In the shocking first move of the WNBA’s 2021 offseason, superstar Candace Parker is heading to the Chicago Sky as an unrestricted free agent, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported on Wednesday. The deal cannot become official until Monday, the first day that teams can sign free contracts for agents.
Parker, who has been one of the faces of the WNBA since she was named No. 1 overall in Tennessee in 2008, has spent her entire 13-year career with the Los Angeles Sparks. After winning a pair of MVPs, Defensive Player of the Year with honors from last season and MVP from the finals when Sparks won the 2016 WNBA championship, Parker is returning home to play close to where he first appeared on the women’s basketball scene as the national player of the year at Naperville Central High School, in the suburbs of Chicago.
What does Parker’s move mean for Sky and Sparks, as well as the balance of power elsewhere in the WNBA? Let’s take a look at the main issues.
Can Sky advance further in the playoffs?
Chicago was in an interesting position when entering the free agency because almost the entire core of the team is under contract for 2021. Of the nine best players on the team in minutes played during the 2020 season, only the post player Cheyenne Parker (unrestricted) is one free agent. Signing the other C. Parker will almost certainly mean that Sky won’t have room to sign Cheyenne again, but that’s okay, because Candace can play a similar role and improve the pitch’s rotation.
Since James Wade’s arrival as head coach in 2019, Chicago has been on the verge of containment. Sky made 20-14 in 2019 and came painfully close to reaching the WNBA semifinals before Dearica Hamby’s unlikely mid-court kick sent them home.
Last season, Chicago started with 10-4 in the WNBA bubble in Bradenton, Florida, before stumbling over the finish line. Pivot Azura Stevens suffered a knee injury at the end of the season, and both she and striker Diamond DeShields left the bubble in late August. DeShields was hampered by injuries throughout the season and left the bubble for personal reasons. Sown in sixth place with a record of 12-10, Sky was defeated by Connecticut Sun in the playoff opening round.
Enter Parker, who still performs at a high level at 34. After her injuries limited her to 22 of 34 regular season games in 2019, when she had a low career average of 11.2 PPG, Parker recovered on the WNBA campus in 2020, saying she benefited physically without the wear and tear normal travel. She had a career record of 54% of her attempts at 2 points and finished third in the MVP vote – a position ahead of new teammate Courtney Vandersloot.
Playing with Vandersloot, the league’s main point guard, will likely require some adjustments for Parker. Last season, the Sparks ranked 11th out of 12 WNBA teams in the percentage of their plays (29%) that concluded with a kick, a trip to the free-throw line or a turn created in a pick-and- roll, according to Synergy Sports. tracking. Behind Vandersloot, Chicago had the fourth highest rate of pick-and-roll games at 37%, as well as the highest number of points per move (1.0) in them.
Parker has been operating mainly as a pick-and-roll for a while, but in 2017 she finished the league’s fourth most played games as a screen setter, by Synergy Sports, and had an excellent average of 1.04 points per move on those opportunities. . Over time, she should develop a pick-and-roll chemistry with Vandersloot.
When Vandersloot is resting, Parker may have more opportunity to play with the ball in his hands. Wade has often used Gabby Williams as a striker and Parker – who led the league in assists in 2015 and is the 14th in WNBA history in career assists – is undoubtedly an upgrade in that role.
While this analysis focused on how Parker will fit in the attack, this is not where the sky needs to improve. Chicago came in fourth in the offensive standings in 2020 and second in 2019, so the attack was good enough to win. It is the defense where Sky, ninth in 2019 and eighth last season, should improve. Parker’s Defensive Player of the Year 2020 campaign has undoubtedly benefited from name recognition; she was excluded from the league’s defensive teams. Still, Parker’s ability to defend multiple positions makes her an upgrade to Chicago.
With a core of three All-Stars in their 30s (Vandersloot will be 32 next month and defense colleague Allie Quigley, like Parker, will be 35 this year), Sky may not be built for the long term. However, adding Parker can help Chicago take the next step in the playoffs.
How will Sparks rotate?
This is the end of an era for Los Angeles, which has managed to make the franchise icon Lisa Leslie pass the torch perfectly to Parker after their careers in the Hall of Fame coincided for two seasons. Sparks has been one of the league’s most consistently successful teams, making the playoffs in all but one of Parker’s eight seasons in LA and winning the title in one of the final two games in that period.
The prospects are now more nebulous for Sparks, although rivals are not sorry for them. Los Angeles still has a former general number 1 chosen and MVP in Nneka Ogwumike, in whom the Sparks used their core designation in part because Parker was ineligible after previously playing three seasons in major contracts. Ogwumike will sign again with the team, a league source told ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel on Wednesday.
Los Angeles has a second free and unrestricted agent on guard guard Chelsea Gray, whose return is also a question mark. Sparks’ wings, Brittney Sykes (restricted) and Riquna Williams (unrestricted), are also free agents. But Parker’s departure gives Sparks the chance to become bidders in the free agency to add to a core of Ogwumike and shipowner Kristi Tolliver, who signed with the team at the end of the season but chose not to play in the bubble.
An interesting question mark is Chiney Ogwumike, who also chose not to participate in the 2020 season, as his off-court star grows as an ESPN analyst and commentator. As Ogwumike’s contract has expired, she – like her sister – can only negotiate with Los Angeles if she wants to play this season.
The Los Angeles market is still a big draw for free agents, so the Sparks should be able to form a rival team. But there is more uncertainty about its future than it has been for years.
Free agency to start
With most of the top free agents in this offseason on rival teams, it was unclear whether we would see as much movement as we saw last winter, when the new WNBA collective bargaining agreement that raised the salary cap caused a flurry of stars to change teams. Parker’s decision to leave for Chicago suggests that this off-season may be just as or more active.
In part, there is a ripple effect in a large transaction. In that case, Cheyenne Parker is available for another team that could expect her to re-sign, while Sparks may have enough space to spend. These movements, in turn, would cause other teams to respond.
As the status of so many key players remains uncertain, it is difficult to project exactly where Sky is positioned in the league hierarchy until the dust settles on the free agency. For now, I would say that Chicago can expect to reach the semifinals for the first time since losing to Parker and Sparks in 2016, with a chance to go further in the playoffs.