Are the Atlanta Dream able to ship?

Final season, the Atlanta Dream returned to the playoffs for the primary time since 2018, a significant level of progress for the group in its second season below basic supervisor Dan Padover and head coach Tanisha Wright.

But, the step ahead was a little bit of a stumble ahead. Whereas Atlanta earned the No. 5 seed within the 2023 WNBA Playoffs, they completed below .500. After profitable their seventh sport in a row on July 18, they gained solely seven extra video games the remainder of the common season, going 7-15 over the second half of the season. The workforce’s keep within the playoffs additionally was short-lived, as they had been swept by the Dallas Wings.

The muddle of positives and not-so positives is suitable for a workforce that was persistently inconsistent, with flashes of promise too typically adopted by frustration. In 2024, consistency needs to be the first precedence for the Dream, establishing a basis of game-to-game good basketball that, in future seasons, blossoms into nice basketball. As a result of, regardless of the offseason additions of Jordin Canada, Tina Charles and Aerial Powers, it’s unrealistic to imagine that the Dream can take care of the league’s tremendous groups. Nevertheless, it needs to be anticipated that the Dream take a demonstrable step towards turning into a workforce that, prior to later, confidently can problem the W’s greatest.

Three causes it might be a Dream season in Atlanta

AU Allisha Grey

Throughout the 2024 AU season, Allisha Grey was golden.

Competing in Athletes Limitless for the second time, Grey appeared to reach in Dallas intent on proving that she was the perfect participant on the court docket, sport in and sport out. And he or she succeeded. Grey authored the perfect season in AU historical past, earning MVP honors as she performed with discernible drive and dedication. She was a two-way pressure who anticipated to dominate.

It’s that angle, as a lot because the output, that ought to have Dream followers excited to see what Grey can do within the 2024 WNBA season. She’s a participant who has gotten higher each season of her profession, and it looks like 2024 might be no totally different. Her sharpened sense of objective, specifically, might be priceless to a Dream workforce that too typically fell into listless stretches final season. When issues get shaky and squishy for Atlanta, they want that AU-version of Grey to each stabilize and strengthen the workforce, enjoying with an assured authority that calls for that her teammates equally elevate their play.

A refined Rhyne Howard

Rhyne Howard spent her offseason serving as an assistant coach for the Florida Gators, in addition to collaborating in camps and competitions with USA Basketball. In tandem, these experiences—observing the sport from a special perspective and being round a few of the sport’s greatest—ought to equip Howard to inch nearer to her sky-high ceiling in 2024.

By means of her first two WNBA seasons, Howard has had a variety of masterful offensive performances, highlighted by a 43-point explosion agains the Sparks final season.

Nevertheless, a necessary ingredient to her greatest offensive video games has been the 3-pointer. It’s her potential to empty triples off-the-dribble or off motion that makes her such an attractive offensive expertise. However, what about when the 3-ball isn’t falling? That’s when Howard’s offseason experiences hopefully will translate to improved course of and outcomes. It might be encouraging to see Howard extra persistently apply her traits and skills—6-foot-2 with silky, shifty athleticism—to get to the basket and end robust, in distinction to settling for off-balance, fading midrangers or weak, flailing drives. Increasing her drive-and-kick sport additionally would juice a Dream offense that dried up down the stretch of the 2023 common season. Howard is a particular offensive expertise—and she or he might be much more particular in 2024.

Off-the-bench bucket getters

Presuming head coach Tanisha Wright rolls with a beginning lineup of Grey, Howard, Jordin Canada, Nia Coffey and Cheyenne Parker, that leaves offseason additions Tina Charles and Aerial Powers as the primary two gamers off the bench. The pair’s major job? Get buckets.

A Charles-Powers duo ought to give the Dream a second unit with an outlined identification—scoring. Since she sat out final season and enters the 2024 marketing campaign at age 35, it’s exhausting to know what to anticipate from Charles. However her observe file suggests she will nonetheless feast towards opponent’s reserves. Powers additionally isn’t shy about getting her pictures up. Generally, she will shoot you out of a sport, however, as a rule, she will shoot you again right into a sport.

And as Wright emphasised at media day, the group believes Charles’ intensive expertise will profit a still-young, unseasoned squad.

Two causes Atlanta might fall in need of their Dream

Gotta play Haley and LA

Final season, Atlanta’s two first-round draft picks, Haley Jones and Laeticia Amihere, obtained inconsistent alternatives, with Jones totaling 584 minutes whereas Amihere performed simply 147. However, they confirmed greater than sufficient encouraging flashes.

When she performed with confidence, Jones pushed the tempo, placing stress on the protection and creating straightforward scoring alternatives. Though her defensive consciousness wants work, her measurement suggests she is usually a versatile, optimistic contributor on that finish. Amihere is all vitality, seeking to make one thing occur each second she is on the court docket. Each gamers additionally competed with Grey in Athletes Limitless this offseason, with Amihere, specifically, impressing as she made the AU All-Defensive workforce.

For Atlanta to emerge as a workforce able to tangling with the leagues titans, they’ll want each gamers to strategy their potential. And for that to occur, each must play. Nevertheless, contemplating that the Dream introduced in three vets this offseason, the sophomores once more may see restricted time.

Was Canada’s leap actual?

Throughout the 2023 offseason, Jordan Canada re-signed with the Los Angeles Sparks on a coaching camp contract, a sign that her place on the Sparks, and even within the league, was removed from safe. From there, she turned in the perfect season of her profession, rising as LA’s start line guard and a contender for the WNBA’s Most Improved Participant award. However, such a leap raises questions concerning the sustainability of her improved play. Was it an outlier season? Or, did the true Jordin Canada arrive in yr six of her WNBA profession?

Canada each tried and made essentially the most 3s of her WNBA profession final season, firing greater than three per sport and hitting round 33 p.c of them. These numbers usually are not extraordinary, however had been an enormous enchancment over her 2022 output, when she made 14 p.c of her 1.6 3-pointers per sport. This offseason, she performed within the WNBL, the place she was named MVP for her play because the engine of the Melbourne Boomers. But, she shot 27.3 p.c from 3.

It’s the specter of her shot that made Canada a simpler level guard final season, requiring opponents to protect her extra carefully, which then created alternatives for the lightning-quick Canada to mud her defenders and drive to the basket or kick out a move to a teammate. If opposing defenders sag off of her and dare her to shoot and the pictures don’t fall, the Dream offense, which Canada’s acquisition is meant to assist supercharge, threatens once more to stall out into stagnant halfcourt units.

Canada’s worth isn’t restricted to the offensive finish. She’s the most effective point-of-attack defenders within the league. But when she again slides after final season’s offensive leap, it will likely be trigger for concern.