Go Nicole!!!!!

[nancgo]

http://www.wnba.com/monarchs/news/nicole_mostimproved_quotes05.html

2005 Most Improved Candidate, Nicole Powell
Comments from around the league:
http://mm.ticketmaster.com/secureImage.aspx?url=http://mm.ticketmaster.com/tmbrowseimages/arco%20arena/email//N_POWELL_250.JPGNicole Powell
http://mm.ticketmaster.com/secureImage.aspx?url=http://mm.ticketmaster.com/tmbrowseimages/arco%20arena/email//SUZIE_MCCONNELL_SERIO.JPGMinnesota Lynx Head Coach Suzie McConnell Serio
After Sacramento's 67 - 54 victory over Minnesota - July 31
She's in a perfect situation. I tell my players all the time given the opportunity players will produce. In Charlotte she didn't get an opportunity, and now in Sacramento she's taken her opportunity and ran with it. She's a great player that you have to be aware when she's on the floor. She can shoot and doesn't settle for the three-pointer. She's creating her own shot and moves great without the basketball. She's playing with a lot of confidence right now.

http://mm.ticketmaster.com/secureImage.aspx?url=http://mm.ticketmaster.com/tmbrowseimages/arco%20arena/email//LESLIE_65X90.JPGLos Angeles Sparks Center Lisa Leslie
After Sacramento's 79 - 59 victory over Los Angeles -
July 29
She should definitely get Most Improved Player. She was the player I was hoping we would've got in the draft when she first came into the league. She didn't do very well in Charlotte, but they didn't play her right. I think she's dropped some weight, she's in much better shape and there is no surprise to how she is playing. She's just now getting an opportunity. She got that first year under her belt where she played point guard, but she's best at the number three position. She can do it all. I am a very big fan of Nicole Powell.

http://mm.ticketmaster.com/secureImage.aspx?url=http://mm.ticketmaster.com/tmbrowseimages/arco%20arena/email//STALEY_65X90.JPGHouston Comets Guard Dawn Staley
After Sacramento's 64 - 54 victory over Charlotte - July 26
Nicole is playing loose. Nicole is playing good. Nicole is playing her type of basketball. What she went through last year only makes her stronger. She shoots 3's and she can pass the basketball.

http://mm.ticketmaster.com/secureImage.aspx?url=http://mm.ticketmaster.com/tmbrowseimages/arco%20arena/email//OHLDE_65X90.JPGMinnesota Lynx Center Nicole Ohlde
She's a great player. I don't know what happened in Charlotte. Maybe she didn't get a lot of minutes. She came in here (Sacramento) and she seems to be fitting in very well. She's doing well here. She extends the floor while doing a lot for her team.





http://mm.ticketmaster.com/secureImage.aspx?url=http://mm.ticketmaster.com/tmbrowseimages/arco%20arena/email//SWOOPES_65X90.JPGHouston guard Sheryl Swoopes
After Sacramento's 74 - 68 victory over Houston on June 13
Nicole is a great shooter. We knew that coming into the game. Pretty much the first half worked. In the second half I guess we forgot who it was and when we switched out on her, we came out with our hands down. She has a quick release and she can shoot from deep. There were a couple times when we thought we were out there, but we weren't out there far enough, and she knocked them down. A shooter like that, she makes one of two and gets her confidence going and then it's hard to stop her. Her game is to catch and shoot and that's what she did. In my opinion she won the game for them.

http://mm.ticketmaster.com/secureImage.aspx?url=http://mm.ticketmaster.com/tmbrowseimages/arco%20arena/email//YO_65X90.JPGTeammate Yolanda Griffith
She came from Charlotte and now she's with the Monarchs and getting the opportunity. She's probably our best three-point shooter on the team. People are recognizing her abilities right now. My hat is off to her. She came in with a great attitude. She wanted to get better and wanted to help the team. But she's got a target on her back. If the shots aren't falling, she has to be able to get back and do other things. I hope she gets it. She's deserving of it. If we keep continuing to win, I think she'll get it.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I'd be interested in knowing what Sting players/fans have to say about her...

 

[StevenHW]

You'll note that nobody from the Charlotte Hornets team is willing to publicly comment on the trade!

As for their fans, they're probably saying, " $@#&*%+ "!!!!!

 

[nancgo]

I'd be interested in knowing what Sting players/fans have to say about her...

I'd be saying we need to get rid of Trudy......

 

[DWalkfan22]

Aww that is so cute how Lisa said she is a very big fan of Nicole Powell

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

Her former point guard Dawn Staley had good things to say, as Nicole has had to say about Dawn. If I can dig it up again, I'll try to post it, but there was a very good article in the San Jose Mercury News about what Nicole has been willing to say about Charlotte other than the very diplomatic stuff she has been saying. There had been rumors or maybe not so much rumors but actual statements attributed to Lacey that she thought Nicole had an attitude problem (comments which surprised Powell when she read them this year) and that that contributed to their poor relationship and therefore her lack of PT. Nicole also talked about how Lacey wanted her to play the PF spot and she thinks that's why she struggled so much last year because the PFs here are bigger and stronger than the PFs at the college level. That's where the comments that "she was not used correctly in Charlotte..." or something to that effect, come from.

My gut feeling is that Lacey was forced into making the selections she made the last two collegiate first round drafts and couldn't figure out what to do with the players she had. Powell was the consensus #3 overall best player available after Beard and Taurasi and without the underclass(wo)men coming out in this year's draft it seemed like the consensus #1 was McCarville. For whatever reason she could not trade down in either draft. Charlotte needed someone for the backcourt this year if you ask me the way they shut Stinson out last year, and the fact that that they can't find minutes for McCarville either supports that in my mind. I'd agree that they probably needed a PF last year, but Powell aint it....you could have gotten more mileage out of Ohlde, Brunson or maybe even Christi Thomas if you drafted any of them, but none were projected to go that high. McCarville or Mazzante aren't playing more minutes, so I gotta just think it's a GM/Coach thing. With the production she's getting out of Tangela this year tho, it might not have been a bad thing for her to parlay Nicole into somebody more mature who she felt more comfortable about in her system.

 

[phellps]

Nicole is a good shooter,she need to be a little careless,shoot the ball draw foul's...but shoot the ball,everything don't have to be perfect.Take an example from brunson and walker.stay together, win win win..this is monarchs year.as a team you can win it all,also coach whiz is doing a basic thing that most coaches can't afford to do that is play most of there players. I like his style.