In the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, Hunter Cruse and Lincoln Shafer debate the worst WNBA trades in the past decade (specifically, since Aug. 1, 2015). They also break down some lessons from those trades, which may be useful to study ahead of this season’s trade deadline on Thursday.
Shafer’s pick for the worst trade of the past decade is a deal between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Minnesota Lynx in April 2019. The Sparks got guard Alexis Jones, and the Lynx got guard Odyssey Sims in a simple one-for-one swap. Shafer explains how that trade went wrong for the Sparks:
“Odyssey Sims went on to have the three best seasons of her WNBA career with Minnesota. And Alexis Jones played 20 games for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2019 and played under 13 minutes per game, just [was] a nonfactor on a pretty good Sparks team. But then Odyssey Sims goes on to make All-W her first year in Minnesota and is just at her best, and they got her for just an OK bench piece, no [draft] picks attached. … It’s baffling.”
Cruse then picks two more trades he thinks are some of the worst in the past 10 years. One is a four-team trade in February 2023 that turned out poorly for the Chicago Sky. The Sky acquired guard Marina Mabrey at a steep price, giving up five draft picks and the rights to forward Leonie Fiebich, who won a championship with the New York Liberty in 2024.
The Sky ended up trading Mabrey to the Connecticut Sun in July 2024 and getting one first-round pick back, but Cruse explains why it was still a rough trade for them:
“The main part of the trade is the rights to Leonie Fiebich. No. 5 in ’23 became Lou Lopez Senechal. But that could have been a better pick if [the Dallas Wings had] drafted better. … No. 5 in ’24, that becomes Jacy Sheldon. … [This trade] might have been my first pick if it wasn’t for them getting off Mabrey … and getting something back, some pretty valuable stuff back. But it’s not great.”
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