Australian rising star Nyadiew Puoch has been rewarded for her stellar season with the WNBL side UC Capitals, gaining selection for Portland Fire in the WNBA\u2019s expansion draft.<\/p>\n
Puoch was the breakout star for the Capitals last season, averaging 11.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals as her team fell just short of the WNBL finals.<\/p>\n
Her biggest moment came in the dying seconds of Canberra\u2019s 77-74 win against the Perth Lynx in January when she tossed the ball into the basket from the halfway line to seal victory.<\/p>\n
Chosen as the No 16 overall pick, the 21-year-old will join Portland\u2019s roster, following her 2024 draft selection by the Atlanta Dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, if you spoke to me this time three years ago, I wouldn\u2019t believe any of this would happen,\u201d Puoch said. \u201cI go out there, have fun, play basketball and these opportunities have opened up for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot. It\u2019s a new expansion team in the WNBA, so I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Puoch isn\u2019t the only Australian to make the Fire\u2019s roster, with Opal Chloe Bibby acquired as the 11th pick after spending last season with Caitlin Clark\u2019s Indiana Fever and the Golden State Valkyries.<\/p>\n
Australia Opal Chloe Bibby is pick No 11 for Portland Fire in the WNBA expansion draft. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes it less daunting having someone there, and Chloe\u2019s been at a different expansion team at the Bay [Golden State] as well,\u201d Puoch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a great player and a great human, so being able to be around her is really exciting and cool. We also have two members at the club who are Australian as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opals coach Sandy Brondello is spearheading the league\u2019s other new team, the Toronto Tempo, and selected her Olympic bronze medallist Kristy Wallace from the Fever as the 23rd overall pick.<\/p>\n
The trio will join several other Australian stars in the expanded competition that begins on 8 May, after the league and players\u2019 union completed talks for a new collective bargaining agreement on 24 March.<\/p>\n
The agreement will create a new revenue-sharing system, increase the salary cap to $7 million ($A10m) from $1.5m ($A2.1m), and grow one-year salaries to a maximum of $1.4m ($A2.3m).<\/p>\n
Portland, which is welcoming a WNBA team back to the city after 24 years, selected veteran forward Bridget Carleton with the first pick in the expansion draft.<\/p>\n
Guard Julie Allemand, who played last season for the Los Angeles Sparks, was selected by the Toronto Tempo with its first pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian rising star Nyadiew Puoch has been rewarded for her stellar season with the WNBL side UC Capitals,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-581158","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\/581158","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=581158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}