Cooper Says Sparks Can Expect Changes
The look of incredulity that flashed on Michael Cooper’s face said something like: “Are you crazy?”
The question was, had he looked at video yet of the Sparks’ season-ending, 74-69 loss to Houston Sunday afternoon. This was Monday, almost 24 hours later.
“No, this is too soon,” he said, with a wave of the hand.
“This still stings, a lot. I’ll let everything sink in a few days, then look at it. I need to relax, spend some time with my kids.”
Cooper, in a post-mortem interview after the Sparks’ playoff demise, said his team must look ahead to some roster changes before next season, but he wouldn’t name names.
“We cannot stand pat with this roster for next season,” he said.
“The reason is there is so much talent coming into the WNBA next year it’s going to take this league to a new level. You’ve got Lauren Jackson [of Australia], Tamika Catchings [Tennessee], Kelly Schumacher [Connecticut], those twins at Georgia [Kelly and Coco Miller], more Europeans. . . .
“The next draft is so deep I really think every player taken on the first two rounds can make rosters.”
He wouldn’t say which changes he has in mind for his own roster, but it’s deep enough to allow the team to move up higher than the 16th pick of the first round if he and General Manager Penny Toler decide they must.
“We’re not there yet. Evaluating what our needs are takes time. And we’d be thinking the same way if we’d beaten Houston and won the whole thing,” Cooper said.
If you assume Spark starters are untouchables, there are two players off the bench who would start for most teams, wing Allison Feaster and 6-foot-5 center Clarisse Machanguana.
Machanguana, the WNBA’s best backup center, is widely coveted. At least 10 teams this season have asked the Sparks if she’s available.
Feaster also projects as a starter almost anywhere else. The same could be said of Nicky McCrimmon, who didn’t start one game this season but finished nearly splitting minutes with starter Ukari Figgs. And Figgs is coveted by Orlando’s Carolyn Peck, who coached her at Purdue.
What concerns Cooper is that Western Conference rivals Seattle and Phoenix could become major challengers with draft picks.
“Look at Seattle,” he said. “If they take Lauren Jackson [the 6-6, 20-year-old Aussie thought by many to be the world’s best player not yet in the WNBA] with that first pick, then get another great pick on the second round, that lets them move Quacy Barnes to forward. They could win the whole thing.
“Look at Phoenix. If they get Schumacher, with Stepanova [6-8 Russian Maria Stepanova] coming back, all of a sudden they’re a great transition team and much better than they were this summer.”
“Look at Minnesota--just one player away.”
STARZZ TREKKING?
And speaking of major roster changes, there could be one in Salt Lake City.
Word is power forward Natalie Williams has asked Starzz management to either trade her or 7-2 Margo Dydek. After early media buildup when she arrived in the WNBA a year ago from Poland, Dydek was probably the most disappointing player in the league.
She’s athletic, runs the floor well, has a nice, soft shot to 16 feet and leads the league in blocked shots. She should be the most dominating player in the league, the Shaquille O’Neal of the women’s game, but she’s not even close. She plays “soft,” seemingly in cruise control, and has refused to start a weight-training program.
Williams, reached Monday, wouldn’t confirm she has asked for a trade but did say she’d relish the chance to play again for her old ABL coach, Lin Dunn, now at Seattle.
Dunn has the WNBA’s first pick in next spring’s rich draft.
She’ll attend the Olympics for a long look at Jackson but will also, she said, entertain the concept of trading that pick for established veterans.
TOP OF THE SCALE
In case you wondered: Houston’s Van Chancellor is said to be the WNBA’s highest-paid coach, at $250,000 a year.
The WNBA finals pick: Houston in two, despite New York’s spectacular midseason turnaround. In the first half, Liberty players were arguing among themselves during the games and looked like a second-division team, particularly when they were 7-9 in early July.
Then came the emergence of Becky Hammon as a talented scorer and the Liberty finished by winning 11 of their last 14, including the playoffs. Monday night, Coach Richie Adubato talked of “tremendous chemistry” on his team.
But as the Sparks learned, Houston knows better than any other team how to make the leap from regular-season basketball to championship basketball.