The Indiana Fever introduced their Interim General Manager and senior advisor for Fever Basketball operations, Lin Dunn, for the first time this past Thursday. After brief opening remarks from Dunn you could feel a sense of true direction forming.
familiar face, new role
Welcome back, @LD_ChalkTalk!
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Knowing Dunn
Dunn is a very familiar face inside the Indiana Fever organization. She won a championship as head coach of that illustrious 2012 team. Those days are long gone but Dunn’s love for this organization and getting it back to it’s glory days isn’t.
Also quite well respected around the league and if you haven’t figured it out yet… she’s a winner. As a coach she has 168 regular seasons wins and 23 playoff victories in the WNBA. It’s the winning attitude as a coach that the franchise hopes she can bring to the GM chair.
Tough, physical, defensive teams was the mantra for those Fever teams she coached in the past.
Former player and GM Tamika Catchings certainly reaped the benefits under her direction. Catchings won three WNBA Defensive Players of the Year awards with Dunn as head coach in 2009, 2010 and 2012.
Room for Improvement
Dunn spoke about her love for the franchise, the game of basketball, and coaching! Although, nothing else stood out more than her plan. “So today what I want to talk about is improvement. That’s what we are going to do this year, we’re going to improve and where going to get better”.
This comes as no surprise. The fever have been struggling to channel some positive success since Tamika Catchings playing days. After missing on top 10 draft talent that is no longer with the team. There is sure to be pushback on how exactly Fever would get better.
After all, the fans have been forced to watch a product that is not reflective of the great basketball state that Indiana is. Fans are disappointed with the lack of development and patience with young stars. Fever are 40-116 in the past five seasons!
Dunn stated to that fact “Yeah it matters because we missed out on some talent. So yes, it adversely affects us. But that’s in the past, I can’t fix that. All I can do is make sure that we don’t make any mistakes moving forward, that we’re very astute in who we draft and why we draft them and that they fit our vision.”
Throughout the press conference Dunn consistently expressed her motto and vision for the team. “My motto is going to be two, seven and 10. We got two, seven and 10 first round draft picks and so our challenge is to use those three picks the best way possible and so that the end of the draft we are significantly better”.
Establishing an Identity
When asked what she thought this team identity could be she followed with, “I do think there’s been a little bit of lack of real identity, who we are and how do we want to play on both ends of the floor and I can tell you this.. we will defend! We will defend because when you defend you win and so we will establish that from day one”.
Indiana has been no higher than 10th in defensive rating in the WNBA since Catchings retired.
Maybe that is the answer this regime needs. Not just about getting better but about laying out a plan, and an identity that results in winning. After all, that’s what great organizations like Seattle Storm and Minnesota Lynx do. It’s a refreshing and defining time for the Indiana Fever franchise and it’s Dunn who is back leading the way.
