Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Thursday, October 14, 2004

ESPN Boarders, led by SonOfOovy, debate Whalen's defense and whether she's overrated.

I think some of the criticisms are overstated, but it brings up a fair question: would Connecticut have been better if it had made the Whalen trade?

Despite her poor showing in the Finals, Lindsay had a great season, better than most expected. Just about every team in the WNBA would be thrilled to have her in the starting lineup. She is a great player, worth a lot.

On the other hand, the Sun gave up a lot to keep her.

In exchange for Lindsay, the Sun could have had: 1. Ohlde, 2. another good rookie (Hayden, Jones, Brunson, etc.), and 3. another good player (presumably Tamika or Svet). Considering that Connecticut's biggest problem was its lack of height and its resulting inability to score in the post, some of those additions could have made a huge difference.

The same question applies to Charlotte, which turned down all that so it could get Nicole Powell... only to sit her on the bench most of the year.

UPDATE: Kevin Pelton responds --

but what was Minnesota's biggest problem? Constant turnovers and lack of any perimeter punch. And that would become Connecticut's problem. Without Whalen, Douglas doesn't get as many of the open threes... Palmer and McWilliams-Franklin don't get open layups off her penetration, etc., etc.

The Sun was built on balance this season, without any glaring weaknesses. As strong as their post game would have been with Ohlde on board, they would have had the weakest point guards in the league, hands down. No way they overcome that.


Good points. If the teams had made the trade straight up, they would have swapped strengths and weaknesses. But it's at least arguable that the Lynx would have given up a lot more value overall, and the Sun could have used that to trade for a point guard.

Put it this way: Connecticut could have ended up with Ohlde, Taj, Hayden, Tamika, Asjha, Palmer, and Wyckoff. Surely they could have bundled two or three of those and found a good point guard.

Kevin correctly notes, however, that the league doesn't exactly have a glut of good point guards. Don't I know it...