The Guard That Ate-Lanta

[lethalweapon3]

I'm dropping the Schimmel references for now, and just going with "Shoni Basketball" until further reference. Replace weed with fattening food, and assaulting girlfriends (allegedly) with accosting officials at high school games, keep a coddling parent in the mix, and you've got Johnny Football's level of  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ going on in the WNBA.

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/basketball/dreams-cooper-disappointed-in-schimmel/nrCFb/

Quote

 

Shoni Schimmel’s career as a WNBA player is at risk after she showed up for training camp out of shape for the second consecutive year, according to Dream coach Michael Cooper.

“(I’m) very, very disappointed in her,” he said Tuesday. “Our owners are very disappointed in her. But we still believe in her. But she has to be held accountable. We will see by the time training camp ends...”

“I believe Shoni loves the game, but you have to do what it takes to stay at a condition where you can play this game to the maximum of your ability,” he said.

“There’s not going to be many minutes when you aren’t ready to play full steam ahead,” Cooper said. “Right now, Shoni is behind the eight ball again. It’s unfortunate that she isn’t taking care of herself in the offseason.”

 

If she's gonna suit up for us, can we at least make some money selling ads off of her? How 'bout Goodyear? MetLife?

Okay, Shoni Basketball, what do you have to say for yourself? Here comes the predictable deflection, in 3, 2, 1...

 

Quote

“Everybody doesn’t come into camp in condition,” she said. “For me to come in the way I do, it’s just a learning process. I’m still a kid trying to be an adult. I’m human. But I’m going to give it my all. At the end of the day, I love basketball. Whatever happens, happens. I’ll still play basketball at the end of the day.”

 

Big Baby Shoni loves basketball, indeed. Alas, she would be just as thrilled part-timing with the BallUp Tour crew or the Globetrotters as she is about playing 30-40 times a year in America's biggest women's basketball league.

I assume this AJC article is not just another missive by the Dream organization, but a setup for the probability the 2014 WNBA All-Star Game MVP will be waived soon; she's eaten away just about any trade value she had. Of course, once she hits a 30-footer and makes a behind-the-back pass in preseason, Cooper will be back to treating her as though she's indispensable.

I cannot imagine Cooper can be terribly surprised about how his pet-project player showed up to camp, as all the troubling signs were there. But the WNBA has virtually no off-season contractual obligations for its players. In the past two seasons, Shoni Basketball has taken all of  the ropes Coach Coop has tossed her way and made fettucine alfredo out of them. If she does pull it together in another WNBA locale, all the best to her. But cutting her loose  soon may have to be the best option in consideration for her long-term health.

In the meantime, the newsworthy part of this is that Coop finally sounds exasperated enough to give up on his longtime Dream, if you will, of Shoni as his starting full-time point guard. She'll be relegated to a backup 2-guard role for the time being, but she'll be less Microwave and more Dutch Oven until she's in legit condition to compete at both ends of the floor. The PG race will likely be between returnees Carla Cortijo and Ariel Massengale, and rookie 3rd-rounder Niya Johnson.

 

On the, er, lighter side of things, Swish Appeal is back doing WNBA stuff again, and here's a nice report (and pic, above... we see you Shoni!) from them about Dream training camp, which runs through the 29th.

http://www.swishappeal.com/2016/4/27/11515204/williams-holmes-atlanta-dream-training-camp

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

No worries as to whether she'll eat pizza with a fork!

A 2017 second-rounder is about the most we could ask for.

~lw3