The Fever selected Deanna Jackson with the 5th pick in the Dispersal draft for Cleveland Rocker players. This is just the latest in a series of blunders made by this team.

Not that there is anything wrong with Jackson - she's a nice player with a good upside. The issue is that, once again, the Fever front office does a poor job analyzing their roster and appreciating their immediate needs. Since the Fever's first season, they have struggled with consistent, meaningful guard play. Here was a chance to remedy the situation by selecting Betty Lennox as a true scoring shooting guard. With her as a threat from the outside, the lane would open up a little more for Tamika Catchings to exploit her defenders. Sure, the Fever have Coretta Brown but she is no Betty Lennox. With Lennox on board perhaps Coretta could blossom as a point guard under Brian Winters. Instead, in their infiniite wisdom, the Fever front office selected Jackson - a 6'2" forward. So add her to the logjam at forward for the Fever, Natalie Williams, Catchings, Kristen Rasmussen, Olympia Scott Richardson, Kelly Schumacher, Leigh Aziz... meanwhile our backcourt returns Niele Ivey who has never proven capable of playing PG in the WNBA, Brown - a nice player with an inconsistent jump shot, Stephanie White - a local player coming off knee surgery that is primarily here for PR, and a host of other teams rejects, projects and reclamations.

So - where do we go from here. The Fever have the third pick in the draft. It seems like they should draft Vanessa Hayden and finally fill the void of center that has plagued this team since the losss of Kara Wolters. Surely they would not use the third pick overall to grab a guard, would they? You never take a perimeter player when a natural center is available, do you?

Not so fast. This is the same franchise that has only made a couple of good draft picks/trades in their history. Drafting Tamika Catchings was an incredible move, especially since when drafted they knew she would be unable to play her first year so she could recover from a knee injury. Let's look at their recent draft selections.

Last year - Selected Gwen Jackson - then traded her (along with Sylvia Crawley) to San Antonio for Coretta Brown and Natalie Williams. I like Brown over Crawley but Gwen Jackson for Natalie Williams was not a success. Despite 2 all stars in Williams and Catchings, the Fever failed to make the playoffs and now have an aging post player in Williams whose skills will only decline.

Then there was the season prior when they drafted a 6'4" center who never played a game for them and was later waived.

Don't forget Jurgita Stremikita! Another first rounder, oops, she was out of the league last year and was no help at all! OUCH!

Note to the Fever front office....Hire someone that understands basketball talent and how to evaluate your team! What the Fever need is a guard - Lindsey Whalen would be perfect - but you can't use the 3rd overall pick on Whalen. Besides, Hayden is too tempting to pass up that's why it is even more mind boggling that the Fever selected a forward in the expansion draft. Lennox or Helen Darling would have been better picks for the Fever - filling the need of the team instead of simply selecting the "best athlete" available. At least, dip into the free agent market now available and grab a seasoned scoring guard that can keep the defenses honest and off of Catchings!

Hrmphf.....................