It was at all times going to be a summer time of turnover for the Connecticut Solar, who noticed head coach Stephanie White depart for the Indiana Fever — and entered WNBA free company with Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner, and Brionna Jones all as unrestricted free brokers. However, the roster turnover the group is at present within the midst of is one in every of epic proportions.
Alyssa Thomas, Brionna Jones, Ty Harris, and DiJonai Carrington all have new WNBA groups
Thomas, who was cored final month, will play for the Phoenix Mercury subsequent season after 11 years in Connecticut, due to a sign-and-trade that introduced again guards Natasha Cloud and Rebecca Allen. Ty Harris, the group’s place to begin guard final season, was additionally despatched to Phoenix as a part of that commerce — and later to the Dallas Wings within the Satou Sabally trade.
Brionna Jones, a three-time WNBA All-Star who spent her total 7-year profession with the Solar, signed with the Atlanta Dream as a free agent. And, in December, backup level guard Veronica Burton was chosen by the Golden State Valkyries within the franchises’s enlargement draft.
DiJonai Carrington was the starter from final yr’s group most anticipated to see again in orange subsequent season — however early Saturday morning, Rachel Galligan of Winsidr reported the restricted free agent was being traded to the Dallas Wings in a deal that introduced again Jacy Sheldon and the 2025 No. 8 draft decide. Carrington is contemporary off of a profession yr that noticed her emerge as one of many league’s greatest defenders, and finally win Most Improved Participant. Now, she’ll reunite with fellow backcourt mate Harris in Texas.
The Dallas Wings are finalizing a take care of the Connecticut Solar that might ship the No. 8 decide and Jacy Sheldon to the Connecticut Solar in trade for Dijonai Carrington and the No. 12 decide a number of sources inform @Winsidr
— Rachel Galligan (@RachGall) February 1, 2025
The commerce formally implies that the one returners from final yr’s rotation are Marina Mabrey and Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Veteran All-Star guard DeWanna Bonner can be an unrestricted free agent, nevertheless it seems extremely unlikely she’ll re-sign with the Solar given the course issues are headed.
The Solar swapped championship competition for an entire rebuild
The Solar completed with the league’s third-best report final season and had been one sport faraway from one other journey to the WNBA Finals. Now, simply 4 months later, the group is poised to be unrecognizable. Because it at present stands, the 2025 roster is headlined by Cloud, Sheldon, Mabrey, and Nelson-Ododa — nevertheless it wouldn’t be stunning if one (or extra) of these gamers had been flipped.
Lexie Brown, a Los Angeles Sparks guard, posted on X that the Solar was “most likely the perfect group that by no means received a championship.” However, regardless of being one of many WNBA’s winningest franchises over the previous decade, they had been by no means capable of recover from the hump.
The unlucky actuality for Connecticut is that the Mohegan Solar Enviornment isn’t a relatively fascinating place for gamers to play — the group lacks its personal practice facility (and hasn’t introduced plans to construct one) and isn’t in a serious media market. Uncasville, Connecticut is a city of lower than 18,000, and the Mohegan Solar Tribe that runs the group hasn’t invested within the group the best way different WNBA possession teams have. On condition that groups just like the Mercury, Storm, and Valkyries have already got their very own amenities — and groups just like the Sparks, Sky, and Fever have introduced plans to construct them — Connecticut has fallen squarely behind.
The Carrington commerce was one of many final dominos to fall, nevertheless it punctuates the tip of an period of sustained profitable that by no means achieved the last word aim. The place the Solar go from right here stays to be seen — it’s believable that extra veteran gamers like Mabrey and Cloud received’t need to be part of this sort of rebuild, and will probably be difficult for the Solar to accumulate free brokers for the aforementioned causes.
New normal supervisor Morgan Tuck and head coach Rachid Meziane have powerful duties forward of them, as conserving the franchise aggressive regardless of the turnover will stay a precedence given the league’s rising recognition, and the Solar’s robust profitable tradition. In December, Tuck instructed SB Nation the group was very open-minded heading into free company.
“There are some gamers that we now have a bit bit extra pull [with], and a few the place, hey, they get to decide on the place they go,” Tuck stated. “So it’s onerous to say precisely, nevertheless it’s very open at this level, and we now have to make use of the following month or so to get it from open to a bit bit extra centered and pointed right into a course that we really feel is the easiest way to go.”
Now, just some months later, it definitely looks like that course is nearer to a reset than anything.
