Head-scratching strategy

I managed to catch myself up on some WNBA action today by watching archived web broadcast footage on wnba.com of yesterday's Dream-Lynx matchup, and by watching ESPN2's coverage of the Sparks-Monarchs. That is, I was watching the latter until it got really ugly.

I couldn't help but make a few observations. I was hoping that catching games would clear me up on some questions I had, as I haven't been able to see many lately, but instead they may have left me a bit more puzzled.

1. Why are the Lynx struggling around .500 on the season with the first-round talent that they have? Moreover, how on earth did they blow a double-digit lead late in the second half to give Atlanta their 2nd victory of the season?

Frankly, it was a little painful to watch. I was trying to figure out what exactly it is that's missing with that team. At times, they're firing on all cylinders (like when they start the game with a 14-2 run), and at others they just seem to go completely flat on both sides of the ball.

Backcourt talent certainly isn't the problem. Seimone Augustus proves every game that she's one of the best young players in the game -- I know she's listed as a forward on the team roster, but she's the very definition of a wing; more on that in a moment. She and my beloved Candice Wiggins are each in the league's top-15 in scoring at the time of this post (#7 and #15 with 18.8 and 16.7 ppg, respectively). Minnesota is also looking for second-year point guard Lindsey Harding to get back into a groove after missing much of the season until now due to injury. Noelle Quinn has been serviceable on defense and has been able to make a large number of assists in the many minutes she's been logging as of late.

Unfortunately for the Lynx, the talent isn't overwhelming beyond that. Nicky Anosike is having a solid rookie campaign at center. The rest of the front court, when Minnesota isn't running three guards, is made up of a jumble of minor roleplayers in the likes of Kristen Rasmussen, Latoya Thomas, Nicole Ohlde, Vanessa Hayden-Johnson, Charde Houston, etc. I don't suppose it's anything to write home about. The problem here is that the Lynx don't seem to have any definitive gameplan on establishing an interior presence on either side of the court. That leads me to my next question, which might further serve to answer this one.

1a. What on earth kind of cockamamie strategy is Coach Zierden trying to utilize?

The interesting thing to me about women's basketball is that the sport, out of necessity, takes the traditional men's concept of positions and throws it to the wind. Wings (hybrid SG/SF players), combo guards, and center-forwards abound. Unless you drafted Sylvia Fowles, you're going to have better luck finding a genie's magic lamp to wish for a true center than actually signing one. For these reasons and many others, it takes some real creativity to put together a cohesive gameplan, I'd imagine.

But the Lynx still look like a team desperately trying to find an identity. Seimone Augustus is an absolutely dominant wing, and when she's on her game, Minnesota will always have a chance to win. The rare combination of talents that allow her to drive the lane, make long jumpers, and in general make defensive players look stupid allow her to completely change the dynamic on the court. That being said, she's being asked to do too much. In the game against Atlanta, I swore that I saw her trying to play every position except center at different points during the game. Credit her for her versatility, but that's too much to ask of one player. She needs the support around her to allow her to focus on what she's absolutely best at.

Candice Wiggins can do no wrong in my eyes, but if I'm trying to be as objective as possible, she's not going to fill the bill of a pure point guard in her rookie season. She's a phenomenal combo guard, and can also drive defenses crazy, but she's a rookie nonetheless (albeit June's Rookie of the Month!). The Lynx's occasional confused zone defense leaves me seeing her defending in the paint too often, and she (along with the team in general) needs to be encouraged on occasion to move some more off the ball. But I blame those two things as much on coaching as on any given individual. She's a perimeter player who can be deadly with her agility and ability to turn the corner and drive the basket. Let her play her position.

Come to think of it, the Lynx can't seem to settle on a point guard. Wiggins, Harding and Quinn all put in significant minutes leading the offense, and that's not mentioning the number of times that you'll see Augustus run the play start-to-finish from the top of the key. If Zierden's goal is to confuse his opponents into submission, he's on the right track.

Furthermore, throw in that Nicky Anosike is playing center. I think it's more because her passing skills are absolutely atrocious, but she seems to me like she could develop more into an effective power forward. Let Vanessa Hayden-Johnson throw her frame around Shaq-esque and allow Anosike to play the post more. I'm not about to claim that I'm smarter than the coach, otherwise I'd have his job, but it's a thought.

In general, I think the Lynx just have a young team that needs more support from the coaching staff, a few more offseasons to acquire some inside talent, and most importantly, some time to develop. Things aren't about to get any easier in the Western Conference anytime soon, but I'll remain optimistic.

2. What is going on with the Sparks as of late?

Again, I fall back on some of Q's analysis at Rethinking Basketball, but I'll throw in my own two cents here.

Coach Cooper needs to quickly shake the Sparks out of their recent funk

As I watched the first half and noted a double-digit discrepancy in turnovers in the Monarchs' favor, it occured to me that the Sparks had to be feeling pretty darn content with a 3-point lead going into the half. What happened after that is beyond me. To call it a meltdown would be insulting to Chernobyl. I recall thinking that the Sparks seem to have the opposite problem that the Lynx have as I detailed above -- namely, they have tremendous interior talent (in Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker) and seem to have grasped on to an identity a bit too quickly.

What I mean by that is that I too often saw LA's offensive strategy reduce itself to "throw the ball to whoever is standing in front of the basket and hope the magic happens." Even with a future Hall of Fame center and one of the most talented rookies to ever enter the women's game, that's not the most effective way to run an offense. The times when I saw their offense working at its best was when they took the opportunity to move the ball in, out and around; maybe it was inevitably on-route to Leslie or Parker in the paint, but it at least had the defense on its heels until then.

All things said, despite having to watch my team lose (though the Shock managed to hold first place in the East with a big win over the Sun on Wednesday, so at least that went my way) it was good to catch the games. A little one-sided and more than a bit disappointing, but good nonetheless. There are some potentially exciting matchups coming up this weekend, so join me in trying to catch at least one.