2014 Atlanta Dream and WNBA Previews

[benhillboy]

We have two great players, but they had the best player on the court in Delle Donne, so they move on. After so many heartbreaks, the Dream have to be battle tested enough by this time next year to seal the deal.

Edited August 27, 2014 by benhillboy

[lethalweapon3]

I need a drink. I drink no more than three times a year, including New Year's, and tonight will just have to be one. Help a brother out, Taco Mac!

 

Toss this one right into the ashbin of Atlanta Sports Collapse History. You know, if there's room around Centennial Olympic Park, that would make for a nice museum there!

 

Don't you just LOVE Atlanta sports?

 

~lw3

Edited August 27, 2014 by lethalweapon3

[Gray Mule]

I am so sad.  If crying would help, I would cry.  It won't help.

 

Why did we continue going to the player who was so cold?  Please give

the next shot to Sancho, I thought, over and over in the 4th quarter.  She

is very good and Angel has gone cold.  But, no! 

 

Then, there were at least four free throws missed late in the 4th quarter.

They called the Sky's big girl "The Larry Bird of today's WNBA."  She

sure lived up to her billing.

 

The Atlanta Dream now have another record which they didn't want and

none of their fans wanted any part of it:

 

"THE BIGGEST COLAPSE IN THE PLAYOFFS HISTORY OF THE WNBA

WAS THE ATLANTA DREAM OF 2014!"

 

The last time I felt this bad for an Atlanta team was when one of the Atlanta

Falcon players, who was supposedly very religious, was arrested for soliciting

oral sex from an under cover cop the night before the Super Bowl and this

had the effect of sticking a pin in a balloon on the team and they failed to show

up the next day for the Super Bowl.

 

Year after year, the Braves have gone to the playoffs but only once have they

won the World Series.  Always good but not good enough.  Sound familiar?

 

So, this is the end of another season for another Atlanta team.  Each year, when

they have won the eastern championship, they have been blown away by the

Western Division champion.  Whichever team wins the east, Chicago or Indiana,

I expect they will face the same thing.  The west will win it all again.

 

Enough!  Good Lord willing, I'll be back here next season, hoping for great things

from my favorite WNBA team!

 

GO DREAM - - 2015 !

[Dnice]

You gotta be f'n kidding me....

[macdaddy]

Man that sucked.   

[lethalweapon3]

We are a Human Highlight Film sports town. We’re a Chicks Dig the Longball sports town. We’re a Prime Time, Dirty Bird Dance sports town.

 

Murph. Prime. Smoove. Hank. Smoltzie. Nique. Deke. Vick. Jam. Chipper. Roddy. Angel. Matty Ice.

 

Lots of big-time, flashy plays, often made by big-time, flashy players. Sadly, few big-time wins, when it counts, when it matters, by the teams they lead, especially in front of a starving home crowd. When it comes to cattlemen, we are All Hat, One Aging Cow.

 

In this city, all pro sports team accomplishments, all achievements, are parenthetical. Seven-straight postseason appearances (but no trips to the conference finals) doesn’t move your meter? Fine, how about 14-straight division titles (but one World Series title among them, this one against another long-time losing sports town’s team)? Or two #1 seeds in the NFC over three years, and most wins over its QB’s first five years in NFL history (but no trips to the Super Bowl)? Or, perhaps, three conference championships and one #1 seed in five seasons (but zero wins in the Finals, few games even close)? Hard to put any of that on a T-shirt.

 

Ponder if you will, upon the greatest, high-water-mark game-winning moments in Atlanta postseason sports history. When Sid Slid? That was just to win the NLCS, not the World Series. The Falcons’ stunning comeback to win the NFC Championship in Minnesota? Cool, then what happened next? Angel's 42 points to clinch a conference title? Okay, then what? The ’88 Hawks sure pushed those Celtics to the brink in the conference semifinals, didn’t they?

 

We can have a team that boasts three Slam Dunk champions in its stead, but two dusty division banners between them all. A child born the last time one was raised will be able to stroll into a bar and be successfully carded soon.

 

We can have a guy who leads the NHL in scoring over the course of a decade, yet nobody notices him because his team has zero playoff victories to show for it. At least, not until he gets traded to New Jersey. That’s often how it goes. Make your posters and highlight reels in Atlanta. Then find your way to San Antonio, or Dallas, or San Francisco, or the Meadowlands, to get yourself a ring.

 

Often, the best contention in Atlanta is not on the field, but between the player and the fans. Mike Vick bird-flipping, Joe Johnson not-caring. Where might this town be had fan-bashing David Justice, amid the slings and arrows from the Bravos’ faithful, not bothered to bring his bat with him to Game 6 in 1995?

 

Since that time, we’ve watched the Marlins, the Padres, the Cardinals (twice), the Giants (twice), the Cubs, the Astros, all celebrate on the hallowed mound of Turner Field as they advanced in the playoffs. We’ve watched a playoff sweep of epic proportions at Philips Arena be followed up one year later by an even more epic pummeling. We’ve watched the Packers and the 49ers waltz into the Georgia Dome at playoff time and use our ineptness to build upon their own storied legacies, while the only two division-rivals more historically sad-sack than us get it together to win Lombardi Trophies before we do. We've watched three WNBA champions get crowned in two ATL counties, none of them named the Dream.

 

Whether you’re Aaron Rodgers or Maya Moore, Atlanta is the town whose teams you play in order to transcend from star to super-duper-star. Whether you’re Paul Pierce or Bryce Harper or Frank Gore, you come to Atlanta to defile their logos and traditions along your paths to greatness. Elena Delle Donne was just the latest athlete to discover that all roads to the Upper Pantheon roll through, and over, Atlanta.

 

If you stick around through the misery long enough, Atlanta star athlete, we will get you into the Hall of Fame of your choosing as a consolation parting gift. Now, whether you go in as a player for Atlanta, or one of those other teams, is up to you. We’re also The Media Center of The South, at least until Time Warner starts packing up, so hang around for a sweet post-retirement media gig, if it suits you. Our athletes are better known as commentators than as champions.

 

In Atlanta sports, the fatal flaws are individual and psychological. The NFL Man of the Year who can’t seem to keep his pants zipped on the eve of the Super Bowl. The top-ten scoring winger and reigning NHL rookie of the year who thought flying down two-lane Lenox Road in his Ferrari at 80 miles per hour, with a teammate in tow, was a splendid idea. The lights-out closer and new franchise face who just can’t help offering up colorfully xenophobic opinions about Them Other People to a magazine reporter. The All-Star forward who comes back from the positive momentum of the Olympics in mid-season and hits up the nightclubs, rather than help her team’s playoff run, because she can’t stand her coach. The quarterback who makes defenders run into each other as he zips past them but has this little side thing involving pit bull terriers, you see.

 

Often, the fatal flaws are fundamental. The athletic power forward who can soar powerfully to the rim but whose coaches permit him to shoot beyond his range with such regularity his entire career becomes the butt of its own joke. The team that can break out for 50-yard passing bombs but cannot make, or stop, 3^rd-and-shorts or 4^th-and-1’s to save their own lives. The team that will lead the league in strikeouts swinging for the fences on ball four, who thinks a bunt is a style of cake, who can’t advance runners without trying to hit The Coke Bottle beyond left field, who only seem to make infield contact when they’re grounding into double plays. In most towns, teams like these are hopelessly mired in last place. Oddly, in this town, they win just enough to fall flat on their faces later on.

 

The Dream’s fundamental flaws took awhile to show up last night, but when they did, they were painfully obvious to all witnesses. I asked at the outset of this playoff series whether the league’s worst free-throw shooters, worst three-point shooters, the league’s most turnover-prone team with shaky perimeter defense, shaky substitution choices and shakier halfcourt offense could fashion themselves a title contender despite holding the #1 seed in the East. For three-and-one-half quarters of beautiful basketball, the answer was looking to be quite affirmative.

 

Instead, it was Elena Delle Donne's turn to become that guy in the Jordan XX2 ad.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O92kGDCyDzM

 

When we turn to our heroes to save us from ourselves once more, with the season on the line, more often than not, what we see is Heroball in desperation rather than sound, winning plays. Now, Angel McCoughtry and the Dream fit snugly right in the midst of Atlanta’s sports lore.

 

One win away, ten yards away, six-and-a-half minutes away. Last night’s debacle smelled faintly reminiscent of the 2013 NFC title, only with far less at stake. To this observer, perhaps because of the home team’s colors, it felt more like a 1992-93 Houston Oilers moment (“Luv Ya Blue… but Goddam!”). One in which you’re not confident that this talented team, in its current configuration, will learn from the disappointment to fix its flaws and build a steely, league-championship-winning mettle. One where you’re not certain how much more end-of-season deflation the team’s owners can take, especially if they’re taking L’s at the faregate as well. Can the Atlanta Dream ever get out of their own way and get themselves over the hump? Will the players, or the team, even be in Atlanta when they do?

 

We’ll have to wait and see. It’s a long time until next May. For now, we’ll settle for being that Run-and-Gun, Behind-the-Back, No-Look-Pass kind of sports town.

 

~lw3

[Randy]

lw3 - that was epic.  I'm speechless. 

[macdaddy]

That's was great.   You left out Mark Wohlers, Brooks Conrad, Lonnie Smith, Russ Nixon, Bob Weiss, Lon Kruger,  and Bobby Petrino.

 

Not to highjack your thought but it's a town that doesn't like to build on tradition.  We love to tear things down and build new shiny things that are always cheaply built and out of style in 10 years.   Sherman did a psychological number on this town we've never recovered from.    

[Randy]

You raise a good point - Atlanta has been losing the big one since Sherman came to town.  And what do we do?  Carve a monument in a big rock outside of town to the leaders of the losing side.  (Not to mention all the yahoos driving around town waiving the flag of the losing side on their pickup trucks.)  Maybe we should stop celebrating losers.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Randy

[Guest]

So many failures by the littlest of margins to get to the big game...smh.

What is wrong with this city?  Somebody made a deal with the devil awhile ago and he's collecting big time now.

[macdaddy]

Things were on the upswing until these carpet baggers came to town.   It's been all downhill ever since.

 

 

 

Time Warner subsequently acquired Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System in October 1996.

[Guest]

Things were on the upswing until these carpet baggers came to town.   It's been all downhill ever since.

Sigh!

Such a shame!

Edited August 27, 2014 by JayBirdHawk

[lethalweapon3]

The Dream makes the AJC news for something else this time. Look at the AJC reporting on the Dream, how about that?

 

Atlanta Dream refuses to pay assistant coach, lawsuit says

 

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/atlanta-dream-refuses-to-pay-assistant-coach-lawsu/ng8Xn/

 

~lw3

[Randy]

When you look at the sudden appearance and disappearance of Dream execs, an coaches over the years, you do have to think these owners are sort of hard to work for.   Now, this seems like a pretty simple matter of contract law - hard to imagine there could be anything vague about whether they have to pay him or not, so I'm reserving judgment on which side is right.  It will probably be settled out of court and we will never know who won.

[benhillboy]

I am so sad. If crying would help, I would cry. It won't help.

Why did we continue going to the player who was so cold? Please give

the next shot to Sancho, I thought, over and over in the 4th quarter. She

is very good and Angel has gone cold. But, no!

Then, there were at least four free throws missed late in the 4th quarter.

They called the Sky's big girl "The Larry Bird of today's WNBA." She

sure lived up to her billing.

I didn't hear that quote from the commentator, but after those two identical left- handed drives and bank jumpers, that's the exact comparison I made. Many of her mannerisms and movements are like him, scary.

[Randy]

Well, now that I've cooled off a little, time to think about next year.  In the post game presser Sancho said she thought the "core" would all be back - I assume that's Angel, Erika, Sancho and Tip.  Jasmine should be a RFA now, so she may or may not be back.  Celine really failed to meet expectations, so I hope she's not locked into a no cut deal.  I think it really hurt her chances that she was not with the team the whole season and training camp, and there is no reason to think that will be different next year.  So I'm thinking turn the keys over to Shoni and make Jasmine a qualifying offer, but not much more.  Henry and Tip are all on their 3rd year rookie deal, so they aren't going anywhere (barring a trade.)

 

The college draft is supposed to be weak next spring and the Dream only have a No. 10 draft pick so not much help in the draft.  I'm thinking we need to find the next Allie Quigley off of the WNBA scrap heap somewhere.  Like other players who've been waived and tossed away - Breland, Paris, Latta, Larkins, etc. 

[Randy]

Something new to worry about.  ESPN's top WNBA expert is speculating the Magic will want to reunite with Cooper as head coach of the Sparks (for Coop's 3rd time around.) 

 

This is from the most recent weekly Chat With Michele Voepel. (She also talks about what the Dream need to do but doesn't end up saying much of anything.)

 

 

 

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/51062/mechelle-voepel-on-wnba Rock (Wisconsin) The Dream and the Sparks started the season with high expectations. Now both teams get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. What changes should both teams make moving forward to make the championship quality teams? Mechelle Voepel (1:16 PM) We know one thing's for sure: The Sparks will have a new coach. And you have wonder if it might be the Dream's coach that the Sparks get. Considering Magic Johnson's ties to Michael Cooper, Coop's extensive past with the Sparks, and the fact that Candace Parker had such nice things to say about Coop when the Dream-Sparks played each other this year. I mean, I just have to wonder about the possibility of that. In terms of personnel, I think the Sparks have to decide on a better answer at point guard, and then figure out if they are truly "all-in" with Parker (which it sounds like) or have another plan. It seems like the Dream may need to commit on who their point guard will be, too, rather than the rotating system that worked with mixed results. Both these teams have an extraordinarily talented player as their centerpiece, but in both cases that player is not the easiest to necessarily find the right teammates and coaches for. Angel McCoughtry and Candace Parker are more "complicated" personality-wise than some other stars. I'm not ripping them, I'm just being frank. The key is when you commit to having that player as your centerpiece, you just have to work to make sure everything else around her is the right fit.

[Randy]

Well we lost in the playoffs, our coach is sick, no games for months, its a crappy draft and we pick 10th.  And despite all that, things are going a whole lot better for the Dream than the Hawks right now. 

[lethalweapon3]

Well we lost in the playoffs, our coach is sick, no games for months, its a crappy draft and we pick 10th.  And despite all that, things are going a whole lot better for the Dream than the Hawks right now. 

 

Can you just imagine the sideshow around Philips Arena with this stuff going on amid the WNBA Finals? This would be the one time I'd rather get bumped by Dora the Explorer/Sesame Street/Disney or whoever and root the Dream on at Gwinnett Arena.

 

~lw3