With the season at its halfway point, Atlanta Dream beat writer Josh Bagriansky has a midterm evaluation for the players. Who gets high marks for the much-improved Dream, and who isn’t making the grade? Find out in this edition of WNBA Summer School.
Chamique Holdsclaw: B
‘Mique isn’t the player she once was, and we’ve seen that with the major decline in her rebounding and defensive abilities. But she has done a nice job stepping in this season as Atlanta’s No. 1 option. Even after spending two years out of the league, you can still see that natural scoring ability in Holdsclaw’s game that so many lack. And 28 and 26 points outbursts on the road trip for the all-star break indicate that the best may still be yet to come as Holdclaw continues to rediscover her WNBA game.
Sancho Lyttle: A-
Lyttle was effective in Houston because of her hustle and rebounding, but she has been able to show off much more this season in an expanded role. She may be one of the more quiet players in the locker room, but her game does all the talking on the court, where Lyttle has given the Dream a reliable low-post scorer that can step out and hit the mid-range jump shot and convert from the charity stripe.
Iziane Castro-Marques: C+
“Izzy” has been great at times, and poor at others this season. But unlike last year when she was one of the only competent wings on the squad, she has been able to take a backseat to others on a much deeper team this time around when her shots aren’t falling. Izzy will wow you one night, like with her 31-point explosion in late June against Minnesota, and then disappoint you soon after, as she went 0-for-5 in 19 minutes against Washington several days later. If she can become a little more consistent, she will be a key cog down the stretch.
Erika De Souza: B
To me, the signing of De Souza last season, a player who had hardly sniffed the floor in the WNBA, has been by far Marynell Meadors’ best move as GM. Erika gives opponents fits with her physical play, and leads the team in both rebounding in block shots. Staying out of foul trouble has been a problem for the Brazilian, an area will she will need to improve as the Dream will need her on the floor as they make their push for the playoffs. De Souza, who speaks to the media through an interpreter, also looks much more comfortable with her teammates than last year, when injuries and the language barrier made things dicey at times.
Angel McCoughtry: B-
The Dream have a do-it-all talent in the No. 1 pick from April’s WNBA Draft. After Holdsclaw, McCoughtry might be Atlanta’s best 1-on-1 offensive player, as she has shown the ability to blow by defenders and finish at the rim or get to the line with her athleticism. But she is still adjusting to the WNBA game, especially on defense, where she has made her fair share of mistakes this year. If Atlanta is able to qualify for the postseason, much of it will hinge on McCoughtry becoming a more consistent player, which is no easy task for a rookie.
Coco Miller: C+
Miller has given Atlanta a steady veteran hand off the bench to lead the team, and has also done a decent job while playing with the starters after the release of Nikki Teasley. You know what you’re going to get from Coco, and that’s why head coach Marynell Meadors absolutely loves her; she even told me in preseason that Miller reminds her a little of herself from her playing days. However, Atlanta might be best served keeping its options open at the point, as Miller’s role throughout her career has been as a backup.
Michelle Snow: C
If you ride MARTA like me, you’d think that Snow and Ivory Latta were the stars of the team thanks to their appearances on the Dream’s billboard ads at many a station. But while the signing of Snow was hyped up quite a bit over the winter, she has struggled to find consistent PT behind Lyttle and de Souza. Snow still provides some toughness off the pine, and has done a nice job as a backup center. But after being an absolute fixture in the starting lineup with Houston for the past six seasons, one has to wonder if Snow will still be on those billboards next year. Either way, she is a good option off the bench.
Jennifer Lacy: C-
Lacy brings intangibles to the table that you can’t coach, but her lack of athleticism and relatively small frame have made it difficult for her to compete in the paint every night. That is shown by her shooting 34 percent from the field, a number that is an incredibly low number for a guard, much less a player who is supposed to bang in the lane.
Shalee Lehning: B
Once a long shot to make the roster, Lehning has emerged as a favorite both in the locker room and with the fans. She broke in during training camp and showed off a work ethic and basketball IQ that largely led to the release of Latta after preseason. Lehning won’t do anything spectacular, but she has run the offense without any problems at all, which is a nice surprise from a player that hardly anyone had heard of before the season began.
Tamera Young: Inc.
It’s hard to grade 2008’s first-round draft pick. She went down with an ankle injury early on in the year and has played sparingly since, having still not made a full recovery. But by the same token, one has to wonder if Young would have been hard pressed to get playing time even when healthy. The draft pick of McCoughtry made Young expendable in many ways, and I think that uncertainty was one of the reasons Young appeared to have lost so much of her confidence when she was on the floor.
Ivory Latta: Inc.
It took Ivory some time to get reacquainted with her old team after the Dream released Teasley and re-signed Latta early in the month. But she started to put it gogether on the road trip before the break, looking as comfortable on the floor as I’ve ever seen her. She capped it off with her best performance as a pro in the thrilling win against Detroit, dropping 22 points and not missing a shot from the field or the line. After last year, some serious questions arose regarding whether Latta would ever be a dynamic scorer in the league like she was in college, thanks to a lack of height and decision-making. Even if she never becomes that, she can be a solid source of energy and speed at the point. I’m looking forward to watching Ivory over the next few games to see if she is going to play the role of spark off the bench or starting point guard.
Bagriansky can be reached at jbagriansky@scoreatl.com.
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