Caught in the Draft
July 2007

Before the Minnesota Lynx Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team makes any progress or attracts a meaningful fan base, the following question will have to be answered: how can a team with seven first-round draft choices (including two who were No. 1 overall) play so poorly?

The Lynx’ first-rounders include starters Seimone Augustus and Lindsey Harding (both No. 1 overall), Nicole Ohlde, Svetlana Abrosimova, and Kristen Mann. Coming off the bench is rookie first-rounder Noelle Quinn (fourth pick overall this year) and veteran Tamika Raymond (sixth pick overall in 2002). No longer with the team is Shona Thorburn, who was the No. 7 pick overall in 2006. The Lynx have a recent history of not making the playoffs, thus allowing them to draft some players management believes are the cream of the college basketball crop. (Ohlde was the sixth pick overall, Abrosimova the seventh, and Mann the eleventh).

Of course the Lynx historically have been able to land these top picks in the draft due to Minnesota’s consistent inability to make the playoffs. The Lynx were 12-20 in 2001, 10-22 in 2002, and 14-20 in 2005. Last year, the Lynx posted 10 wins against 24 losses, a record the team currently is on pace to duplicate.

Assumptions can be risky, but one cannot wonder what’s wrong with this picture. Teams in any professional sports endeavor that are able to stockpile No. 1 draft picks most often achieve success. For basketball teams, it should be much easier, given that only five players are allowed on the floor at the same time. Imagine what the Timberwolves’ won-loss record would be with a pair of No. 1 overall picks in the NBA draft.

Why can’t the Lynx win even with top draft choices? Maybe the selection process is flawed, and the team isn’t getting the best players in the first round. Harding was the No. 1 pick overall, yet on July 6 against Sacramento at Williams Arena, her erratic play at point guard in 25 minutes and 37 seconds on the floor resulted in an 0-for-7 shooting night, four turnovers, and three fouls, causing her to be benched in favor of Amber Jacobs (a second-round pick in 2004).

Those who evaluate women’s amateur basketball programs for the Lynx can be accused of, at the very least, questionable judgment in draft-day selections. (However, no one would disagree with the selection of the talented Augustus, possibly the best player in the WNBA.) It is possible that Harding will turn out to be the point guard of the future. She could simply be wearing down after completing a grueling college season at UCLA.

One cannot avoid looking at the coaching staff when searching for the reasons for the futility of the Minnesota Lynx. Consistency is absent here. The team’s first (and perhaps most able) coach was Brian Agler who lasted for three seasons. He was followed by Heidi VanDerveer, Suzie McConnell Serio, and Carolyn Jenkins, three head coaches in five years. Currently holding down the job is former high school and Continental Baseball Association coach Don Zierden, a native of Minneapolis. To suggest that Zierden may be in over his head may be premature, and we must wait until the season runs its course. But even the most casual observer would have to agree that the Lynx run their pre-game warm-ups with precision while actual game play is more helter-skelter. At times against Sacramento, Zierden had two point guards on the floor, and, at others, none. Conventional wisdom would seem to suggest that when you have two point guards in there, you, in reality, have none.

To be fair, the game was played in the unfamiliar surroundings of Williams Arena, where despite a multitude of portable air-conditioning units pumping in cold air, the Old Barn closely resembled a sauna. This caused Yolanda Griffith of the Monarchs to observe to Melissa Rosenberg of the Minneapolis Star Tribune to observe that Williams Arena was “the hottest gym I’ve ever played in.”

The heat caused Sacramento coach Jenny Boucek to divide playing time nearly equally between starters and five reserves. Indeed, it was against the Monarchs reserves that Minnesota was able to launch a rally that carried them from 11 points down in the fourth quarter to a 74-73 lead. The lead soon melted with the heat and the fact that Boucek returned her starters to the floor. Sacramento went on to an 85-80 victory.

Earlier in the week, at Target Center against the Phoenix Mercury, the Lynx were even less formidable. Unable to keep up the pace with the run-and-gun tactics of coach Paul Westhead and the Mercury, Minnesota dropped a 95-79 decision. Westhead’s National Basketball Association and college teams typically eschewed defense, and his WNBA Mercury women do the same. The closest the Lynx came was with 3 minutes and 33 seconds left in the first quarter when an Augustus reverse lay-up pulled Minnesota to within 14-12 of Phoenix. The Mercury eventually led 70-44 in the third quarter despite the absence of Kelly Miller, the muscular native of Rochester, Minnesota, who according to Westhead “tweaked” her leg driving for a lay-up early in the quarter. Even so, she finished with 16 points.

Augustus scored 16 points against the Mercury and 23 at Williams Arena, proving that she could be the female equivalent of Elgin Baylor in the last days here of the Minneapolis Lakers. Baylor also was a first-round pick. He was unable, however, to prevent the team from relocating to Los Angeles. Could the Lynx be the next Minnesota team on the move?