Trade Alert! Storm Make Interesting Move Ahead of Free Agency

WNBA Free Agency officially starts tomorrow and the Storm have made a trade.

WNBA Free Agency becomes official on Thursday, February 1st. Today, the Seattle Storm announced that they have traded away Kia Nurse and their first-round (4th overall) 2024 draft pick to the Los Angeles Sparks in exchange for the Sparks’ first-round pick in 2026.

When looking at the face value of this trade, it is a head-scratcher. The team is giving up a solid contributor in Kia Nurse (5.9 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.3 APG) and a guaranteed lottery pick (4th overall) in what many consider a strong draft class for a first-round pick in 2026 that could be a lottery pick but could also end up being a selection towards the end of the first round.

If this is the only move the Storm make. It would be a pretty bad move for a team that finished 11th overall with an 11-29 record during the 2023 season. As I wrote in my previous article about the potential Storm rebuild, it’s evident the team needs to add more talent. Getting rid of a fringe starter/role player and a lottery selection that ideally would have become a starter is the opposite of adding more talent. There is no immediate positive impact to making this trade just from this move alone.

Why Make This Move Then?

I have to believe that this move was made as a part of multiple moves coming soon. Or at least one more move. As written above, if this is the trade and no other moves are made, it’s an awful trade for Seattle. They must have something more planned.

When I explored the option of a quick rebuild, I suggested the team try to sign Skylar Diggins-Smith in Free Agency. Diggins-Smith missed the 2023 season due to being pregnant and on maternity leave. However, she is one of the most talented guards in the league. In 2022, she averaged 19.7 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 4.0 RPG. She was a key piece in the Mercury’s run to the WNBA Championship in 2021.

Coach Noelle Quinn and General Manager Talisa Rhea both emphasized the need to improve the point guard position at the end of the 2023 season. Diggins-Smith is the top point guard available in Free Agency.

If SDS opts to sign with a different team, the team could be looking to add Natasha Cloud from the Washington Mystics. Cloud averaged 12.7 PPG, 6.2 APG, and 3.7 RPG last year. Cloud has been one of the best floor generals in the league and helped lead the Mystics to back-to-back WNBA Finals in 2018 and 2019, winning the whole thing in 2019. Cloud scored 33 points and dished out nine assists in her final playoff game to end her season during the first round against the New York Liberty.

The third-best point guard on the market would probably be Jordin Canada, the Storm’s former 5th overall pick who left in Free Agency after the 2021 season. Canada has improved her game, especially her outside shooting this past year. Canada shot a career-high 33% from beyond the three-point arc. In her previous five seasons, the best she shot was 21% from long distance.

What we know about Canada is that the Los Angeles Sparks have cored her. This means that she will either sign a near-max contract with LA or they will trade her to another team. Knowing that Seattle just made a big trade with Los Angeles and it did not involve Jordin Canada, I believe it is safe to assume that Canada will not be returning to the Storm this upcoming season.

That means if the Storm are bringing in a big-name point guard, it will likely be either Skylar Diggins-Smith or Natasha Cloud.

But Is That All?

It might not be. From my good friends at Her Hoops Stats, if we look over the Storm’s 2024 Salary Cap situation we know that before this move the Storm had roughly $424,000 in cap space.

Now the Storm did announce that they have re-signed Joyner Holmes to a training camp contract. I believe her contract will be around $60-70K but that is not yet confirmed. It’s also not guaranteed, so the Storm could still cut Holmes if needed to free up cap space but that’s not something they have to worry about now.

Before today’s trade, the Storm still would have had around $360,000 in cap space. That leads me to believe they would have had enough money to afford a near-max contract of around $200,000 and then two additional contracts, likely rookies or vet minimums to split the remaining $140-160K.

By making this trade with the Los Angeles Sparks, Seattle now frees up over $140,000 in guaranteed cap space. That would put them at around $560,000 in cap space or around $500,000 after including the Joyner Holmes’ signing.

With that in mind, the Storm would have around $500,000 in cap space and need to fill three roster spots to get to 11. They could offer two Free Agents around $200,000 each or slightly more and then still give maybe the 14th overall pick a rookie contract.

From previous reports, we know that the Seattle Storm were hosting Nneka Ogwumike for a Free Agent visit. That was confirmed when Circling Seattle Sports posted this image at Climate Pledge Arena before a Seattle Kraken game.

Nneka also officially announced that she is leaving the Los Angeles Sparks in a heartfelt post last week.

However, it has been reported that Nneka has interviewed with just about EVERY WNBA team. Including being lured by the New York Liberty. New York would be able to offer her the most direct path to another WNBA Championship. But it’s unlikely they could pay her a max contract and they may ask her to come off the bench if they want to keep their starters from last season.

If the Storm are trying to lure more than one major free agent, Nneka Ogwumike is the most likely. Especially, now that there are reports out there that Jonquel Jones intends to re-sign with the New York Liberty for two more years. And we know Breanna Stewart, Elena Delle Donne, and Brionna Jones were all given the core designation by their respective teams. We’ve also heard Satou Sabally is reported to have agreed to re-sign with the Dallas Wings on a one-year deal.

Tune In

The Seattle Storm have made a trade that, on paper, doesn’t make much sense unless we are getting at least another big move to follow it up (and hopefully two). With Free Agency in the WNBA officially kicking off tomorrow, I highly recommend Storm fans keep an eye on my Twitter and online for any big announcements to come. ESPN2 will also be airing a big Free Agency special at 1:00 PM.