2025 WNBA Pre-Season Thread | Page 12 | The Boneyard

2025 WNBA Pre-Season Thread

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Stagnant said:
Too bad. Theoretically, Deja earned a spot at that last preseason game. But Vegas didn’t have a spot for her.
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This and Deja's defense is really, really, REALLY bad. The three bench guards ahead of her (Tiffany Mitchell, Dana Evans, and Aaliyah Nye) are all better way defenders than she is. She also struggles to handle the ball against pressure, and I'm sure that wasn't lost on Becky.

Also, the Aces have to hold on to a certain 6'1 forward who, inexplicably, received a guaranteed contract by the now-fired Natalie Williams until Cheyenne Parker-Tyus is ready to return.

That said, I think she'll get another shot from a team that values what she does bring (solid midrange shooting). She'd fit with whatever the Mystics are trying to do. That begs the question: what are the Mystics trying to do anyway?
 
WBBTakeover said:
This and Deja's defense is really, really, REALLY bad. The three bench guards ahead of her (Tiffany Mitchell, Dana Evans, and Aaliyah Nye) are all better way defenders than she is. She also struggles to handle the ball against pressure, and I'm sure that wasn't lost on Becky.

Also, the Aces have to hold on to a certain 6'1 forward who, inexplicably, received a guaranteed contract by the now-fired Natalie Williams until Cheyenne Parker-Tyus is ready to return.

That said, I think she'll get another shot from a team that values what she does bring (solid midrange shooting). She'd fit with whatever the Mystics are trying to do. That begs the question: what are the Mystics trying to do anyway?
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The mystics need a point guard. I saw sundell got waived and I kind of wondered if she might be a fit there.
 
So, Thought I'd put all of the recent transactions in one place, courtesy of the WNBA Transactions Page on Monday, May 12.

  • The New York Liberty exercised their option with Nyara Sabally.
  • Liatu King was waived by the Los Angeles Sparks.
  • Deja Kelly was waived by the Las Vegas Aces.
  • Serena Sundell was waived by the Seattle Storm.
  • Mackenzie Holmes was waived by the Seattle Storm.
  • Brianna Fraser was waived by the Seattle Storm.

Druthers:
- Not surprised that Pitt/ND product Liatu King didn't make the cut....this time. She's an undersized forward who is great around the boards and has a solid mid-range. However, she's got to extend that range because forwards are bigger...and faster...here than in D1 college.
If she work on that somewhere, I could see her coming back and sticking next year.
  • I see only 11 names on Seattle's roster and that includes KLS, who is out for the year with that ACL injury. They've got enough folks to spell Skylar Diggins, but will they sign someone else?
  • Like Sundell. There's got to be a place for a 6'1" point guard who plays under control and can score.
  • Personally, I like Mackenzie Holmes, so would like to see her get a spot somewhere. Keep at it, Mac!
 
cancontent said:
Thanks. It looks like others consider it a valid report based off of reactions on Twitter.

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So, unless the citizens of eastern Connecticut bond together and pull a Green Bay Packer-ownership deal, the Sun will probably be setting in eastern Connecticut. In fact the team will probably be sold, moved to one of the cities that are bidding for one franchise and have their name changed. (It's the Whalers again...damn.:()

League Management, in effect, will get a two-fer here. So will the owners give a local/regional interest a slight buyers advantage (hello, Boston) or are we talking highest bidder. Stay tuned.
 
Stagnant said:
The mystics need a point guard. I saw sundell got waived and I kind of wondered if she might be a fit there.
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I'd take Serena Sundell over Deja based solely on college stats. However, Deja showed a clear WNBA skill during preseason while I don't believe Serena did. They're both fringe talents, so it is what it is.

Regardless of what happens with them and the Mystics this season, both guards are too young and too well known for me to believe that they're completely done with the W.

I was more shocked by the Mackenzie Holmes cut. She didn't look out of place during their preseason game (and I thought she had solid moments defensively--can remember a block she had during the game), so maybe she didn't show enough during the scrimmage or was caught in a numbers crunch (I can believe the latter, given the depth they have inside with Nneka, Ezi, Dom, and Li Yueru).
 
One more note on Deja Kelly: I thought she might get the axe when she repeatedly ignored Liz Kitley rolling at the end of the Mercury game. Becky may have told her to "keep shooting" for professional opportunity purposes, but her not being willing to hit Big Kit with a pass just ONCE lets me know that she doesn't have a good enough feel for the PG position at the pro level.
 
Dillon77 said:
Druthers:
- Not surprised that Pitt/ND product Liatu King didn't make the cut....this time. She's an undersized forward who is great around the boards and has a solid mid-range. However, she's got to extend that range because forwards are bigger...and faster...here than in D1 college.
If she work on that somewhere, I could see her coming back and sticking next year.
  • I see only 11 names on Seattle's roster and that includes KLS, who is out for the year with that ACL injury. They've got enough folks to spell Skylar Diggins, but will they sign someone else?
  • Like Sundell. There's got to be a place for a 6'1" point guard who plays under control and can score.
  • Personally, I like Mackenzie Holmes, so would like to see her get a spot somewhere. Keep at it, Mac!
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Unfortunately, KLS' salary counts against the cap, so the only relief of signing another player under hardship would be if there were less than 10 healthy players on the roster.
 
I don’t see Vivians on the Storms roster but didn’t see any waiver/retirement news from her. She spent last season as a MSU assistant coach and wasn’t getting many minutes in Seattle but I wondered with Horston and KLS out if she could spell a few here and there.

Just wondering if anyone saw an update.
 
JellyBean said:
Kind of bummed. I know Deja had a slim chance of making the roster, but this still does not make this move any better.
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I hear you, but the guard situation there didn't help. Nye showed more than Kelly in the end (shoulder shrug emoji here)?
 
azfan said:
In limited court time Kelly showed she could score the ball. Very aggressive in looking for and making her shot.
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Deja can play, and she outplayed one of our draftees. She just can't overcome a numbers crunch because she doesn't have the skill set yet to be a PG in the WNBA. She should keep pursuing this, however, as she has a killer midrange shot (a WNBA-level skill). If she can work on staying in front of her man, not ball up under pressure, and read ball screens better to hit the roller sometimes, she can become a decent back-up PG in this league one day.

Someone will take a chance on her again. In addition to her game, she's got a marketable look and is eloquent. It's too bad that we can't keep her to develop her because this isn't a developmental league (and we haven't managed to develop our 25-year-old albatross perched at the end of the bench).
 
BRS24 said:
Unfortunately, KLS' salary counts against the cap, so the only relief of signing another player under hardship would be if there were less than 10 healthy players on the roster.
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Another (related) issue for the new CBA to address: these onerous rules are albatrosses on a GM, Coach and Players (trying to make rosters).
 
Dillon77 said:
Another (related) issue for the new CBA to address: these onerous rules are albatrosses on a GM, Coach and Players (trying to make rosters).
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I'd increase the cap/roster size, and also have a development pool where teams can assign players and call them up if needed, as the alternative would be a D league, which the W isn't ready for, yet.
 
An unfortunate byproduct of the salary cap is that some teams want to have 11 not 12 players. For a true contender it is probably strategic to do just that. You don't want to be paying any third stringers more than the minimum, and if you can use the $70,000 or so on a 12th player to upgrade players in the rotation maybe $30,000 more for a couple of players, then you probably increase your chances for a title.

In a perfect world a team might try to pay their 5 starters and maybe top three off the bench (one big, mid-sized, and guard) and the last three on the roster would be minimums. The trade off of course is the impact of injuries, but if you have a significant injury to one of your best players you probably are not winning a championship anyway.

This rapid expansion will help tremendously to give more women professional opportunities, and presumably a roster expansion will be part of the next contract negotiation. Twelve teams and twelve players is already very limited, but when the system at least for some teams, encourages not spending on the last spot it makes it even worse.
 


Thankful that someone posted this as I didn't stay up to watch the game and don't know if the WNBA streamed half time. Ellie and the Oregon Duck teaming up is pure fun to watch.
 
GamecockFam said:
They're a stacked roster, so I understand why it happened but Diamond deserves a spot in the league. I hope she gets picked up. The injury really derailed her progress.
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may 12 is a delayed tweet... diamond johnson is like the 5'5" PG -- not diamond miller.
 
Dillon77 said:
Another (related) issue for the new CBA to address: these onerous rules are albatrosses on a GM, Coach and Players (trying to make rosters).
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WNBA CBA & Salary Cap FAQ

The WNBA negotiation for a revised CBA will be extraordinarily complex given the ownership structure of the WNBA. The NBA owns a significant portion (42.5% I believe) of the WNBA - I also believe that 7 WNBA franchises are owned by NBA owners which creates some interesting tensions as the the goals within the WNBA ownership are much different, more varied that in the NBA. WNBA owners independent of the NBA certain will have preferences based upon current conditions - for example, it appears that franchise valuations are poised to increase substantially, based upon expansion. So, if I were an independent owner (non NBA) and I expected these exponential franchise values to continue I might adopt the Bidwell model. The Bidwell family owns the NFL Card franchise and reaps the benefits of exploding NFL valuations while minimizing expenditures. This make economic sense as the Bidwell ownership owns an increasing valuable asset, pays no tax on this valuation increase until the team is sold, fills the front office with family and claims a tax loss. So, this is a financial decision. I mean, look at the new ownership of the NBA Suns, pay a ton for the team, spend money like a drunken sailor on shore leave, pay 3 head coaches, make idiotic roster movers *(acquire Brad Beal with the all time worst contract of all time - from the owner perspective) and LOSE, LOSE, LOSE.

Given this complexity and differing perspective and goals of NBA v independent WNBA ownership groups I would not be confident that the players will see a significant share of revenue, with one caveat.....NBA players such as LeBron, near the end of their career, might weigh in to try to time the scales for their sisters on the court.

It will be interesting and Pheesa's comment reflects a solidarity and commitment by a veteran player that historically had been lacking in professional sport labor negotiations (*think the NFL player association contracts which are skewed toward vets)

WNBA Expansion Cuts Into Owners’ Share, Not NBA or 2022 Investors

"WNBA teams do receive more than 42% of national revenue under a complex formula with part of the NBA’s share flowing to W teams. That is particularly important given the league’s new TV contracts with ESPN, NBC and Amazon are worth $200 million a year, six times its previous ESPN annual average. The WNBA also expects to sell additional packages of games that could be worth $60 million or more per year.

The surge in revenue and attention is part of why the WNBA players opted out of the league’s CBA agreement late last year. The current labor accord now expires at the end of this upcoming season, and union head Terri Carmichael Jackson has said the players will push for an “equity-based” economic model, perhaps adding more complexity to an already crowded cap table. "

The WNBA Labor Dispute Is Just Another Choice Made by the NBA - The Sling
 
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