Taking the League by Storm

A month into the 2010 WNBA season, most teams have played at least ten games and there are still a lot of things up in the air. Will the LA Sparks ever work out how to play defense? Are the Minnesota Lynx really quite this bad? Will I ever admit that Marynell Meadors might even faintly resemble a decent coach? But one thing that isn't really up for debate is which franchise currently stands as the league's best team. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Seattle Storm.

Sitting atop the Western Conference at 9-1, already four games clear of what has admittedly been a pretty dire collection of competitors, the Storm have been a machine in recent weeks. They only played one game last week, but the 82-60 destruction of the Sparks on Friday night was just another in a line of blowouts. They've won the five games since their sole loss of the season by an average of 19 points, leaving opponents licking their wounds and clearing their benches by the start of the fourth quarter. Even Brian Agler, famed destroyer of his own starters, has been utilising his bench, because there's been so much garbage time in game after game.

As ever, Storm success begins with a healthy Lauren Jackson at its heart, but this has been a team effort across the board. Jackson is putting up her typical heavy numbers, averaging 20 points, 8 boards and a couple of blocks a night, although at pretty mediocre percentages (for her) of 43% from the floor and 34% from three-point range. But LJ is getting all kinds of help. Sue Bird is running the team with her usual aplomb, scoring points when necessary and distributing at will. Her assist-to-turnover ratio of nearly four is remarkably high, but not surprising considering the Storm turn the ball over the least of any team in the league. Swin Cash, like LJ, looks truly healthy for the first time in a while, and has produced at key moments, especially in the early games when Seattle wasn’t taking teams apart like they have been lately. Before their one loss in Chicago on May 27th, the Storm were sneaking wins in tight games through their smarts and ability to execute in the clutch, which Cash was a big part of. They haven't needed her as much in the blowouts, but she's still putting up big numbers and doing it with an efficiency that we haven't seen since way back before all her knee injuries in Detroit - shooting 46% from the floor and a remarkable 44% from three-point range.

Not to be lost amongst the star names, Camille Little is having an outstanding season so far as the complimentary post player alongside Jackson. Shooting 53% from the floor on dives, put-backs and run-the-floor layups, Little's also a big part of the Storm's excellent defense, and currently leads the league in steals. Jackson gets a lot of the attention at the center of Seattle's defense, but Little and Tanisha Wright are also very important parts. Wright hasn't quite found her shot yet this year (although bizarrely, for the first time in her life, she's shooting very well from three-point range) but her skills as a ballhandler alongside Bird make her invaluable to the Storm as a distributor and initiator, and she's typically tasked with defending the best perimeter player at the other end.

Beyond the starting five, a significant part of Seattle's improvement this year has to be put down to its revamped bench. Le'coe Willingham was brought in as a free agent and her burly aggression down low gives head coach Brian Agler someone he trusts to spell Little and Jackson. The breakout star off the bench, however, has been Svetlana Abrosimova, who's swiftly endeared herself to the Key Arena faithful. Constantly attacking and always keen to take or create a shot, but also a willing and talented passer, Svet has given the Storm a much-needed third player who can handle the ball on the perimeter and an offensive boost when necessary. Seattle could probably still use another backup guard - either rookie Alison Lacey developing into someone Agler trusts, or possibly a re-signed Loree Moore - but Abrosimova has covered for that gap admirably. The rest of the bench - Lacey, Czech forward Jana Vesela and centers Abby Bishop and Ashley Robinson - have played sparingly, but Vesela at least looks as if she can provide solid minutes if called upon. It takes a while to earn your way into Brian Agler's rotation, and sometimes it seems like he forgets that there are actually players on the bench he's allowed to use, but even seven-and-a-half players he truly believes in and utilises is more than they've had in previous years.

As a group, this collection has come together to produce some excellent basketball in recent weeks and put the Storm at the top of several statistical categories. Their defense is sharp, with the constant rotations and help defense required under Agler's system sliding quickly into place. Only Indiana is holding teams to a lower field goal percentage. The Storm are also leading the league in rebounding percentage, mostly on the strength of their remarkable offensive rebounding, which is keeping possessions alive and helping them lead the league comfortably in points per possession. Their low turnover rate is also allowing them to give up the fewest points off turnovers of any team in the WNBA. The antithesis of last year's champions, the Storm are one of the slowest-paced teams in the league, but their skill and precision within their own brand of basketball makes them just as effective as last year's Mercury.

For all the impressive numbers, statistics aren't really necessary to see how good the Storm have been in the first month of the season. Watching them pick apart Los Angeles last week, or trample all over the likes of Atlanta and Phoenix in the weeks before, you can see everything you need. They execute their offense with accuracy and intelligence, defend with strength and toughness, and most of all play consistently as a team. Jackson might be the MVP candidate, but it’s the collective unit that's dominating games, and with some of the pressure off LJ's back maybe -- just maybe -- she can stay healthy through an entire season. If the Storm are in one piece come the playoffs, they're looking like strong favorites to blow through the Western Conference and head for the WNBA Finals to fight for a crown they haven't come anywhere near since 2004.

Pierson Potentially Packing

Saturday night, despite suffering through an ugly blowout loss to the Phoenix Mercury, Tulsa Shock head coach Nolan Richardson chose not to use Plenette Pierson for a single second on the floor. After the game he said that "We're making some decisions on whether she'll be with us or not. We've still got some trades to try to deal with at this point." So it seems like a reasonable assumption that Pierson isn't going to be hanging around in Tulsa much longer. That's despite leading the league in scoring per 40 minutes, while shooting 54% from the floor and 43% from three-point range. Even the advanced stats suggest she's producing well, as she leads Tulsa in both raw plus/minus and net plus/minus. In more basic terms, when she's on the court Tulsa scores 13 more points per 40 minutes than when she's not out there, and they concede 4 fewer points defensively as well. This is a strong, aggressive, talented veteran player for whom Richardson appears to have decided he has no use.

Pierson has looked healthy in the minutes she's played this season, seemingly fully recovered from the shoulder injury that cost her practically all of last season. One can only presume that her strong character has somehow clashed with Richardson, because her strength and athleticism ought to make her a decent fit for his non-stop system.

Looking down the standings, it's hard to find a team that wouldn't be interested in adding Pierson to their roster. She's a proven commodity at both ends of the floor, especially for teams that already have strong personalities in the locker room and a respected coach that would make the franchise confident she'd fit in. However, she's highly-paid (in WNBA terms), which makes trading her far more complicated than the dump of Shavonte Zellous that took place a couple of weeks ago. Most WNBA teams are pretty close to the team salary cap, so adding Pierson in place of a rookie or low-end vet on their roster isn't necessarily an option because it would take them over the limit. Tulsa themselves have more cap room than they know what to do with, so can take big salaries back, but most of the highly paid players in this league are the players teams don't want to part with. The rest are players Tulsa probably doesn't have much interest in. Still, I'm sure the low-ball offers have already flooded in from the few teams with room to take her, so if Richardson's determined to dump her the option will be there (although reportedly Pierson may have already blocked a move to New York herself). He probably won't get true value though, just like he didn't for Zellous.

I give Nolan Richardson plenty of credit for how he's got his team playing, Despite the ugly three-game road-trip they just struggled through (heavy losses to Chicago, San Antonio and Phoenix), the players he's decided he likes are playing hard and performing as a whole to a standard that's greater than the sum of their parts. But a pro coach's responsibility is to put a system in place that gets the best possible performances out of the talent available. With Zellous and now likely Pierson, Richardson is pushing out some of his most talented personnel. At some point he needs to find a way to handle and live with players who may have difficult personalities and may not be absolute 100% perfect fits for his system. Otherwise he'll end up with teams that play for him and play hard, in just the style he wants, but they probably won't be winning much. Superior talent invariably trumps practically everything else in the professional game, so you can't keep on lowering your talent base in favour of the system.

Coming Up This Week

The dominant Storm head out East on a road trip this week for a back-to-back in Indiana and New York. While the Storm have been the best team in the league, as a conference the East have so far heavily outperformed the West, currently holding a 13-4 edge in inter-conference play. If the Storm continues to play anything like they have in their last few games, that gap will likely have shrunk by the end of the week.

After splitting their home-and-home with Connecticut over the weekend, the matchups don't get any easier for the Indiana Fever, but at least they get to stay at Conseco Fieldhouse and wait for teams to come to them. After the Storm visit on Thursday, the conference-leading Atlanta Dream come in on Saturday night to present their case as the best in the East against the reigning conference champions.

Barring natural disaster, either the 2-9 Minnesota Lynx and the 3-6 Tulsa Shock have to pick up a win or two this week, as they play each other yet again on both Friday and Saturday. These mark the fourth and fifth meetings of the two franchises already this year, completing the season series. The way both of them have been playing lately these almost feel like pity matchups.

Finally, while I know you'll all be recovering from the excitement of the Brazil-Ivory Coast World Cup match earlier in the day, Connecticut travels to Phoenix for what could be a barn-burner of a game on Sunday afternoon. The Sun have been one of the better defensive teams in the league this season, but they still like to shoot as much as possible, and Mike Thibault's teams are usually more than happy to enter into the Mercury spirit and fire away from anywhere. The Merc look like they might finally be starting to perform this season, and will see this week's home games against San Antonio and the Sun as perfect opportunities to build their momentum.

Injury and transactions report

Thursday finally brought some good news for Minnesota Lynx fans in what has so far been a dismal start to the season, as star player Seimone Augustus played her first game for a year. Returning from a blown-out knee and a scary surgery to remove grapefruit-sized fibroids from her abdomen (that also required the removal of her uterus), ‘Mone went straight back into the starting lineup. She looked strong, playing over 30 minutes, and that gorgeous jumpshot was still in evidence. Of course the Lynx were still comfortably beaten by the Mercury, illustrating that they're going to need more than just Augustus to drag them out of their current stupor.

Friday was a painful night in various arenas around the WNBA, but fortunately nearly everyone recovered quickly. Janel McCarville (right knee), Kara Lawson (dislocated shoulder) and Candace Parker (shoulder, again) all left their respective games and headed back to the locker room, but all three returned later that night and re-entered their games. Michelle Snow collided with Tulsa's Scholanda Robinson and suffered a head injury that she didn't come back from, leaving her listed as day-to-day, but she returned for yesterday's game against Atlanta. Shameka Christon only lasted three minutes of Chicago's game before being taken to hospital after being caught with a Sylvia Fowles elbow. No news yet on her current condition.

Unfortunately for Candace Parker, her shoulder popped out yet again late in the second-quarter of LA's game against Minnesota yesterday, and after going to the locker room this time she didn't return. She was taken to hospital for further examination. Without their prime star, recovering from their slow start would be a whole lot more difficult for LA, but she's been suffering with these shoulder problems for several years now. At some point surgery is going to be necessary, but don't be surprised to see her back out for their next game on Friday - the wonder that is Twitter was already offering news that she was home last night and would be listed as day-to-day.

In positive news from Friday night, Becky Hammon returned from her right-quadriceps injury for San Antonio after missing two games. Silver Stars fans better hope she stays in one piece from now on, because they look lost without her. As expected, head coach Sandy Brondello also returned Friday night, after giving birth last week. Baby Jayda was not on the sidelines.

Tulsa made a couple of roster moves early last week, releasing Ashley Walker and Amanda Thompson to sign veterans Kiesha Brown and Jen Lacy. The cuts were a little surprising in some ways, as Walker had only recently been signed and Thompson is a local product from Oklahoma University, making her a favourite of some fans. However, Thompson had barely produced anything in her opening weeks as a pro and Walker already seemed to have fallen out of Nolan Richardson's rotation, so both cuts made sense. Brown is a WNBA vagabond, having played for seven different WNBA franchises in an eight-year career, but she has the skills and mentality to fit Richardson's system. Lacy's a backup big who'll do what's asked of her, and after playing a couple of years in Phoenix back in the day she certainly knows how to run.

Beyond the team rosters, LA Sparks team president Kristin Bernert resigned this week effective immediately, saying she'd lost her passion for the job. She stated that it had nothing to do with the Sparks' poor start, but she doesn't have any other job currently lined up. It probably doesn't mean anything significant, but it's never good to see people jumping ship from the WNBA without even having anything to jump to.

That's it for this week folks. Next week, if you're really lucky, there's a small possibility that I might follow a suggestion from my editor and bring you 'The WNBA in Haiku'. Don't hold your breath though, just in case my muse fails me.

Tags: Doc Rivers, Lindsay Whalen, Minnesota Lynx, Russian National Team, Seattle Storm