 Kara Braxton, left, and new addition Stacey Lovelace give the Shock depth and flexibility up front.
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When asked what the Shock need to do to reclaim the WNBA title, Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer is quick with a simple, if not canned response.
“One more defensive stop and we win a championship,” said Laimbeer. “That’s our motto this year: get one more defensive stop to give ourselves a chance to win.”
Obviously, Laimbeer is referring to Game 4 of the 2007 WNBA Finals, when Cappie Pondexter scored to put the Phoenix Mercury ahead for good with 21 seconds left. Of course, the Mercury would go on to win Game 5 and deny Detroit its back-to-back titles. Laimbeer has apparently parlayed that unfortunate outcome into a battle cry and motivational tactic for the 2008 Shock.
And how can you blame him for suggesting Detroit is that close to holding the trophy again? The Shock have averaged 21 wins over the past five seasons and are the back-to-back defending Eastern Conference champs. The core from those ’06 and ’07 teams is largely still intact and currently has Detroit atop the Eastern standings with a record of 15-7 after warding off a hot start by Connecticut.
“That’s what we do. That’s what we are,” said Laimbeer. “Ever since we got here, we’ve been amongst the leaders and been to the Finals three times in the last five years. We don’t expect anything different. We demand of our players that that’s what our franchise is about. We don’t accept any excuses.”
But while Laimbeer lauds the franchise’s pedigree through one side of his mouth, he points out the team’s faults through the other.
In the WNBA, no matter how good people say you are, there’s always room to improve. The league and the level of play evolve rapidly. Just take a look at what has happened to the defending champion Mercury, who are off to an uninspiring 10-12 start this season, putting themselves in danger of not even making the postseason.
And the Shock weren’t about to get complacent. While Katie Smith, Cheryl Ford, Deanna Nolan and Plenette Pierson have all cemented their roles, the Shock still had areas to address in the offseason. They said goodbye to Swin Cash, Shannon Johnson, Katie Feenstra and Ivory Latta and started adding players they felt could thrive in their system like LaToya Thomas and Sheri Sam. At the draft, the Shock stood pat with their picks, filled needs and got younger with talents like Alexis Hornbuckle, Tasha Humphrey and Olayinka Sanni.
While Hornbuckle and Humphrey were two of the more proven commodities to come out of the draft, oddly enough it was Sanni, a second-round pick out of West Virginia, who was presented with the best opportunity early on, albeit a daunting one.
After starting Kara Braxton at center for the first two games, the Shock made a switch to the 6-2 Sanni for the next seven in a quest for stability at the position. Sanni held her own at first, providing Detroit with an athletic big that could rebound and protect the rim. But Sanni soon succumbed to the increased level of competition at the pros and as a result saw her minutes decrease. Since then, she hasn’t really been able to work her back into the rotation despite peppering in a couple of productive outings.
Detroit was forced once again to change up its rotation at center, continuing a trend that started when the team traded Ruth Riley to San Antonio for Feenstra prior to last season. Neither Feenstra nor Braxton was able to consistently produce what Laimbeer and his staff were looking for from the pivot in ’07 and it ended up coming back to haunt them in the Finals.
While Feenstra is now in Atlanta, Braxton remains in the fold and still shows flashes of potential to be a great center. After two subpar starts to begin the season, Braxton followed with three straight games scoring in double figures off the bench and Detroit had three consecutive wins. In fact, the team is 6-2 this season when she scores 10 points or more.
Perhaps, like Pierson, Braxton is just more comfortable coming off the bench. In a more recent six-game stretch -- from June 26 to July 8 -- Braxton averaged 13.3 points and 6.3 rebounds. The run was highlighted by a season-high 26-point performance against the Dream in which she also grabbed nine boards.
“I’ve been playing pretty good the last couple weeks,” said Braxton. “I’ve just really been executing the stuff my teammates and my coaches ask of me. I’m taking everything one game at a time at a slow and easy level.”
But can she keep it up? The Shock hope so.
 Rookie Tasha Humphrey has started 12 of 18 games for the Shock this season.
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Braxton has been able to remain in her role because of the play of another Georgia alum in the starting spot. When the Sanni experiment began to fall flat, the Shock looked toward Humphrey, a post player coming off a celebrated college career with the Bulldogs. Granted, Humphrey is not a natural center, and Laimbeer even admits it’s more like having three forwards out on the court, but her skill level, high basketball IQ and dedication to hard work make up for her lack of experience.
In just her second start of the season back on June 14, Humphrey exploded for 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-5 from three-point range, in a win at Phoenix. She has gone on to score in double figures six more times since then, including in each of the team’s last three games.
“I just wanted to come out here and work hard to do what I can to help our team win,” said Humphrey. “I knew I was coming into a very talented and very established basketball team coming to the Detroit Shock, so I just try to do the best that I can and learn from the best.”
But you didn’t honestly think Laimbeer was about to heap praise on his first-year player, even if she has seemingly provided a temporary solution at center, did you?
“It just happened that she happened to make a couple shots in a game,” said Laimbeer. “So, OK, then we ride her. Then she comes and has a couple zeros after that. She’s a rookie. She’s playing with great players in a rocking chair seat with no pressure on her right now. If she plays good, I play her. If she doesn’t, I sit her.”
The impact of rookies over the long haul is unpredictable. They can hit a wall. They can be brought down to Earth by better scouting. And they can make rookie mistakes. Such wariness caused Laimbeer to go after yet another contingency plan recently by signing veteran Stacey Lovelace.
Lovelace, picked up after being waived by the Dream, is a versatile 6-4 player that brings more than just height to the table.
“I bring experience. They really don’t need that much more experience (laughs), but I think I bring a little bit something different,” said Lovelace, who is taking part in her seventh WNBA season. “They pretty much have all the bases covered. It’s just a little bit of depth at different positions.”
But Lovelace hasn’t been the team’s only in-season move. The Shock also traded away Thomas to Minnesota in exchange for guard Shay Murphy last month. And considering there are still two months to go until the playoffs kick in, Detroit may not be done tinkering. We could be weeks away from seeing a rotation that satisfies Laimbeer.
It may have taken just one more defensive stop last year to win a championship, but the Shock seem to realize it’s going to take a lot more to reach their goal in 2008.