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The Indiana Fever have reportedly completed a three-way trade, dealing NaLyssa Smith and the No. 8 pick to Dallas for Sophie Cunningham from Phoenix and the 19th pick in the WNBA draft, according to a report from ESPN’s Kendra Andrews.
Phoenix received Satou Sabally, Kalani Brown and Sevgi Uzun, while Dallas also receives the rights to Mikiah Herbert Harrigan.
Cunningham, 28, is a 6-foot-1 guard who started 21 games and appeared in all 40 last season averaging 8.4 points on 37.8% 3-point shooting with 3.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
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Phoenix drafted Cunningham out of Missouri with the 13th pick in 2019, and she has been with the Mercury her entire professional career. She signed a one-year extension with the Mercury through the 2025 season for $100,000, and that contract will transfer to Indiana.
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Smith, was the Fever’s No. 2 pick out of Baylor in the 2022 draft and was in the starting lineup for all three of her seasons in Indiana. She will be in the last year of her rookie contract with Dallas 2025, set to make around $91,000. She will be a restricted free agent in 2026, with Dallas holding her rights.
Over her career, she averaged 13 points and eight rebounds per game, but her production took a downtick in 2025 as former Fever coach Christie Sides gave Temi Fagbenle more minutes. Smith averaged 10.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game last season.
The Fever dealing Smith is not a surprise after she was vocal about losing playing time last season and the team agreed to terms with Natasha Howard — a power forward — earlier Friday. Smith will return to her home state of Texas — she’s from San Antonio and played college basketball at Baylor in Waco — and has already changed her bios on social media to refer to the Dallas Wings instead of the Indiana Fever.
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Indiana originally picked Howard fifth in the 2014 WNBA Draft, and she played two seasons for the Fever before she was traded to Minnesota. Howard turned into a defensive juggernaut after she left Indiana, winning Defensive Player of the Year in 2019. This time around, she will immediately bolster Indiana’s defensive scheme.
Howard will bring a veteran, championship-winning presence to the frontcourt as a three-time WNBA champion — 2017 with Minnesota, and ’18 and ’20 with Seattle. Her 6-2 frame and 10 years of experience make her a perfect pair with Fever center Aliyah Boston, who is going into her third year.
Howard, who is now 33, is coming off a partial season with the Dallas Wings after sustaining a broken foot in the season opener. That injury kept her out over a month, but it didn’t slow her down on the court when she returned. In 27 games last season, Howard averaged 17.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game — her second-best season points average of her career.
This likely makes the Fever’s starting lineup Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, Boston, Howard and Cunningham.
Cunningham, who was a part-time starter in her six years with Phoenix, will likely slot into the starting lineup at the 3. That means Lexie Hull, who took over that starting spot from Katie Lou Samuelson last season, will likely head back to the bench.
Cunningham’s most productive season came in 2022, when she started 20 of 28 games and averaged 12.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. She has shot a career 36.2% clip from 3-point range, giving Indiana another potential 3-point threat.
