Of course, that was before everything went wrong for the Silver Stars in the WNBA Finals, in which they were unceremoniously swept away by the Detroit Shock in three brutal games. The Silver Stars couldn’t get much going offensively and that was due in large part to the great defense played on Hammon, who was forced to play more minutes than normal because of injuries suffered to backups Helen Darling and Edwige Lawson-Wade in the previous series. And Young and Wauters among others failed to provide more than adequate support to take some of the heat of Hammon.
Despite being totally outplayed in the Finals, the Silver Stars very easily can enter 2009 with the mindset that the WNBA title was within their grasp. Besides the injuries to Darling and Lawson-Wade, the team was without offensive weapon Shanna Crossley, who missed the entire 2008 season because of a knee injury. If San Antonio was at full strength and all its stars had played to their potential, the WNBA Finals could have been a more competitive series.
Most of the team that carried San Antonio to the Finals last season is back for another go-round, including the cornerstones – Hammon and Young. Unfortuantely, Wauters, who gave San Antonio a nice Big Three arrangement in 2008, does not intend to join the team until midway through the season in order to rest her body and deal with some personal issues.
Wauters, the 6-4 Belgian center who San Antonio stole from Atlanta in a draft day trade, was a steady presence on offense and on the boards for the Silver Stars last season. She averaged 14.7 points and a team-best 7.5 rebounds per game while shooting 53 percent from the field – also tops on the team.
For the first couple months the void in the middle left by Wauters will have to be filled by Ruth Riley, who will likely be thrust back into the starting lineup. Last year, Riley started just three games at the pivot for San Antonio, but in the year prior – her first with the team – she started 29. During that 2007 campaign she averaged 8.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.97 blocks per contest – numbers that were significantly better than her 2008 output.
Riley will be backed up in the middle by the player who San Antonio traded to acquire her prior to the 2007 season. Katie Mattera, formerly Katie Feenstra, is back in the fold after signing as a free agent during the off-season. Mattera spent 2008 with the expansion Atlanta Dream after playing for the Shock in 2007 and at 6-8 should provide San Antonio with sufficient depth at the center spot and much-needed help on the boards. Last season, the Silver Stars were the second-worst rebounding team in the league behind only the expansion Dream. But besides the addition of Mattera the Silver Stars did little to address this area in the off-season and it could come back to haunt them.
We go from one Silver Star with a new name to another in Erin Perperoglou, formerly Erin Buescher. Perperoglou is set to take part in her third season with San Antonio. While she was forced to carry much of the load at the wing last season, this year she’ll be joined by a trio of shooters in Crossley, Belinda Snell and Megan Frazee. Snell signed on with San Antonio after taking last season off, while Frazee, an inside-outside threat out of Liberty, was the team’s top selection in April’s draft.
Still, it remains to be seen whether Crossley, Snell and Frazee can be major contributors for a team hoping to remain atop the West standings. And when you consider that the Silvers Stars are relying heavily on veterans Perperoglou, Hammon, Wauters, Riley, Darling and Vickie Johnson once again in 2009, it’s hard to ignore that San Antonio’s dreaded window to win a title with this group might be closing.
While these stars may be approaching the twilight of their careers, the good news for San Antonio is that another has only begun to realize her potential. In 2008, Young finished fourth in the WNBA MVP voting a year after Hammon came in second, perhaps signaling the initial stages of the passing of the torch in San Antonio.
But hold on. It’s always a mistake to overlook Hammon, as has been proved time and time again throughout her basketball career. Hammon had to deal with a lot in 2008, including the reaction to her decision to play for Russia in the Olympics, so perhaps a fresh season away from heavy scrutiny could allow her to take her game to even greater heights.
That’s not to say there won’t be pressure to win in San Antonio. No longer are the Silver Stars the underdog. No longer can they exceed expectations. They will again have some of the best players in the game in Hammon, Young and eventually Wauters, and pretty much return the same squad with the exception of few key additions. San Antonio also has one of the top coaches in the league in Dan Hughes, who very easily could have won his second straight Coach of the Year Award in 2008 if it weren’t for the splendid job done by Mike Thibault in Connecticut.
It’ll largely be up to Hughes to manage expectations in 2009 and maintain San Antonio’s upward trend that has developed since he arrived. The only step left in the progression though is a championship.
Unfortunately, Crossley tore her ACL in the 2008 preseason and was forced to watch from the sidelines for the entire campaign. A year prior, Crossley’s second season as a pro, she averaged 9.2 points in 16.1 minutes per game off the bench. More important, she shot 40.6 percent from beyond the arc and became regarded as one of the best long-range shooters in the game.
Now Crossley is healthy, so we get to find out exactly what kind of x-factor she can be on this already lethal San Antonio team, which likes to run and gun.
Still, it might take some time for Crossley re-adjust to the live game action, mentally and physically. On top of that, she’ll be battling for minutes with Snell and Frazee, two players who can come in and be inserted into the same role if Crossley stumbles.
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