More Leakage from Tulsa

It looks like Tulsa's roster won't be "two short" in the 2010 season - it will be "four short".

From the Tulsa World:

Unrestricted free agents Taj McWilliams and Nikki Teasley are not expected to join the team in Tulsa.

Teasley is expecting a baby and will not play this season. McWilliams could sign with another team.

Hmm. Oh well, congratulations to Nikki Teasley! (and thanks to Sue F. for clueing me in!)

Nikki Teasley Signed by Detroit

I don't think this was on the WNBA website this morning - so I overlooked it - but Nikki Teasley has signed with Detroit.

“Being that I have won a championship before, I think I know what it takes to get there,” Teasley said. “Obviously I’m a veteran player, I’ve been in this league a few years now, and I think I bring leadership, motivation and just knowledge of how to get there and what it takes to get there.”

I hope that Teasley's knees get better and that she is able to reestablish her career in Detroit.

Teasley Talks about Latta Being Cut (?)

Mechelle Voepel has a new article up called "Revisiting Teasley's recent thoughts is rather eerie" She had spoken with Teasley a few weeks ago and they talked about...Ivory Latta being cut from the team. Now, it's Teasley that's been cut.

A quote:

So how does someone go from a starter to being cut from the team? It’s definitely odd, but consider that it happened to both Latta (starting almost all last season and being cut at the start of this year) and Teasley.

At what point this season did Atlanta coach/GM Marynell Meadors start worrying she had made a big mistake about her backcourt? Did it take a while before she could bring herself to admit it? Or is she now pulling the plug on Teasley too soon?

Ivory Latta Returns to the Dream

Look who is coming back....

It's official. Ivory Latta is back, and Nikki Teasley has been waived.

The Atlanta Dream announced today the team has signed guard Ivory Latta and waived guard Nikki Teasley. Latta will be active for tonight’s game against the Washington Mystics. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 pm ET at Philips Arena.

And now, at last, the Latta-Lehning feud can come to a close. Welcome back, Ivory.

Teasley GONE??

This was just posted by Chamique Holdsclaw on Twitter:

@chold1 Words cannot express da way I feel. I'm gonna miss Nikki T and da women she has become bc of her struggles. I'm hurting but we gotta push on


I guess we'll find out soon. No official word from either the WNBA or the Atlanta Dream, not yet anyway.

UPDATE:

@chold1 Nikki T was waived today! I understand its a business but it doesn't make it hurt any less. I know she will ok but she will b missed

Keeping Up: Dream Win in Connecticut and Other News

Contains all of Little Smooth's daily nutritional requirements.

It's a pretty nice Sunday, and one that was made even nicer with a 67-62 win on the road in Connecticut. It was our first regular season victory ever against the Sun, and the fact that it was a road win made it all that much sweeter. I wasn't able to watch the game, but you can bet I'll be writing about it!

Other news: Mechelle Voepel, premiere women's basketball reporter, turns her reporter powers to Atlanta Dream point guard Nikki Teasley in an interesting article from ESPN.

We also have some new pictures. Big Smooth critiques the neatness of Iziane Castro Marques during mealtimes. And Little Smooth proves that the foundation of a road win is a good breakfast, as we can see above. (Don't tell Connecticut!)

A Stellar Collection of Atlanta Dream Pics

One pic among many great pics.

If you like Atlanta Dream pictures...well, we've got plenty of them from media day at Yahoo! Sports.

There are thirty-three pictures and they are all just jaw-droppingly good. If you only click one link on this blog today, the link above is the one you have to click. The pictures are "picture perfect" professional quality pics. Furthermore, we get some insight into player numbers:

Furthermore, we know all the numbers that will be worn by potential Atlanta Dream players. Trust me, the players are wearing their numbers in the pics.

#1 - Chamique Holdsclaw
#2 - Michelle Snow
#5 - Shalee Lehning
#7 - Chantelle Anderson
#8 - Iziane Castro Marques
#9 - Coco Miller - Chioma Nnamaka wore the number last year
#11 - Tamera Young - Tamera has changed numbers from #23 last year - Kristen Mann previously wore this number
#12 - Ivory Latta
#14 - Erika de Souza - I believe she was a no-show for Media Day...there weren't any pictures of her among the 33 pics above
#20 - Sancho Lyttle - Camille Little wore the number when she was with the Dream last year
#21 - Jennifer Lacy
#35 - Angel McCoughtry - Kasha Terry wore the number last year
#42 - Nikki Teasley
#51 - Marlies Gipson - the first player ever for the Dream to wear a number in the fifties

...oh yeah, I forgot. The other ninety or so pictures are from other WNBA teams. But who cares about them? One Team, One Dream!

LFB (Spain) 26/2008 - Estudiantes 75, Zaragoza 50

Estudiantes celebrates after being assured a place in the LFB next year.

The great thing about relegation - the movement of the lowest finishing teams out of the league - is that it makes the games that take place between the worst teams in a league important. Those teams are literally fighting for their future.

This made the most important game in the final week of the regular season of the Liga Feminina the game between Estudiantes (6-20) and Zaragoza (6-20). The two worst teams in the Liga Feminina are relegated to the Liga Feminina 2, and the top two Liga Feminina 2 teams move up. Extrugasa was doomed to relegation. This left room for one more team. The winner of Estudiantes/Zarazoga would be rescued. The loser would be consigned to the lower league. For Nikki Teasley and Estudiantes, it was the outcome they desired as Estudiantes crushed Zaragoza 75-50.

The box score is here. For Mann Filter Zaragoza, a nine-year run in the Liga Feminina had just come to an end. They had made the semifinals twice in those nine years.

The defeat was fairly decisive. Playing on their own home court, Estudiantes took a 19-15 lead after the first quarter - and then held Zaragoza to just eight points in the second quarter - Estudiantes switched from the zone to the man-to-man in mid quarter - leading 37-23 at halftime. Both teams played evenly in the third quarter, with Zaragoza still down 14 at the end of thirty minutes - 54-40. Zaragoza would only score 10 points in the fourth quarter, and the hopes for a comeback were extinguished.

Estudiantes hit 46 percent of its field goals. Zaragoza only hit 30 percent of its field goal attempts. They were doomed. They lost in every aspect of the game to Estudiantes - Estudiantes out-rebounded Zaragoza, they held themselves to just nine turnovers and even thought they went a horrid 12-for-22 at the free throw line, they still made seven more points off free throws than the 5-for-7 Zaragoza.

Estudiantes

Brooke Wyckoff: 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists.
Elin Eldebrink: 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals.
Nikki Teasley: 6 points, 2 rebounds. Teasley only played 17 minutes.

Zaragoza

LaToya Thomas: 21 points, 6 rebounds. Thomas has played for both Detroit and Minnesota of the WNBA in 2008.
Paula Palomares Valiente: 20 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals.
LaToya Turner: Zero points, and 7 rebounds with four personal fouls in 23 minutes of play from the Ohio State graduate.

LFB (Spain) 25/2008 - Ibiza 81, Estudiantes 58

Ibiza (14-11) has the hope of finishing sixth in the Liga Feminina after today's game. They can get there if they win next week against Gran Canaria and if Joventut loses against Perfumerias. For Estudiantes (5-20), the only goal for the season is not finishing last and being "relegated" to a lower division. With today's 81-58 loss in Ibiza, if Extrugasa wins tonight's game against Perfumerias Estudiantes would be stuck at the very bottom of the standings with one game to go.

The box score is here.

It was another awful game for Estudiantes, with Estudiantes not winning a single quarter. Down 40-24 at halftime, the gap just got worse - but in the fourth quarter Estudiantes played some decent ball. Either that, or Ibiza stopped caring.

Both teams actually shot evenly well - Ibiza hit 47 percent of its field goal attempts and Estudiantes hit 46 percent of theirs. However, Ibiza would win all of the other battles. Ibiza out-rebounded Estudiantes 35-27, and Estudiantes turned the ball over an astonishing 26 times. When you have 26 turnovers in a game, it's very hard to win.

Ibiza

Sancho Lyttle: 22 points and 13 rebounds. The future Dream player had the only double-double in the game.
Shannon Johnson: 10 points and 6 assists.
Chandi Jones: The former University of Houston player who played five minutes for the Shock in 2004 played 2 1/2 minutes for Ibiza.

Estudiantes

Elin Eldebrink: 17 points, 5 steals.
Laura Herrera Boxo: 12 points, 4 rebounds.
Nikki Teasley: 3 points and 3 rebounds in 14 minutes. Teasley is having a rough go of it in Spain, hitting 39 percent of her field goals and with six turnovers compared to four assists this year.

LFB (Spain) 24/2008 - Olesa 89, Estudiantes 87 (OT)

Usually, the bottom feeder teams in the Liga Feminina are known for not fighting very hard. With Olesa (15-9) to visit, Estudiantes (5-19) knew that it have a difficult battle ahead of it - and this time, they were prepared to fight it, taking Olesa into overtime before falling by just two points, 89-87.

The box score is here.

The game was definitely a back-and-forth affair, with the home team putting up a fight in the first quarter to take a 21-16 lead. Olesa begin to climb back in the second quarter, closing the Estudiantes lead to just two points at halftime, 44-42. In the third quarter, Olesa began to pull away, holding Estudiantes to just 10 points and leading 58-54 after thirty minutes of play. Estudiantes managed to score 26 points in the fourth quarter and tie the game 80-80 at regulation. Home field advantage, however, wasn't enough for Estudiantes, which fell in overtime.

Olesa hit 45 percent of its field goal attempts compared to 42 percent for Estudiantes, but Estudiantes took more attempts. Estudiantes kept up with Olesa on the boards and won the offensive rebounding battle 14 to 10. Olesa was actually able to keep turnovers down to just eight for the entire game, including the overtime, and they made six more points on free throws (24 vs. 18) than Estudiantes, going to the line 33 times.

Estudiantes

Laura Herrera Boxo: 17 points, 7 rebounds.
Brooke Wyckoff: 12 points, 9 rebounds. Fouled out.
Nikki Teasley: 13 points, 3 rebounds in 26 minutes of play. 5-for-9 shooting, including 3-for-7 from 3-point range.

Olesa

Thyra Liljestrand: 14 points.
Olga Podkovalnikova: 13 points, 4 rebounds.
Cristal Kelly: 7 points, 5 rebounds. The Sacramento Monarchs forward fouled out.

Happy Birthday Nikki!

"I'm sorry, but I'd rather have this than birthday cake."

Happy 30th Birthday to Nikki Teasley! You've come a long way to end up in Atlanta this season, and we're glad to have you! We wish you the best of birthday wishes today!

LFB (Spain) 23/2008 - Celta 59, Estudiantes 48

For a few moments, it looked as if Estudiantes (5-18) might have a chance as being the only one of four teams to move out of the bottom of the Liga Feminina. They would be playing at home against Celta (11-12) and actually were tied at halftime. But a third quarter in which Estudiantes was held to only eight points hurt the home squad which lost 59-48 in front of a crowd of 600 spectators.

The box score is here.

With the loss by Estudiantes there were four teams tied for last place in the Liga Feminina. Poor showings from their imported talent really hurt Estudiantes, which fell behind 46-38 in the third quarter. Estudiantes was held to just 10 points in the fourth quarter making for an 18-point second half.

Estudiantes hit 34 percent of its attempted field goals compared to 32 percent for Celta - neither team was exactly setting fire to the nets. However, Celta out-rebounded Estudiantes 37-29 with Celta earning 10 offensive rebounds compared to just six from Estudiantes. Furthermore, Estudiantes turned the ball over 20 times and sent Celta to the free throw line 22 times, where they hit 17 of their shots.

Estudiantes

Andrea Hadjune Csaszar: 9 points, 4 rebounds.
Brooke Wyckoff: 2 points, 5 rebounds in 26 minutes of play.
Nikki Teasley: 2 points, 2 rebounds in 11 minutes of play. Teasley managed to pick up five fouls in just 11 minutes of play.

Celta

Gema Garcia Mata: 15 points, 5 rebounds.
Laura Nicholls Gonzalez: 5 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals.
Agne Ciudariene: 13 points, 5 rebounds.

An Overseas Blog from Nikki Teasley

Not Nikki Teasley. Another Teasley.

Nikki Teasley contributes a blog entry to Dream Diary, the official blog of the Atlanta Dream. She writes about her experiences in Spain with her daughter Yasherae Jonae', or 'Ya-Ya'.

Nikki also provides us with a Photo Gallery. So what are you waiting for? Make a visit, look at some pics and write a comment to show your love!

LFB (Spain) 22/2008 - Estudiantes 77, Gran Canaria 71

Estudiantes (5-17), in their road victory against Gran Canaria (5-17) has not only managed to pull themselves just a slight bit away from the possibility of relegation at the end of the season but has made the question of relegation that much more complicated. With the Estudiantes win, four teams (Extrugasa, Estudiantes, Gran Canaria and Zaragoza) are tied for last place in the Liga Feminina.

The box score is here.

Estudiantes took a 21-18 lead after the first quarter but Gran Canaria retook the lead in the second quarter. At halftime, Gran Canaria led 41-36 but Gran Canaria would be held to 30 points in the second half. By the end of the third quarter, Gran Canaria only led by one point, 56-55 and in the last quarter, Estudiantes took the lead with four minutes left, 67-66. Sandra Ygueravide added seven points for Estudiantes in the final two minutes of the game to seal the victory.

Both teams made 48 percent of their attempted field goals. The big difference was that Estudiantes went 13-for-27 in 3-point shooting - they scored more points by the long bomb than in any other way. Furthermore, Estudiantes was helped in only turning the ball over nine times.

Gran Canaria

Iva Perovanovic: 18 points, 8 rebounds
Ines Kresovic: 19 points.
Tiina Sten: 2 points in only 7 minutes played for the St. John's graduate.

Estudiantes

Laura Herrera Boxo: 12 points, 5 rebounds.
Brooke Wyckoff: 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
Nikki Teasley: 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
Elin Eldebrink: 15 points on 5-for-15 shooting.

Ros Casares vs. Estudiantes - The Video

We're all looking forward to Nikki Teasley playing for the Dream, but she didn't have much of a game playing for Estudiantes in her first pro game in some time. Then again, she was playing Ros Casares and Erika de Souza.

The above is the entire game. If you want to remind yourself of how it turned out, go to my earlier post.

LFB 21/2008 - Ros Casares 76, Estudiantes 54

It seems like the two Brazilian members of the Atlanta Dream are ready to help each other out. With Extrugasa (led by Iziane Castro Marques) failing to move up the league table, Ros Casares (20-1) and Erika de Souza shove Estudiantes (4-17) into the 14th and final slot of the Liga Feminina with a 76-54 victory.

For Nikki Teasley, it was an ugly introduction to Liga Feminina play. Teasley played 16 minutes and didn't score a single point.

It was the 17th straight Liga Feminina regular season win for Ros Casares. Ros Casares only needs to win three of the five remaining games to clinch the first seed in the post-season playoffs, which will be a fine consolation after being knocked out of Euroleague.

The box score is here.

El Ros won every quarter. They led 42-27 at halftime, extended their lead to 61-40 after three quarters, and cruised to victory with little effort.

Ros Casares hit 48 percent of their shots compared to Estudiantes, who hit 31 percent of their free throw attempts. Estudiantes was out-rebounded 42-30, but had a 12-10 edge in offensive rebounds. Each team had a high number of turnovers - 18 and 19 respectively. Estudiantes only went to the free throw line eight times...and only hit two shots.

Ros Casares

Amaya Valdemoro: 14 points, 5 rebounds.
Candace Wiggins: 18 points in her first big game for Ros Casares.
Anna Montanana: 9 points, 8 rebounds.
Erika de Souza: 8 points, 3 rebounds. 6-for-9 shooting.
Delisha Milton-Jones: 8 points, 4 rebounds.

Estudiantes

Elin Eldebrink: 18 points, but 7 turnovers.
Brooke Wyckoff: 10 points, 6 rebounds.
Nikki Teasley: 0 points in 16 minutes. One rebound. Two turnovers, and four fouls. 0-for-5 shooting.

Breaking News - Nikki Teasley to Estudiantes in Spain

Nikki in her new duds.

With Estudiantes looking at a possible relegation, they have taken a page out of Extrugasa's book. Extrugasa hired Iziane Castro Marques to keep them out of the bottom of the league, and now Estudiantes has hired Nikki Teasley to give them such much needed wins with six games left.

The translated article is here. This happened on Friday, February 27th, so I was very lucky to find out about this, as Ros Casares played Estudiantes today and I saw Teasley's name in the box score.

Leah Rush, who last played for the Chicago Sky, terminated her contract with Estudiantes which made room for Teasley. I don't know how much impact Teasley can make in just six games...but it looks like we're going to find out pretty soon....

Nikki Teasley's Missed Opportunity

Nikki Teasley had the chance to come back and play in Israel for Elizur Ramla, but that didn't happen. Why? Visa issues, the words that no European team likes to hear. Eventually, Elizur Ramla gave up and acquired Tamara Moore.

So what are "visa issues"? Basically, a visa is a document that allows one to visit another country. There are all kinds of visas - everything from a "single-entry tourist visa" which allows one to visit a country for a limited period of time (maybe a week) and which expires when you leave the country, to a "multiple entry business visa", which would be used for someone seeking long term employment in the host country which allows the person to enter and leave the country as needed.

We are therefore dealing with a government bureaucracy, in this case, the government being Israel. With the Gaza War, I'm sure that Israel's government had been overwhelmed with short-term journalism visa applications. There are also issues regarding whether the person arriving has either a residence or insurance set up. Maybe the person applying for the visa has a passport that is due to expire soon and the government is edgy about allowing a visa. Or maybe, the person is simply applying on short notice.

In any event, there can be all sorts of reasons why the visa process slows down. Women's basketball is so far down the list of the concerns of the government of Israel that they probably see no need to expedite the visa process. There are cases of people being lost in visa limbo. Elizur Ramla simply didn't want to wait for Teasley's application to work its way through the red tape.

Sorry Nikki. Better luck next time.

Predicting Nikki Teasley

When last we saw Nikki Teasley....

Nikki Teasley and Chamique Holdsclaw have something in common - a Los Angeles connection. Both Teasley and Holdsclaw played for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2005. Both of them would also end up skipping at least one year of WNBA. For Teasley, the reasons would be two fold: a new addition to the family (the birth of a daughter in June) and bad knees.

In March 2008, she was released by the Washington Mystics.

In June 2008, she had her daughter.

In November 2008, she was already working out with a college exhibition team (DT-3) and played a few games against southern DI colleges. Supposedly, she has also been rehabbing those knees of hers that clearly impaired her productivity which can be seen by Teasley's dip in Player Efficiency Rating (PER) between 2006 and 2007. (16.71 in 2006 vs. 9.79 in 2007.) By 2007, she was just playing above replacement level.

So what if she hadn't had the pregnancy? What if she had spent some time in rehab?

I went ahead and projected the 2008 season for Teasley, and then projected a 2009 season based on the 2008 season. The results are below.



The Simple Projection System hedges its bets based on that awful 2007 season, and rightly so. Maybe Nikki will be transcendent again. Maybe if Nikki's knees don't bother her, she might still be suffering from aches and pains. The 2009 season projects her as a slightly worse than average player, but still better than Kristin Haynie or Tamera Young. She'd be a backup behind Ivory Latta, but if Teasley is fully recovered they could expect to fight for that 1-spot.

Nikki is still relatively young. But Ivory is even younger, and can only get better with more experience. Ivory was great in Turkey, and I expect she'll be great in Israel. If Nikki Teasley expects to waltz into Ivory Latta's job, she'll have a fight on her hands.

Atlanta Dream Re-Sign Nikki Teasley

This was just posted at RebKell by WBD. It's not up on the WNBA site or the Atlanta Dream site yet, so I'll just repost it.

DREAM RE-SIGNS POINT GUARD NIKKI TEASLEY
-- WNBA All-Star Will Suit Up For Dream in 2009 -–

ATLANTA, January 12, 2009— The Atlanta Dream announced today that the team has re-signed unrestricted free agent point guard Nikki Teasley. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Atlanta is a great city and I am happy about the opportunity to play again,” Teasley said. “The fans here really support the Dream and the front office has done a great job with adding some new additions to the team. I anxiously await the 2009 season.”

Teasley originally signed with the Dream on August 15, 2008, shortly after the birth of her daughter in June. She did not play during the 2008 season but stayed in Atlanta this winter to work out with members of the Dream coaching staff.

In her six year WNBA career, Teasley is averaging 8.7 points 3.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. She started 33 games for the Mystics in 2007, averaging 5.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. Teasley was originally selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2002 WNBA Draft and spent her first four seasons in the league with the Los Angeles Sparks, where she hit the game winning shot in the 2002 WNBA Championship. Teasley was also named the MVP of the 2003 WNBA All-Star game.

During her collegiate career at the University of North Carolina, Teasley averaged an Atlantic Coast Conference record 5.8 assists per game. She finished her career as the Tar Heels all-time leader in assists (728) and three-pointers (236). She was the first player in conference history to lead the ACC in assists all four years and was only the second player to record 1,500 points and 600 assists in her career.

The Dream will tip off its second season on Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 7 p.m. against the Indiana Fever. For more information and to purchase season tickets, fans can call 404.604.2626 or visit www.AtlantaDream.net.

(* * *)

I'll try to project her performance for 2009 later tonight.