The Dream are going to take a less-is-more approach in an attempt to win their first WNBA title.
Coach Michael Cooper has the luxury of a roster stacked with players who have made up the nucleus of teams that have reached the finals three times in five years. The next attempt will begin Friday at New York when the regular season opens.
But between the leagues they play in during the offseason and the WNBA season, those veterans have scored a lot of points and logged a lot of minutes on legs that aren’t getting younger.
Cooper wants to help them, particularly standout player Angel McCoughtry, stay fresh so that should the team get another opportunity to win that elusive WNBA title they will be somewhat rested and ready. Cooper calls it the Gregg Popovich approach, after how the Spurs coach chooses to rest his stars during the regular season so that they are fresher for the playoffs.
“We will need her to play and play big minutes,” Cooper said of McCoughtry. “If we can get her rested throughout the season she will be a better player in playoffs when we really, really need her.”
Emphasizing that importance, McCoughtry averaged 30.8 minutes per game last year, 14th most in the league and the second-highest average during her career.
The time racked up while playing in Europe and the WNBA may have contributed to the tendinitis and rhomboid injuries she suffered last season that caused her to miss three games.
And that injury, and the new systems put into place by Cooper, may have affected her scoring. After averaging at least 21.1 points per game each of the previous four seasons, she averaged 18.5 last regular season.
In the Game 3 loss to Chicago that ended the Dream’s season in the Eastern Conference finals, McCoughtry was held to 17 points on 5-of-18 shooting.
Perhaps looking ahead, McCoughtry didn’t play the customary full season in Europe that leads into the WNBA season, which should help her health.
“I’m ready to get started,” she said.
If Cooper is able to decrease some of McCoughtry’s minutes, he said Hayes’ responsibilities likely will increase.
Hayes, entering her fourth season, has steadily become one of the team’s better all-around players. She averaged a career-high 12.9 points per game and is one of the team’s most-consistent 3-point shooters.
“Tiffany will be an important piece to what we do,” Cooper said.
Hayes said Cooper has told her she has “vet status” now and she is willing to do whatever the team needs for her to do to go all the way.
“We make a playoff push every year, it’s not going to be any different this year,” Hayes said.
McCoughtry wasn’t the only Dream player racking up time on the court.
The Dream had four players — Sancho Lyttle, Erika de Souza, Hayes and McCoughtry — among top the 27 in average minutes played per game last season. Just one other team, league champions Phoenix, had as many players average as many minutes.
The burden may be eased with the depth that the Dream are developing. The team returns forward/center Aneika Henry, forward DeLisha Milton-Jones, guard Shoni Schimmel and drafted guard Samantha Logic, known as an all-around scorer. Cooper said the squad can go as many as 10 deep without a significant drop-off.
“It’s about the maintenance of our players,” Cooper said. “The WNBA isn’t a marathon, it’s a sprint. It’s up to me as a coach to do a good job of maintenance with our rest.”
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