WNBA - Better Trades

What could possibly be more exciting than a better trade in women's professional basketball? For those who follow the WNBA, the idea of making a few bettertrades can energize a franchise, create buzz throughout the community and maybe put a few more people in the stands. A good trade, one that brings in a former Olympic star or local college star, can certainly help the bottom line, which is always important for a sport that would certainly be on life support without being propped up by the NBA.

Fans who follow women's professional basketball love having local players on their team. That helps if your college feeder programs are good and produce players worthy of a professional career. But if your local college is loaded with small girls who can't shoot or dribble, it isn't likely to help stock your roster or fill the stands. That's when better trades may be your only recipe for success.

There were plenty of better trades a few years ago when the WNBA expanded the league and added a new team in Atlanta. Since each team was susceptible to losing players in the expansion draft, there was a lot of player movement. Teams with a deep talent pool looked for bettertrades to move skilled players in lieu of having them taken away without any compensation. Other teams tried to make better trades by putting together a package deal for draft picks or future consideration.

Better trades are also a common sight when the professional women's basketball leagues approach their trade deadline. For some reason that time element encourages the franchises to start snooping around to see who might be available. It's a good time for buyers and sellers to make bettertrades. The buyers are looking to pick up a player who may turn out to be a piece of the puzzle that can get their team into the playoffs. The sellers are usually the teams who have little hope of making the playoffs and who consider it a better trade if they can get some overinflated return for a player in a trade.

Because it's not as easy to find tall players in the women's league as it is in men's professional basketball, there's a higher price placed on height. Any team that can pry away a talented tall player will consider it a better trade, especially if they give up players with less perceived value in return.

Smaller, quicker players are more common in the WNBA. Every team seems to have a handful of women with quicks. The better trade occurs when teams trade for someone who is especially gifted when it comes to handling the basketball or distributing it to the other players, which creates more scoring opportunities and more points. It must be considered a better trade any time a player can put points on the board.