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Starting Five: Thoughts and Musings on first day of WNBA Free Agency

Photo Credit: Lamar Carter

If the WNBA has taught us anything over the past few years, it is that its free agency period is sure to be chaos – and the first day of the 2022 rendition appeared to be no exception.

While we had heard of some reported news prior to when players can actually sign new contracts, it was as if a dam was on the verge of breaking with said dam’s expiration date being February 1st.

Among the many things that stuck out on the first day of free agency, here is what caught our attention.

Take Cover

Even though it was already known that Sue Bird would be returning to the Seattle Storm for her final season (as well as the Storm’s first season at the new Climate Pledge Arena), there was actual lingering doubt about the other two elements of Noelle Quinn’s big three in the Emerald City.

Both Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd were on the free agent market – and both were reported to have meetings with the New York Liberty.

Stewart, of course, is a native of New York State, so returning to the Empire State would have made a lot more sense for her than it would have Loyd who built her basketball name in Chicago.

Eventually, both Loyd and Stewart decided to re-up with the Storm. Loyd’s new deal is for two years. Stewie’s though is only for one season – 2022 – which produced more than enough social media chatter that she will trade in emerald green for seafoam green in 2023 and head back to her native New York to be part of the Liberty.

If Stew York becomes a thing in 2023 may depend on what happens in 2022 with the Storm. Seattle’s 2022 began as a promising one up to the Olympic break. The Storm even defeated the Connecticut Sun in the Commissioner’s Cup Final in Phoenix shortly after the Olympic break had concluded.

A combination of load management and injuries torpedoed the Storm’s season and Seattle dropped from being the No. 1 seed to the No. 4 seed and were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by eventual Finals participant Phoenix Mercury.

If the Storm get back to the Finals – or even win another WNBA championship, could it entice Stewie and the Gold Mamba to return to Seattle long-term even after Bird calls it a career? Or will No. 30 still bounce and get back in the New York groove?

Developing hot …

One More Year

Bird is not the only WNBA all-time great that will be putting away her jersey after this season.

As it was announced today by the Minnesota Lynx, Sylvia Fowles, who was part of two of the Lynx’s four championships in their 2010s dynasty and is the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder, will be returning to Minnesota for one more season.

If all goes according to plan for Cheryl Reeve and her team, the Lynx will once again field a veteran-centric team. As we all know, Reeve prefers to reload instead of rebuild and having one of its all-time great players is sure to be the centerpiece of another reloading effort that will see Minnesota as contenders in 2022.

It must be said – with the accolades that Fowles has received, Sweet Syl deserves every bit of a farewell tour as Bird will surely get. Both are greats in their own right, but one cannot give so much hype to Bird’s farewell tour to almost completely ignore that of Fowles.

Sweet Syl deserves her flowers – and in 2022, she will be deserving of every single one of them.

Unhappy Stars?

Now, here is the tweet that essentially broke WNBA Twitter yesterday.


Liz Cambage, who has played two of the last three seasons (2020 in the bubble being the exception) with the Las Vegas Aces and before that with the Dallas Wings, dishing her two cents on how she feels about playing in the W – at least for this season.

It does not take much to interpret from that tweet that Cambage, also a free agent but one with a thing for signing one-year contracts, is no longer as enthralled with the WNBA as she may have been recently. It may have even been a sign that perhaps her interest in basketball as a whole has waned.

After all, it was announced that she would not be participating alongside the Australian Opals in the upcoming FIBA World Cup. And when the Liberty hired Sandy Brondello, the Opals coach, as its new coach, that all but stopped any “Lizberty” speculation in its tracks.

Then … a door may have been opened to a possible Cambage return in 2022 after all.

At this point, Cambage talking to the Los Angeles Sparks may be the only thing that makes sense if she were to come back to the WNBA. Remember … who is one of the Sparks’ assistant coaches? Fred Williams. Cambage looks to Williams like a father figure – and the reason why she decided to give the W another try while he was head coach with the Wings.

The Williams-Cambage connection may be the thing that makes Liz Angeles a thing after all. The Sparks narrowly lost out on the Cambage sweepstakes prior to the 2019 season only because Dallas’ front office outsmarted itself in accepting a lesser trade offer from the Aces as opposed to one from Los Angeles that would have netted more for the Wings.

As for what Cambage said – she makes a great point and the only reason the message is getting some flack is because it is getting lost in who said it. As great a player as she is, she is also one of the more polarizing figures among some corners of the WNBA fanbase for some of the things she does that are offshoots of basketball.

Whether that was her beef with Natasha Cloud (Washington Mystics, Athletes Unlimited) or that with Sun coach Curt Miller, Cambage has her fair share of detractors for always speaking her mind and wearing her emotions on her sleeves.

That should not discredit from the point she is making about WNBA salaries, which some – only because they are trying to stir up unnecessary drama – wanted to interpret as a shot at new Aces coach Becky Hammon. She earned the richest WNBA contract ever to become a head coach as well as a general manager and a big part of that is because Las Vegas owner Mark Davis has the money to be able to shell out to pay top dollar to a top candidate such as Hammon.

As for Cambage, she has established herself to the point where the WNBA needs her more than she needs the W. Whether it is getting booked for DJ appearances, her OnlyFans channel or her endorsements, which includes Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty, Cambage is a businesswoman who knows how to secure multiple bags.

And the WNBA would be fumbling a big one if it were to let Cambage walk. She is, without question, one of the W’s most marketable players. In addition, she is all about bringing awareness to mental health as well as social justice – two pillars that the WNBPA fought hard for in its updated collective bargaining agreement.

A great point was made by her – why should she, one of the best players in the world, still be flying coach? Travel was one of the many aspects of the collective bargaining agreement that the WNBA and its WNBPA agreed upon in the updated CBA, but it was, of course, a CBA that was ratified before the pandemic.

Hopefully Cambage does decide to come back for another season, and the newfound speculation about the Sparks gives that newfound hope. The question is if Los Angeles has the cap space for her, but it is completely understandable if she decided not to return. It is a shame that some fans are focusing more on the messenger than the message, which has been a message many a WNBA player has been expressing lately.

SNY’s Chris Williamson puts it best …

Zero. Lies. Told.

Speaking of reportedly unhappy stars, imagine how Courtney Vandersloot must be feeling.

Chicago also made some free agency news when it was reported that the team had landed 2019 WNBA Finals MVP Emma Meesseman to land in the City of Broad Shoulders.

But Meesseman is a newcomer who is mostly known for helping the Mystics win a title after a grueling five-game WNBA Finals in 2019 with the Connecticut Sun. Sloot is all but synonymous with the Sky as is her wife – Allie Quigley.

In addition – what is James Wade and the Sky’s front office doing supposedly offering anyone a “wildly disrespectful” contract when Chicago is one of the few teams in the W that has plenty of cap space to play with.

The Sky did reportedly land Double-E Double-S and it looks as if Kahleah Copper, last season’s WNBA Finals MVP, will also be returning. But Gabby Williams is out and it appears Diamond DeShields is out too – possibly to the Mercury. Chicago could not possibly have so much of their cap invested into three players that it could not have offered a rosier deal to someone who has become synonymous with their franchise.

Could it?

Even worse – it was reported that her Russian team reportedly would pay her to sit out this upcoming season. Diana Taurasi had a similar arrangement in 2015. Either way, what Rowe said does not reflect well on the Sky and it would reflect even worse on the Sky and the WNBA (and, by proxy, prove Cambage’s point) if an overseas franchise would be willing to pay someone to not play in the W.

That is something both the Sky and the W as a whole need to address. The CBA was a step in the right direction, but it appears our beloved WNBA still has some work to do.

RejuvenatEDD?

Speaking of someone else who used to sport Skytown colors …

Ever since Elena Delle Donne decided to leave Chicago to be in Washington, closer to her native Delaware and brought a WNBA championship to D.C. in 2019, it appears all has been downhill in the health realm for No. 11.

She did not travel to the bubble for the 2020 season and only played a few games in 2021. It was revealed that she played in the WNBA Finals with three herniated discs in her back.

This offseason could get very interesting for the Mystics now that free agency is taking off with players able to sign contracts. It appears that not only will Meesseman not return to Washington as she is reportedly headed to Chicago, but Tina Charles also will not be returning.

The Mystics also have the first pick in this season’s draft by virtue of them winning the draft lottery. Lines.com still has the Mystics selecting Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard with the first overall selection.

But could ’22 offer a return for No. 11? She presented a promising update.

Moving again like her younger self? That had to be music to the ears of head coach Mike Thibault, who, earlier this offseason, signed a multi-year extension with the Mystics. Let us remember that Delle Donne is only 32. She is still relatively in the prime of her career even if she may be on the back side of that prime. It simply feels like she has been in the league forever at this rate.

While they may be losing Meesseman and Charles, they are getting back Myisha Hines-Allen and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. In addition, Washington also landed two ex-Atlanta Dream in Tianna Hawkins and Elizabeth Williams.

When she is at 100 percent, Delle Donne can be enough of a game changer where she can automatically lift a team back to contender status. Washington was one of the eight playoff teams in 2020 in the bubble, but narrowly missed out on the last playoff berth this past season that the Lib won over the Mystics and Sparks, sending Washington to the lottery.

Of course, that story ended up with a happy ending for the ‘Stics as they beat out the Dream, Wings and Indiana Fever for the No. 1 overall pick by winning the lottery. How would that be as well for Howard, getting to play alongside one of the W’s all-time greats to start her career.

The last couple of seasons, of course, represented a gradual decline towards a valley rather than the peak of 2019 when Washington found itself at the top of the W’s mountain. If the Mystics were to have Delle Donne’s services once again for a full season at 100%, it represents almost an immediate upswing towards a peak again because she can turn a team into a contender and the WNBA is much better when the greats such as her are at full strength.

A healthy Delle Donne in 2022? Let’s manifest…

Speaking of valleys…

While the Mystics are looking for a way out of its valley, the team that calls The Valley home is in the midst of a transition.

Sandy Brondello has traded in her orange and purple of the Phoenix Mercury for the seafoam, black and copper of the Liberty. Who knows if the investigation into misconduct by Mercury and Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver will result in him being kicked out of the WNBA/NBA Donald Sterling-style. Plus, Diana Taurasi is no longer the spring chicken/young whippersnapper she was when she was drafted out of UConn and only has so many years left before she transitions into the next phase of her life which may include … team ownership?

Even with that, the Mercury, led by Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith came within two victories last season of bringing a WNBA championship to Arizona for the first time since 2014. One would think that the goal for the Merc would be to give Taurasi a proper sendoff – one more WNBA championship and one more parade through downtown Phoenix for the X-Factor.

During ESPN’s WNBA Free Agency Special (which was 30 minutes long and would have been an hour long in a just world), the Mercury were discussed – along with the possibility that Phoenix may be in on landing DeShields (formerly of the Sky) and Charles (formerly of the Mystics and Liberty).

Vanessa Nygaard will be in her first season as Mercury head coach in 2022 following an excruciatingly long coaching find that saw Phoenix announce its new coach days past when the team had said it would. She is walking into a situation that is rosier than most, coaching a team that was a Finals participant the previous season.

Nygaard is also walking into a situation where Phoenix is not exactly in a cap-flexible scenario. While the Mercury did announce yesterday that it had re-upped with Sophie Cunningham, one of Phoenix’s proverbial x-factors in its run to the Finals in 2021, Phoenix is not operating with lots of cap space.

Getting DeShields would be another indication that general manager Jim Pitman and team president/COO Vince Kozar are thinking long and hard about life after Taurasi calls it quits. Charles is looking for a situation where she can be on a contender as she is currently 33 and will be 34 before the calendar year is over.

Then, there is the added wrinkle of if the investigation into Sarver will result in an ownership change at the Mercury and Suns.

There is also the added wrinkle of if the Mercury can pay both DeShields and Charles while staying under the cap and also paying its incumbent big three.

It could be likelier after the Mercury traded Kia Vaughn to the Dream for a 2023 third-rounder. That freed up roughly $110,000 in cap space. On paper, a frontcourt that would include Charles and Griner would give the rest of the WNBA nightmares as Phoenix looks to finish the job it left unfinished last season. It may feel like a cactus needle’s thorn in the side as it looks to figure out if it can work financially as it well as it may from a financial/cap standpoint.

And that was only day one …

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