WNBA Off-Season

[bballnut90]

Betts and Flaujae both confirmed they're staying in college for the 2025-26 season. Olivia Miles is the next big question mark--my guess is she goes pro since she's been in South Bend for 5 seasons already.

 

[Bigboote]

Two notations from the WNBA transaction page that caught my attention:

- Grace Berger was picked off waivers by the Minnesota Lynx.
Now I know Berger spent years in Bloomington, then played in Indy for two seasons, but I can't think of a better team for her to be given her next chance.

- Hey UConn fans! Ann Makurat signed a Rookie Scale Contract with the Phoenix Mercury. She's been in the Lega Basket Femminile for a few years.

I’m so glad Berger has been picked up by a team that might know how to use her. She had a decent rookie year for the Fever, but Sides totally ignored her once the Caitlin Clark Show arrived. She has a good skill set — does everything well, nothing spectacular.

I hope we’ll see Makurat this year.

 

[JellyBean]

I’m so glad Berger has been picked up by a team that might know how to use her. She had a decent rookie year for the Fever, but Sides totally ignored her once the Caitlin Clark Show arrived. She has a good skill set — does everything well, nothing spectacular.

I hope we’ll see Makurat this year.

I love this pick up for my Minnesota Lynx. I am a huge Grace Berger fan. I hated that she would torch my Minnesota Gophers while playing for Indiana, but Grace is a gamer! I am happy that she is on the roster for the Lynx. Grace just has one of the sweetest mid-range shots in the game! Well done, Coach Reeve!! Now I just hope that we keep Grace on the roster.

 

[DRR25]

Colson signing is surprising, especially with all of the nasty things her agent has said about Clark on twitter. Wheeler isn't commanding that salary again but who else in the league is offering her more than the vet minimum at this point in her career? A vet minimum on the Fever is probably more attractive than anywhere else with the exposure.

Can you quote from the tweets what the "nasty things her agent has said about Clark"? I've read a few of the tweets but wonder what you're seeing as "nasty."

 

[GamecockFam]

I love this pick up for my Minnesota Lynx. I am a huge Grace Berger fan. I hated that she would torch my Minnesota Gophers while playing for Indiana, but Grace is a gamer! I am happy that she is on the roster for the Lynx. Grace just has one of the sweetest mid-range shots in the game! Well done, Coach Reeve!! Now I just hope that we keep Grace on the roster.

I could see Courtney Williams taking Berger under her wing as her backup. I feel like that is a good pairing of styles and the Lynx won't have to change much on the court to accommodate Berger's style of PG play.

 

[Dillon77]

Betts and Flaujae both confirmed they're staying in college for the 2025-26 season. Olivia Miles is the next big question mark--my guess is she goes pro since she's been in South Bend for 5 seasons already.

As a homer Domer, my gut: If the Irish get to the Final Four this year (knock on plate gold), Olivia will go pro for sure.
Elite 8, maybe: her long-standing colleagues on the Irish are Soni Citron and Maddy Westbeld and both of those players have to move on. Sweet 16 -- I think she'll come back.

 

[cancontent]

I love this pick up for my Minnesota Lynx. I am a huge Grace Berger fan. I hated that she would torch my Minnesota Gophers while playing for Indiana, but Grace is a gamer! I am happy that she is on the roster for the Lynx. Grace just has one of the sweetest mid-range shots in the game! Well done, Coach Reeve!! Now I just hope that we keep Grace on the roster.

I'm with you and @Bigboote on hoping Berger gets a chance to shine here. She has a great role model to learn from with Carleton on the roster. Things didn't work out at the Sun, but over the last few years, Carleton has turned into a key part of the Lynx's roster as we all saw this season.

 

[cancontent]

I could see Courtney Williams taking Berger under her wing as her backup. I feel like that is a good pairing of styles and the Lynx won't have to change much on the court to accommodate Berger's style of PG play.

Is Berger a PG though? That's not how I felt she played while at Indiana. I see her style of play being similar to Carleton.

 

[Dillon77]

I'm with you and @Bigboote on hoping Berger gets a chance to shine here. She has a great role model to learn from with Carleton on the roster. Things didn't work out at the Sun, but over the last few years, Carleton has turned into a key part of the Lynx's roster as we all saw this season.

Lots of superb role models on that team about people that have persevered: Williams, Alanna Smith, Carleton among them.
Plus you've got the great/very good players who have their feet firmly on earth in 'Phee and Kayla McBride. Think she'll also get along with players like Dorka Juhasz and Jess Shepard, another midwestern girl.

 

[Dillon77]

Is Berger a PG though? That's not how I felt she played while at Indiana. I see her style of play being similar to Carleton.

I think she's a combo guard, whereas Carleton is more of a 2-combination. Berger is very comfortable leading breaks and can run sets, but she's best when read/reacting her mid-range game.

 

[Bigboote]

Is Berger a PG though? That's not how I felt she played while at Indiana. I see her style of play being similar to Carleton.

I think she's a combo guard, whereas Carleton is more of a 2-combination. Berger is very comfortable leading breaks and can run sets, but she's best when read/reacting her mid-range game.

I’ve never been afraid to be weird, but I see Berger as almost a combo point guard/small forward. So I see the remarks that she’ll have good role models in Williams and Carleton as quite sensible. Grace has great court vision and is deceptively strong. I know she’s been working on her outside shot, but I don’t know how well it’s developing.

 

[Dillon77]

Leila Lacan, the 20-year-old forward from France who the Connecticut Sun had drafted in the 1st round in April 2024 -- but didn't come over to concentrate on playing for France in the Olympics -- has signed a rookie contract with the Sun.

So, depending on who the Sun drafts in April, Connecticut will have two first-round draft choices at training camp.

 

[GamecockFam]

Is Berger a PG though? That's not how I felt she played while at Indiana. I see her style of play being similar to Carleton.

She was the backup PG to Wheeler in year 1 with the Fever. I may be a little bias though, because Williams is probably my favorite non-Gamecock player in the W. I just love her game and would love to see more players like her in the league.

 

[oldhusky]

Okay. Parker could be a good signing, but otherwise I think they are treading water. If Gray doesn't go back to pre-2024 form I don't think it really matters who they add, they're going nowhere. I'm also very much in wait and see mode if Loyd will fill the same role as Plum as well as Plum did.

I think the Aces were almost doomed to take at least somewhat of a step backwards, mostly because of the cap. Lloyd vs Plum might be close to a wash as players but Plum took less salary and the Aces were in a situation where they couldn't really pay market value to retain key players from last year.

Under those circumstances I think they did what they could. Clark is quite old and slipped a bit last year, but Hayes will be missed, and Evans and Mitchell cannot be expected to replace her production. On the other hand getting Parker is a major addition at a position of need. She is a likely starter and will allow Vegas to bring either a defensive (Stokes) or offensive (Gustafson) big off the bench, while hoping Kitley might show enough to keep her around for future development.

I was very surprised they got Parker so cheap. I figured she would wind up getting pretty much all of the money over minimum contracts, but now maybe something else is in the works. The dream of course would be if one of a couple of players that have been out of the league returned to be a 3/4 type on the Aces for what is left above the minimum. I am talking about Messeman or Della Donne.

On a more realistic level there aren't many viable FA options left for the Aces, maybe Aerial Powers would be worth a look as the last transaction.