The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Sun’s Holmes ready to test free agency for first time
Bria Holmes planned to spend her January playing overseas. After all, that’s typically what she’d be doing this time of year.
Instead, the Hillhouse High graduate is home in New Haven, relaxing with her 2-year-old daughter, Diona, while rehabbing an injury to her right knee, which cut short her fourth WNBA season.
“It’s good to have downtime,” Holmes said last week. “It’s not the same as playing a game, but I’m still working out every day. I’m in the gym every day. I’m not lifting too much.”
Holmes fractured her meniscus and sprained her ACL and PCL in the Connecticut Sun’s 100-95 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Sept. 9. The injury cost the 6-foot-3 guard the rest of the 2020 season, including Connecticut’s run to Game 5 of the semifinals in the Florida bubble, but did not end up requiring surgery.
Just physical therapy and rest. Lots of rest.
“I had to sit down for a couple weeks and let it heal on its own,” Holmes said. “It didn’t tear all the way through, so I got lucky.”
She expects to be healthy in time for training camp, which typically opens in April, whether that’s with the Sun or another team.
Holmes, who has split her career between the Atlanta Dream and Sun, is set to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time, eligible to sign anywhere beginning Feb. 1. Teams may begin negotiating with players on Friday.
And Holmes sounds ready to test the market.
“It’s exciting,” said Holmes,
who earned $130,000 last season, according to Spotrac. “I’m looking forward to free agency and where I can take my career. … I’m weighing my options. This is my home and stuff, but it’s all about my career and how I can affect a team.”
Holmes was drafted 11th overall by Atlanta in 2016. She spent two seasons with the Dream before the Sun acquired her for a pair of picks just hours before the 2018 draft. She sat out the following season for the birth of her child.
She was a valuable role player upon her return during Connecticut’s run to the WNBA Finals in 2019, averaging 6.3 points and 15.6 minutes off the bench. She started the first four games this past season, one
abbreviated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but missed time down the stretch with an Achilles injury.
Holmes finished the year averaging 4.9 points across 16.2 minutes per game.
“There’s a lot of things I could’ve fixed and did better,” she said. “I feel like I didn’t get the fair and equal opportunity to do these things. Things happen and I got hurt, so that didn’t help either.”
What could she have done differently?
“Just be more aggressive on offense and defense,” she said. “And basically just producing in the minutes I got. I feel like I wasn’t as productive as I normally would be.
“The season was weird overall. Just playing in a bubble with no fans, it was just weird.”