Reviewing the personnel moves over the last couple of days

Saturday 12 February 2005

Lynx sign and trade Helen Darling

Just reading the boards, a few people are putting too much weight on this trade. Helen Darling is NOT the successor to Dawn Staley: her decision making is so-so, doesn't shoot well and she's a bit slow. She's there so that Dawn doesn't have to play 33-34 minutes a game and the Sting don't actually have a "real" backup point guard on their roster. Lewis and Powell as backup point? Eep.

As for the Lynx, they have to be banking on Harrower coming back. Amber Jacobs and Nuria Martinez as the point guards? They'll still be a second tier team with that point guard combination.

DeMya Walker signs offer sheet with Phoenix Mercury

The Mercury must have offered an awful lot to DeMya because apparently she's in pretty high demand. I'm not a huge fan of her: she's physical and is good defensively but doesn't rebound that well, is turnover prone and is limited offensively. However, she is a significant upgrade over what the Mercury currently have in the post (not that's very hard). I expect the Monarchs to match the Merc's offer though.

Shock signs Irina Osipova

Ahhh always nice to see Bill talking up players again. He claims he would have picked Chandi Jones at #1 last year and that she's a part of his long term plans - but now he's shopping her around to all the WNBA teams.

The real deal on Osipova is that she's the typical soft Euro post. Decent collection of post moves, mobile but very soft and lacks the outside jumper her Russian counterparts have. She's got potential but it's a middle to long term project. Think of a shorter Margo Dydek with more co-ordination.