Queen! Love that she isn’t afraid to speak up!

With the trade deadline looming and with the Sparks on the outside looking in at the playoffs, what’s the plan? Make a playoff push or rebuild?

Pebley really left us holding the bag.

$1 million+ and here for far too long:

Hamby
Atkins

Close to $1 million on one years:

KP
Nneka

Here’s your retirement money:

Wheeler

In an ideal world imo, Chicago wants to swap Skylar and we trade Hamby 1:1. I loved her play for us the last three years, but Hamby doesn’t even have a fart of interest playing defense or boxing out. Skylar starts and can play pg, KP can play off the ball, and we go with something like:

Skylar
KP
Rae
Nneka
Cam

Bench:

Wheeler
Ariel Nurse-Atkins
Cannon (I guess)
Martin
Park

I suppose KP is our best asset but I just can’t see any contender needing her for a push — there are a lot of very good/great backcourts at the top of the standings. I’m assuming teams that aren’t contending are in the Juju sweepstakes.

The only team that could really use her are the Mystics who are currently in seventh. They have plenty of cap space, and KP could be part of the playoff push (honestly, the Mystics have enough size and firepower — Soni and Kiki — to be a very annoying first round matchup). Soni is also the ideal guard you want next to KP. I wouldn’t be mad at a FRP for KP, or Betts who seems to be underused.

But they were also supposed to be tanking.

Mainly, I don’t think the Sparks can win the entire thing with this roster and this coach. I would rather be the worst team than a mid tier team that sneaks by (look at Phoenix). If we are gonna rebuild, let’s blow the whole thing up (keep cam and lashes). And let’s tank for Sarah Strong.

I am truly over this lady. Worst defense in league history, injured Cam, KP has one good leg, traded Rickea for a 0/2/0 million dollar player, Hamby smoking goofy layups — we are in hell.

Every single team drops 100+ on her head and all she can do is frown.

Ok, now that we are out of playoff contention let’s talk about what should happen next. I had AI put together this list of players, salaries and contract durations (so I don’t vouch for its accuracy).

My first thought is get Rae a contract, probably $650k or so?

Next years starting lineup?
Monique
Atkin/Wheeler (tossup to me)
Rae
Dearica
Cam

I’m really excited about Monique, Rae and Cam leading us into the next few years. I think D can be the vet that guides them.

Who would we like to see as GM?
I’d LOVE Nneka, and I think it would be great to have her as GM, but not sure what her future plans are.

Who would we like to see as coach?
I honestly don’t have anyone in mind. Are there any former players?

What else would we like to see happen?

I have been a fan of Kate "Money" Martin since she was first drafted. I understand why she was moved from Vegas to Valks. It was really out of Vegas' control.

But then waived by Valks. I still figured it was mainly a roster issue. Though I thought it was weird they kept Chen over Martin. Now as this season concludes and she's been waived again, I'm starting to wonder if there's more to it.

We love to point the finger at Roberts (and formerly Pebley). There's a lot of grounds to do so. But also Nakase passed on Martin. Nakase has proven to be one of the few elite coaches in the league.

So is the problem purely logistical roster issues or is there something deeper with Martin's inability to find a stable spot?

Edit: Clarifying Chen comment. I am also a fan of Chen. She 100% deserves her spot and has improved significantly throughout the season(s).

Maybe I'm reading wayyyy too much into Lynne's answer (or lack thereof) regarding how the Sparks want to use Kate, but to me it feels like Lynne wants Kate on the roster and it's the front office that's dragging their feet. Idk, anyone else feel that way?

Also I don't really buy the whole "we want to save our games so we have them later in the season." If that was really the case, they wouldn't have burned through 10 of her games as quickly as they did, especially because they didn't really need to.

Video credit to John W. Davis on X! https://x.com/johnwdavis/status/2072731514857750925

I wish more fans in LA would come to games because look at this Portland Fire team. They’re playing the Sun!! And the stadium is 19,000 full. This is near consistent every game. I’m just wondering why - we play at Crypto - an iconic arena! Is it because Sparks need to do more for fan activation? for reference LA has ~14 million in population compared to Portland at ~2 million!! Any ideas?

Why she still tryna win games😭 she trying like she don’t already got one foot out the door

I’m not asking for someone to make sense of the Kate Martin saga. But financially what’s going on?

Since Kate had a contract with the Sparks, and no one picked Kate up on waivers, aren’t the Sparks responsible for a portion or all of her contract? PLUS aren’t they picking up the remainder of Nye’s contract. So, logically, they wanted Kate off the team soooo badly they were willing to pay double out of their budget, for her to not sit on the bench for 5 games. 🤔

If I’m understanding this somewhat correctly, should I apply to be GM? 😂

I’m sure everyone is tired of this conversation for one reason or another, but I’m genuinely curious WHY people think Kate hasn’t been brought up to the 12-player roster yet?

Does the front office not think she’s worth upgrading? Do they just enjoy burning through all her DP games for fun? It felt like the right move after her second game (where she scored those 11 points), but I understood them wanting to take a little bit more time to evaluate the rest of the squad. But now that we’re 7 games into her DP run, it feels like the most obvious thing ever, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why they aren’t doing it. The Sparks already don’t play half their bench, and all those players are on unprotected contracts, so it would cost the team absolutely nothing to make the move. I could kind of understand just burning through her DP games before making a decision if they actually played most of their bench, but they don’t. 

I know Kate getting upgraded isn’t going to all of a sudden save this Sparks team, but I think it’s pretty clear to anyone watching that she’s impactful. Plus, despite getting the W last night, it feels like the Sparks could’ve used her shooting off the bench. Idk, please share all your thoughts and even wild conspiracies lol.

How do you all feel about one more year of pain to potentially earn the #1 overall pick in 2028? We've missed out on Clark, Paige, and more than likely JuJu. This franchise could actually have a future if they were able to pick Strong #1.

Who would you all want as a coach? TSpoon? Harding? Tolliver? Close? Gottlieb?

Roberts’s lack of composure and general ineptness have made me wary of college coaches. And while I like TSpoon — she seems like a tremendous person and mentor — her xo’s coaching stints in the W and unrivaled have been hit and miss.

I received my email to renew my season tickets for 2027. This upcoming season there will be a 5% increase and three additional home games.

I asked earlier in the season re renewals and I think the consensus was most people aren’t renewing. Checking in now though lol

The last two games have been...rough. Well, OK let’s be honest, the whole season has been pretty rough. So I thought, why not create a designated complaint thread where we can all just get everything that’s been bothering us off our chests lol. Coaching, rotations, lineups, effort, defense, offense, FO, something else - fire away. I’ll start…..

1. We have absolutely NO identity without KP in the lineup. Yes, she’s our best player and losing her is a big blow, but we should not be faltering THIS badly. Plenty of teams have had to play without important players at various parts throughout the season and haven’t COMPLETELY fallen apart the way that we have. 
2. The way we’ve handled the Kate Martin situation has been baffling. Literally ALL of us could see from pretty much her second game that she should be on this roster permanently, but the front office has just been dragging their feet for the past month and a half. Now we’re at the point where we either have to cut Emma Cannon when we have VERY little size on the roster, cut one of the rookies, but with only TWO DP games to offer them if they want to stay on as a DP player, OR we can only play Kate two more times over the next 26 games. I obviously don’t think she’s going to save our team, but she has more than proven she deserves a spot. Just terrible management. 
3. Lynne Roberts doesn’t know how to adapt. Plain and simple. She’s not willing to try new things, she’s not willing to experiment, and she truly believes that just playing her aging vets into the ground is what’s going to get us to the playoffs. I look forward to the day she’s fired.
4. When Cam Brink is back and healthy, we HAVE to start her over Dearica Hamby. I’m sorry, but Hamby is such a liability on the defensive end. I would rather risk Cam fouling out than have her only play like 20 minutes a game.

Got a preview of the statue tonight, it looks amazing!!

Are the Sparks gonna upgrade her to a regular contract? She only has 7 games left. Seems like Roberts want to. Feels like they may do it and waive Kate. Which would kind of be dumb. Maybe once Cam is back Pili wont be activated as much. The GM just got fired so maybe they wont upgrade her, who knows.

Why did we re-sign Cannon and Vanloo? They not producing results when we need them too? And why Atkins getting paid as much as Dee? Am I doing too much about this?

I honestly don’t think she got a fair shake because I watched her Utah team a lot as a USC fan back when the PAC 12 still existed and she runs such a 3 point reliant system and she was given a roster that made no sense for her system, but regardless of whether or not she deserved to be fired she’s likely going to be fired.

You guys think she makes it to the end of the season?

I know a lot of people mention Kate getting DNPs a lot but today everyone played (even Pili who's a DP) except for her. In privous games there were others getting DNPs alongside her (Cannon mostly) obviously the main reason Cannon played today was because Cam was out but then why doesn't Kate play since Akoa Makani is out. It makes no sense you move her up and then give her a bunch of DNPs and even play devs over her. There probably going to move up Pili and waive Kate because otherwise it makes no sense. Her getting waived would be better for her because she'd probably get offers maybe not this year since its so late in the season but she'd probably get a training camp contract somewhere where hopefully she'll get a real chance to be in the rotation for a team. But what do you guys think?

Since it’s confirmed Lynne Roberts is incompetent, what would YOU change/focus on if you were the head coach? This is a safe space 🫶