{"id":614268,"date":"2026-04-30T00:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/614268\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T00:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:48:14","slug":"how-la-rookie-guard-taniya-latson-plans-to-adjust-to-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/614268\/","title":{"rendered":"How LA rookie guard Ta\u2019Niya Latson plans to adjust to WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> couldn\u2019t believe their luck when they were on the clock<\/a> with the No. 20 overall pick in the WNBA Draft, and South Carolina\u2019s Taniya Latson was still available. Latson was projected to be a first round talent, but ended up slipping to the second round. And now the Sparks\u2019 rookie guard figures to be in the team\u2019s rotation this season.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Sparks\u2019 depth chart, Kelsey Plum and Ariel Atkins project to be the team\u2019s starting backcourt, while as of right now veteran Erica Wheeler is the primary backup guard<\/a>. That would seemingly leave minutes available for the Sparks\u2019 new rookie guard. Ta\u2019Niya Latson was primarily a shooting guard in college, but has the ability to play the one.<\/p>\n

Latson played primarily off the ball last season at South Carolina<\/a>, sharing the backcourt with experienced floor general Raven Johnson. But during her first three seasons at Florida State, she played mostly on ball and took on a larger playmaking role towards the end of her tenure with the Seminoles.<\/p>\n

Now that she\u2019s in the WNBA, Latson believes that her proficiency and experience in both roles prepared her well for what she\u2019s going to be asked to do with the Sparks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was something, going into South Carolina I knew I wasn\u2019t gonna be on ball especially playing with Raven [Johnson] and Maddy [McDaniel]. I wanted to expand my game and not just be a ball dominant guard,\u201d Latson said during a recent media availability session. \u201cI wanted to be able to set flares, come off a flare and just expand my game. So I feel like that\u2019s going to translate into the league especially playing around a lot of other talented players.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust finding my way, watching people like KP [Kelsey Plum], Erica Wheeler, Ariel Atkins. Just trying to mimic what they do out there is going to help me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latson was solid during her first WNBA outing, a preseason win against the Nigerian national team last weekend. She came off the bench and finished with a well-rounded stat line of seven points, five rebounds, six assists and one blocked shot in 22 minutes.<\/p>\n

Last year at South Carolina, Latson averaged the lowest scoring mark of her college career at 14.1 points. She was a solid 20-point scorer throughout her three seasons at Florida State. But her shooting efficiency was the highest it\u2019s ever been at 48.6 percent.<\/p>\n

During the early days of training camp, Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts isn\u2019t putting any pressure on Latson as far as any major expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you what her role will be in a month. I think it depends on her and how well she continues to adjust. It\u2019s a big adjustment to go from college to pro as that one, that lead guard. So she\u2019s getting a thrown a ton of things at her,\u201d Roberts said following Sparks\u2019 practice on Wednesday. \u201cRight now her role is to absorb and learn as much as she can from KP [Kelsey Plum] and Erica Wheeler, two greats that have done a long time at that lead guard spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sparks begin the 2026 season on May 10 at home against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. That gives Latson roughly a week and a half to continue absorbing, learning and getting acclimated to the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in her potential. I think she\u2019s going to be a really good W player,\u201d Roberts continued. \u201cWhat her role is this year as a rookie, I don\u2019t know yet \u2026 We believe in her and we\u2019re better if she\u2019s playing, but she\u2019s got to be ready and earn it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Sparks couldn\u2019t believe their luck when they were on the clock with the No. 20 overall pick in the WNBA Draft, and South Carolina\u2019s Taniya Latson was still available. Latson was projected to be a first round talent, but ended up slipping to the second round. And now the Sparks\u2019 rookie guard figures to be in the team\u2019s rotation this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Sparks couldn\u2019t believe their luck when they were on the clock with the No. 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[3029,581,99,434],"class_list":["post-614268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-reporting","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}