New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Sun camp a competitive one
UNCASVILLE — In the 20 years the Connecticut Sun have called Mohegan Sun home, the team has only reached the WNBA Finals twice.
In 2005 and again in 2019.
For the past two seasons, the Sun have fallen in the playoff semifinals. Last summer, Connecticut was the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs with a franchise record 26 wins but fell to eventual champion Chicago in the semifinals.
Connecticut looks to get back to the league’s biggest stage this season.
It will have a fully healthy Alyssa Thomas (who sat most of last season recovering from an Achilles tear), while returning its core in Jasmine Thomas, DeWanna Bonner, Brionna Jones and 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones. The Sun look to reach that next level by focusing on pace and introducing new and familiar faces to its roster, like former Sun player Courtney Williams.
On Easter Sunday, the team started a competitive training camp to find the final pieces to its already stacked roster.
“We intentionally brought some great athletes in that thrive in the uptempo to see how they would do as they fight for one of the remaining roster spots,” Sun coach Curt Miller said. “Our team is not an easy team to make, like the majority of the teams in this league, it is just brutal. It is a brutal league to make.
“And so, we have this healthy competition going on already but it’s a fun competition and a fun environment when everybody’s competing for those very few spots.”
Williams returns to Connecticut after playing with the Sun from 2016 to 2020. The 5-foot-8 guard and 2021 All-Star will add depth to the team’s backcourt with her ability to create her own shots and her aggressive defense.
“(She’s) definitely the piece that we were missing,” Jonquel Jones said. “We definitely missed somebody who could go in there and score the basketball at a high clip, independently, and not need help. Like Courtney can just come down the court and shoot a pull-up jumper. … I think when you look at that series against Chicago, we surely missed that. We surely missed that person that can just go one on one and get us a bucket when we really needed one.”
The Sun also introduced three new faces to the franchise, drafting Nia Clouden from Michigan State (No. 12 overall), Jordan Lewis from Baylor (No. 24) and Kiara “Kiki” Smith from Florida (No. 36). While Smith will sit out this season due to a knee injury she suffered in March, both Clouden and Lewis have already impressed Miller during training camp.
“Nia Clouden is as advertised,” Miller said. “I like the fact that she hasn’t been sped up and she can play with a pace that she can find success early in camp, that is unusual. The composure, the poise that she has not to get sped up. ...
“Jordan, Jordan is doing what she does. She led that Baylor team,” he added. “She played fast tempo, successfully, she helped space the floor and she was a pest defensively. She’s a physical defender, she’s trying to take charges in the pro game just like she did in college, just really pleased with our two draft picks. They’ve been really sponges, they’ve been good teammates.”
Yet, the chances both Clouden and Lewis make the roster are slim and complicated.
Due to the core of its veterans protected, the Sun only have two available spots on its 12-person roster if it chooses to re-sign all its returners from last season. However, there’s not enough salary cap room to sign both Clouden and Lewis unless the team cuts one of its unprotected and more expensive returning players.
The team started training camp with 20 players listed on its roster on Easter Sunday, including the select handful who would be late due to playing overseas. Because of the late arrivals, the team already cut three players (Alexus Dye, Delicia Washington and Keyona Hayes) on Wednesday when Jasmine Thomas and Beatrice Mompremier started camp late because of the league’s limit of 15 practicing players allowed.
Each team in the league has until May 5 to narrow down its roster to 12 or 11
players.
“Baptism by fire right now. This is the fun part,” Miller said. “The unintended consequence with having a lot of veterans still overseas or not here, is you get to throw these guys baptism by fire, they’re right in it. … And we don’t hide it, like the media is too savvy right now to understand our salary cap, there’s no hiding our situation so there’s really healthy competition going on.”
While Alyssa Thomas and Brionna Jones have yet to return to camp following their overseas season, the Sun has already begun picking up speed in practice. The team will be challenged with finding a pace of style that is both uptempo and in control. The team was last in the league in pace last season and had had 484 total turnovers — second-most in the league following New York with 542.
“It’s really just up to us, just making smart plays, playing fast but no being rushed and really still making good decisions,” Jasmine Thomas said. “We have a lot of success slowing down and playing through the paint and we got all-stars down there so that’s something that we absolutely still want to do, but still get more possessions. We’ve had success in the past with that too, really getting more possessions, playing good defense, turning people over, so we’re just trying to blend both games together.”
The Sun will get their first game-like dress rehearsal on May 1 in an open preseason game against Atlanta at Mohegan Sun Arena at 1 p.m. Connecticut will also travel to New York on April 27 for a closed preseason scrimmage.
Connecticut will open the regular season on May 7 at New York (6 p.m.) before its home opener on May 14 against Los Angeles (7 p.m.).