DeWanna Bonner is ring chasing. The Phoenix Mercury said as much when the team bought out her contract, with general manager Nick U'Ren commenting that the team "worked out a buyout agreement that gives her the opportunity to chase a title in what could be her final postseason."
That ring chasing has brought her to the Atlanta Dream, where she joins a roster that's very much in need of shooting help. That's where Bonner should provide a ton of...oh, wait, no, I'm hearing that Bonner actually will not provide a lot of help at the thing that the Dream need most. Oops.
DeWanna Bonner helps the Dream, but not at what they need most
The Dream have been caught in a weird place over the last two seasons. Head coach Karl Smesko brought a system with him from Florida Gulf Coast that emphasized shooting, but the team hasn't really had the personnel for that. Smesko adjusted in his second season with the team by having his players shoot less, but it'd probably be good to have a reliable deep threat on the roster. The team ranks 12th in the league in 3-point percentage this season.
Bonner gives the Dream a bench player who can come in and take big shots inside of the arc, but it's hard to see how she helps them with the team's biggest current issue. Bonner is shooting 26.2 percent from 3-point land this season, her worst season from deep by field goal percentage since 2020. And even if you make the argument that some of that is because of the structure of things in Phoenix and that she'll shoot better on a better team in Atlanta, Bonner hasn't shot over 35 percent from deep in a season since 2010, which is the only time she's done so.
I get why you make this addition. The Dream are a very top-heavy team, with every starter averaging 29 or more minutes per game, so adding someone who can give you minutes off the bench is a good call here. I think having Bonner out there helps take a little pressure off the starters. Just look at the last game against the Sparks: only eight players even saw the court against a team that Atlanta should have been able to easily dispatch. Getting even just a few more minutes of rest for the team's primary players will help things.
But Bonner isn't some magical cure for the team's major ailment. She's better than the players at the end of the Atlanta bench, but she isn't going to fix the team's shooting. This is a move that marginally improves the Dream, but not so much that it changes what the team's playoff floor and ceiling are.
Add us as a preferred source on Google