{"id":421905,"date":"2026-08-02T18:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421905\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T18:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:26:14","slug":"mercury-acquire-all-star-kelsey-plum-from-los-angeles-sparks-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421905\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury acquire All-Star Kelsey Plum from Los Angeles Sparks, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">PHOENIX (AP\/AZFamily) \u2014 The Los Angeles Sparks traded All-Star guard Kelsey Plum to the Phoenix Mercury for a first-round pick next year, Monique Akoa Makani and a second-round draft choice in 2028, according to a person familiar with the deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because they weren\u2019t authorized to speak publicly on the trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The deal was finalized late Saturday night ahead of Sunday\u2019s trade deadline and was first reported by ESPN. It\u2019s rare for an All-Star to be traded in the middle of the season, only happening a handful of times before Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Plum, who is a free agent at the end of this season, has been sidelined since June 21 because of a lower leg injury. She practiced earlier this week and was expected to play Sunday in the Sparks\u2019 game against Portland before getting traded. Phoenix\u2019s next game is Monday at Chicago.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"FILE - Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum dribbles during the second half of a WNBA...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LLYGG4P3UZH6PBG3MYVANXTPKM.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>FILE &#8211; Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum dribbles during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Indiana Fever, May 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File)(Jae C. Hong | AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Plum was averaging 23.9 points and 6.4 assists before getting hurt. Los Angeles has struggled without her, including its last six games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Phoenix is currently sitting at 11-19 and is six games behind the New York Liberty, who sit in eighth place. New York edged Phoenix 94-92 on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Mercury are coming off a WNBA Finals appearance last season, but have seldom looked like that team despite returning stars Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Akoa Makani is averaging 9.4 points and 2.5 assists this season in 16 games. She was injured earlier in the season with a hamstring issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Los Angeles acquired Plum before last season in a blockbuster deal that sent the No. 2 pick to Seattle. The Sparks had hoped they could accelerate a rebuilding effort. Seattle used that pick on Dominique Malonga, who was an All-Star this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">This is a developing story. Check back for updates. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azfamily.com\/page\/send-us-your-feedback\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azfamily.com\/community\/user-content\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">it to us here<\/a> with a brief description.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KTVK\/KPHO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AP\/AZFamily) \u2014 The Los Angeles Sparks traded All-Star guard Kelsey Plum to the Phoenix Mercury for a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1956,139870,168472,2123,48,52,51,47,50,49,127830,14646,53199,168471],"class_list":["post-421905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-news","tag-arizona-sports","tag-azfamily","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-phoenix-news","tag-wnba","tag-womans-national-basketball-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}