Donovan: Storm Will Keep 11

Interesting conversation with Anne Donovan after practice today. She cleared up speculation on a couple of fronts. The most important, in the long term, was her confirmation that the Storm will likely only have room for 11 players on the final roster because of the WNBA's hard salary cap. That means spots will be very scarce.

Also, Donovan shed some light on the roster moves that saw the Storm waive Shaun Gortman, Debbie Merrill and Shereka Wright the last two days. Merrill elected not to come to camp, while injuries were the reason in the cases of Gortman and Wright. Gortman will be out another couple of weeks, relating to her torn ACL, and that would have made it tough for her to compete for a spot on the roster - especially, Donovan pointed out, because she jumped from the minimum salary for players with three years of experience or less to the higher minimum for veteran players with at least four years of experience. Wright apparently was still not 100% going back to the torn Achilles she suffered last year during Phoenix's training camp.

It was great to see Iziane Castro Marques after practice. Always known for her upbeat attitude, Izi greeted Mark Rosenberg from PR with a hug and had a big smile on her face as she talked to us. Izi was asked about Leandro Barbosa, her Brazilian countryman expected to win the NBA's Sixth Man Award who won the NBA's Sixth Man Award Tuesday, and said people think she and Barbosa are brother and sister all the time. I'd believe that.


Brother and sister?

Wendy Palmer is limited to one practice a day right now in her comeback from Achilles surgery, but is coming along well.