As I've already referred on a previous article about the WNBA, this league isn't as followed by the media or has the same level of interest as other competitions, but it still has the potential to bring long term profit to a bettor. From this perspective, I'll pay attention to the league and I'll closely follow it and you all know, when I follow something closely, that means I'll give my max effort to follow it.

Here is the preview for all WNBA teams this season.

Eastern Conference

Atlanta Dream

Atlanta is the new team in the league and with this new entry both conferences have now again seven teams each. Surprisingly or not the city seems to like the new challenge and in the first preseason game of the team at home against the LA Sparks, 8000 fans watched the game in the crowd. Wow! But the truth is that this team won't be able to do much in their first season in the league than do what their name exactly says: dream! With Atlanta being a new team, they wanted in the expansion draft new players who have potential to help the team in the future and not in the present. So Atlanta won't have any superstar this season who will be able to solve some games on her own and the scenario isn't the best for them in 2008. Just remember that when Chicago entered the league they went 5-29 in their first season.

The only players who are known by the public and have some ability in order to help raising the team to a competitive level are the guards Betty Lennox and the Brazilian Castro Marques, who are coming from good seasons in 2007. With the competitiveness which will exist in this season, it will be hard for Atlanta to even reach 10 wins this season, but they will be a team that with some momentum will be capable of becoming a moneymaker for us.

Washington Mystics

The Mystics were involved in a fight for a playoff spot until the last game of last year's regular season, but they ended up losing the last spot to New York. The team ended the regular season with a record of 16-18, which is quite good as the team began the season with a 0-8 run! Yes, eight straight losses! In the middle of this losing streak, they changed the coach, they traded some players and the team began playing way better. The Mystics have first of all the All-star player Allana Beard, who had a good season in 2007 even while being physically limited, ending the season with a tam high of 18.8 ppg. The center Sanford had also an excellent season after the losing streak, ending the season with career highs of 11 ppg and 7.1 rpg.

The main news for this season is the trade of forwards, with Milton Jones leaving the team and the veteran Taj McWilliams-Franklin joining the Mystics. The main objective of the team for this season is to have more experience in the paint and more defensive abilities. For that it was also important their choice in the draft, which was Crystal Langhorne, who was in China with the US team and who has been impressive in the training camp. She's coming off a senior season in which she averaged 17.3 points and 9.4 rebounds per game and she will be important to make more competitive one of the weakest points of the Mystics last season, the paint. If Beard continues to be at the same level she was last season, then the Mystics will be more competitive this season and they will be able to think in reaching the playoffs. This team last season won 9 games while being the underdog, so they are really a moneymaker team.

Connecticut Sun

If there was a ranking for most changes on a team during this off-season, the Sun would be a real contender for the first place. If last season they were involved in a major trade, this season they have done it again and the objective if to try to change the style of the team. Katie Douglas went to Indiana and Connecticut got the powerful Tamika Whitmore. The team now got more defensive consistence and it will be hard for them to repeat the 19-14-1 O/U they had last season. The Sun last season ended the regular season with a 18-16 record and also 18-16 ATS, but it's curious to see that from their 18 wins, 8 were gotten playing as underdogs, which gives them a respectable 45% of upsets. Besides this trade, Nykesha Sales, Margo Dydek, Kristin Rasmussen, Le'Coe Willingham, Megan Mahoney and Erika DeSousza also left the team or at least won't play for the Sun this season, which represents 45 ppg of the 75 ppg they had last season.

So the challenge will be big for Connecticut this season, but although all these changes they still have a good team and they have in their roster one of the most dominant centers in Europe, Sandrine Gruda. I don't believe the Sun will be capable to fight for the title this season and their season performance will depend from the team chemistry they will be able to get and how quickly they can adapt to the ballclub and to the new style of play. The sooner they can adapt to that, the most wins they will get this season.

Chicago Sky

This will be the 3rd season of the franchise and team once again look ready to evolute in an explosive way. The Sky in their debut season had a record of 5-29 and last season they finished with a 14-20 record, but being one of the moneymakers of the league with an ATS record of 20-13. This season Chicago promises to be even stronger and they have all the conditions for that. The key of the success is the young players of their roster and who were always top picks in the previous drafts. If Candice Dupree was two years ago and last season Armintie Price was considered the rookie of the year, this season it was the center Fowles who was the 2nd choice in the draft and has potential to be a superstar.

It's curious to see the destiny of this franchise to be on the shoulders of very young player and as every young team, there will be good and bad runs, however if they start the season well they can be a serious threat, as with confidence they can go far. The frontcourt of the team is extremely powerful and Fowles will bring lots of aggressiveness in the fight for the boards and she will also free Dupree from the defensive tasks. The weakest point of the team is clearly the backcourt and this will decide the success or not of the team this season. If they can solve this problem, then Chicago will surely reach the playoffs this season.

New York Liberty

The Liberty were a big surprise last season, as not only they managed to reach the playoffs, as they almost caused an upset in the first round of the playoffs against the reigning champions Detroit Shock. The team was the youngest team in the league and they showed exactly that by winning the first five games of the seasons, just to have a mid season losing streak of 7 games. For this season there weren't major changes in the roster, barring the fact that Wauters left the team. New York to continue with the same roster from last season and expect that the team can be more experienced this season. One of the main problems of the team last season was that the offense of the Liberty couldn't score, especially in the paint (last in the league in points per game and in points in the paint). The fact that they don't have a go to player maybe explain this struggle, especially at the end of the games.

However the experience that the team got by reaching the playoffs last season makes everybody expect the Liberty to reach the post season once again. At least they have a starting advantage over the other teams, as the roster is basically the same from last season.

Indiana Fever

Can a team depend so much from one player? If the answer is yes, then that team has to be Indiana. Tamika Catchings leaded the Fever last season in scoring (16.6), rebounding (9.0), assists (4.7) and steals (3.1), until she got injured and screwed all chances of Indiana to win the title. The worst is that Catchings is still injured and she will miss the first 5/10 games of the season. Only with Catchings is that Indiana can think about something ambitious for this season.

The major news for this season was Katie Douglas joined the team, coming from Connecticut. Douglas averaged 17 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 3.7 apg last season and she will give a big help to Indiana in the attack and also in the defense. Actually Indiana with Douglas, Catchings and Bevilaqua have a great role of excellent defensive players. But just like last season, the major problem of this team will be the attack, as in the defense Indiana was one of the best teams of the league last season. The team will struggle at the beginning of this season, at least until Catchings won't be able to play. Also six players of their roster played in Europe during the off-season and the team didn't have time to develop a chemistry between the probable starting team, as not even a single probable starter has played at least one game during the pre-season. Catchings will be the key of this team and if she can comeback at 100% soon, then Indiana can be a top contender in the Eastern conference.

Detroit Shock

Detroit wasn't able to conquer two back to back titles, as they lost in the final against the new champions Phoenix Mercury. Even though the team managed to make a good season, even having the best regular season record with 24-10. However they didn't have the click they needed to become champions again and that click has a name: Cheryl Ford. She had a very tough season with a lot of injuries and if she was at 100% in the playoffs, then Detroit would have other arguments to face Phoenix, as it's good to remember that Detroit went 13-2 last season with Ford in the lineup.

The major news this season was the fact that Swin Cash went to Seattle, after some arguments with the coach. The team hired two young players that if they are capable of playing well, they will help Detroit in continuing to be one of the best teams in the league. A curious fact last season was even though Detroit went 12-5 at home, they were only 4-12-1 ATS in those games, all because of huge spreads to cover. With the injury of Ford, Nolan and the swingwoman Pierce had to step it up and they had amazing seasons. The doubt this season has to go with the ability of Ford to keep herself healthy and if she manages that, then we will have Detroit fighting for the title once again, especially as they are part of the Eastern conference, easily the weakest of the two conferences this season.