Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Barnes' Scouting Report on Pascalau

Storm Head Coach Brian Agler mentioned Wednesday that some of the scouting the Storm had on newly-signed center Florina Pascalau came from 1150 AM KKNW color analyst Adia Barnes, who has played against Pascalau in Italy, most recently this past winter and spring. I e-mailed Adia for the full scouting report.

"She is a talented player. She has good size, nice post moves around the basket, finishes well, doesn't jump out of the gym but rebounds well, good hands and has a nice 15-foot jumper. Overseas, her team runs a lot of "pick and pop" offense and she consistently makes the shots. She can play in the WNBA."

3 comments:

Online ZenDoc said...

Florina Pascalau is a very nice addition to the roster. She's listed by 3 sources as being 6'5", but I see that you listed her as 6'4" and one other source listed her as 6'6", which is probably not true. Is 6'4" her oficial height? She scored 18.5 ppg in 2007 for her Italian League team with 8.5 rebounds/game and shot an incredible 93.1% from the Free Throw line - 3rd in the league. That's quite remarkable. I wonder what her role will be? Indeed. I think she might be the main back-up for Yolanda, but she'll have to beat out Ashley Robinson for that role. She certainly gives us more flexibility and the option to go very big at times with her, Yo, and L.J. all in the line-up at the same time when we need to go big, or substitute Ashley for one of them.

This will be very exciting. I'm assuming that she will make the team, but that also could mean that Kelly Santos will not make the team. Since Doneeka Hodges was cut, we have 14 players again. So either 2 of these 3 guards will have to be cut: Kim Beck, Kristen O'Neill, and Roneeka Hodges Lewis OR one of those 3 guards plus either Kelly Santos or Florina Pascalau or possibly Shyra Ely (not likely).

Coach Agler is following a pattern of releasing one player daily after practice, so he may release one more tomorrow and the last one on Friday or he may just hold out until the deadline for both. Good luck to Kristen O'Neill.

Online ZenDoc said...

Oh boy, I was afraid of that. I was afraid that I might screw up the 'Neeka twins and I did. To correct my error, it was Roneeka Hodges who was waived by the Storm on Wednesday. It's Doneeka Hodges-Lewis who is still vying for a back-up spot on the team as a point guard or combo guard, which Tanisha Wright already is.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like Agler brought in Pascalau to vie with Santos for the last post position. If he likes what he sees, Santos is gone.

So the last spots are still between Beck, Lewis, and O'Neill. I think Hodges being cut means O'Neill may have made the team. I think Beck and Lewis are battling for that last spot of backup PG.