Los Angeles Sparks Draft Preview

With new ownership and added depth, will this finally be Candace Parker and the Sparks' Year?
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First 3 Selections in 2013 No. 23 overall No. 35 overall Last 3 First Round Picks (Pick, Year) A'dia Mathies (10, 2013) Nneka Ogwumike (1, 2012) Jantel Lavender (5, 2011) Andrea Riley (8, 2010)

Strengths Transition Offense Team Rebounding 3-point Shooting Areas of Improvement Backcourt Depth Bench Depth Reducing Turnovers

The Los Angeles Sparks had everything on paper last year to win it all. Candace Parker played out of her mind earning the MVP honors and teammates Nneka Ogwumike and sharpshooter Kristi Tolliver earned All-Star nods to made the trio one of the toughest to stop.

But the team came short once again in the playoffs leaving questions if the Los Angeles Sparks could get over the hump. It's been an insanely busy offseason for the squad since then as a new ownership group, led by Sports legend and mogul Magic Johnson, has infused a whole new level of excitement for the franchise.

The team recently signed some highly coveted players including Tulsa Shock's Candice Wiggins and the Atlanta Dream's Armintie Herrington. Wiggins brings in shooting that will help take the 3-point scoring load off Tolliver and Herrington's ballhandling skills will help the team score when it's not in transition. The two players help make the team even more stacked than it already is.

The Los Angeles Sparks don't have a pick in the draft until the 23rd selection, so the available crop of franchise level players will probably be barren at that point. But that's not what the Sparks are looking for. Bench depth is what the team has lacked in recent years, and whomever the team selects will have a safety net to develop and learn from the Sparks' star heavy squad instead of the insurmountable pressure of carrying a team that top draft picks often have to deal with.

As with any franchise, it's hard to predict before the season what the Sparks' chances will be of winning a title. But the team has kept its strengths intact and made shrewd moves in adding pieces to address its weaknesses. How far the team wants to go will be up to them... and the 11 other teams in the league of course.