Draft Could Shift Power in WNBA

The WNBA will shuffle its deck today, and some wonder if, after this morning’s expansion draft, the Houston Comets will still hold the trump card.

The 3-year-old women’s pro basketball league grows from 12 to 16 teams today, with each established team making six players available to new teams in Seattle, Portland, Indianapolis and Miami.

For established teams, it’s a question of who gets hurt the most.

The Sparks look like a prime candidate.

The Sparks have left Yugoslav point guard Gordana Grubin unprotected and protected Tamecka Dixon, the third-year guard from Kansas whose playing time last summer plummeted after Grubin’s emergence.

Also unprotected is Lisa Leslie’s backup, 6-foot-6 Nina Bjedov, another Yugoslav. She averaged 16 minutes during Los Angeles’ 20-12 season last summer, yet finished 14th among WNBA shot blockers. She also rebounded well and made 42% of her three-point shots.

The WNBA doesn’t release protected lists but The Times has learned that the Sparks are protecting Leslie, Dixon, Mwadi Mabika, DeLisha Milton and Ukari Figgs.

“That’s the way most of the coaches figured it, except for protecting Dixon,” one league source said. “That’s baffling. No one understands that.”

Unless Grubin has chosen not to play next summer in the WNBA. Still, when she left the club last September for the European leagues, she indicated that she was eager to return.

Also available from the Sparks are 6-3 La’Keshia Frett, who became a premier WNBA defender last summer, guard Allison Feaster and center Clarisse Machanguana.

Each of the new clubs will draft six players. Indiana will pick first in the first round, followed by Seattle, Miami and Portland. That sequence reverses in each of the remaining five rounds. When an established team loses a player, it can then pull back three of its unprotected players, meaning each existing team will lose its sixth and 10th players.

For example, if the Sparks lose Grubin, they can pull back Bjedov, Frett and Feaster.

There may also be some wheeling and dealing today, since rules prohibiting the trading of draft picks and multiple-player deals have been lifted.

Three-time champion Houston has left centers Kara Wolters and Monica Lamb, and point guard Jen Rizzotti unprotected.

Among other prominent unprotected veterans are point guards Debbie Black of Utah and Sonja Henning of Houston; Phoenix regulars Michelle Timms, Bridget Pettis and Edna Campbell, and New York’s Sophia Witherspoon, Carolyn Jones and Sue Wicks.

The WNBA college draft will be conducted April 25, with Cleveland getting the first pick. Los Angeles drafts 15th.