03 January 2012
Richard Cohen's Take on the Trade
You can read the whole thing here.
Regarding Swin Cash: "Big, true small forwards aren’t easy to find in this league – just look how long Chicago have needed one, for example – and the Storm could have serious problems replacing her."
Regarding Le'Coe Willingham: "Some of her skills overlapped with starter Camille Little, but when those attributes are hustle, energy, grit and toughness in the paint, you don’t mind a little duplication." He wonders if she'll be the starting power forward or first post off the bench, like she was for Seattle.
Seattle has a lot of work ahead: "There’s a lot more to come from Seattle this offseason. Well, there kind of has to be, seeing as their current list of contracted players reads something like this: Camille Little, Ashley Robinson, Lauren Jackson (who won’t be showing up until after the Olympics). That’s it. From a Storm fan perspective, obviously you hope the remaining key parts are coming back. Sue Bird is priority number one, closely followed by Tanisha Wright, with another year of Katie Smith trailing in third. After that, you have to hope there are other moves in the offing as well."
He throws out a lot of names of free agents that could theoretically join the Storm now that they've dumped some money from the payroll (Shameka Christon, Alana Beard, Erika de Souza, Monique Currie, Crystal Langhorne, Ann Wauters...) and does some vague speculation about who they might take at the #2 draft pick: "One presumes that Seattle have decided that someone who’ll be available at #2 can come in and help them right away, and was worth making this move."
He also speculates: "It could easily be used as a trade chip to try to help the Storm a little more immediately than the rookie might manage."
He agrees with me that this is a great move for Chicago ("Hard to fault a move that adds two solid veterans, fills a glaring need, and gives up only a pick in a draft full of question marks.") and a big question mark for the Storm ("They gave up two central pieces of their rotation, including a key starter, for a complete unknown (who’s the #2 even going to be?)").
In summary, "When I first heard about this trade, I instantly though Seattle had to be getting more back. Surely the #2 pick in this draft wasn’t enough for both Cash and Willingham? Turns out, they were even throwing in a second-rounder to complete the deal. That tells me that Agler must have big plans for that cap space (even though he isn’t really meant to be talking to free agents yet)."
Regarding Swin Cash: "Big, true small forwards aren’t easy to find in this league – just look how long Chicago have needed one, for example – and the Storm could have serious problems replacing her."
Regarding Le'Coe Willingham: "Some of her skills overlapped with starter Camille Little, but when those attributes are hustle, energy, grit and toughness in the paint, you don’t mind a little duplication." He wonders if she'll be the starting power forward or first post off the bench, like she was for Seattle.
Seattle has a lot of work ahead: "There’s a lot more to come from Seattle this offseason. Well, there kind of has to be, seeing as their current list of contracted players reads something like this: Camille Little, Ashley Robinson, Lauren Jackson (who won’t be showing up until after the Olympics). That’s it. From a Storm fan perspective, obviously you hope the remaining key parts are coming back. Sue Bird is priority number one, closely followed by Tanisha Wright, with another year of Katie Smith trailing in third. After that, you have to hope there are other moves in the offing as well."
He throws out a lot of names of free agents that could theoretically join the Storm now that they've dumped some money from the payroll (Shameka Christon, Alana Beard, Erika de Souza, Monique Currie, Crystal Langhorne, Ann Wauters...) and does some vague speculation about who they might take at the #2 draft pick: "One presumes that Seattle have decided that someone who’ll be available at #2 can come in and help them right away, and was worth making this move."
He also speculates: "It could easily be used as a trade chip to try to help the Storm a little more immediately than the rookie might manage."
He agrees with me that this is a great move for Chicago ("Hard to fault a move that adds two solid veterans, fills a glaring need, and gives up only a pick in a draft full of question marks.") and a big question mark for the Storm ("They gave up two central pieces of their rotation, including a key starter, for a complete unknown (who’s the #2 even going to be?)").
In summary, "When I first heard about this trade, I instantly though Seattle had to be getting more back. Surely the #2 pick in this draft wasn’t enough for both Cash and Willingham? Turns out, they were even throwing in a second-rounder to complete the deal. That tells me that Agler must have big plans for that cap space (even though he isn’t really meant to be talking to free agents yet)."
Labels: Seattle Storm
# posted by mamurd @ 10:28 PM 
