WNBA news: Atlanta Dream finalizes roster; get to know the newcomers

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Dream finalized its roster for the 2019 season after the team announced the waiving of guard Blake Dietrick.

Dietrick, who played collegiately at Princeton, was signed to a training camp contract earlier this year after playing in 26 games, averaging 7.2 minutes in 2018. She made the 2018 roster after being signed to a training camp contract.

With its roster now down to 12 players, Atlanta begins its regular season tomorrow vs. Dallas with four newcomers on the team: guard Maite Cazorla, forwards Nia Coffey and Haley Peters and center Marie Gülich.

Let’s take a closer look:

Maite Cazorla – Rookie

You’ll know or recognize Cazorla if you watched the NCAA women’s basketball season in 2018-19 – she’s was an All-Pac 12 player for Oregon before finishing her career during the NCAA tournament, falling in the Final Four.

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Less than a week after Cazorla finished playing her last collegiate game, she was drafted by the Dream in the second round at No. 23.

Cazorla is a Spanish-born player who left her home in the Canary Islands at fourteen for basketball and boarding school in Barcelona, only going home for Christmas and summers before she moved to Oregon.

She’s also played for multiple Spanish youth national teams, from U-14 to U-19. She spent training camp adjusting to the physicality of the WNBA and the next level of the game, but her

“I’m a point guard who facilitates for other people,” Cazorla said. “Facilitates and creates for the team. I think that’s what I want to do for this team. I want to facilitate and create for whatever the team needs me to do. Hopefully I can bring it to them.”

Nia Coffey – Third Year

Coffey is a 6’1 versatile forward, who we’ll likely see a lot of this season.

Coffey spent four years at Northwestern, where she became the program’s career leader in rebounds and second in career points and blocked shots. She’s played overseas in Israel, Australia and Poland. In the WNBA, she was drafted in 2017 by San Antonio, who became the Aces in 2018, before Atlanta traded for her in April.

“My agent called me when it happened, so right after all the coaches contacted me,” Coffey said. “And just to be traded to Atlanta, they have amazing players. And I know it’s only my third year and I have a long way to go before I can reach what I think I can get to, but being surrounded by players like this is an amazing opportunity, especially with this coaching staff.”

As an opponent, she said she loved the pace of Atlanta’s game and the team’s clear chemistry. As far as how she wants to contribute? “Anything that they need me to do, I’m up for it,” she said.

“I’m a four and I can play the 3-4 position. I can post-up or I can go off the bounce. I can rebound, I can defend,” Coffey said. “I feel like that helps me to fit into a lot of systems, so hopefully I can do that for Atlanta.”

Marie Gülich – Second Year

Gülich is a center that can stretch the floor.

She spent last year playing behind Brittney Griner, so you likely didn’t see much of her during her rookie season.

The trade for her was planned, but she was overseas when the trade for her happened on draft night.

“The trade happened at like 3 in the morning, so I didn’t get the chance to talk to (head coach Nicki Collen) after the trade. All I knew was that Phoenix traded me. So I was really nervous and anxious, kinda sad, just mixed feelings,” Gülich said at media day. “The day after the trade happened she called me and told me, ‘Hey, this trade is nothing bad.’ And that me feel really positive about getting here and working with them, because they see so much potential in me.”

She grew up in a small town outside of Cologne, Germany and moved to a boarding school at 14 to play club basketball and played with her first professional team at 16.

“My strength is just stretching the floor, having an outside shot. Just bringing my strengths to the team and working on my weaknesses,” Gülich said. “I think I can help them out a lot just by stretching the floor, just setting on-balls and pick and pops.”

Haley Peters – Second year

Peters, a 6’3 forward, went undrafted out of Duke in 2014, and played a full season in with San Antonio in 2016 and hasn’t played in the WNBA since 2017.

Overseas, Peters has played in Spain and France, but it was her success over the past season in France that caught Collen’s attention – and led to a training camp contract signing. Peters was nominated for French league MVP and fans voted her 2018-19 EuroLeague Wing of the Year. According to FIBA, she averaged 17.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game last season with her French team, Carolo Basket.

Collen has said repeatedly during training camp that Haley Peters is a player the Dream viewed could help offset the loss of Angel, saying, “she gives us a 6’3 small forward that could swing to power forward.”

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