Unlike its counterpart in the NBA, the WNBA trade deadline usually passes quietly because the league’s hard salary cap makes it difficult to construct workable deals during the season. Already, 2024 is an outlier, with the Connecticut Sun loading up for the playoffs by adding guard Marina Mabrey as part of a three-player trade with the Chicago Sky last month.
Because multiple teams have extra cap space this season, we could see more trades of consequence before the Aug. 20 deadline, which falls five days after the WNBA schedule restarts following the Olympics.
With the league’s top teams not looking quite as dominant as they did last season, when the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty met in both the Commissioner’s Cup final and the WNBA Finals, there’s an opportunity for other teams to follow Connecticut’s lead in pursuit of a deep playoff run or simply to better position themselves for the rest of the season and beyond.
Here are five deals — some bigger than others — we’d like to see happen before the deadline.
