You might be wondering why I am posting about the WNBA, but with their draft quickly approaching, I was asked to cover the event this Thursday at my other site NetsAreScorching.com (focusing on some New Jersey related prospects) and here.  Here is a little primer.

The main theme of a conference call that involved WNBA coaches and GMs last week was depth.  This 2010 draft class doesn’t have a ton of superstar names, but it is deep and you could still be able to find yourself a quality player late in the draft.  Sparks’ coach Jennifer Gillom:

“I think the Draft this year is going to be very interesting.  There are a lot of great players out there to choose from, who will do well in the WNBA and have the potential to have long and outstanding careers.”

Here is Lynx’s coach Cheryl Reeve’s take on the depth:

“The 2010 Draft, I would say is very intriguing as far as the depth of the players. It’s not filled with great players, but I think it is filled with some very good players that could be helpful to a lot of rosters. It’s certainly a very competitive situation in our league right now to make a team, but I think these players are good enough to be able to provide competition.”

Despite Tina Charles’ skill in the post, this draft class is most definitely guard heavy in terms of talent.  As coach Gillom puts it:

I think this is definitely a guard-heavy draft and there are definitely some talented players out there at the guard position, for example, you have Epiphanny Prince, Monica Wright and Andrea Riley who I think are going to be very impactful players.

When looking for the next diamond in the rough in this deep draft class, all three coaches interviewed pointed towards the NCAA tournament.  The biggest benefactors?  The women of the Oklahoma basketball team, as Shock coach Nolan Richardson was especially enamored with them:

“…Watching as much basketball as possible and going over to watch the OU team play in person, then having the opportunity to have coaches go watch, there’s no question that Stevenson has upped her stock as a player. Of course there are other young ladies out there that I think have improved their stock. So again, when you’re trying to evaluate and you haven’t been around as long, because I like to follow players from their sophomore, junior and senior year, then you really have a beautiful picture of Awhat is happening to players.”