
RELATED CONTENT | |
|
Burse suffered the injury during Monday's practice, when the Storm scrimmaged against the New York Liberty. Further examination Monday evening showed no new damage to the labrum. Burse went too hard in her comeback from the injury and aggravated it. She will be sidelined indefinitely.
![]() | |
|
Burse initially injured the labrum in early April while playing for USK Praha in the Czech Republic. She returned to the U.S. thereafter and sat out the first week of training camp. Burse returned to the court on May 1 and played in Sunday's Storm preseason opener, scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds in 21 minutes of action.
The Storm concludes its preseason schedule with a back-to-back set at Chicago on Friday and at Minnesota on Saturday. With
Lauren Jackson able to play in just one of those two games as part of her ongoing rehabilitation from a stress fracture in her left shin - Donovan said she has not decided which of the two games - the Storm will be very thin up front. In that game, the Storm will have only veteran Simone Edwards and training-camp invitees
Tiffani Johnson and
Lindsay Taylor as posts.
Because Burse's status remains uncertain, Donovan may be more inclined to keep 12 players on the Storm's final roster after previously leaning toward keeping just 11. The salary cap factors into that decision to some extent.
"I really would like to keep 12," she said. "We've got the cap room to keep 12 - with different scenarios. I can't just keep these 12. I've got salary issues. We're in great shape from a salary-cap standpoint, and from an injury standpoint, that's why you want to keep 12."
Ultimately, the way the cap issues break down is that Donovan could keep 12 players, but only if one more of those was at the non-veteran minimum salary opposed to the veteran minimum. The Storm could keep both veteran posts on their roster, Edwards and Johnson, but only by going with 11 players. Alternatively, the Storm could keep only one of the veterans and add a younger player to go with 12.
A decision between Johnson, who has practiced with the Storm the last two days, and Edwards, would be a difficult one.
"There are advantages to (Johnson) in some respects, and then Simone's got an advantage because Simone has been in our system for quite a while," said Donovan.
The Storm continues to scour the waiver wires for potential additions as rosters move near being finalized throughout the league.
"If somebody shakes free and it makes sense to bring them in - more so for a younger player to develop - we would look to do that," Donovan said.

