Atlanta Dream celebrate offseason with introduction of three key free agents

Griner headlines the offseason. She’s one of the more accomplished players in league history as a WNBA Finals MVP (2014), six-time All-WNBA team player, two-time scoring leader and eight-time rebounds leader. She’s a two-time defensive player of the year, made the All-Defensive team seven times and is a three-time Olympic gold medalist.

The Dream are ecstatic about landing Griner. Beyond her on-court contributions, she’s an internationally known activist and humanitarian. She was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2023, which came after she spent nearly 10 months wrongfully detained in Russia. She missed the 2022 season for that reason, but has returned as a two-time All-Star since. Griner promises to be involved in the Atlanta community with her foundations and expressed great excitement in helping her new home.

Griner, Jones and Walker-Kimbrough gushed about the organization, particularly their new teammates who strongly influenced their decisions to sign here. The Dream are supplementing their nucleus — which is headlined by Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray — with what they consider the perfect mix of veterans.

Griner, 34, still is a star who averaged 17.8 points and 7.4 rebounds last season. Jones, who spent eight seasons with Connecticut, has made three of the past four All-Star teams and experienced consistent success. Walker-Kimbrough, 29, was a leader for an outstanding Mystics bench.

What a situation for new coach Karl Smesko, who after 23 years at Florida Gulf Coast University decided to head pro — where he’s managing one of the league’s budding teams. The Dream have been a first-round exit the past two years and haven’t obtained a winning record since 2018; now, they carry grand expectations.

“I expect this to be a real positive fit,” Smesko said of the team’s signings. “And they’ll be able to play with each other and off each other. Combining that with the talent we have, I expect us to be one of the best teams.”

Smesko’s Florida Gulf Coast teams were known for raining 3-pointers at top-of-the-nation rates. That’s not Griner’s game — she said she’s willing to take them, but her career average is 0.1 attempts per game — but she’ll still fit. Smesko stressed his job is molding his coaching to his players’ skills. Griner, of course, is an easy plug-and-play anywhere because of her elite talent.

“I’m looking forward to getting out and running with (my new teammates), setting that screen and seeing the ball go over my head,” she said. “Everything they do out on the perimeter is going to make my life easier, too, down low.”

Atlanta is an underappreciated basketball market in reputation. That typically doesn’t apply to athletes, though. Griner cited the atmosphere she experienced when the Mercury played here. She could see the passion and how the city has been ripe to explode over basketball. It needs reasons to be giddy.

This offseason makes the Dream more intriguing and perhaps even one of the best shows in town. Padover’s plan fell into place.

“We reached out to (Griner’s) agent to see if there’d be interest in a meeting,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “After the meeting with BG, we felt really good. We had a great feeling that BG had a great feeling. But BG had to go through the free-agency process. You wait to hear and obviously we got phenomenal news.”

Those involved in the meeting with Griner, which included Padover and ownership, raved about the player. They knew the on-court ability, but her thoughts and interest in the organization only increased the team’s enthusiasm. It turns out that was the key to a remarkably successful free agency.

One that might even be the reason for the Dream finally earning that elusive championship.

“Thank you Bri, BG and Shatori for seeing what we’re building here and committing to be a part of it,” said Dream managing partner Larry Gottesdiener. “Today, I hope Atlanta is proud because Brittney Griner, Brionna Jones and Shatori Walker are bringing great talent and character to a team that is already loaded with both.”