The Chicago Sky goes all in for Marina Mabrey | 2023 WNBA Free Agency
Chicago place a massive bet to sign Mabrey as the Wings continue wheeling-and-dealing
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Just when we thought WNBA Free Agency was winding down, the Chicago Sky engineered a sprawling four-team trade to bring restricted free agent Marina Mabrey to the Windy City. Richard Cohen of Her Hoop Stats laid out the trade details visually and it’s a freaking doozy.
Let’s take this team-by-team because your boy has many thoughts. I’ve also put together projected depth charts for every WNBA team in a google sheet so I can see them all on one page. There may be some omissions and mistakes, but this is a living document and I’ll update it!
Chicago goes all in
We usually reserve the gambling references for the Las Vegas Aces, but it really feels like James Wade is the league’s biggest gambler right now. The Sky lost most of their 2021 championship team when Candace Parker, Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley, AND Azurá Stevens walked out the door this offseason. Not to mention the unknown status of Emma Meesseman and Julie Allemand.
Chicago was at a crossroads as the superteams formed in New York and Las Vegas. They could hit the reset button by trading Copper in the last year of her contract and preparing for the extremely hyped 2024 draft class that may include Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, and Cameron Brink. They could have also chased some free agents to keep Copper happy and see if she’d agree to an extension. Bringing in Isabelle Harrison, Courtney Williams, and Elizabeth Williams indicated they would take the latter path.
Still, I didn’t see them trading away most of their future draft stock for the right to sign Marina Mabrey. The deal was a sign-and-trade in which Mabrey agreed to a near-max three-year deal with Chicago.
I do love the fit of Mabrey with Copper. Copper’s slashing should give Mabrey more open shots and Mabrey’s shooting should open up driving lanes for Copper. The Sky don’t have a true point guard on the roster right now. But both players can handle the ball and have experience running a successful offense. Furthermore, they both got that dog in ‘em and seem to like each other.
Clearly, Wade believes that getting Mabrey will help secure Copper in Chicago. Maybe he’s right. Even if he is, this is just a bad trade for the Sky from a value and logic perspective. Three years of first-round draft control for a non-superstar seems desperate. All of that for a restricted free agent is ludicrous.
I talked to a few WNBA sources and they didn’t identify other teams that were pursuing Mabrey. Of course, she had suitors but it doesn’t seem like there was a giant bidding war happening. Furthermore, she had at least some interest in going to Chicago because she agreed to a sign-and-trade there. Dallas could have matched a max offer sheet, but likely would not do so with their loaded books. So, there’s a pretty good chance that Chicago could have just signed Mabrey outright without a trade.
There’s no historical comparison for this trade because WNBA teams couldn’t trade future picks until this off-season. It’s like the league gave teams a pristine Charizard holographic Pokémon card for Christmas and Chicago immediately traded it for a mediocre Slowpoke card.1
If Candace Parker still played for the Sky, they could convince themselves that Mabrey is a final piece for a deep playoff run. But this team isn’t close to that level. You can see their depth chart below.
Right now, I have them firmly behind NY, Vegas, DC, Connecticut, Minnesota, LA, Dallas, Atlanta, and Phoenix. On paper, that means they’re in the lottery without a draft pick in what’s projected to be a stacked draft. They still have some moves to make, but it’s hard to see what player could move the needle for them.
Dallas is a MyLeague team in NBA 2k
I recreated the Seattle Supersonics in NBA 2k23 on my Nintendo Switch recently.2 In the span of one offseason, I pulled off around 15 trades to stockpile draft picks and grab young players as lottery tickets. All of the trades were steals for my Sonics and we will dominate the NBA someday.
Dallas GM Greg Bibb has kind of done the same thing with the Wings. He’s made a number of trades that yielded great value. Through his efforts, the Wings have a star in Arike Ogunbowale and a very talented group around her. But that doesn’t necessarily create a great team.
It's easy to make all those trades in 2k because my players lack real emotions and my team's success will be based (more or less) solely on their overall rating. In the real world, talent is still the most important factor for winning. But millions of other factors determine if a team will win.
Team-building is not roster-building. Dallas has done a good job with the latter, but we have yet to see them accomplish the former.
To be clear, trading Mabrey for three draft picks is a no-brainer. Picking up Diamond DeShields and Natasha Howard (in the Jonquel Jones trade) is the part that falls into the 2k bucket. DeShields and Howard are players who are underqualified stars but overqualified role players. One of them is likely coming off the bench.
I’d put Howard in the starting lineup with Veronica Burton, Ogunbowale, Satou Sabally, and Tearia McCowan. Perhaps DeShields starts over Howard with Sabally at the 4 as she’s a more natural small forward. I don’t think a backcourt of DeShields and Ogunbowale will work because DeShields is best on the ball, which doesn’t fit with Arike’s ball dominance. She also may not be happy about getting traded to a team with a smaller role than what she signed up for in Phoenix, though.
And there’s the issue with Dallas’s approach. Teams need buy-in to win, no matter how much talent they have. The Wings continually turning over their roster and coaching staff to bring in talent make it very difficult to develop buy-in. Hopefully, this group can stick together for a few years and build chemistry together. I still think Bibb fleeced Chicago in this deal, but that’s not enough for this franchise at this point. They need to turn the corner toward contention.
Phoenix clears space
The reason for the trade is not too complicated for Phoenix. They needed to clear cap space in order to re-sign Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, and Sophie Cunningham while maintaining a legal roster. It seems like Skylar Diggins-Smith no longer wants to be traded and may return to Phoenix after giving birth. Diamond DeShields is a better player than Michaela Onyenwere, certainly. But Oyenwere provides solid defense at the three and four positions with some upside as a recent Rookie of the Year. The Mercury still have a ton of work to do with just six players on the roster (training camp contracts don’t count yet).
I dislike giving up swap rights to their 2025 first-round pick to New York. You gotta assume New York will be better than Phoenix in two years and will execute the swap. Their cap situation put them in a pickle, but they’ll probably regret giving up that pick swap. Oyenwere could develop into a solid player for them and render this a fair deal.
New York gets something
Losing Oyenwere ain’t nothing. She won ROY for a reason and should have a nice WNBA career. But she was already out of the rotation before the Liberty brought in Breanna Stewart and Kayla Thornton at her position. She couldn’t help the team this year or get enough time to develop into a useful player this year.
New York probably could have held on to Oyenwere from a cap perspective. But they likely would not have picked up her option this offseason because that would protect her contract into 2024. Also, the move puts Oyenwere in a better spot for her career and may earn the Liberty some goodwill.
Leonie Fiebich is an interesting prospect selected in the 2020 draft. She’s a 6’4” skilled wing who’s shooting the cover off the ball3 for Zaragoza. She won't move the needle for the Liberty, but she can fill Marine Johannes's roster spot until her arrival from France and could play if there's an early injury.
The pick swap from Phoenix will likely provide solid value, either as a draft pick or as a trade asset. The second-round pick from Chicago could be a decent pick, but likely has more value as a trade piece. The Liberty got something for a player they couldn’t play. I’d say that’s a nice piece of business.
This analogy may or may not refer to a mistake that I made when I was 6 and didn’t super understand Pokémon. Some older kid in my neighborhood may or may not have fleeced me. I may or may not have throw his bike into a lake at a later date. So, hide your bike Greg Bibb.
2k on the Switch is a pretty atrocious game, to be honest. The graphics look like they’re from 2015. But how else can I find out if a Princeton offense can work in the NBA?
I know this saying only works in baseball or tennis, but I like saying it and I don’t cover those sports