While their NBA counterparts, the Spurs, won two NBA titles in five seasons, the Silver Stars suffered through their second straight disappointing season since coming from Utah. After winning 12 games in 2003, they dropped to only nine wins in 2004. The team's top scorer in 2003, guard Marie Ferdinand, went down for the season with an injury in June and coach Dee Brown resigned not long after.

The Silver Stars Fast bad luck continued into the offseason as well. Despite being the only team in the league not to record double digit victories, the Silver Stars did not win the 2005 WNBA Draft Lottery, instead settling with the third overall pick.

Thomas

However, the team has made a number of moves to try and right the ship. First, C.O.O. Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil hired former Cleveland Rockers coach Dan Hughes. During his four-year stint with the Rockers, Hughes posted a 66-64 record with three trips to the playoffs. In his first season in Cleveland, Hughes directed the team's resurgence from a 7-25 season in 1999 to a 17-15 finish in 2000. The following year Hughes was named 2001 WNBA Coach of the Year after leading the Rockers to a 22-10 record and to their second straight playoff appearance.

The move reunites Hughes with a former top overall pick, forward LaToya Thomas, who came over from Cleveland in the 2004 Dispersal Draft. Thomas led San Antonio with 14.2 points per game last season and should continue to improve her game. She knows better than anyone what Hughes might be looking for in players.

"I can tell some of the players about his style and philosophy that others don't know about," Thomas told the San Antonio Express-News. "During my rookie year, he was real good at teaching me the ropes. He's real energetic."

The Silver Stars also made some noise on Draft Day. In addition to taking Kansas State forward Kendra Wecker, a player that many experts compare to Minnesota's Katie Smith, with the third overall pick, San Antonio sent veteran 7-2 center Margo Dydek, who owns every blocked shot record in WNBA annals, to Connecticut for 6-8 Liberty center Katie Feenstra, the eighth player selected in the Draft. In doing so, they came away with three of the top 14 players chosen.

Ferdinand

Last season, the Silver Stars had one of the league's worst offenses, averaging 64.4 points per game. Only three teams averaged less. The Silver Stars also shot just 42 percent from the field and 32 percent from 3-point range. The return of Ferdinand, who spent the offseason playing in Turkey, will go a long way towards helping to boost those numbers. All reports are that is healthy and playing well. In the backcourt she will re-join point guard Shannon Johnson, whose scoring average dipped in her first season in San Antonio, but the two-time Olympian still averaged 4.4 assists per game.

Forward Agnieszka Bibrzycka, a Polish teammate of Dydek, played in San Antonio for a portion of the 2004 season and showed flashes of talent, but never developed into the potent threat that San Antonio needed. Her status for 2005 remains in question. She has not yet arrived in the United States and might miss some or most of the 2005 season with national team obligations. She and the other frontcourt players will be called upon to pull in more boards this season as the team's leading rebounder in 2004, forward Adrienne Goodson, is now with the Comets.

With a youth movement taking shape in the Alamo City, the Silver Stars' depth could be a pleasant surprise. The Silver Stars surprised many by dealing young forward Gwen Jackson to the Phoenix Mercury in the middle of the season, but in return, the Silver Stars acquired center Adrian Williams, who was an All-Star with the Mercury in 2003. She might even win a starting role. If she can get back to anywhere near that level, San Antonio will be a much-improved team.