She’s seen the bright lights before. In fact, the lights haven’t been brighter than they were in 2024 when she lifted up the WNBA Championship Trophy as a member of the New York Liberty.
When Jaylyn Sherrod stepped under the lights as a member of the Atlanta Dream’s starting lineup against the Indiana Fever on Sunday, Aug. 16, though, it was the brightest lights that she’s played under as a member of her current team.
With one game left on her developmental contract, those lights could either dim or stay lit – but that’s not up to her.
“I’m just always there and ready, because you never know when you’re never going to be called,” Sherrod told reporters before an August game against the Phoenix Mercury. “I think just over my career in the league, that’s kind of been, you know, ups and downs and different organizations, but just always being ready because it’s another opportunity, and that’s all you can take advantage of is what is obviously in front of you.”
After winning the title with the Liberty, Sherrod was cut from the team after May 2025 before landing with the Minnesota Lynx to finish out the year.
From there, though, even with the league expanding its roster spots to include two developmental player spots, Sherrod found herself without a team.
That is, until the Dream came calling and signed her to a developmental deal on June 29 – nearly a year to the day when she was let go by the Liberty.
“She’s a competitor,” said Dream coach Karl Smesko upon the signing. “She’s going to compete out there.”
She has competed, too, and not only competed, but opened up the eyes of her teammates, fans, coaching staff, and those in the front office, as well.
“In this business, anything can happen at any time, and you can kind of go with it, or it can kind of take you,” Sherrod said. “So I just try to always keep the main thing the main thing. Like I said, every opportunity is just an opportunity to go out there and play. It’s a blessing in itself.”
Sherrod was brought in on a developmental deal, meaning that it’s one of two allotted spots that a team can have on their roster for a non-standard player.
When a player is activated, they receive roughly $6,500 per game activated for a pro-rated standard contract and a $750 weekly stipend with standard player benefits when not activated.
The catch is this: a developmental player can only be active for 12 games (the team, as a whole, can only have developmental players active for 24 games for the season) before the team either needs to waive the player or convert their contract to a standard contract.
Right now, after the Dream’s win over the Las Vegas Aces, Sherrod has been activated for 11 games – leaving her with one game left of eligibility and leaving the Dream’s front office with a tough decision to make.
“These are the tough decisions you have to make going into the playoffs, and now with this new developmental situation, you have to kind of factor in what’s going to be best for the team going forward,” Smesko told The IX Sports before the game against the Aces. “Obviously, [Te-Hina] Paopao has just gotten back, played her first game last game, and we’ll get another look at her again today. But you know, we only have one more developmental game after today, and we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”
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There’s a reason that Smesko brought up Paopao – and it’s not just because she returned from an injury recently. A source within the organization told The IX Sports that Paopao hasn’t progressed the way that they had hoped she would in Year 2, and she was involved in trade discussions leading up to the WNBA trade deadline.
What Paopao is good at, she’s really good at. That’s finding the space on the floor and knocking down wide-open and contested threes.
But what she struggles at, she struggles at. That’s creating opportunities as an on-ball guard and her on-ball defense against ball screens.
“Sometimes you have to go through it, and she’s gone through some struggles,” Smesko told reporters after a July practice regarding Paopao. “She’s somebody that’s going to keep battling, and I think as soon as she has one or two good games in a row, the weight will be lifted off her shoulder, and we’ll get the player, even a better version of the player that we saw last year.”
What we saw in the game against the Aces on two straight possessions was Las Vegas targeting Paopao on the defensive side of the ball, running two straight ball-screen actions against her on the perimeter and scoring on each of the two attempts.
Paopao was subbed out for Jordin Canada on the next possession and only saw a minute of playing time for the rest of the game.
Those things that Paopao struggles with happen to be two things that Sherrod excels at. So, that begs the question: with Paopao back, will the Dream look to utilize her in more of an off-ball role, similar to the role that she played at South Carolina, and utilize Sherrod as the primary backup point guard?
“Paopao’s offense and ability to get off the ball screen and get another paint, and she’s such a great shooter that she creates a lot of space for our players because she has so much gravity,” Smesko told The IX Sports. “How that all plays out is a little unclear right now, but I do think there’s maybe more of an opportunity for Paopao to play off ball when she gets back – in addition to playing some point guard minutes.”
It’s the response that you’d expect from a coach. And it’s worth noting that while Paopao played limited minutes against the Aces, Sherrod didn’t play at all, despite being active.
The catch with Sherrod’s contract being converted is that the Dream would have to cut a player in order for that to happen. The Dream play their starters more than any other team, so there are players at the end of the bench who could be options, but the most likely would be either Aaliyah Nye (who the team could hope to have clear waivers and bring her back on a developmental deal, similar to the move they made with Indya Nivar earlier this year) or Sika Koné.
Koné, despite not being a Year 0-3 player, would be eligible for a developmental roster spot, too, due to a clause in the CBA allowing players with more than three years of playing time to be able to be a developmental player if they have between four and five years of service but played fewer than 160 minutes in the previous year.
At full strength, Koné would make sense, but the Dream are without Brionna Jones again, who suffered a leg injury in Connecticut and is without a timeline for a return.
The team hasn’t given an indication of what they plan to do yet, but the players – and front office – have been impressed by her.
“I think this league is all about opportunity, and give Jaylyn credit,” general manager Dan Padover said. “We brought her here originally, just to get a look. Then you had an injury situation come up, and Jaylyn’s really embraced the minutes that she’s been given. She plays real hard-nosed defense, brings a lot of energy, and pushes the pace. You know what we say to Jaylyn is just like just keep being you, just keep playing, and things will work out for you. And she’s getting a great opportunity right now. That’s good for her WNBA development.”
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Opportunity. It’s a word that Padover used, but it’s also one that Sherrod is looking to take full advantage of.
“It’s just knowing that your time comes, and when it comes, being ready,” Sherrod said. “The worst thing you could do is get an opportunity and not be ready for it. That kind of sets you back. At the end of the day, we’ve been playing it our whole life, so the kind of nervousness doesn’t really come with it anymore.”
Sherrod has had to learn a new system fast – and for anyone who has paid attention over the last two years since Smesko took over as head coach, it’s hard to do that here in Atlanta. He uses terminology that is made up and can be hard to fully grasp at times.
“I learned a lot in a short amount of time,” Sherrod said. “Just new terminology, just philosophies and how he likes things done, what his philosophy is. So I would say that it’s been the most challenging part. I rock with him.”
And they rock with her, too.
It helps that one of the players that Sherrod has the ability to learn from – and play under – is nine-year veteran Jordin Canada.
“She’s just cool, calm, and collected at all times,” Sherrod said of Canada. “So I think just learning that poise of a point guard, and just always being the steady one with the ebbs and flows of the game. You’ve got to always be the one that’s steady. So I would say that’s pretty much her voice.”
It also helps that Sherrod’s style mimics that of Canada in a way. The Dream are a team that doesn’t just love to push the ball in transition, but they need to push the ball in transition in order to run Smesko’s scheme the way that it’s intended to be run.
Canada is one of the quickest players with the ball in the women’s game, rivaled by Kelsey Mitchell, Chennedy Carter, JJ Quinerly, and MiLaysia Fulwiley. In the top 10, though, is Sherrod, and pushing that pace helps keep the offense clicking even when Canada subs out of the game.
“I think Jaylyn has done a great job of finding her spots, and she wants to push the tempo and you know find open players. She’s done just that,” Naz Hillmon told The IX Sports. “It’s nice to have two really quick guards. You feel like you have a break for the other team, and then another quick guard comes in. But Jaylyn’s done a great job of just finding her spots. It’s nice to have that combination of two guards ready to push because I think that’s when we’re at our best.”
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Getting praise from her teammates isn’t anything new for Sherrod. Despite being let go by the Liberty after training camp in 2024, Sherrod found her way back to the team in 2024 because of the player that she is, yes, but also the human that she is.
In fact, on June 29, 2024, the Liberty were playing in Atlanta against the Dream. Sherrod, who is from Birmingham, Ala., just two hours away from Atlanta, went to the game as a fan. Before the game started, she went up behind the bench and gave then-coach Sandy Brondello a hug and chatted with her.
Less than two weeks later, she was on the team again.
She’s a person that teams want to have around.
“I played with her for a little bit last year in Minnesota, and one of the reasons she was so valuable was that you could throw her on any ball handler, and she’s a pest,” Dallas center Alanna Smith told The IX Sports about playing with Sherrod. “She makes your life hard as a defender, and she’s just super quick and young, so she’s got a really high ceiling. Not only that, but she was just a really easy person to play with. Just followed instructions really well, was really eager to learn, and super super competitive.”
The Dream have nine games left in the regular season, and with three straight games coming up on the West Coast against the Sparks, Mercury, and Sparks again, the Dream will have to make a decision on Sherrod.
And they’ll have to make it soon.
Having her as a lead ball handler off of the bench, which is a unit that has struggled this year as a whole compared to last year, would make sense.
But no matter the decision the Dream makes, Sherrod is ready for it. And she’ll just be herself no matter the outcome.
“I’m just wanting to do what I do and be who I am, and not try to be nobody else,” she said. “Just be Jaylyn.”
