Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The WNBA trade deadline approaches with several teams positioned to become significant sellers.
- Each franchise faces unique pressures that could lead to major roster shakeups before the deadline passes.
- The decisions made in the coming weeks will reshape team dynamics and playoff contention for the remainder of the season.
The WNBA trade deadline is inching closer and closer. Earlier this week, I took a look at teams who should be buyers at the deadline, but you can't buy anything if no one is selling. Imagine if you went to the gas station to buy some Doritos, only to discover that gas station has no interest in selling Doritos. No Doritos for you!
With that in mind, these four teams should have players they're looking to offload at the deadline. (Keep in mind that "should" is the key word here — you can highlight what a team should do, but you can't make them do it.)
Chicago Sky
New season, same old story: the Chicago Sky are a dysfunctional mess, sitting 13th in the WNBA standings despite adding Skylar Diggins in the offseason. But with reported tensions between those sides, one has to wonder if Diggins will even be on this roster post-deadline.
Chicago attempted to accelerate its rebuild this offseason by adding Diggins and trading for Rickea Jackson, but Jackson tore her ACL and is done for the year, and the Sky have never recovered from that. At this point, Chicago should have exactly three players it doesn't entertain trading away: Jackson, Kamilla Cardoso and rookie Sydney Taylor. Everyone else should be on the market. (Though let's be real here — there's absolutely no way Courtney Vandersloot is getting traded.)
Every time I write about players who should be traded this season, Jacy Sheldon makes the list. Two main reasons for that: she deserves a larger role than Chicago has given her, and the Sky also stupidly traded a first-round pick for her, so recouping any assets would at least make that feel less like another bone-headed move by a front office that at times seems unable to function like a normal front office.
Connecticut Sun
The biggest thing keeping the Connecticut Sun from selling at the deadline is the team's lack of players who other teams might actually want. Aside from that, Connecticut should be exploring moves it can make as the franchise prepares to hit the reset button for next year's move to Houston.
Two names to watch here are Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Kennedy Burke. Both are talented players who could crack a lot of WNBA rotations, but their long-term value for Connecticut is questionable. ONO is the third-highest paid player on this roster and also the most expensive to be under contract in 2027. Moving her opens up a lot of cap space for the new era of the team.
Burke, meanwhile, is the second-most expensive player this season behind Brittney Griner. Her numbers are down across the board, but you can probably attribute some of that to situation. Put her in a spot where she can be the fifth option on the court as just a catch-and-shoot threat and she might be able to bounce back.
Seattle Storm
Ezi Magbegor is back, though her production through her first four games has been fairly uneven. But her return gives Seattle some options, including one major one: trading Magbegor. She's an established player with a track record of being one of the league's best defenders, but she doesn't really fit Seattle's rebuilding timeline. She could be the biggest available name.
But even if Seattle opts to keep Magbegor, there are still players who could be moved here. Natisha Hiedeman is having the best season of her career, but she'll be 30 next season. Her trade value might never be higher.
Or there's Stefanie Dolson. With Magbegor back, there's no real reason to hold on to Dolson if Seattle commits to keeping Magbegor, so some team could get a boost by adding a bench big. Maybe a fellow rebuilding team could even try to grab Jordan Horston as a reclamation project? Lot of options here, and I imagine this front office understands that.
New York Liberty
Alright, this is going to sound weird. A title contender as a seller? Well, yeah, because the Liberty are in a pretty unique situation where they have so much wing depth that they might as well move some of it for future assets, even while the team is sitting at 13-9 and looks — at times, at least — like a championship threat.
The emergence of Pauline Astier has really shifted some things about how this rotation looks, as I don't think anyone really expected her to have such a huge role. That's left three players in a kind of limbo space, where things would be much more clear if one of them was moved: Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Rebekah Gardner and Rebecca Allen.
Laney-Hamilton feels like the most likely to be moved. She has the most trade value of any of the three based on her WNBA track record, but she also recently has had a couple of games where she didn't even see the floor. If New York isn't viewing her as a key part of this team while a number of playoff contenders need wing help, the Liberty could make something happen.
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