WNBA Draft '10: Only a few days away

The words I heard most on the WNBA Pre-Draft Conference Call a couple days ago were “guard-heavy”. The guard spot will be the toughest to make a team because there are just so many experienced perimeter players. Some even went as far as to claim that the whole first round could go by without a power forward being drafted. Of course, it won’t be only guards in the first round because the widely predicted first pick is Connecticut center Tina Charles. The unique part about Charles being the first pick is that the Connecticut Sun gets to make the first pick of the Draft; and in addition to Charles being a great player that any team would like to add to their roster, she is from the University of Connecticut. The Sun must see this as an opportunity to convert some Huskies fans into Sun fans. That doesn’t necessarily mean they would only choose from UConn players, but Tina Charles is the best post player in the country right now, so she is likely who they will choose.

Another hot topic of the conference call was Epiphanny Prince. Some questioned whether her choice to play overseas would hurt her in the Draft. Others thought it probably improved her game. ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo and Carolyn Peck discussed this at the beginning of the call. Both agreed that it definitely wouldn’t hurt her in the Draft and it has helped her improve in many ways. Rebecca Lobo talked about the difference between college and playing overseas. She said that when you’re playing overseas the biggest difference is that you are playing for money now. You can’t just have a bad game professionally and expect it not to be a big deal. Carolyn Peck added that if you don’t perform to the level you are expected to, you’d lose your job. So clearly playing overseas has put more pressure on Prince and probably helped her mature. We got the chance to hear from her at the end of the call, and she says her game improved because she now knows how to decide when she should shoot or when she needs to pass. She told us that making the decision to leave last year wasn’t easy, but the moment she got on the court in Europe against professional players like Diana Taurasi, she immediately realized she made the right decision. Regarding her placement in the Draft, Rebecca Lobo is expecting Prince to be a top 4 pick. Everyone agreed that she will definitely go early.

A lot of people have been talking about how the Draft this year is weak, which it definitely isn’t. It’s not that the Draft is weak this year; it just isn’t filled with players like Candace Parker and Sylvia Fowles who will make immediate starting impacts on their team. Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve and L.A. coach Jennifer Gillom both agreed that the players this year will have to come to camp and prove themselves. Reeve said even Tina Charles will have a hard time starting, these players are going to have to make an impact off of the bench.

We are only a couple days away for the 2010 WNBA Draft, so we’ll  don’t have much longer to wait until we find out if the experts predicted correctly.

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mhueter

Great post Kaci!! I agree - Tina Charles will go to Connecticut. (They'd be stupid not to take her!)

Interesting quote from Lobo about playing overseas. I hope the girls take that attitude about playing for the WNBA, too!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 6:14am PDT