It’s time for another episode of the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast! In this episode, host and New York Liberty beat writer Jackie Powell is joined by Alex Simon, sports editor at SFGate. Powell and Simon connect for the third year in a row to make some bold predictions for the next calendar year of women’s basketball.
The duo covers a wide range of topics and predictions, including WNBA free agency, the rest of the NCAA season, Paige Bueckers‘ (and other NCAA players’) leverage in the 2025 draft, the 2025 WNBA Finals and negotiations for the next WNBA collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
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Powell on why she predicts the Connecticut Sun core of Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones will all leave in free agency:
I find that the writing has been on the wall for a long time for the Connecticut Sun to take steps towards rebuilding. … When they announced their new GM, Morgan Tuck … she stated that they want to keep winning and being competitive, and want to win their first championship as a franchise. I really don’t know how that’s going to happen in 2025 when you have Alyssa Thomas, who has been the face of the franchise since Jonquel Jones left, demanding a better player experience.
Simon explains why he thinks all parties involved in CBA negotiations will have an eye on getting average salaries up to $1 million, even if the odds are low:
I think it’s an investment for everybody in this. The [players association] obviously wants to push pay as high as possible, as fast as possible. They might be having other focuses, but if they could keep it on salary and get salary, they want to be invested in making this look solid.
The league is still not that big relative to roster size. It’s going to be … less than half of the NBA’s size once you have the next round of expansion. Maybe they expand the roster, and that changes this. But if you keep the roster set up as it is now, with 11 or 12, that’s not a lot of bodies. And if the money is going to explode, the average salary could also go with it.
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