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CBA 101
2004 Storm Takes Shape
Storm News Archive
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"It was very difficult when I was at the postgame party and my trainer was talking to me about exit interviews and exit physicals," Storm Coach Anne Donovan told reporters as she met with them this season for the last time after the team's Championship Celebration. "You've got to be kidding me."
 Bird is one of two Storm players under contract for next season. Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty |
For the majority of Storm players, who play overseas, there is no off-season. The same is true for the team's coaching staff, which is already beginning the process of scouting NCAA games in anticipation of next April's WNBA Draft and trying to keep the Storm on top.
Now, there is a new goal in place for the Storm's braintrust. Instead of looking to ascend to the level of champions, the Storm is looking to join the Houston Comets and Los Angeles Sparks as repeat champions. Will the Storm do it?
"I'd be a fool for saying that, but we're going to die trying," said Donovan.
The Storm enters the off-season with just two players, Bird and 2004 second-round pick Trina Frierson, under contract for 2005. That's not unusual for the WNBA - the Storm had only one player under contract for 2004 this time a year ago - but as more and more WNBA players get to enjoy free agency under the terms of the WNBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Storm will have several free agents.
As veterans of six or more seasons, guard Tully Bevilaqua and forwards Adia Barnes and Sheri Sam are unrestricted free agents. The Storm also has six players who can be restricted free agents, meaning with a qualifying offer the Storm can gain the right of first refusal on any contract offered them by another team. Those players are guard Lennox, forwards Jackson (who may be designated a core player, which would ensure she stays in Seattle) and Alicia Thompson and centers Janell Burse, Simone Edwards and Vodichkova.
The Storm's 12th player last season was rookie guard Michelle Greco, who does not have a contract for 2005 but also lacks enough service time to become a free agent, making her what is known as a "reserved" player. Greco can sign only with the Storm.
Given the Storm's success and the popularity of Donovan with her players, all of them likely wish to return to the team next season. The complicating factor, unfortunately, will be the WNBA's hard salary cap. (It is referred to as a hard salary cap because it cannot be exceeded except in rare circumstances, unlike the NBA's soft cap which most teams outspend.)
"It won't be easy," said Donovan. "I haven't thought about the ins and outs of it, but the salary cap is complicated. It was difficult to put this team together this year, to make the trade work, to get Betty in, and with every year it gets more complicated.
"We'll figure it out. I'm confident that we have the braintrust here. I loan from the Sonics quite a bit as we try to figure out the numbers and all that's new to me. They helped me through it last year, and I know (Chief Operating Officer) Karen (Bryant) and I will devise a plan and we'll get the support we need to make sure we can execute it."
In particular, Sonics Assistant GM Rich Cho, known as the team's cap expert, has helped the Storm in the past and will continue to do so in the future. With Cho's help, Donovan was able to be "creative" - her word - and keep veteran Edwards while staying under the cap.
The hard cap has made it more difficult for successful teams to stay together. For example, because the Los Angeles Sparks were spending so much on their five starters and reserves Teresa Weatherspoon and Tamika Whitmore, they were only able to keep 11 players and had to fill their bench with players with three years or less experience (the WNBA's minimum salary jumps for players with four or more years experience).
 After winning Finals MVP, Lennox will be a sought-after free agent. Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty |
"The biggest hurdle is making sure we continue to be at the top in terms of our talent," Donovan said. "I think we were last year. I think the moves we made last year stepped us right up there with our talent. Then it came down to chemistry, execution, willingness to commit; all those things made this team great.
"You look at us - we didn't have the best talent in the league necessarily, but we were as talented as the top teams. So for us, that will be number one - making sure we stay as talented, if not more talented, than everyone else. There will be a constant dialogue about keeping the chemistry and all that."
Adding talent through free agency seems unlikely because of the Storm's precarious position with regards to the cap, leaving the draft the first option. The Storm will have the 12th pick next April, as well as pick 25 in the second round and pick 38 in the third round.
As with last season, Donovan will split scouting duties with assistants Jenny Boucek (who handles the Western half of the country) and Jessie Kenlaw (who handles the East). Donovan will focus on the players identified by Boucek and Kenlaw as top prospects, regardless which part of the country they are in. International players are another possibility, though Donovan tends to feel the opportunity there has come and gone.
"Frankly, the international talent, I've seen a lot of it, and the WNBA's got most of it," she said. "There's very few players that are over there that I have an interest in."
Also, don't count on the Storm adding post Suzy Batkovic, the team's second-round pick in 2003 and Jackson's Australian Opals teammate who has yet to come to the WNBA and is unlikely to do so in the future.
"After talking to her - the more she plays, the more money she makes and the more difficult it becomes to talk her into this," Donovan said. "Chances are I'll try to go see her again and I'll try to talk her into it, but I need to get some better indication that it's going to be more than the money.
"She's making a healthy six-figure salary overseas, and here she'd be making $30,000. And you go back to playing 12 months a year if you do both."
This off-season, in the final analysis, seems to come down more to the players the Storm already has - and the success those players have already had as a team - more than the players the team could potentially acquire.
"I feel really good about where we are," Donovan said. Where the Storm is, until beaten by someone else, remains the top of the WNBA.
2005 Storm Status Report
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