Sun draft French guard Lacan
The Connecticut Sun took the overseas route with their first-round pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Leïla Lacan, a 5-foot-11 guard from France, was taken No. 10 overall by the Sun. She played the last two seasons with French League club, Angers, and averaged 13.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.9 steals over 24 contests during the 2023-24 season.
The Sun do not expect her to be with the team this summer as she is preparing to take part in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
“We felt like she was the second best guard in the draft,” Sun general manager Darius Taylor said. “Just what she can do, her ability to play both guard positions and score at three levels and defend. She’s a two-way player. We were excited to have the opportunity to draft her. She was our No. 1 target.
“My wife is a college coach and they come back and talk about the international players they’ve seen. We’ve watched a lot of film on her and I watched her in Spain (at the FIBA U19 World Cup) last summer. Playing the 1 and 2 at 5-11, she has great size and great athleticism and can finish at the rim. She’s already playing against pros. She’ll be ready for the WNBA when she comes over.”
Taylor’s wife, Joni, is the head coach at Texas A&M and last summer guided USA Basketball’s U19 national team to a gold medal at the World Cup in Madrid.
According to a press release, Lacan brings a plethora of international experience to the Sun, having represented France on a junior and senior level. She has competed with the France’s national team at the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket Qualifiers Tournament (beginning in November 2023) and the 2023 FIBA EuroBasket team, taking home the bronze medal in June 2023. Lacan has also represented France at the 2019 FIBA U16 European Championship, the 2021 FIBA U19 World Cup, the 2022 FIBA U18 European Championship, and the 2023 FIBA U19 World Cup.
With their two secondround picks, No. 19 and No. 22 overall, the Sun selected Kansas center Taiyanna Jackson and Arizona guard Helena Pueyo. Guard Abbey Hsu from Columbia University was their third-round pick.
Jackson played her freshman and sophomore seasons at Trinity Valley Community College before transferring to Kansas for her last three seasons. During her graduate campaign, the 6-6 Jackson averaged 12.6 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 3.0 blocks per game. She holds the Kansas record with 301 career blocks and is second in career doubledoubles with 41 behind Lynette Woodard.
Pueyo played five seasons at Arizona and averaged a career-best 9.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game in her final year. She also competed for Spain on an international level, most recently playing on the Spanish FIBA U20 Women’s European Challengers squad in 2021.
“Teams are looking for players that can help
them,” Darius Taylor said. “Adding Taiyanna Jackson, a rim protector at 6-6 and someone that has a lot of potential and a high ceiling. Helena Pueyo, who I think may have been the steal of the draft with the ability she has. She’s a pro. She’s a prospect that could be a better pro than college player.”
Hsu led the Ivy League in scoring as a senior at 20.4 points and added 7.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.1 steals per contest. The 5-11 guard helped the Lions to a share of the league regular season title and an atlarge bid to the NCAA Tournament. She graduates as the program’s alltime leader in points (2,126), field goals made (751), 3-point field goals made (375) and games played (123).
“We followed Abbey all year long,” Taylor said. “We felt like she’s a real good shooter and also a good rebounder from that position. She has a high ceiling and potential to grow into a better player.”
The Sun open the regular season May 14 against Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston and the Indiana Fever at Mohegan Sun Arena.
After Clark, the twotime national Player of the Year and guard from Iowa, was taken with the first pick by Indiana, the Los Angeles Sparks selected Stanford All-American forward Cameron Brink. The Chicago Sky chose South Carolina AllAmerican center Kamilla Cardoso third followed by the Sparks, with their second pick of the night, taking Tennessee wing Rickea Jackson. The Dallas Wings selected Ohio State guard Jacy Sheldon fifth.
The Washington Mystics chose UConn AllAmerican forward Aaliyah Edwards at No. 6 followed by the Sky’s second selection of the night, LSU All-American Angel Reese. The Minnesota Lynx then chose Utah forward Alissa Pili with the Wings’ second pick being guard Carla Leite from France. The Sun then selected Lacan.
Taylor said that 10 players appear to be locked into roster spots with the Sun.
“We have a veteran group,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “We need players who can come in and if their number’s called they’re ready to go, but at the same time are willing to understand that it’s about development, it’s about continuing to work every day, it’s about being impactful in a small amount of minutes when you get the opportunity. For us, it was positional.
Who can impact some positions that we may need some help. But also who has a high ceiling who can get reps every day and has room for growth and development.”
The Sun finished 27-13 a season ago, which earned first-year coach White WNBA Coach of the Year honors. White had replaced Curt Miller, who left Connecticut to be the coach of the Sparks. Taylor was hired to take over Miller’s general manager job,
They were the No. 3 seed in the playoffs and defeated the sixth-seeded Minnesota Lynx in the best-of-three quarterfinal series 2-1, winning the deciding Game 3 90-75 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
In the best-of-five semifinals against the secondseeded New York Liberty, the Sun stunned New York in Game 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn after being swept by the Liberty during the regular season. But New York bounced back to even the series at home then won a pair of games at Mohegan Sun Arena 92-81 and 87-84 to deny the Sun a second straight trip to the WNBA Finals.
The Las Vegas Aces defeated New York to win their second straight title.
The Sun entered the night with 16 players on their roster — guards Rachel Banham, Leigha Brown, DiJonai Carrington, Rennia Davis, Tyasha Harris, Moriah Jefferson, Mitchell, Shey Peddy, Kianna Smith, Sydney Wiese, and Jocelyn Willoughby; forwards DeWanna Bonner, Brionna Jones, and Alyssa Thomas, and centers Astou Ndour-Fall and Olivia Nelson-Ododa.