Still many moving parts...
Link, below
LV Aces: KMac, LA, & Jackie
Phoenix Mercury-Sky & Bri
Dallas Wings: Arike & Marina
Seattle Storm: Jewell
Indiana Pacers: Ace
That's 9 out of 139 players who made rosters. Attached article has all the final roster list.
SkinsHoops86 had a couple of tweets on this, which I'll cut and paste:
UConn - 19
Notre Dame - 9 (If Jess had recovered in time that would've been 10)
Maryland - 7
Duke - 6
Tennessee - 6
Louisville - 5
Rutgers - 5
South Carolina - 5
"26 of the 65 Power 5 schools don't have an alum on a WNBA roster. That's 40%. Some of the good mid majors provide just as good of a path to the pros, if not better, since these kids probably got to be key players early in their careers and were on winning teams." - SkinsHoops86
Non P5 schools (minus UConn - already listed) with WNBA players:
Middle Tennessee State - 2
Princeton - 2
Delaware - 1
DePaul - 1
George Washington - 1
Georgetown - 1
Gonzaga - 1
Marquette - 1
Saint Joseph's - 1
South Florida - 1
Temple - 1
UTEP - 1
Is that the "final" roster (and there are financial considerations for the teams) or could they be scanning waiver wires or thinking if they can get an international into the U.S.?
It looks like several international players have taken "personal" years knowing that it may be tough gettting into the U.S. for the season.
Without looking up each team's cap situation, I believe all of those teams are carrying 11 for cap purposes.
For instance, LV brought in Angel M. and D. Robinson, resigned Liz C., extended Kelsey Plum. However, very glad that LA is still there.
Imagine Washington is up against it, too, with EDD, Meesemann and Tina Charles.
The attached article made the following point "The Sun will be able to bring on a 12th player at some point during the season, and that addition could very well be one of the four they just waived." Not sure if that the other 4 can do that as well. The 5 teams at 11 meant there were 139 on the 12 teams' roster. Given your numbers above from that tweet, over 20% of the WNBA rosters (28/139) come from just 2 teams, still the best rivalry in WCBB-ND & UConn.
They never had a shot. No tryout, no training camp.
Dallas traded Anigwe and cut Karlie Samuelson to get down to the limit.
Shepard is not on the Lynx roster. Likely suspended due to her injury rather than waived.
Aces roster is down to 11 and LA is one of them. So she seems to have made the cut as well.
pick. I had read it yesterday that it was a straight up trade, but wondered why Marina and Anigwe were still both on the roster prior to the cuts. The attached article explains that they got Marina for their second round pick, but LA gave it back for Anigwe & a 3rd rounder.
Seems like teams went through lots of hoops to make the roster limits without training camp. I am sure Dallas had to decide if the team's chemistry would be better with Arike/Marina together or KLS/Karlee together and went with the college roomates vs the siblings. Even with that choice Dallas still didn't have room for Anigwe, thus got their pick back.
..can help out at the point, play both off-guard and wing when going with a small lineup. That well-roundedness probably gave her the edge over Karlie S., whose got to be swearing about ever being on roster with Marina again.
Trader Bill likes LA, plain and simple. Given how strong that roster is, that's a good thing.
Like you, I think Minnesota is giving Jess some more time to recover from that ACL.
Thanks for the reporting.
Assuming full recovery, there is no way she won't make a WNBA roster, even if it's not Minnesota for some reason.
It is confirmed via the Minneapolis Star Tribune that she will be held out of the 2020 season while she continues to rehab.
The team said that her rehab is a couple months behind schedule due to a lack of access to team facilities.
She should be back with Minnesota for 2021 but she will have missed nearly two full years at that point.
Forward Jessica Shepard, coming back from an ACL injury sustained early last season, will not play in the WNBA this year.
She will officially be listed as suspended while staying in the Twin Cities and, when allowed in a summer affected by the coronavirus pandemic, will return to working on her rehab with the team’s training staff.
For Shepard, it had to have been a difficult decision. The team’s second-round selection in the 2019 draft, Shepard was an early surprise, averaging 4.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists of the bench over the first six games. But she tore the ACL in her right knee June 8 and had surgery June 20.
The pandemic and decision to close WNBA facilities essentially robbed Shepard of valuable rehab time with the team’s training staff.
“Because of the pandemic she lost two months,” Reeve said.
The plan is to have Shepard back for 2021.
so while an ACL injury is significant, it's not like it takes away her best assets. She'll still be tough, an excellent passer and rebounder with a good outside shot. It might hurt her lateral quickness some but that wasn't her game to begin with either!
because she is still recovering from her ACL
..and people under "proove it" contracts (like that technical term?), such as the New York Liberty and Dallas Wings and, a lesser extent, the Las Vegas Aces.
Lindsay Allen (LA) has always been lurking around the edges of that roster. When Laimbeer signed Danielle Robinson, I thought LA was toast, but then Trader Bill suprised me and signed her again. (The again, LA had a spectacular year in Australia and has greatly improved her overall and three-point shooting).
Laimbeer and his front office has already started selectively trimming his roster to address this early roster decision-making. We'll see about LA. I hope she gets signed so she can draw a steady salary while the league waits.
Marina was, of course, traded from LA to Dallas. LA is clearly going for it right now and once Siemone Augustus signed. LA had one less guard spot. They chose Sydney Wiese and that was it for Marina. So, of course, in Dallas she's fighting for a spot with Karly Samuelson (2nd year running) and zounds of other guards and wings.
Marina does offer versatility. During her time overseas, she was apparently playing point, shooing guard and often both during games. Perhaps this versatilty will help her with roster formation. We'll see. I'd say the Arike wing-man situation will only go far, as will Karly S. with her sister, Katielou.
Think everyone else looks pretty secure:
- K-Mac and Jackie Young in LV
- Sky and Brianna in Phoenix
- Jewell in Seattle
- Jess in Minnesota
- Arike in Dallas
- Ace in Indiana
Ace's playing time might be challenged (by the combo of McCowan and Cox), but she's highly valued by the organization.
Kat Westebeld won a championship in Puerto Rico, then was unexpectedly signned as an injury replacement in the Aussie League where she played with Bri. She averaged double figures and got positive write-ups. However, this would be a tough year to try out, if she's even interested, for the WNBA.