Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thanks to Kevin Pelton for keeping we Storm fans supplied with news. I am sure he knows we are suffering in the wake of Seattle's unspeakable loss to the not so evil, but we wish they were, Houston Comets on Saturday.

We are all still reeling, and to top it off there was no coverage today in any of our local papers. Kevin responds with three juicy articles answering our call for something, anything on our team.

He covers the FIBA World Championships and shares with us what Anne Donnovan has to say with regard to the potential conflicts.

Lauren Jackson, Suzy Batkovic, Sue Bird, Izzianne Castro-Marques, Natalia Vodopyanova and Francesca Zara are all expected to play for their national teams and Anne Donnovan herself is an assistant coach for the US team. Even Jessica Bibby (signed with the Storm this summer but sat out the season due to injury) if she decided to play for the Storm, may be committed to the Australian team.

He also shares with us coach Donnovan's thoughts on what the good things were from the 2004-2005 season. He hints at some potential veteran acquisitions that might boost Seattle back over the edge. He covered the collective bargaining agreement back in 2004, which tells us that the REAL veterans of the league have earned UFA or unrestricted free agency with 6+ years in the league. Look for the Storm to hunt for the right veteran to fill the void next season.

Finally, he covers the status of all the team's players, and talks about what the expansion draft could mean to the Storm next spring. He covers who is signed, which free agents are restricted and unrestricted and the fact that the league has yet to tell ANYONE what the rules of the draft will be. We could be faced with losing Betty Lennox, Simone Edwards and Alicia Thompson as unrestricted free agents if the Storm are unable to protect them and Chicago is able to draft them.

We will all have to stay tuned to the rules, but I doubt we will hear anymore from the league until after the finals in the next few weeks. In the mean time...thank you Kevin for being there for our needed fix.

Stats, stats, stats!
After dealing with several online vendors and their problems with backorders...I finally got my copy of Basketball on Paper by Dean Oliver. He only has a small section on the WNBA, but claims that this is due to the lack of statistical data for analysis and claims to be a big fan. Guess who he highlights (other than the DIVA), MVP candidates Sheryl Swoopes (claims she is overrated compared to Cynthia Cooper), Yolanda Griffith, Chamique Holdsclaw and he absolutely raves about a rookie from 2002 (he wrote the book prior to the 2003 season) named Tamika Catchings. He claims she may turn out to be the best player the league has ever seen. Sue gets a mention, only as a joke about Tamika taking the league by "Fever" since Sue took it by "Storm." Ha, ha, ha, Dean. Where are the stats on Lauren??? It was her second year in the league, but not her MVP year. I'd like to look at her stats. I have decided that this will be my mission for 2006. I will track the stats for the Storm as best I can and see what I can learn from applying Olliver's ideas to the Storm analysis and post them here.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Kevin Pelton may already be doing something similar...since he was charting defense for the Storm this year...but he can't share most of what he learns with the rest of us...since he works for the Storm. I have no such ties or restrictions and will continue to spout off anything I learn and share it with anyone who actually wants to listen.