Landing a superstar player doesn’t guarantee a straight shot to contention. Teams need to find talent to put around the key cog, and make sure that talent and the system fit said cog.
For the Dallas Wings, this season is a chance to see if they’re on that track with Skylar Diggins. After losing her early in an MVP-type 2015 year and spending 2016 working her way back into the rotation, general manager Greg Bibb dealt away Odyssey Sims, an emerging player with promise who took the ball out of Diggins’s hands. Now the roster is stocked with young pieces, its key players are healthy, and head coach Fred Williams has to turn all this into wins, or legitimate growth at least. And he has a plan.
“I think the main thing for us is just to go out and continue to communicate well on defense and shut people down,” Williams told The Summitt. “We’ve got the offensive scheme of things in the last couple of years, I think now it’s time to emphasize our defense.”
This is going to be a challenge, to say the least. Last season, the Wings finished dead last in points allowed per possession—last in the history of the WNBA, in fact—and at the bottom of the league in defensive rebounding rate in 2016, while stocking up on players that haven’t played in a WNBA game yet. They are without center Ruth Hamblin, their best shot blocker, who will be playing for Canada this summer. Diggins gets crushed by screens, starting center Courtney Paris isn’t mobile enough, and the scrappy Plenette Pierson is now on the Lynx. The reliable Karima Christmas can only do so much.
“I just don’t think defensively there’s any system there,” one WNBA talent evaluator said. “You can see that with the numbers. They’re a team that’s easy to score on.”
If Wings fans are hoping for surprise production, it’ll have to come from the sea of college kids Dallas drafted. Three top-ten picks, Evelyn Akhator, Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis will be fighting for rotation minutes, along with second rounder Breanna Lewis and third-round pick Saniya Chong. Akhator is a big that resembles teammate Glory Johnson, rangy and effective on the glass. Gray might see a lot of time at the two guard spot right away, and has defensive potential that should entice Williams. Davis is a 6’2” wing that can also play a role in improving her team’s defense. There’s a ton of talent here, but expecting it all to translate immediately can lead to disappointment.
“We want them to come in and produce,” Williams said. “Sometimes it takes half a season, most rookies it takes a full season for that to happen.”
In the meantime, the Wings can accumulate wins and stay in the playoff hunt behind their two stars and a zippy offense. Dallas finished tied for third in pace last year, and if they can push the ball behind a healthy Diggins they should be able to win a good chunk of shootouts. Remember, before the torn ACL in 2015, Diggins was putting up 17.8 points and five assists on 40% shooting from the field and 44.8% (!) shooting from three. At times she looked like her pre-injury self last season, curling around screens with her deceptive ball-handling and bursting to the hoop like a drag car off the starting line. With Sims on the Sparks, Diggins will have close to sole possession of the basketball.
“Myself and management felt we needed to get the ball in Skylar’s hands a little bit more,” Williams said.
Then there’s Johnson, who only played in 18 games last season but should return to her automatic double-double self this year. Her unique, spangly build bothers opponents nightly. Her combined talent with Diggins can win games alone, or at the very least make things enjoyable. Good news for Dallas fans is even if their team struggles, they should be fun to watch.
Perhaps the biggest deciding factor in this Wings season will be health. Williams says Diggins is at 100% a year plus removed from her knee injury. Generally, the season after returning is when players look perfect after an ACL tear, and Diggins is playing without a brace at training camp. Johnson is good to go as well, but now it’s a matter of everybody staying healthy. The Wings have already suffered a minor setback, with Aerial Powers, fresh off a strong rookie season, still rehabbing a hip procedure and likely to miss the season opener.
Williams is calling on his young team to defend, but it won’t be easy. The WNBA is as good as it has ever been, with seemingly every team in position to surprise people. Same goes for the Wings, who when healthy, have two stars that can carry them to victories on the offensive end. They’re aiming for the Playoffs, but the roster is filled with neophytes that need development. Losing games would not deem this year a failure.