Notebook: LJ Due in Tonight
After getting Sue Bird back today, the Storm will at last be at full strength tomorrow, when forward Lauren Jackson is scheduled to be a part of practice.
"Lauren arrives tonight," Storm Head Coach Brian Agler said Tuesday. "She's between London and L.A. right now. She'll get in here tonight, get her physical tomorrow. We'll be practicing tomorrow at 2:00, back it up so she can be a part of that."
STORM WAIVES KENNEDY
After practice, Agler was asked about the possibility of making some roster moves.
"We've got to make some decisions this week, obviously by Friday at Noon," he said. "That could happen at any time. We're going to go into a meeting here after this and talk some more about it. We've got to make some decisions on certain individuals."
That discussion resulted in the decision to waive rookie guard Daphanie Kennedy Tuesday afternoon. After releasing Kennedy, the Storm is left with 14 players on the roster, needing to get down to 12 by Friday. Two of those spots remain in play, with the coaching staff likely deciding between guards Kimberly Beck, Roneeka Hodges and Doneeka Lewis and wing Kristen O'Neill for those spots.
That decision won't be an easy one.
"Everybody out here on our team at this point is a quality player, a great person and has a great work ethic," Agler said. "It's just part of the business. It's too bad that we can't keep a deeper roster, but we've got to play within our parameters."
Some coaches prefer to have their roster set well before the deadline to focus on the 12 players who will be part of the team all season long. Agler sees the value in that approach, but isn't in a hurry to make the final moves.
"There's some incentive to do that, but I want to make sure I make the right decision too," he explained. "I want to make sure that we feel strong enough in one direction to make that decision. I don't want to do it just to get the numbers down. We can adjust practice to make sure that we keep the focus on a main group."
- During her chat with the media, Storm veteran Sheryl Swoopes offered some unsolicited praise for Shyra Ely's performance during camp, singling her out.
"I feel like Shyra's probably had the best training camp of anybody here," Swoopes said.
Post-Practice Audio: Coach Agler Sue Bird
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4 comments:
For the 11th spot we need a backup pg, either Beck or Lewis. (Please don't tell me that Tanisha is our backup pg!). For the 12th spot, we need to keep O'Neill for her ability to sub in for multiple positions.
Would definately agree with you ID..... O' neill can sub in anywhere on the court - and do a good job in anyplace she is put.. very , very flexible player and will give you 110% whether she is on for 2 minutes for 30 minutesIts getting really exciting now!!
I agree with the comments above. We need a true point guard backing up Sue and from what little I've seen, that would be Kim Beck. And Kristen O'Neill is exciting and another threat on the court. Kristen is just 2 'Neekas away from making this roster! It would certainly be nice to have a hometown hero, too. I don't know a lot about the 'Neeka twins, and it doesn't appear that Kevin is going to write any more about any of the 4 of them, so all I can do is root for Kristen and Kim ...
Let's all repeat-Tanisha is NOT a PG!
I'd keep Beck and O'Neill. They're both players that fill definite roles on the team.
And Agler should take into consideration the fact he's looking at the last 2 spots on the roster. It may be smarter to keep rookies that may play limited minutes or spend time on the inactive list than expensive vets.
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