The Sparks just traded Kelsey Plum to my Mercury for a bag of chips, and I’m furious about how satisfied I am.
Shams Charania broke it Saturday night, and ESPN confirmed the terms hours later: Los Angeles sent the five-time All-Star guard to Phoenix for Monique Akoa Makani, a 2027 first-round pick, and a 2028 second-rounder, completed ahead of Sunday’s trade deadline.
https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/2083798131951456688
Plum was averaging career highs of 23.9 points and 6.4 assists before a lower left leg injury shut her down on June 21.
She hasn’t played in over a month, and the Sparks moved her anyway.
That tells you more than the trade grades do. According to CBS Sports, this is only the fourth time in WNBA history a team has traded an All-Star midseason — and that kind of move doesn’t happen because a roster is deep. It happens because a front office has stopped pretending the season is salvageable.
Los Angeles is 10-17, six games into a losing streak, headed for a sixth straight year outside the playoffs. Holding an injured All-Star through a lost season and then losing her for nothing in free agency is worse than trading her for parts now. CBS gave the Sparks an A for making that call and the Mercury a D for making the opposite one, and both grades are fair.
I’ve followed the Mercury from a Chicago bar since I left Phoenix, and it was supposed to be the low-stakes half of my sports allegiances. Watching my adopted team hand over a first-round pick for a rental sitting six games out of a playoff spot, with fourteen left to play, does not feel low-stakes. It feels like the front office read my diary and decided to test me anyway.
Because a rental is exactly what this is. Plum becomes an unrestricted free agent when the season ends, and the Mercury are 11-19 after Saturday’s 94-92 loss to the Liberty, six games back of the final playoff seed. Even a perfect finish doesn’t get them in without the Mystics and Liberty collapsing down the stretch.
Monique Akoa Makani is a second-year guard who doesn’t average double figures, and that gap between “five-time All-Star” and “throw-in” is why fans reacted the way Yahoo Sports captured it — mocking the Sparks’ return as a bag of chips.
Plum, before any of this was official, said it plainly: “At the end of the day people have to do what’s best for them… I’m gonna be where my feet are.”
Her feet are in Phoenix now. Whether they’re there past October is somebody else’s problem.
The Sparks didn’t make a trade. They made a confession.
