Archive for August, 2009

Newer Entries »

Fain blog: Time to get back on track!

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Two teams in huge need of a win tonight at the Palace as the Storm is trying to stop a slide of  four losses in five games and salvage a win on this road trip.  Detroit is even more desperate – after back-to-back losses to Eastern Conference rivals Atlanta and Indiana, the Shock is in danger of falling completely out of the playoff race with a loss tonight.  At 9-13, Detroit is already 2 1/2 games out of the final spot with only 12 games to play.  Seattle is still OK in the playoff race. Thanks to the Lynx losing three in a row, the Storm are still two games clear of Minnesota for the #2 seed. Like I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, here come the Sparks, now tied with Minnesota and San Antonio in the loss column for third place!  We may once again be on a Seattle/L.A. collision course in the first round.

The Storm got some news yesterday as Sue was named to the U.S. Women’s Senior National Team.  Birdy will compete for the USA between now and the 2012 games in London.  Congrats Sue!

Thanks again to Gary Hill, who filled in admirably in Atlanta.  I didn’t get a chance to hear the broadcast due to the wedding I was in but I did check my live game tracker on my cellphone about 100 times!  I even thought about checking in while I was up on the altar as my friend was reading his vows but thought that might be bad form!  :)  Hey, a Storm fan has gotta do what he’s gotta do, right?

Speaking of weddings, I want to wish my wife Janna a happy second anniversary today!

Game time is 4:30 Seattle time tonight on 1150-AM KKNW -  talk to you then! And be sure you’re listening in the second quarter when Katie Gearlds calls in to the radio broadcast from home.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Bevilaqua No Stranger to All-Decade Teams

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Like the Storm, the Indiana Fever is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2009. The two teams came into the league together, along with Miami and Portland, and have had close ties ever since, as both Anne Donovan and Lin Dunn have coached in both Indiana and Seattle. On Saturday, the Fever recognized its All-Decade Team and Tully Bevilaqua earned the unique accolade of being named to both All-Decade Teams. Bevilaqua holds a special place in the hearts of fans of both teams. She will be honored this Saturday, when she and Dunn return to Seattle with an Indiana squad that has the WNBA’s best record at 19-5 for the Storm’s Women of Inspiration Night.

Incidentally, the other Storm player doubly awarded as an All-Decade Teamer is Swin Cash, who made the unofficial squad picked by the Detroit Shock during Detroit’s 10th Anniversary season in 2007.

Posted in all-decade, former Storm updates | Comments Off

Gearlds Deals with Injury

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

This is uncharted territory for Seattle Storm forward Katie Gearlds, who is expected to expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks after tearing the posterior cruciate ligament in her left knee last Tuesday. The injury is the first of any significance, major or minor, Gearlds has ever suffered.

Katie Gearlds high-fives a teammate during introductions on Saturday. Aaron Last/Storm Photos

Katie Gearlds, wearing a brace, high-fives a teammate during introductions on Saturday. Aaron Last/Storm Photos

“I’ve never missed a game in my life,” Gearlds said after the Storm practiced Monday night before hitting the road for Connecticut today without her. “Since I was four years old, I’ve never missed a game, so it’s been a little frustrating.”

During her three-year WNBA career, Gearlds had missed just one of a possible 88 games, that due to coach’s decision during her rookie season. She suffered the injury while driving during the first quarter of the Storm’s loss to the Phoenix Mercury last Tuesday.

“When I landed, I felt something immediately,” explained Gearlds. “I tried to play for a couple of minutes. It didn’t feel right. I knew that something was wrong, and when I came to the bench I told (Athletic trainer) Tom (Spencer). I knew that I hurt, but I didn’t know what happened to it.”

An MRI the following morning revealed the damage to Gearlds’ PCL, a relatively rare injury for basketball. Unlike a torn ACL, Gearlds’ injury will not require surgery and is not automatically season ending. By staying off the knee for an extended period, Gearlds should give it a chance to heal.

“I can’t do any rehab right now,” she said. “It’s just a matter of keeping my leg straight, icing it, keeping the swelling out of it and wearing this wonderful thing (brace) 24 hours a day.

“The doctor wants me in this brace for three weeks. Hopefully by that time, it will all have scarred back and grown back together. That’s the hope, and if that’s the case then maybe I’ll be able to start doing something then. In two weeks from now, hopefully I’ll be able to start doing a little bit more.”

The timetable for Gearlds’ return would figure to see her come back late in the regular season or just at the start of a potential playoff run.

“It could be worse,” she said. “I’m thankful that it’s not worse and I just have to work hard to get it healthy and strong and get ready to go. My goal is to get better as quick as I can for the team. The team is important to me and I care a lot about the people on the team and what we’re trying to do.”

For now, Gearlds will have to get used to the unfamiliar situation of watching her teammates during practice and games while in street clothes.

“It sucks, to be honest,” she said. “But you know it gives me an opportunity to step back and watch the games, watch practice, observe things, be here to encourage my teammates and try to help them in any way.”

Posted in gearlds | 5 Comments »

WNBA Offensive Ratings Reach New Heights

Monday, August 10th, 2009

A week away, the Wall Street Journal’s relatively new and analytical sports section ran a feature in “The Count” looking at scoring in the WNBA. As if on cue, the WNBA’s league-wide Offensive Rating surged forward and hit a milestone last week – an even 100.0 points per 100 possessions around the league. I’ve been doing weekly ratings for the last couple of years now, and I can’t remember ever seeing the league average in triple digits. For comparison, the league’s Offensive Rating was 98.9 points per 100 possessions a year ago and topped out at 99.1 in 2006.

(more…)

Posted in WNBA, stats | Comments Off

Storm’s Flexibility Limited

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

With Wednesday’s news that Katie Gearlds will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a torn posterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, the Storm is feeling the pinch of the 11-player roster. Last year, the Storm might have been able to add a player on a seven-day contract to add depth on the perimeter. However, because the Storm is at 11 players, that’s not a possibility this year. As of the day after the All-Star break, contracts became guaranteed, meaning replacing another player with a wing would require the Storm to have additional space under the salary cap.

The Storm does have a couple of other possible avenues. If the team gets down to eight active players because of another injury (in addition to Gearlds and Ashley Walker, currently sidelined), there is a hardship provision in the WNBA rules that would allow the Storm to temporarily add a 12th player. That player would then have to be waived as soon as the Storm got back to nine healthy players. Detroit used this exception earlier this season.

The other possible route for change is via trade. The WNBA’s trade deadline is Aug. 17, a week and a half away. However, Head Coach Brian Agler said last week that a deal was unlikely while not entirely ruling out the possibility.

“As far as I know, we’re not (making a trade),” he said. “It’s not that I’m totally closed to anything, but do we have anything on the burner? No, we don’t. There’s a lot more that goes into trades than calling somebody up and making a trade. Even if two teams want to make a trade, it’s still got to work under the cap. That’s what makes it so difficult. To answer that question, our plans are to stay pat. That doesn’t mean things can’t change either.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Parity in the WNBA Stats

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

The numbers are a day late today, but they still go only through Sunday (and do not include this morning’s Silver Stars win in L.A.) I want to talk a little about the WNBA’s parity (and a few things that quantify it), but for now we start with the Offensive and Defensive Rating rankings.

OFFENSIVE/DEFENSIVE RATINGS

Team           ORtg     Team           DRtg
-------------------     -------------------
Phoenix       108.9     Indiana        92.8
Minnesota     103.4     Connecticut    96.2
Seattle       101.6     Los Angeles    96.7
Indiana       101.4     Atlanta        97.5
Chicago        99.8     Seattle        97.7
AVERAGE        99.8     New York       97.9
Atlanta        99.6     Washington     98.9
Washington     99.1     AVERAGE        99.8
Connecticut    98.9     San Antonio    99.9
Sacramento     98.5     Detroit       101.0
San Antonio    98.3     Minnesota     103.2
Detroit        96.9     Sacramento    103.5
New York       95.4     Phoenix       105.0
Los Angeles    92.1     Chicago       105.4

The interesting case this week is that of the Los Angeles Sparks, who remain dead last in the WNBA in Offensive Rating but have moved up to third in Defensive Rating after Saturday’s slugfest with the Sacramento Monarchs. The per-possession ratings have shown for the last year-plus that, for all their offensive talent, the Sparks are better at stopping opponents than scoring. Still, this discrepancy is pretty remarkable.

EXPECTED WINS STANDINGS

Team         Exp. W     Team         Exp. W
-------------------     -------------------
Phoenix        20.9     Indiana        22.9
Seattle        20.9     Connecticut    19.5
Minnesota      16.3     Atlanta        18.8
San Antonio    15.6     Washington     18.1
Los Angeles    14.3     New York       15.4
Sacramento     11.9     Detroit        13.7
                        Chicago        11.9

I feel sometimes like nobody believes me when I talk about the parity in the WNBA this year. Fortunately, Brian Agler has my back. As he pointed out Saturday, if the right teams had won and lost, it was possible for only three teams (Phoenix, Indiana and the Storm) to end the day above .500. Even the seeming extremes of the league – the aforementioned three teams and Sacramento at the bottom – come back to the pack when we look at point differential.

We’re in a league where the Atlanta Dream beat the Mercury by 30 points last week, which, incidentally, is why Phoenix is now decimal points ahead of the West in the Expected Wins standings. So far this season, there have been 13 overtime games; last year there were 17 all year. Similar story with games decided by three points or fewer – 25 last year, 24 this season already. The Storm has played a ton of close games all in a row, and it shouldn’t be a surprise anymore. The league is that even.

Differential also suggests the Sparks and Silver Stars have a pretty good shot at surpassing the Lynx with their additions. In the East, the Liberty and Sky retain their anomalous flip-flopped positions.

WARP LEADERS

Player               Tm   Win%   WARP
-------------------------------------
Nicky Anosike       MIN   .753    5.1
Diana Taurasi       PHO   .762    5.0
Tamika Catchings    IND   .743    4.9
Lauren Jackson      SEA   .752    4.7
Becky Hammon        SAS   .746    4.6
Jia Perkins         CHI   .698    4.2
Shameka Christon    NYL   .680    3.7
Cappie Pondexter    PHO   .622    3.6
Sancho Lyttle       ATL   .663    3.4
Charde Houston      MIN   .665    3.0

It looks like we’ve got a very interesting race for MVP shaping up down the stretch. Last week, Q handicapped the field and made Nicky Anosike his favorite, which surprised even me. However, her net plus-minus numbers back up what her Wins Above Replacement Player also show in terms of her indispensibility tot he Lynx. Now, things have tightened up and we have five players separated by a half a win. Any of them – or Cappie Pondexter, who still comes out low by my numbers – have the chance to seize control and become the favorite with a strong finish to the season.

Posted in WNBA, stats | Comments Off

Monday Morning Reading

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Well, the Storm’s 10th Anniversary Celebration is in the books. I hope you had as much fun looking back on the Storm’s history as I did. It was great to see a number of former players – All-Decade Teamers Simone Edwards and Kamila Vodichkova and Michelle Marciniak, Astou Ndiaye-Diatta, Semeka Randall and Jamie Redd. Even in retirement, it’s interesting to see Edwards’ and Vodichkova’s contrasting personalities – Simone the passionate extrovert, Kamila the steady rock – and how much Storm fans responded to both of them.

I have only two regrets. One is that I couldn’t have been in two places at once to take in more of the excitement before the game on Saturday. The other is that I wasn’t around for quite the entire first decade of Storm basketball, having first started following the team in 2002 before joining the organization the following summer.

The weekend also served as a great opportunity to write about the Storm and its history. In case you haven’t seen them, here are some of my favorite stories.

Seattle Times columnist Jerry Brewer was at SPORT Restaurant for Friday night’s event featuring a Q&A and autographs as well as Saturday’s game, and wrote movingly about the loyalty of Storm fans, making use of Sue Bird’s comment on Storm fans at SPORT.

Bird, the star Storm guard, remembers losing a home playoff game to Houston in 2005. The Comets pounded the Storm 75-58 and ended its season. After winning a championship in 2004, it was a disappointing conclusion. However, as Bird and her teammates walked off the court, they exited to a standing ovation. It moved her to near tears.

“I’ll never forget it,” Bird said Friday at Sport restaurant in Lower Queen Anne, during an event that was part of a celebration for the franchise’s all-decade team. “It just reminded me how awesome our fans are.”

Leading up to the ceremony, Jayda Evans of the Times spoke to some of the All-Decade selections.

“When I landed, I was holding myself, trying not to cry because I just felt great being back in Seattle,” said Vodichkova, 36. “The weather was perfect and the sea was blue. All of the things were where they were supposed to be.”

Byron Edelman from seattlepi.com chose to focus on Edwards and what she means to the Seattle community more than three years after she last played for the Storm.

Edwards’ tireless work ethic hasn’t only applied to charity, though. She would attempt to sign every autograph request she ever received. And she was even outside KeyArena before the Storm’s inaugural game, dispensing water bottles (Few fans recognized she was a player). “You always have time,” she said, explaining her philosophy about autographs and charity work. “The fans appreciate when you spend time with them. And that’s important.”

What ensued was a love affair between a city and a basketball franchise that has lasted ten years. Edwards, 35, retired from the WNBA four seasons ago. But she still plays for the Jamaican national team and coaches basketball at George Mason University.

Q from Rethinking Basketball decided to put down some thoughts on the assertion from players and coaches that the Storm’s fans are the best in the WNBA.

If you believe what people in Key Arena say, the fans in the rest of the league are straight-up slackin’.

But the thing is, I don’t think this is just a matter of a coach, owner, players, past-players, and announcers laying platitudes on the fans who pay the bills. I haven’t been to every arena in the league as Agler has, but I have to say that Storm games are by far one of the best sporting events I’ve ever been to in the U.S. And the fans are a big part of it.

Posted in in the media | Comments Off

Newer Entries »