The second part \u2014 in which she discussed Veronica Burton<\/a> being selected in WNBA Expansion, Marina Mabrey<\/a>\u2019s trade request, Rachid Meziane\u2019s first year as head coach, and more \u2014 is below.<\/p>\n Noa Dalzell: What was it like to see Veronica Burton have the year she had elsewhere? And, did the experience of her getting picked and seeing her subsequent success change your mindset at all about how you\u2019re going to approach the upcoming Expansion Draft?<\/p>\n Morgan Tuck: When you see how well she\u2019d be doing, it is like \u2018Dang, she would have helped us a lot.\u2019 But I will say \u2014 I\u2019m a firm believer that the fit that you\u2019re in can make or break it. Veronica\u2019s fantastic, right? As a person, as a player, if anyone said anything negative, I would think they\u2019re a liar, because she\u2019s that good. It felt good to see her flourish in the way that she did, because a lot of players don\u2019t get that opportunity. For her to go into a situation that\u2019s brand new \u2014 it wasn\u2019t by her choice \u2014 and she just took another step in her career. So I\u2019ll always be happy for players like that, because that can make or break someone\u2019s career.<\/p>\n Sometimes I view it as, it\u2019s a good problem to have. When you have really good players on your team that you don\u2019t want to lose and that you want to be able to keep, and then when they do go somewhere else, you see how good they are, and people really get a chance to see it, that\u2019s a good problem, right? That means that you got the right type of players. You pull in players who are high-level professionals in our league, but you never want to lose them. That\u2019s the hard part for all of us as GMs in this space where we have expansion this year\u2026 and then three straight years of expansion drafts. That\u2019s going to cause a little bit of an issue where we have to look at, \u2018How deep can we build out our team and our roster, and how much turnover are we going to expect to have?\u2018 And if you\u2019re making trades, is it worth trading where you might lose a person to expansion? It really changes how we view building out our teams year to year, versus a specific Expansion Draft.<\/p>\n But, we\u2019ll do our best to protect as many [players] as we can, obviously, and the ones that we see as a part of our future. But you have to do a little give and take, and there are some parts that we can\u2019t totally control. But Veronica \u2014 she killed it. She really did. I saw her sister last week, and I was like, Dang. Like, Veronica did such a good job. It\u2019s just great for us that we get to say we were a part of her journey, even if it was short \u2014 we were able to help her get to that situation. But, she would have helped us a lot this year.<\/p>\n Noa Dalzell: You mentioned the vets \u2014 what roles did Marina Mabry<\/a> and Tina Charles play in keeping this group afloat? And I know Marina reportedly had requested a trade before the season, and then she stuck around and seemed to have a good time from my vantage point. <\/p>\n They were our most established vets, in their success that they\u2019ve had in the league for sure, especially Tina.<\/p>\n We lost a lot of games early on, and it\u2019s really hard to keep that motivation and the discipline to keep showing up. But I can say for both of them, they still did it. They showed up. They gave what they could. They tried to help the young ones. They tried to help the youth and get us in the right direction. And I do give them a lot of credit too, for us making that shift after All-Star of having a little bit more success. We just stayed consistent. Our vets stayed really consistent.<\/p>\n I give Marina especially a lot of props and credit because she asked for a trade; she wanted to go somewhere else. And she could have gone either direction. She could have said, \u2018You know what, they made me stay here. I\u2019m not going to help. I\u2019m not going to be a part of this.\u2019 And, it could have been a different year for us. But, she really bought into it.<\/p>\n There were some times when it was tough, and it\u2019s hard to do, so especially when you\u2019re losing. And she\u2019s a winner, right? She wants to win. She\u2019s really competitive, but I think she got to understand the role and impact that she can have on a team on a little bit of a deeper level than maybe what she\u2019s had previously. So I give her a ton of credit for seeing it that way and staying committed to the process even when she didn\u2019t want to, and that speaks to her as a person.<\/p>\n UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT – AUGUST 21: Tina Charles #31 and Marina Mabrey #3 of the Connecticut Sun play against the Washington Mystics during a WNBA basketball game at Mohegan Sun Arena on August 21, 2025 in Uncasville, Connecticut. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n But she and Tina, in the best ways that they could, helped keep our team afloat, keep them going. It was funny to see, especially with Tina \u2014 we had a lot of youth, and they called her TikTok Tina, and she\u2019s out there dancing and doing all this stuff. It helped on both sides, where our vets were able to help our team stay consistent. But the youth may have brought something else out of our vets that they hadn\u2019t brought out in years past. So overall, that\u2019s something we want to build off. We want to make sure that we double down on that and that we keep around the same vets and bring in the right type of vets to help that young core keep developing, but then also keep our team on the right path.<\/p>\n Dalzell: Do you have any sense if either of those two \u2014 Marina Mabrey or Tina Charles \u2014 will be back? <\/p>\n It\u2019s tough to say for sure, especially with so much uncertainty. But the part that is consistent is that we understand the impact of a good vet. We can harp on our youth all day, but if you don\u2019t have the right type of vets, or vets that are really bought in, it can make or break it for you. So it\u2019s something that we\u2019re really looking at \u2014 we\u2019re looking at our roster as a whole, and trying to make sure we\u2019re going into what could be the craziest free agency period that we\u2019ve probably ever had with an open mind. But, an open mind doesn\u2019t always mean new right? That could mean staying consistent. So it\u2019s hard to say which direction we\u2019ll be in yet. It\u2019s a little early for those conversations. But, as we go, we\u2019re going to keep in mind that whether it\u2019s people who were on our team or new people, we want to have the right type of people around our younger players.<\/p>\n![\"UNCASVILLE,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/gettyimages-2231542513.jpg\"\/)
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