Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Despite changing head coaches in the offseason, the Indiana Fever are headed for yet another late-season meltdown.  Why?  The team replaced Nell Fortner, a good, but not great coach, with Brian Winters, a former NBA coach with one of the worst coaching records in league history...who had never previously coached women.  Despite having more talent than Nell's squads, Winters' team is underachieving, while Nell was able to develop the talent she had to a higher degree than Winters.

There are other problems.  Indiana is last in the WNBA in field goal percentage (and the only franchise to shoot under 40% as a team).  More than any other team, Indiana has SWGs who cannot create their own shots (Steph White, Kate Starbird, Kristen Rasmussen, etc.).  Winters tinkers with the lineups more than Bridget Pettis changed her hair color while playing for the Mercury.  Most importantly,  Indiana has too many "third options" with Nat Williams and Kelly Miller (sometimes Deanna Jackson, though her inconsistency and disappointing season makes her a "fourth option" at this point). There is no "second option," no second consistent scorer around 13 points and 4.5 rebounds per game to help Tamika Catchings.

I am beginning to think Kelly and Coco Miller might have to play together for both to be successful. Maybe Washington should trade Tamicha Jackson for Kelly Miller...