When a WNBA season concludes with a champion being crowned, the attention of the women’s basketball universe usually shifts to the high school and collegiate ranks.
But the attention on the high school and collegiate ranks, of course, gives us a glimpse at the WNBA stars of tomorrow after five to six months of viewing the WNBA notables of today.
The W calendar, of course, does have marquee events during the offseason. Those include the draft lottery and the start of free agency which typically occurs around the beginning of February.
We typically do not hear about free agency decisions in many sports for weeks or months after said times on the schedule begin. For the WNBA, we get wind of all of this player movement usually the days leading up to and following the beginning of February.
Free agency this year is, of course, happening against the backdrop of so many of these marquee names having converged on South Florida to take part in Unrivaled. These include Jewell Loyd, Satou Sabally, Natasha Cloud, Courtney Vandersloot, Brittney Griner and Alyssa Thomas.
The reported major moves we have received wind of include a three-team trade involving the Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm and Los Angeles Sparks where Jewell Loyd was dealt to the Aces and Kelsey Plum heading to the Sparks. Plum was originally slated to take part in Unrivaled but bowed out for reasons known only to her and those in her inner circle (as it should be until she decides to reveal said reasons).
One of the recently reported trades has been another multi-team deal involving the Mercury, Dallas Wings and Indiana Fever. With Satou Sabally having no intent on returning to the Wings, this meant a trade had to be engineered. That trade saw Sabally, who was being courted by both Phoenix and the defending champion New York Liberty, dealt to Phoenix in a deal that also saw NaLyssa Smith and Kiki Herbert-Harrigan heading to Dallas. Sophie Cunningham was also dealt in the deal as well – to the Fever. The above trade was also linked to another deal, effectively making it a four way trade where the Phoenix Mercury sent Natasha Cloud and Rebecca Allen to the Sun in exchange for Alyssa Thomas.
The flurry of player movement has also included Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones going to the Atlanta Dream, Courtney Vandersloot’s return to the Chicago Sky, Natasha Howard returning to the Fever, DeWanna Bonner joining the Fever, Nneka Ogwumike re-signing with the Storm and Michaela Onyenwere re-signing with the Chicago Sky.
All of this movement had us thinking about another sport that is known for a flurry of player movement around a constricted period.
That is Major League Baseball. Except in MLB, its busiest time for player movement does not happen prior to the season. It happens in the push for its playoffs.
Late July is typically when trades can be completed in baseball prior to teams having to clear waivers. The way MLB works is if a trade happens after July 31 and a team claims a player off waivers then it effectively makes the deal null and void.
One must also keep in mind is MLB – unlike the WNBA – has no hard salary cap, but a soft cap in the form of a luxury tax top spenders such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs pay to keep teams with lower payrolls (like the Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates and Seattle Mariners) afloat.
One also has to keep in mind that in MLB, at the deadline, trades are typically engineered by teams looking to add pieces to bolster their clubs for their respective pennant chases. In the WNBA, if a team adds enough free agents, a team can go from a borderline playoff team to a borderline championship contender. Ask the Atlanta Dream or Phoenix Mercury this year.
Regardless, it is as every bit as exciting a time for fans and the W as player movement will always be a topic that will send the whole of our WNBA family into a tizzy. The comparison to baseball’s trade deadline is because MLB has – by far – the busiest deadline in all of sports.
But as Plum eloquently pointed out in her Instagram post, we must remember that real human beings are being affected by the realities of free agency.
Plum had a rocky start to her WNBA career being drafted out of Washington when the Aces were still in San Antonio as the Stars. The move to Las Vegas and becoming part of the Aces’ core four with A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young gave her career a second wind and Las Vegas has come to mean a lot to her as a player and as a person.
A growing WNBA means more fans becoming more familiar with the WNBA calendar. And that means those fans – many of whom could also be baseball fans – will learn the reality that free agency in the W has become as wild a time as the trade deadline is in MLB. With more teams being added to the W and a new collective bargaining agreement that has to be ironed out between players and league, it is likely that, in the coming years, free agency will become busier than ever.
But as Plum’s post reminded us, making the transition to a new team and city may not be as easy or smooth as making a transition fastbreak layup.
