While most of the world of women’s basketballs looked at the NCAA tournament selection show Sunday evening, the Connecticut Sun announced quietly that they were exchanging Natasha cloud At New York freedom less than two months after acquiring the leader of the veterans in a business with the Phoenix Mercury.
In exchange for clouds, the sun received the choice n ° 7 in the WNBA Draft 2025 In addition, the choice of the first round of Liberty in 2026. Connecticut now has consecutive choices at n ° 7 and 8 in the first round of this year more the choice no. 25 to finish the second round.
The sun sent the superstar of the Alyssa Thomas franchise to Mercury with the playmaker Tyasha Harris to acquire Cloud plus the striker Rebecca Allen and the choice n ° 12 on January 28, but none of these assets is still in possession of the Connecticut. The sun sent Allen to Chicago’s sky in exchange for the leader of the veteran Lindsay Allen, and the Dallas wings obtained choice n ° 12 as part of a massive agreement with four teams with the Sun, Mercury and Indiana fever who sent the choice of first round to 2024 Jacy Shedon to Connecticut.
Cloud is a team selection three times and won a WNBA championship with the mystics of Washington in 2019, so although its addition is logical for Connecticut, it has become quick that the veteran guard was blinded – and inexpensive – on trade. Cloud signed with Phoenix as a free agent in 2024 and said on An episode of the OGS podcast Last week, members of the organization promised to end his career in a mercury jersey.
“Don’t just send me anywhere. Allow me to go where I want to go,” Cloud said on the podcast. “I was like guy, you told me that I was your leader. You all the same (explanive) who looked at me in the eye after having 33 (points) in this eliminatory game for all of you and who almost put us on a game 3 and you said:” You will remove a Phoenix Mercury … It’s more for what I am upset. Trade is business, I understand this, but you have done me more for what I gave for the organization. “”
Cloud, 33, cited his age and nine years of WNBA experience Interview on the locked basketball podcast For a major reason, she was anxious to play for the sun. Connecticut is one of the only teams of the League without installation of professional caliber or any formal plan to build one, and Cloud arrived in Phoenix the same season that Mercury unveiled its investment of $ 100 million in a brand new installation of 58,000 square feet. The Liberty shares the installation of Barclays Center with the NBA NBA New York.
“It is good to be appreciated by an organization of the Connecticut as much as they appreciated me in this job, but I will say at 33 years old, I just need certain things in my career,” said Cloud on February 28. “I go in my 10th year in the W, and I have to protect my career. A professional and respecting the two organizations as best I can.”
Cloud is only the latest veteran of a massive exodus of Connecticut this offseason while the League approaches the impacts of a new collective agreement with three other expansion teams on the way. After Thomas was due and exchanged, All-Stars Dewanna Bonner and Brionna Jones both signed with other free agency teams without restriction, and the sun then exchanged the most improved player Dijonai Carrington at the Dallas Wings as a limited free agent. The veteran La Garde Marina Mabrey also tried to make her Connecticut path by asking for an exchange after being exchanged in the sun in July 2024, but the team rejected the request in a Public in the back and forth with the agent of Mabrey.
Almost all WNBA veterans are expected to hit a free agency after the 2025 season, so the sun does what they can to get feedback on the players they would probably lose in the near future anyway. But without Cloud, Connecticut has only four players with more than five years of WNBA experience, and half the list of training camps will never have played a match in the league. The sun has signed an adult of free agent in the former MVP of the Tina Charles Ligue, who has more experience by playing for Connecticut than anyone in the team, even if it has not been with the franchise since 2013. The team has also recovered the goalkeeper of the All-Star Diamond Deshields in the Free Agency.
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