How will she look in Chicago?
Well, it looks like I spoke too soon about Free Agency. Erin Thorn was signed by the Chicago Sky to open up the Free Agency signings. It looks like since 2001, Thorn's signing is the earliest signing of a free agent - most signings don't take place till February.
Here are Erin Thorn's Player Efficiency Ratings (PER), followed by year of play and age (on July 1st of the indicated year)
8.83 - 2003 - 22
4.17 - 2004 - 23
11.77 - 2005 - 24
17.31 - 2006 - 25
13.22 - 2007 - 26
8.37 - 2008 - 27
The best year for Thorn was 2006, when she was a third banana on the Liberty. Since 2006, her stock has fallen to at least remaining in the rotation in 2007, but falling below replacement level in 2008. She's played at least 150 minutes in all of her years. Back problems might have played a part in her falloff in productivity.
Now, let's look at the 2008 Chicago Sky:
Jia Perkins 22.94
Candice Dupree 21.41
Sylvia Fowles 19.87
Chasity Melvin 16.53
Dominique Canty 13.56
Armintie Price 13.52
Cathy Joens 10.05
Quianna Chaney 8.33
Tye'sha Fluker 8.27
K. B. Sharp 7.74
Brooke Wyckoff 5.77
Brooke Queenan -11.13
Leah Rush -11.45
Well, you can't say that the Chicago Sky don't have room for her. The Sky had six players performing below replacement level. Thorn can certainly work her way into that that low-performing group of players.
The big question is "will she be better or worse in 2009?" I've been working on this, but I'm not ready to post on the topic of performance vs. age. I think I can say with about 70-30 odds that Thorn will be approximately the same as she was last year, with the 30 being a better-or-worse proposition. The Sky, apparently, like those odds.
Elsewhere:
* Seattle re-signs Tanisha Wright. I don't know if I would have made this choice. Do they really think Wright will become a better ballhandler with another year of experience? Maybe they just can't afford to sign someone better.
* Sophia Young is re-signed by San Antonio. That's a no-brainer.
2 comments:
Expect Dream signing tomorrow, but not anything you did not already know was coming.
Bigger news to come....
Erin to the Sky probably means Brooke Wyckoff should be checking the classifieds- I get the sense that Wyckoff was mostly around because she's a good locker room influence, and Erin would take that job over in a second. (I certainly hope they weren't finding basketball reasons to keep Wyckoff around- she's a nice person, but the game has passed her by, in the sense that she's a smidge too small to be a power forward and a smidge too tough to be a small forward.)
I'll miss EFT- now who's gonna coach my team?
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