The second season in Atlanta Dream history will begin tomorrow night at Philips Arena against the Indiana Fever. And with a much more experienced and talented team this time around, hopes are high. “I’m excited about the players were putting on the floor,” said head coach/general manager Marynell Meadors. “We made a lot of major changes in the offseason. It’s a matter of us going out there and working together.”
But the new-look Dream, who return just four players from last year’s squad, will have their hands full with an Indiana team looking for a fifth consecutive playoff appearance in 2009.
Four starters will be making their debut for Atlanta: point guard Nikki Teasley, small forward Chamique Holdsclaw, power forward Erika DeSouza, and center Erika Snow. Shooting guard Izi Castro Marques is the only returnee amongst the starting five.
As for the Fever, they will be looking to get off to a good start after suffering through what was a disappointing season by their standards. They finished at 17-17 in 2008 despite making a blockbuster deal for jack-of-all trades Katie Douglas before the year began. But the talent is most definitely there for Lin Dunn’s team.
“Douglas and Tamika Catchings are two of the best players in the league,” MEadors said.
Douglas and a five-time all star in Catchings will test Meadors’ defense, which placed last in that category last year. Tammy Sutton-Brown also gives the Fever a solid offensive option inside.
With forward Chamique Holdclaw playing her first WNBA game since 2007 at forward, and point guard Nikki Teasley also making her return after missing all of 2008, things could get dicey for Atlanta early as two of their starters may have to shake some rust off early.
“Theyre very solid,” MEadors said, We’ve definitely got to play our a game to beat them because they’ve been a playoff team for so many years.”
Meadors also said to expect the Dream to throw a mixture of looks at Indiana, and don’t be surprised to see Atlanta employ a zone defense at times.
LATTA RELEASED …
Atlanta turned many heads at the end of training camp, releasing well known guard Ivory Latta to cut their roster down to the maximum of 11 players that WNBA teams can carry this season.
Meadors said the release was performance-based, but didn’t want to get into details about the situation.
Latta, a fan favorite thanks to her fantastic college career at North Carolina, averaged 11.4 points and 3.6 assists on 36% shooting and started 31 games last season. But the return of Nikki Teasley, coupled with the signing of Coco Miller before training camp, may have sealed Latta’s fate.
“I think that made things jumbled up a little bit,” Meadors said of Miller signing. However, Meadors did indicate that things would have been different had the WNBA not required teams to carry just 11 players, two fewer than the previous limit of 13.
“It’s the WNBA’s fault with an 11 player roster,” she said. If we had a 12 player roster this year she [Latta] would be on the team.”
Bagriansky can be reached at jbagriansky@scoreatl.com.
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