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I love the Sparks’ trade for Kelsey Plum.
Let’s start here: It’s a freakin’ trade!
Remember those, NBA fans? When it didn’t take a miracle for teams to actually make a deal? That pre-apron world, before new collective bargaining agreement’s onerous rules didn’t go so far to infringe on the types of trades high-spending teams were allowed to make?
When fans were – for better or worse – hooked on transactions, and every season the trade deadline was guaranteed to be a breathless, dramatic affair? When the game beside the game was doing more to capture the public’s interest than the basketball itself?
You loved that stuff. But now it’s basically just a Jimmy Butler resolution we’re waiting on … if you want to know why I think interest in the NBA is purportedly waning.
So, thanks ladies, for stepping up and providing us with a bona fide blockbuster, the first trade in league history that includes multiple No. 1 overall picks – Plum and Jewell Loyd, who was disgruntled in Seattle.
Thank you WNBA GMs for blessing us with a complex trade, a three-team deal that does not, however, require a CPA license to comprehend.
When it’s formalized after Feb. 1, the Las Vegas Aces reportedly will send Plum to the Sparks, who are also getting this year’s No. 9 pick from the Seattle Storm. In exchange, the Sparks will send their No. 2 pick and 6-foot-7 Chinese center Li Yueru to Seattle, which will send Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces. Additionally, the Sparks will ship this year’s No. 13 pick to Las Vegas, and then in 2026, they’ll get a second-round pick from Seattle.
What’s more: It’s a great trade!
Though what’s fun about a deal like this one, initially reported by the Chicago Sun-Times’ WNBA insider Annie Costabile, is it gives us something to chew on, to debate and dissect.
So some people – those insisting the Sparks didn’t win the deal or even that they somehow got fleeced – will be wrong.
And those of us who understand that the Sparks managed to turn a No. 2 pick into a former No. 1 pick who has not only panned out in the WNBA, but flourished? We’ll be right.
Oh, but it must pain the Sparks to relinquish No. 2 draft pick go, right?
I guess you’d think that if you’ve been conditioned to believe that it’s assets above everything. If you subscribe to picks over people.
It’s bigger than basketball, that outsized allure attached to potential and possibility, the idea that what could be is more valuable than what is.
Even if what is right in front of you is Kelsey Plum.
With all respect to what should be a deep draft class this spring, any of them would do well to have the career she’s having.
Plum is a winner. And a bucket. A two-time WNBA champion and three-time All-Star. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, in five-on-five and 3×3 basketball. Until Caitlin Clark came around, Plum was the modern-day NCAA scoring record holder, putting up 3,527 points in her Washington career. And last season, on a loaded Aces squad, Plum averaged 17.8 points and 4.2 assists.
Sure, she’s 30, not 22 – and not 36, either. Durable and well-conditioned, she’s long past the growing pains that accompany most players’ first seasons in the WNBA. And she’ll tell you, she’s better for them. In 2022, Natalie Nakase, the Golden State Valkyries’ first head coach who was an Aces and Clippers assistant, told me Plum’s work ethic is “top-tier in the whole world, NBA, WNBA, it doesn’t matter.”
Also, Plum has built-in chemistry with the dynamic forward Dearica Hamby, with whom she played for six seasons in Las Vegas. To think, the Sparks will now employ two of the core players from 2022’s world-beating Aces team. She’s also reportedly let it be known she wants to play in L.A. for longer than one season.
And Plum is marketable, recognizable, a bit brash, one of the WNBA’s real stars. It’s such a win, putting her on a team with Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson, the Nos. 2 and 4 picks in 2024 who garnered so much attention last season, when the 8-32 Sparks averaged 11,044 fans per game, fifth-most in the WNBA, according to Across the Timeline.
Plum can only accelerate the Sparks’ plans to return to relevance, which clearly is the goal after the organization fired head coach Curt Miller after last season.
Miller had the locker room with him as he oversaw a more deliberate approach, through draft and development – a decent bet considering the Sparks still don’t have the infrastructure that most other teams around the WNBA now do to lure free agents.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t appear the Sparks’ leadership has the patience to play the long game. Not in L.A. And not after missing the playoffs for four consecutive seasons, as many playoffs as they had missed in the organization’s entire 24-year history before that. And especially not after missing out on the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft lottery for the second consecutive year.
If the Sparks want to expedite a resurgence, the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft – whoever she is – wouldn’t do it.
Especially because it’s unclear who will be available; neither the presumptive top pick, UConn star Paige Bueckers, nor Notre Dame standout Olivia Miles have announced yet whether they plan to leave college. They surely might, but they’ll also both have college eligibility remaining and might not want to sign rookie contracts that could be worth less under the CBA that will expire this season than what they could earn if they joined the WNBA in 2026.
And if it is USC’s Kiki Iriafen available at No. 2, as many anticipate it will be? Adding the former Harvard-Westlake talent would be a good local story, but it would also crowd the post when what the Sparks really need is an upgrade at guard.
We know that isn’t going to be Bueckers, so … forget the trade machine, let’s work the time machine: This year’s No. 2 pick for 2017’s No. 1? The one who’s already proved she is who she is, and that she can win in this league.
Who says no? Not the Sparks.
Originally Published: January 27, 2025 at 4:25 PM PST
