Sky Waive Shayla Cooper

[psconn]

I think she'll be back in the future. Very good athlete.

Tori Jankoska from MSU also waived. The Sky's 2nd 1st round pick(#9). A questionable pick and a quick hook for a first rounder.

 

[triaddukefan]

wow

 

[DaddyChoc]

maybe the Wizard will pick her up... they could use some firepower

 

[rt bb fan]

What a wasted first round pick in Tori Jankoska, could have picked Kaela Davis or Alexis Jones who made there years.

 

[CocoHusky]

Not sure what the Sky are thinking with yet another questionable move.
On the current sky roster at G/SF position is Kaleah Copper & Keisha Hampton instead of Shayla Cooper & Betnijah Laney.
Copper, Hampton & Laney are all Philly area kids that I have been watching since they were young which makes this even more of a head scratcher & as @rt bb fan already mentioned they were in a position to draft Kaela Davis.

 

[Vowelguy]

2017 Class Monitor

• 23 players in league
  • 15/18 of top 18 draft picks
  • 7/18 of bottom 18
• Highest drafted out: #9 Tori Jankoska (Chic)
• Not drafted in: Sophie Brunner (Phoe)
• Draft steal?
  • #33 Makayla Epps beat out #9 & # 21 for a spot on Chicago's roster

 

[UcMiami]

There are more cuts coming as not all the players are back and healthy from overseas. McBride for example has yet to join SA but she is not yet on their 12 player roster.

 

[Orangutan]

I would have preferred any of the last three picks of the first round (Davis, Wiese, Alexis Jones) over Jankoska. I think Jankoska may be outclassed athletically in the WNBA and as the linked article notes, her ultimate fit is likely as a PG. Not an area of need for Chicago with Sloot and Faulkner on board.

Note to Sky front office - I'm available as a draft consultant next year!

As it happened, Faulkner is out for the season and Jankoska still didn't make it. Meanwhile, #10 pick Davis had 20 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl for Dallas in their opener.

 

[Orangutan]

I think she'll be back in the future. Very good athlete.

I never thought she was all that impressive at Ohio State and now two different teams have cut her. Athleticism can only get you so far.

 

[UConnCat]

Several teams chose to pass on Davis for a reason. Perhaps some of those teams will regret that decision but one game is too soon for regrets. Remember Davis began her one season at South Carolina on fire and eventually regressed to what was her norm at Georgia Tech: 37% on FGAs and 35% on 3FGAs. She did this while taking more shots than any other South Carolina player. She did improve her A/TO ratio during her year at South Carolina but it still came in a hair under 1. Will Davis be more efficient as a pro than she was as a college player? That's not what typically happens but we'll have to see how the season plays out.

 

[Orangutan]

Perhaps some of those teams will regret that decision but one game is too soon for regrets.

I take your points about Davis generally, but I'm going to go ahead and start regretting the Sky's pick now. Jankoska was a DNP-CD in the opener and then cut. One good game for Davis, even if it ends up being an aberration, is likely one more good game than Jankoska will ever play in the WNBA.

 

[Carnac]

I take your points about Davis generally, but I'm going to go ahead and start regretting the Sky's pick now. Jankoska was a DNP-CD in the opener and then cut. One good game for Davis, even if it ends up being an aberration, is likely one more good game than Jankoska will ever play in the WNBA.

It's amazing to me how some teams can still swing and miss on draft day. Drafting (player evaluation) is an art that obviously not all WNBA front offices have mastered. The results speak for themselves.

The one round you just can't miss on is the first one. Your initial pick MUST be a keeper whose skill set is league ready the first day she reports for camp. Good enough that she can in many cases start for you right away, i.e. Britteny Griner, Taurasi, Stewie, Jewel Loyd, E. Della Donne, Plum, Tina Charles, MoJeff, etc. Who makes the final decisions for some of these teams? Don't they learn from prior year's mistakes?

Is it a consensus, or a GM's final decision? You know there are a lot of round table discussions about the players in the upcoming draft (and how they might fit into your program) by every team, weeks and months BEFORE draft day. How do some of these teams totally miss the mark?

1st round draftees are suppose to make the cut without question......smh. Drafting poorly however is not limited to the WNBA. When you speak of drafting poorly year after year, the NFL's Cleveland Browns immediately come to mind. Remember the definition of insanity? The Browns embody it!! They flip players and coaches like you would flip pancakes.

We saw some teams have an excellent draft, while others did not help themselves at all. It seems like the rich continue to get (and stay) rich, and the underachieving teams continue to underachieve and remain second tier teams, despite continuously picking higher in the draft than the top tiered teams. Amazing.

 

[trb123]

It's amazing to me how some teams can still swing and miss on draft day. Drafting (player evaluation) is an art that obviously not all WNBA front offices have mastered. The results speak for themselves.

The one round you just can't miss on is the first one. Your initial pick MUST be a keeper whose skill set is league ready the first day she reports for camp. Good enough that she can in many cases start for you right away, i.e. Britteny Griner, Taurasi, Stewie, Jewel Loyd, E. Della Donne, Plum, Tina Charles, MoJeff, etc. Who makes the final decisions for some of these teams? Don't they learn from prior year's mistakes?

Is it a consensus, or a GM's final decision? You know there are a lot of round table discussions about the players in the upcoming draft (and how they might fit into your program) by every team, weeks and months BEFORE draft day. How do some of these teams totally miss the mark?

1st round draftees are suppose to make the cut without question.smh. Drafting poorly however is not limited to the WNBA. When you speak of drafting poorly year after year, the NFL's Cleveland Browns immediately come to mind. Remember the definition of insanity? The Browns embody it!! They flip players and coaches like you would flip pancakes.

We saw some teams have an excellent draft, while others did not help themselves at all. It seems like the rich continue to get (and stay) rich, and the underachieving teams continue to underachieve and remain second tier teams, despite continuously picking higher in the draft than the top tiered teams. Amazing.

Not the LA Clippers? I thought they set the pre-2000 standard.

 

[UcMiami]

It's amazing to me how some teams can still swing and miss on draft day. Drafting (player evaluation) is an art that obviously not all WNBA front offices have mastered. The results speak for themselves.

The one round you just can't miss on is the first one. Your initial pick MUST be a keeper whose skill set is league ready the first day she reports for camp. Good enough that she can in many cases start for you right away, i.e. Britteny Griner, Taurasi, Stewie, Jewel Loyd, E. Della Donne, Plum, Tina Charles, MoJeff, etc. Who makes the final decisions for some of these teams? Don't they learn from prior year's mistakes?

Is it a consensus, or a GM's final decision? You know there are a lot of round table discussions about the players in the upcoming draft (and how they might fit into your program) by every team, weeks and months BEFORE draft day. How do some of these teams totally miss the mark?

1st round draftees are suppose to make the cut without question.smh. Drafting poorly however is not limited to the WNBA. When you speak of drafting poorly year after year, the NFL's Cleveland Browns immediately come to mind. Remember the definition of insanity? The Browns embody it!! They flip players and coaches like you would flip pancakes.

We saw some teams have an excellent draft, while others did not help themselves at all. It seems like the rich continue to get (and stay) rich, and the underachieving teams continue to underachieve and remain second tier teams, despite continuously picking higher in the draft than the top tiered teams. Amazing.

It isn't that amazing to me at all because as you say it happens in every sport and really at every level. Projecting skill and attitude from one level to the next is just not easy to do. And the concentration of talent in the tiny WNBA is so great that the last 24 players at the end of the 12 teams' rosters and the last 24 cuts from rosters are barely discernible.

And the players you list were not just first round choices, they were top two choices and the difference between the top talent in a year when one of them is available vs. the rest of the first round picks is pretty huge. Pretty much every year there are players drafted in the first round that either don't make it through the first season or hang on by a thread for a few years, never starting or contributing much of anything, and they are drafted by pretty much every coach/GM combination that has every been. The truth is that most WNBA drafts 30-50% of first round draft picks end up as 'busts' in that they never develop into serious contributors to their teams and end up out of the W by their 4th year. And most drafts there is a second round pick who out-performs most of the first rounders.

 

[Carnac]

It isn't that amazing to me at all because as you say it happens in every sport and really at every level. Projecting skill and attitude from one level to the next is just not easy to do. And the concentration of talent in the tiny WNBA is so great that the last 24 players at the end of the 12 teams' rosters and the last 24 cuts from rosters are barely discernible.

And the players you list were not just first round choices, they were top two choices and the difference between the top talent in a year when one of them is available vs. the rest of the first round picks is pretty huge. Pretty much every year there are players drafted in the first round that either don't make it through the first season or hang on by a thread for a few years, never starting or contributing much of anything, and they are drafted by pretty much every coach/GM combination that has every been. The truth is that most WNBA drafts 30-50% of first round draft picks end up as 'busts' in that they never develop into serious contributors to their teams and end up out of the W by their 4th year. And most drafts there is a second round pick who out-performs most of the first rounders.

True. We saw this in some of the cuts that were made this year.

 

[triaddukefan]

It's amazing to me how some teams can still swing and miss on draft day. Drafting (player evaluation) is an art that obviously not all WNBA front offices have mastered. The results speak for themselves.

The one round you just can't miss on is the first one. Your initial pick MUST be a keeper whose skill set is league ready the first day she reports for camp. Good enough that she can in many cases start for you right away, i.e. Britteny Griner, Taurasi, Stewie, Jewel Loyd, E. Della Donne, Plum, Tina Charles, MoJeff, etc. Who makes the final decisions for some of these teams? Don't they learn from prior year's mistakes?

Is it a consensus, or a GM's final decision? You know there are a lot of round table discussions about the players in the upcoming draft (and how they might fit into your program) by every team, weeks and months BEFORE draft day. How do some of these teams totally miss the mark?

1st round draftees are suppose to make the cut without question.smh. Drafting poorly however is not limited to the WNBA. When you speak of drafting poorly year after year, the NFL's Cleveland Browns immediately come to mind. Remember the definition of insanity? The Browns embody it!! They flip players and coaches like you would flip pancakes.

We saw some teams have an excellent draft, while others did not help themselves at all. It seems like the rich continue to get (and stay) rich, and the underachieving teams continue to underachieve and remain second tier teams, despite continuously picking higher in the draft than the top tiered teams. Amazing.

I was looking back at the 2001 WNBA draft yesterday........... I remembered that the Charlotte Sting (RIP) drafted Kelly Miller #2..... I had forgotten that Tamika Catchings went #3 in that same draft Of course Catchings was coming off an ACL injury but still....

 

[bballnut90]

I was looking back at the 2001 WNBA draft yesterday...... I remembered that the Charlotte Sting (RIP) drafted Kelly Miller #2..... I had forgotten that Tamika Catchings went #3 in that same draft Of course Catchings was coming off an ACL injury but still....

Miller also rode the bench her first year in the league as the #2 pick playing behind Staley, Stinson and Feaster. In hindsight, it's crazy to think that she was picked ahead of Catchings, Deanna Nolan, Jackie Stiles (just one year in the pros, but she was fantastic), Katie Douglas, and Penny Taylor among others. Probably the most talented senior class the WNBA has ever inherited.

 

[triaddukefan]

Miller also rode the bench her first year in the league as the #2 pick playing behind Staley, Stinson and Feaster. In hindsight, it's crazy to think that she was picked ahead of Catchings, Deanna Nolan, Jackie Stiles (just one year in the pros, but she was fantastic), Katie Douglas, and Penny Taylor among others. Probably the most talented senior class the WNBA has ever inherited.

Just thinking how many college players that I really liked ended up playing for the Sting.... either through draft or trade..... Allison Feaster, Dawn Staley, Monique Currie, Heather Darling, Andrea Stinson, Rhonda Mapp, Tracey Reid, Nicole Powell, Kelly Mazzante, and last but not least Tammy Sutton-Brown

 

[DeeHusky]

Just don't understand what the sky are doing this season or any other season really. The post Delle Donne season is all over the place. 1) I don't feel like they got important pieces the needed with the trade. Surely Dolson is a good player. Copper not so much. They should've gotten Bria Hartley, Ivory Latta, or Tayler Hill or a scoring guard along with Dolson. I don't feel like they needed to draft Alaina Coates with the second pick. She is injured and there are three centers on the roster (Dolson, Parker, Boyette.) They could've used that pick on Allisha Gray, Davis, or Walker-Kimbrough. The the 8th pick was used to draft Janskoska, it would've been better off to swap it the pick used to draft Epps or draft Jones or Wiese in my opinion. That organization just never seems to make the right moves which probably why key players are forcing trades out. The Detroit Shock moved to Tulsa and now Dallas. Why hasn't this team been forced to move?

 

[triaddukefan]

Just don't understand what the sky are doing this season or any other season really. The post Delle Donne season is all over the place. 1) I don't feel like they got important pieces the needed with the trade. Surely Dolson is a good player. Copper not so much. They should've gotten Bria Hartley, Ivory Latta, or Tayler Hill or a scoring guard along with Dolson. I don't feel like they needed to draft Alaina Coates with the second pick. She is injured and there are three centers on the roster (Dolson, Parker, Boyette.) They could've used that pick on Allisha Gray, Davis, or Walker-Kimbrough. The the 8th pick was used to draft Janskoska, it would've been better off to swap it the pick used to draft Epps or draft Jones or Wiese in my opinion. That organization just never seems to make the right moves which probably why key players are forcing trades out. The Detroit Shock moved to Tulsa and now Dallas. Why hasn't this team been forced to move?

I agree... they should move the team to Charlotte

 

[UcMiami]

Just don't understand what the sky are doing this season or any other season really. The post Delle Donne season is all over the place. 1) I don't feel like they got important pieces the needed with the trade. Surely Dolson is a good player. Copper not so much. They should've gotten Bria Hartley, Ivory Latta, or Tayler Hill or a scoring guard along with Dolson. I don't feel like they needed to draft Alaina Coates with the second pick. She is injured and there are three centers on the roster (Dolson, Parker, Boyette.) They could've used that pick on Allisha Gray, Davis, or Walker-Kimbrough. The the 8th pick was used to draft Janskoska, it would've been better off to swap it the pick used to draft Epps or draft Jones or Wiese in my opinion. That organization just never seems to make the right moves which probably why key players are forcing trades out. The Detroit Shock moved to Tulsa and now Dallas. Why hasn't this team been forced to move?

Supposedly the Coates draft pick was because they thought they had a trade in place her and something for Plum and then SA backed out of it after the draft. There was a whole thread earlier and a few linked articles about how SA seemed to screw around with everyone including Plum both before, during and after the draft, leaving a bunch of POed GMs around the league as well as an annoyed #1 draft pick.

 

[Roger G]

Just don't understand what the sky are doing this season or any other season really. The post Delle Donne season is all over the place. 1) I don't feel like they got important pieces the needed with the trade. Surely Dolson is a good player. Copper not so much. They should've gotten Bria Hartley, Ivory Latta, or Tayler Hill or a scoring guard along with Dolson. I don't feel like they needed to draft Alaina Coates with the second pick. She is injured and there are three centers on the roster (Dolson, Parker, Boyette.) They could've used that pick on Allisha Gray, Davis, or Walker-Kimbrough. The the 8th pick was used to draft Janskoska, it would've been better off to swap it the pick used to draft Epps or draft Jones or Wiese in my opinion. That organization just never seems to make the right moves which probably why key players are forcing trades out. The Detroit Shock moved to Tulsa and now Dallas. Why hasn't this team been forced to move?

I agree with much of what you said here, but I think Copper will grow on you. She is young but shows a lot of promise. Only her and Dolson had decent shooting percentages in that game, by the way.