Monarchs Acquire Forward Crystal Kelly Via Waivers

StevenHW

StevenHW

Starter
#2
#2
Congrats to Crystal.

But in doing so, the Monarchs had to waive Izabela Piekarska. I liked what I saw in Izabella, and was hoping she would make the final roster. Well, it turns out she did...but for only one day. :(
 
R

RDub21

Bench
#3
#3
Interesting move, I was really wishing that Iza would get some time yesterday. Don't know much about Kelly, but Iza was the only post we have that I would want shooting outside of 15 feet. We'll have to see I guess...
 
NothinButHoops

NothinButHoops

Starter
#4
#4
I guess they know more than us...too bad to have come this far & get wavied.
Best of luck to her & welcome Crystal Kelly...don't know too much about her game?
 
R

RDub21

Bench
#8
#8
That's definitely impressive, Houston has Tina, Michelle, Sancho, Mistie Williams, and Marcedes Walker. You would think she could beat out Mistie and/or Marcedes if she was that good. But I'm excited nonetheless to see what she can do.
 
Monty'sBiggestFan

Monty'sBiggestFan

Starter
#9
#9
I wouldn't read too much into her getting waived by Houston, I'm not entirely sure I have figured out the logic behind Houston's moves the last two seasons.

This is the second waiver wire pick up in less than a week. I'd gather that Piekarska wasn't doing something they wanted or didn't fit the style they wanted or else they would not have been scouring the waiver wire for a big to wear street clothes once Newton and Robinson are healthy. And that's pretty as much as I see Kelly will be asked to do once those two are ready to come back.

She's an interesting if not nice add for what she can do or did in college because I think a few people considered her falling to the 3rd round a "steal." The steal may not be realized here until next season, but she could have some potential value at some point.
 
creative one

creative one

Bench
#10
#10
I apologize if I sounded harsh before, so I'd like to take the time to congratulate Crystal on making our team and on the commencement of her WNBA career. Being associated with this league opens up opportunities all over (coaching, overseas play), so this is a big deal for Ms. Kelly. It's a big deal for us too because we get to avoid Mistie Williams and Marcedes Walker.

For what we're trying to do, Kelly probably works. We want to play a bit more up-tempo, and that would've been hard for Iza to do. With Kelly, we lose a lot of size (about 6'1 rather than the 6'3 she's listed), but at least there's someone who possibly fits the system better than Iza would've.

And as I said before, I didn't want Marcedes Walker or Mistie Williams. In that regard, we kinda lucked out.
 
Purple Reign

Purple Reign

Starter
#11
#11
RDub21 said:
Interesting move, I was really wishing that Iza would get some time yesterday. Don't know much about Kelly, but Iza was the only post we have that I would want shooting outside of 15 feet. We'll have to see I guess...
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With all due respect to Iza supporters, but the one time I saw her (versus Seattle, pre-season) all I saw was a big player taking up space, limited mobility, that had 3 point range. I never got what she could offer. I know nothing about Crystal Kelly. Let's see what she can do. Once Newton and Robinson comes back, Kelly will be inactive more than active I would think.
 
creative one

creative one

Bench
#15
#15
She was invited to attend the WNBA pre-draft camp and later on invited to attend the draft, so there were those who believed she could jump into the first round or perhaps early second round in the right situation.

Then, insanity ensued. Tamera Young was taken in the top ten (second round stock), and then Ketia Swanier was selected at #12 (again, middle second round stock). With these outrageous selections, the whole notion of "draft stock" went out of the window. After this point, teams just chose whomever they wanted regardless of how she fared during her senior season or at the pre-draft camp. They picked players whether they fit their systems or not. You'll note that a couple of second-rounders didn't make rosters, and two who did make rosters didn't do so with the teams that drafted them. And after seeing Yuko Oga play for Phoenix Saturday, I can see why the Mercury were going to cut Leilani Mitchell before New York "rescued" her.

What also hurt Kelly is that she's not as tall as listed (about 6'1 instead of 6'3), and she appeared to be physically weak against WNBA-caliber posts (lack of bulk hurts). Still, that's not a good enough reason as to why she couldn't make Houston's opening day roster. Walker, Williams, and Holmes aren't what I would consider to be WNBA material. If she'd gotten cut by Seattle or LA, that might be a different story. But Houston? Hmm. Might be some red flags involved.
 
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Monty'sBiggestFan

Monty'sBiggestFan

Starter
#16
#16
I wouldn't read too much into her getting waived by Houston, they have more invested in Thompson, Snow and Lyttle and there just aren't enough roster spots to go around. Williams is hanging on and they apparently chose to keep a wide body in Walker and really wouldn't appear to have space for another post. I'm not sure if Tot were healthy if Houston would have made the final roster choices they did.

Along the same lines, if DeMya was healthy right now, we wouldn't be having this conversation I don't think either.

Her dropping to the third round could be similar to what happened to Charel Allen, Beck et al. She had a quiet(for her) game in the tournament and made an early exit and may not have shown well in draft camp. She very well could have been drafted her instead of Iza had Houston not taken her earlier in the 3rd. The player we waived in as camp broke was drafted just before Iza was, so she also could have wound up here if Detroit hadn't taken her.
 
R

RDub21

Bench
#17
#17
With all due respect to Iza supporters, but the one time I saw her (versus Seattle, pre-season) all I saw was a big player taking up space, limited mobility, that had 3 point range. I never got what she could offer. I know nothing about Crystal Kelly. Let's see what she can do. Once Newton and Robinson comes back, Kelly will be inactive more than active I would think.
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I think that the reason I'd keep Iza around is because of her 3 point shooting and big body. She brings something to the team that the other posts on our team can't. I'm used to seeing other team's post(s) being able to shoot long range (LA-Leslie, SEA-Jackson, HOU - Thompson,etc...) and it doesn't seem like we've had that since Tangela was traded. We have shooters in Kara, Nicole, and Kim, but not much more than that. And yes, I do realize that whether it was Iza or Crystal, they would be on the inactive list anyways, so I guess it's not that important :p
 
StevenHW

StevenHW

Starter
#18
#18
Purple Reign said:
According to WNBADraft.net (http://wnbadraftnet.tripod.com/index.html), Kelly was projected to go in the first round. I wondered what happened. Not only did she not go in the first round, she got cut by a bad Houston team...[snip]
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If I'm not mistaken, I believe the WNBA has something similar to what the NFL does: a pre-draft scouting combine, which are used for G.M.'s, Coaches, and Player Personnel staff to evaluate selected players before the WNBA Draft takes place. Various expected prospects are given various running, shooting, and passing drills, plus other kinds of practice routines.

The coaches take notes on which players test better on these kinds of practices, and their rankings will play a big factor on how high (or low) the players will draft.

Since the combine are usually closed off to the media, this will sometimes explain why some highly-regarded players might be drafted suprisingly lower than expected (examples: Kelly Mazzante, a few years ago, went to the second round; Ivory Latta, who had been projected to be in the top-5 in the 2007 Draft, actually fell to somewhere around 12th or 11th overall.)

If this is true, I can only presume that Crystal Kelly did not test well in the combine, which might account for her lower-than-expected draft pick.

But, that is only just my guess.
 
Monty'sBiggestFan

Monty'sBiggestFan

Starter
#19
#19
The pre-draft camp, as creative one discussed above, actually isn't closed to the media as we saw from the photo gallery SPM posted in April.

Latta was over projected. Mazzante elected not to go to camp and that didn't improve her falling draft stock which plummeted after her final NCAA tournament performance.
 
creative one

creative one

Bench
#20
#20
To add to what MBF said already, Latta didn't attend last year's combine because she was participating in the Final Four. And I agree that she was over projected, especially since the scouts had quite some time to pick apart her game. If not for Laimbeer taking her when he did, she definitely would've been a second-rounder and would likely not be in the league right now. There's a reason why Kristin Haynie starts over her in Atlanta. Kristin is a better point guard by far.

I think I remember reading somewhere that Crystal did just fine at the combine, which is why she was invited to the draft. Her actual height and lack of strength scared off would-be interested parties.
 
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