I was talking with
@MilfordHusky about this the other day - Minny has not had good draft position in the longest time, but unlike LA, they have done almost nothing to get better from free agency or from trades (except for Fowles which was huge).
LA on the other hand has done loads. They had Tolliver for about 8 years then let her go to Washington and have added in Sims, Gray, Carson, and Pondexter, and also nabbed a terrific rookie from Russia in Vadeeva (if she plays). I'm sure I'm missing something for LA but point is they have made moves and gotten better and younger. Minny has done zippo for years except for Fowles and Robinson... and they let Montgomery go, who's good enough to be a starter for Atlanta...
By winning championships, Minnesota has been in a poor draft position for 7 years. Los Angeles has experienced that, but only in the past few years. Until Agler arrived, L.A. was a talented team with big name players that rather consistently under-achieved.
Of all the acquisitions, Fowles was the biggest (no pun intended). Any time you get the league MVP for nothing, it's like stealing. They brought back Montgomery, and she was a key bench player and starter when Whalen was out. But she had an opportunity to go to Atlanta, her new home town, and left via free agency. They picked up Plenette Pierson and Jia Perkins, the former Texas Tech duo, both of whom helped last year, but both retired. They had Natasha Howard, who did pretty well for 2 years, but now looks like a budding star in Seattle. They had Anna Cruz, who was pretty good in 2015. Lynette Kizer had a couple of good years in Indiana. Let's see how she does this year. Temi Fagbenle hasn't had much of a career yet, so my expectations for her are not high. Alexis Jones hasn't done much in the pros yet, but she was great in high school and good in college. She has potential, but needs to reach it. Danielle Robinson has averaged almost 10 ppg in a 7-year career. Let's see what she does. Perhaps the biggest problem for Minnesota is that both Augustus and Whalen are way below their career averages. In terms of adding young talent, Alexis Jones seems like the best candidate.
Regarding Los Angeles, they got Chelsea Gray, but had to give up a draft pick that became Jonquel Jones to get her. That's about an even swap. Alana Beard is a great defensive player, but she's 36 years old and hasn't averaged over 8.5 ppg in the last 6 seasons (her high was 19.2 in 2006). Gray has improved considerably over 2 years. She was a very good college player, but averaged about 6.5 ppg her first 2 years in the pros and had a nasty injury in college. Then she jumped to over 15 ppg the past 1+ seasons. Gray shared time with Jasmine Thomas, so Connecticut found her expendable. Carson is a decent player, but not a star. She has a career average of 7.6 ppg on 41% shooting and is nearly 32 years old. Sims had 2 good years in Tulsa, but Skylar was the future star there, so they traded her to L.A. for a draft pick (who became Alisha Gray, the ROY). Vadeeva has a ton of potential, but we don't know how good she'll be or if she'll ever decide to play in the W. I think the keys here are that L.A. needed guards and was able to find 2 teams with talented players in crowded back courts (Tulsa/Dallas and Connecticut) who were willing to let them go. Odyssey was the more successful player when traded, but the potential in Chelsea was visible. Both of those moves worked out very well for Los Angeles.
