I would have put Washington as the most disappointing team, after their first to worst (in the Eastern Conference season.) I had this team pegged as finishing dead last but many of Washington’s fans disagreed with me – the successful previous season gave the Mystics fans new hopes and even with Plank/Taylor fired they thought that conditions would be relatively the same even with Harding and Smith out.

Then again, if a franchise consistently underperforms, can you call an underperforming season a disappointment? Even so, this has to be a particularly bitter season.

I find it hard to look at a Sparks team that lost Candace Parker to injury for nearly half the (meaningful) season or a Mystics team that lost two leading scorer caliber players to injury and see “most disappointing”. Organizational dysfunction aside, those things weren’t in the Mystics control (unless there is some foul play we’re unaware of). The Sparks were playing noticeably better ball before Parker’s injury and had it not been for Danielle Adams’ injury they wouldn’t have even had a chance to end their season in such disappointing fashion. They didn’t improve defensively and that killed them again. I get fan emotion and expectations (we’re discussing this on SBN). But I expected the Sparks to be 4th in the WC and the Mystics to be last, so perhaps that’s just personal.

I find it hard to escape the Sky as most disappointing. At present, it’s debatable as to whether they’ve improved at all – they’re going west on a road trip of essentially meaningless games…and they could drop them, leaving them with the same record as last year. Record aside, turnovers destroyed their season. I think people knew Vandersloot needed time, but she didn’t help that turnover situation as a starter. Bottom line: these pieces aren’t fitting together and they have some serious questions now. Last year, people blamed Key. This was supposed to be a new day with a new coach, even without Christon (they had two improving core pieces and a MVP candidate). And now they’re right back to hoping for .500 in meaningless games again? It doesn’t get anymore disappointing than that.

Maybe my expectations for Chicago were unreasonable. But I think them having to wait again is extremely disappointing. Again though, it’s all about how much hope you started with I guess.

With Voepel. This is a Sparks team that is loaded 1-12 with a bench that I think is the best in the league and they couldn’t even overtake a struggling SilverStars team with a loss to the Tulsa Shock defining their season. I feel that the Sky just doesn’t have enough pieces around Fowles and Sloot. Murphy played well and Young matured but Prince seems overrated and it’s time to part ways with Canty and Thorn. Pokey is one of the best coaches in the world IMO and with a season under her belt, a chance to bring in better players (Maybe Ogwumike??) and possibly a healthy Shameka Christon I call the Sky a lock for next year’s playoffs.

It’s all in the eyes of the beholder…..

She says Washington is number two in disappointments apparently because she didn’t like something Sheila Johnson said on a conference call. Let’s take a look objectively – the Mystics lost Harding, Smith, Currie and Sanford. They gained Anosike and Kelly Miller. Does Voepel think her favorite coach would take that team to the playoffs?

She defends Chicago doing the same as last year by saying that their average loss has been by 8.2 points. But last year their average loss was by 8.8 points. They did have a worse average loss in August last year (9.17 last year versus 6.2 this year) thanks mostly to their biggest loss of the year in Atlanta by 24 points. Their other August losses in 2010 were by 1, 5,5, 7 and 13. But there you go – Chicago hasn’t been that much of a disappointment despite getting a revered coach in place of a disparaged coach, adding Vandersloot and Snow (and losing Perkin) because they have improved their average loss point differential by .6 points a game.

SA was going to be better this year, as was Phoenix. And Minnesota ran away with the West.

I thought Washington would actually make the playoffs, and although that was under the assumption that Alana Beard would play and play well, no player accounts for 12+ wins. I’m baffled at how quickly Nicky Anosike has gone from being a minimum top 15 player to arguably not a starting-caliber center. Admittedly, I took an optimistic approach with Beard, Anosike, and Marissa Coleman — whose lack of development has to be a major concern now — but did anyone see this team winning fewer than eight games? The cards were stacked against Trudi Lacey, but Voepel’s right — there isn’t any evidence that she’s a good coach.