{"id":195197,"date":"2025-10-07T13:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/195197\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T13:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:11:07","slug":"this-trade-makes-connecticut-sun-rebuild-through-draft-more-difficult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/195197\/","title":{"rendered":"This Trade Makes Connecticut Sun Rebuild Through Draft More Difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rarely does it pay to lose. About the only thing it gets a team like the Connecticut Sun is a high draft pick. That won\u2019t be the case this year, though. <\/p>\n

The Sun finished with one of the worst records in the WNBA<\/a>, winning just 11 games. They\u2019ll be involved with the WNBA Draft Lottery, whenever that is scheduled. The league and its players must reach a collective bargaining agreement first. <\/p>\n

But the lottery is really nothing more than a spectator sport for the Sun<\/a>. Wherever Connecticut\u2019s ping pong ball lands, it won\u2019t belong to them, thanks to a trade made more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

\"Connecticut<\/p>\n

David Butler II-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Seeking veteran leadership on the perimeter, the Sun worked out a deal with the Chicago Sky in the middle of the 2024 season. The Sun got guard Marina Mabrey<\/a> and the Sky\u2019s 2025 No. 25 pick. In return the Sun shipped Rachel Banham, Moriah Jefferson and the 2025 No. 10 pick overall. Plus, the Sky received one more pick in return \u2014 the right to swap 2026 first round picks. <\/p>\n

Now, that doesn\u2019t sound so bad because the Sky are in a similar boat \u2014 they\u2019re in the WNBA Draft<\/a> lottery as well. But, it\u2019s not the Sky\u2019s pick that is being swapped. When the deal was announced by the league, the swap is Phoenix\u2019s 2026 first round pick acquired by Chicago prior to the 2024 season for Connecticut\u2019s 2026 first round pick.<\/p>\n

So, that swap kicks the Sun out of the lottery portion. In a draft that will likely feature UConn\u2019s Azzi Fudd as the No. 1 overall pick, that\u2019s a bitter pill for the Sun to swallow. <\/p>\n

Connecticut does have two selections. The first is that Phoenix pick, which will be among the last four in the first round as the Mercury reached the WNBA Finals. The other pick is a selection also likely to be at the end of the first round. That stems from a trade the Sun made that included the Minnesota Lynx. <\/p>\n

Two first-round pick is better than one. But, given that Mabrey is a free agent after the season and may not return, the Sun didn\u2019t get much from their investment, at least this season. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Not having a lottery pick robs the Sun from adding another elite young player to a core that could carry the franchise for the next few seasons. That core includes WNBA all-Rookie selection Leila Lacan, guard Saniya Rivers, forward Aneesah Morrow and forward Aaliyah Edwards. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rarely does it pay to lose. About the only thing it gets a team like the Connecticut Sun…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-195197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}