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2007 Storm Schedule Released Betty's Big Weekend JB Blog Storm News Archive

Things are about to get busy for Seattle Storm Head Coach and Director of Player Personnel Anne Donovan. Donovan has already been scouting for the upcoming WNBA Draft, but free agency opens on Jan. 15 and the Dispersal Draft of former Charlotte Sting players will be held next Monday. Donovan chatted with storm.wnba.com about the release of the 2007 schedule, the Storm's off-season and more.

storm.wnba.com: Do you have any thoughts on the newly-released schedule?
Donovan: I haven't really looked at it closely enough since they adjusted it with 13 teams. I think it helps us. It's unfortunate, we're back to playing four of the Western Conference teams four times. That's difficult for the Western Conference - we're playing each other more and we continue to get stronger with winning the lottery every year.

"I know there are tremendously passionate fans in Charlotte that will be very disappointed, but they just couldn’t get it going. It's unfortunate, but the hopeful side of me is that we get teams in cities where they are well-supported." Gregg Shamus/NBAE/Getty

What is the latest on filling the open assistant coach position on your staff?
I'm talking with a bunch of different people and actually have sat down with a couple of candidates, but that decision probably won't be made for another several weeks, if not a month, month and a half.

Are you looking for someone who works primarily with post players?
That would be a bonus, just to have balance with Heidi (VanDerveer) working with the perimeter players, but that's not exclusive just because I feel like I can get more involved. That way, we don't necessarily need a specialist.

What have you heard on the rehabilitation of injured players?
Wendy (Palmer) is happy to be back on the court again, although not nearly 100% yet. She feels good and optimistic and hungry and eager. Shaun (Gortman) is ahead of schedule, she tells me. Her rehab is going very, very well. JB (Janell Burse) is still in a boot, so she is not back on the court yet, but she said sometime this month she should be back on the court again.

How much have you heard from the rest of the players?
I haven't heard much. I know Lauren (Jackson) went to Korea last week and her parents accompanied her over there. Sue is back in Russia. Barbara Turner is actually going to go to Turkey; she's not going back to Israel, she's going to Turkey in a really good situation. She's going to be playing with (Cappie) Pondexter and Tammy Sutton-Brown. [KP: A UConn alum playing with two Rutgers products - oh my!] Betty (Lennox), it looks like she's got a contract in Poland, so she's going to be leaving very soon for that. Izi (Castro Marques), I just found out, is in Spain. Good to know that. She went from Latvia home for the holidays and now is in Spain already. It's good to see her back playing that kind of basketball again. She is happiest when she's playing and playing a lot. Tanisha (Wright) is playing well in Israel. Ashley (Robinson) is back in Texas; she was released from her team around the holidays. Tiffani (Johnson) is MIA; haven't talked to her, haven't heard from her, so hopefully she had a good birthday last month. Edwige (Lawson-Wade) is in Russia, playing good basketball.

As a former coach in Charlotte, what is your reaction to the news that the Sting has folded?
It’s disappointing, more than anything. It’s just really disappointing. From the outside, it looks like it’s such a great opportunity to have a WNBA team. It’s ACC country; North Carolina, Duke and N.C. State are all such premier programs in women’s basketball that it seems like a logical place, but the reality is, as long as I’ve been going to Charlotte - even before I took that job and moved to Charlotte - was that was a tough market. In the very early years of the WNBA, they did very well, but the novelty seemed to wear off. It was harder and harder to get people in the stands. I’m disappointed personally, but what I would like to see is 14 markets or more that are well-supported where enough people are passionate about the team that they have. I know there are tremendously passionate fans in Charlotte that will be very disappointed, but they just couldn’t get it going. It's unfortunate, but the hopeful side of me is that we get teams in cities where they are well-supported.

Living in Charlotte during the off-season, what did you hear the last few months?
Yeah, I've been back since late fall and kind of going through the whole process back there. I think there was a lot of back-and-forth, they were hopeful that the team would be saved. The new owners were trying hard to raise enough capital to invest. I think there was a lot of back-and-forth where they thought they had it, then it didn't look good, then it looked good. With that came a lot of different folks that came and went.

From a basketball perspective, how does losing the Sting affect things?
The sad part is we get the seventh pick in the Dispersal Draft. It's always great when you're a team that has a high pick in the college draft and it happens to be a Dispersal Draft as well. Teams like Phoenix and some of our counterparts in the Western Conference end up with picks at double time - the college pick and the dispersal pick that will only help them. It's not great timing for us, but with the seventh pick, hopefully we can strengthen our bench with a player.

STORM CONTRACT STATUS

Under contract for 2007: Lauren Jackson Betty Lennox Wendy Palmer Ashley Robinson Barbara Turner Tanisha Wright Unrestricted free agents: Janell Burse Tiffani Johnson Restricted free agents (Storm has the right to match any offer) Sue Bird Iziane Castro Marques Shaunzinski Gortman Reserved player (Can negotiate only with Storm) Edwige Lawson-Wade

What have you seen as you've been out scouting for the WNBA Draft?
On the flip side, moving from eighth to seventh will help us in the college picks. We felt pretty good about eight, we feel better about seven. We will get a player that will definitely help us in terms of our depth. We're not looking at a starter with the seventh pick unless we were able to trade it and move up, but we are looking at a player that could help us. The top of the draft board that we identified before the college season started, that really hasn't changed very much. We have identified who the top players are. The beauty of this draft is we probably will have the luxury of picking a position. We feel like, at seven, there will be a good player at almost every position still available to us. That being said, I think we will probably take the best player available, but it will be at a position that we need.

Will that need depend upon the results of free agency?
Yes. We have to lock up JB and to figure out where Izi's coming from. We're in pretty good shape when you think about a couple of years ago, when we lost three of our top six. Thank God we're not there anymore, but JB and Izi both, two of our starters, it's going to be really important that we wrap that up and bring them back.

Would you like to add some more experience, or does your position relative to the salary cap not allow that?
Good question. It is very difficult to add that, because you can only trade it. We can't add it to what we're already paying for our veteran players. The trend in the league, and we're similar, is that we pay our top players pretty well and then we've got some youth on our bench, with the exception of Wendy Palmer. You can't afford to pay a lot to players who are in backup roles. In a perfect world, yes, I'd love to go out and have more leadership to complement our young veterans, Sue and Lauren, but the reality is that the salary cap prohibits that.

As we start gearing up for the WNBA hot stove, and we're into 2007, how excited are you to get going again?
It's great. The schedule being released - all that means is the calendar year's flipped over and we're closer to training camp in April. It's exciting. We're finally getting papers out to players in the middle of this month and start getting commitments early next month. Once the New Year comes, then you're really getting much closer to actually getting on the court again. It's a long off-season, as you know, but it's exciting to think that we're four months away.