roundtable previews the WNBA (The roundtable consists of theSeattle Times’ Jayda Evans, Bluestar Media’s Wendy Parker, and Fox Sports’ Cindy Brunson. Dishin & Swishin’s David Siegel is the host.)
Women's Hoops Blog 