The Connecticut Sun already swung a major deal with Minnesota, giving up All-Star guard Lindsay Whalen in a move which landed them the top overall pick in Thursday's draft.

On Wednesday Connecticut made a lesser deal, shipping former first-round picks Amber Holt and Chante Black to Tulsa for the No. 7 overall pick and a second-round selection in next year's draft.

With the Sun set to pick UConn center Tina Charles and selecting DeMya Walker in a dispersal draft after the Sacramento Monarchs folded, it's unlikely that Black would have made the Sun's 11-person roster.

The move could pave the way for the Sun to take UConn's Kalana Greene, who is expected to be a mid to late first round pick. Greene is far from the only player on the Sun's radar. The Sun could also pounce if one of the players at the top of the board falls to the seventh pick.

"We’re glad to have another pick in this year’s draft," Sun coach Mike Thibault said in a statement. "We have not decided what we are going to do with it. We have three or four options, depending on how the draft falls. We felt like we knew what the core of our team was. We would have had to cut another player when Sandrine comes, and this will help alleviate that situation as well as some salary cap issues. Amber and Chante are going to be good young players in the league, and they will help Tulsa. But we felt like we were heading in a different direction."

The good news is that the elbow injury suffered by Connecticut Sun center Chante Black does not appear to be a season-ending one. The bad news is that the Sun will be without its tallest player when the Atlanta Dream, which headed into today's game against Chicago second in the WNBA in rebounding and rebounding margin, comes to the Mohegan Sun on Saturday.

According to team officials, Black suffered a moderate sprain of her left elbow during Sunday's victory over San Antonio. She is not expected to play on Saturday against Atlanta. Her condition will be evaluated following that game by team
physician Ammar Anbari.

Black was injured in the third quarter of a 71-58 Connecticut victory when
she tried to brace herself while falling after colliding with a San Antonio player. She scored a career-high 11 points and her eight rebounds was one shy of her career high. Black started the first six games of the season. She was averaging 4.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.5 blocks for the 3-3 Sun. Veteran Tamika Whitmore, who started 33 games for Connecticut last season, is a likely choice to replace Black in the starting lineup.

With Amber Holt still sidelined with a hand injury, the Sun will only have nine healthy players until either Black or Holt are cleared to play. Following Saturday's game two players will need to be let go as Anete Jekabsone-Zogota and Sandrine Gruda are expected to report to the team before the Sun plays its next game on July 2 at Indiana. It is safe to say that neither Black nor Holt are being considered as possibilities to hit the waiver wire.

Even before the question was raised at the post-game press conference, Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault thought it best to be proactive.

So he let the media know that he had nothing concrete to report on the status of rookie center Chante Black who injured her left elbow in the third quarter of Sunday's win over San Antonio.

Thibault said Black would have x-rays taken tonight with an MRI set for tomorrow. Expect an update on her status at some point tomorrow afternoon.

The fact that Black was sitting comfortably in the locker room after the game, fielding questions from reporters seems to indicate it is not that serious but since I have no medical background, I will wait until I let the experts do their jobs before I further update Black's status.

"I just wanted to shut up from screaming as fast as I could," Black said. "You just don't know what is going on exactly, you just know that you are hurt and want to know what it is. I don't know but I am sure it will turn out for the best."

Black, who scored in double figures for the first time in her young WNBA career, had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Thibault said the timetable has not changed for European stars Anete Jekabsone-Zogota and Sandrine Gruda. Thibault said they should arrive in between Saturday's home game against Atlanta and a July 2 contest at Indiana. What that means is that Saturday's game will be the final one with the current roster and Thibault will have some tough choices to make as he will need to cut two players when Jekabsone-Zogota and Gruda report to camp. The play of Kiesha Brown and Tan White, both picked up on waivers, will make his decision all the more difficult. It was not a good sign that former UConn star Barbara Turner passed up open jumpers for most of the game while Brown and White were more assertive.