Rantings of an Insane Platypus - 17th May 2004
Monday 17 May 2004
Seattle vs Phoenix
Links galore:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer story
Storm/Mercury post-game quotes
BTW I love DT. She's very funny, perceptive and classy. Too bad many of her fans don't try to emulate her in that regard.
There's also some good game reports in this thread on stormfans.org though obviously expect to see more Storm-focused coverage.
Storm final roster
I think the Storm's final roster made itself pretty clear tonight - here's what I think will be the final 11 plus IR:
Point guard: Sue Bird, Tully Bevilaqua
Shooting guard: Betty Lennox, Michelle Greco
Small forward: Sheri Sam, Adia Barnes, Alicia Thompson
Posts: Lauren Jackson, Kamila Vodichkova, Janell Burse, Simone Edwards
IR: Trina Frierson
Andrea Gardner-Combs might have an outside shot of making the roster,
And considering Lennox's wild play and Barnes' slow rehab, I think Michelle Greco may see more minutes than I anticipated. Or considering Tully's strong play, we may see Tully and Sue for extended periods of time on the court.
Mercury final roster
Unlike the Storm, this is much more complicated. The locks are:
Diana Taurasi, Penny Taylor, Kayte Christensen, Anna DeForge, Adrian Williams, Shereka Wright.
That's a total of six. While not being "locks", I think Nikki McCray (Agler favourite, solid pre-season performance) and Ashley Robinson (second round pick, Agler and Sulka will look stupid if she's waived) are pretty safe bets to make the roster. So that's eight. Plenette Pierson is a chance to start the season on IR with Edwina taking up the other spot.
That leaves three (two if Plenette is ok to start the season) active roster spots open. Remaining players are Tamara Moore, Tonya Edwards, Iziane Castro-Marques, Lindsay Taylor and Slobodanka Tuvic. Salary considerations may come into consideration and I think that would rule Edwards out. She's more expensive than the other perimeter players and hasn't showed much to be worth keeping around. Moore has performed better than Castro-Marques and should get the nod over her. If there's three active roster spots available, I expect both Tuvic and Taylor to make the roster. If only one, I'd probably go for Taylor - she's 6'8", she can swat some shots though her and A-Rob would create the softest middle in the league (just like a cream tart).
Of course this doesn't take the Shalonda Enis rumour into account. Or other free agents.