FanPost

Dream pick up Courtney Paris as temporary replacement for Lyttle

Today, the Atlanta Dream added Courtney Paris to their roster.  Sancho Lyttle has been suspended temporarily while competing in 2011 Eurobasket - she'll be back with the Dream on July 9th -  and Paris will take her place in the meantime.

Some background on Courtney Paris for those who are new to following pro women's basketball:  the daughter of pro football player William "Bubba" Paris, Paris set an NCAA record with 112 consecutive double-doubles, set a record for most career NCAA rebounds and the Division I level, and was the first women's college basketball player to have 2,500 career points and 2,000 career rebounds.  She helped lead Oklahoma to the NCAA championship game in 2009.

There had been talk about Paris being a number one draft pick in 2009, but it came to nothing.  Paris was drafted in the first round by the Sacramento Monarchs, then in their final year of existence.  It was a bad year for Paris and the Monarchs.  Her head coach was fired in mid-season and the general manager John Whisenant took over.  Whisenant was originally high on her:  Bill Patterson of the Sacramento Bee wrote in July 2009:

One player who brought some energy was rookie Courtney Paris. The 6-4 center, averaging fewer than 10 minutes a game, played a season-high 24 minutes in scoring 14 points and grabbing a season-high nine rebounds.

"I've been advocating all along that she's got too much talent not to be on the court," Whisenant said. "She's got hands like suction cups and long arms. She did a reasonable job on defense and a good job on the boards."

Paris, listed by the Monarchs at 250 pounds, came to Sacramento with conditioning issues. But Whisenant says Paris is the type of player who will build stamina and trim pounds the more she plays.

"You can work only so hard on running lines or getting on the machines," Whisenant said. "My sense is that Courtney is one of those players that the bigger the game, the better she'll play."


According to an article from the Contra Costa Times, the problem was that Whisenant's defensive system required the center to play in front of the opposing post player and not behind her.  When Whisenant took over the Monarchs, Paris still had power, still had the massive wingspan and still had the vice grip hands that everyone praised. However, her relative lack of mobility didn't fit into Whisenant's game schemes.

In the end, it didn't matter.  The Monarchs were folded at the end of the 2009 season.  In the dispersal draft, Paris was picked by the Sky, but failed to make the team.  At that point, the knock on Paris's perceived lack of talents had now become "conventional wisdom".  She played in Turkey and Israel in the 2009-10 off-season and for Spanish contender Rivas Ecopolis in the 2010-11 off-season.  In both Euroleague games and against LFB (Spanish League) competition, her stats were about the same:  Paris had approximately 20 minutes a game, with between 54-60 percent shooting, about eight rebounds a game, averaging about 10-12 points a game (but shooting a dismal 60 percent-ish from the line).

This year, she made it to the Los Angeles Sparks camp...and was one of the last players cut.  Her supporters were in a minority among women's basketball followers.  Some comments about Courtney Paris from fans of the pro and college game:

"...she just stands under the basket and waits for someone to give her the ball...."
"...a disaster of a WNBA career...."
"...these two girls cannot play in the WNBA...." (Courtney and her sister Ashley Paris)
"...there is no point in having all that talent if she can't last a reasonable amount of time on court...."
"...poor physical shape...cannot defend...."


I suspect that there's a great deal of bias in these statements.  Courtney Paris is a heavy woman, and when GMs (and fans) see heavy, they immediately conclude "failure".  It could be argued that Courtney Paris was doomed before she ever set foot on a WNBA court.   The chatter about Paris was that she wouldn't be permitted to be merely competent but that she had to show "desire", or "improvement" - and in the case of her detractors, whatever noun indicating some hoped-for change always translated to the same thing:  losing weight.

Let's address some of these.  Courtney Paris's career was not a disaster - if you can't name players worse than Courtney Paris you're not trying very hard.  She might be considered a disaster if you want to compare her to Sylvia Fowles or Tina Charles, but let's actually look at her career.  In 2009, she shot 51 percent from the floor and played about 13.4 minutes a game.  Not a lot of time, but those were a relatively good 13.4 minutes, where she averaged 4.8 points a game and 4.1 rebounds a game.  If you expand that to say, 36 minutes, that averages to 13.0 points a game and 10.9 rebounds a game.  She might not be in shape to give you the kind of minutes for a double-double, but she plays just like a double-double player during the time that she's on the court. 

Furthermore, she had 1.8 Win Shares for the 2009 Sacramento Monarchs - in effect, you can credit 1.8 of Sacramento's 12 wins that year to Courtney Paris being at the post, according to the fine gentlemen at Basketball-Reference.com.  (Only Nicole Powell and Rebekkah Brunson had a greater Win Shares total for the Monarchs that year.)  Furthermore, she was third on the team in Win Shares per 48 Minutes, playing better than Hamechetou Maiga-Ba, Kara Lawson (still in the W), or Ticha Penicheiro (still in the W). 

Her PER (Player Efficiency Rating) for 2009 was 18.76, above average.  The players most similar to Paris at age 21 were Crystal Langhorne and Sancho Lyttle (!!)  Clearly, she's not an All-Star but she's certainly not a flop, either.  This is a case where detractors see something that simply isn't there.  They see Paris's weight and think, "oh, big fat player" and therefore conclude that she's useless despite all evidence otherwise.  She had a 19 point game against the Liberty in 2009 and a 14 rebound game against the Lynx that same year.  Those benchmarks don't exactly spell "useless player".

Okay, let's assume that she only gives the Dream 13.4 minutes a game due to weight issues.  Atlanta isn't looking for a starter.  A starter's not available.  What's needed is someone who can come in and spell Erika de Souza, Alison Bales and Sandora Irvin.  All that Marynell Meadors needs is brief flashes of brilliance, someone at the level of Bales or Leuchanka, someone who can get the job down in the post while the starters rest.  It's a no-lose situation for Atlanta.  If Paris fails, or if the weight is the issue her detractors claim it is, then Meadors can turn and say, "could we have really gotten anyone better?"  If Paris does well in her outing, then Meadors has the opportunity to keep her around.

I'm glad that Courtney Paris is being given a second chance as a WNBA roster player.  She'll have every motivation to make the most of it, because there might not be many more chances for Courtney Paris.  Even so, Atlanta fans might be in for a pleasant surprise.