Sun waive four players to get under salary cap ahead of deadline
The Connecticut Sun announced Monday that the team has waived Megan Huff, Jacki Gemelos, Jazmon Gwathmey and Juicy Landrum, a move that brings the Sun under the salary cap by the league’s Tuesday deadline.
Huff, Gemelos and Gwathmey had signed training camp contracts with the Sun, while Landrum was the franchise’s thirdround pick from Baylor in last month’s draft. The team’s other draftee, Kaila Charles from Maryland, made the roster of 11.
Valeriane Ayayi, the fourth player the Sun had signed to a training camp contract, had been previously waived on March 28. The Sun may have room to add a 12th player to their roster once the season gets underway.
The announcement marks a tough break for the four players, who weren’t able to fight for a spot on the roster with the postponement of WNBA training camps amid the coronavirus pandemic. As initially reported by the Associated Press, the league and players’ union agreed that teams would have to get under the salary cap by Tuesday so that players could begin to get paid on June 1. The AP reported that waived players won’t get paid but will receive benefits through June.
“Ultimately we have to decide, because we can’t do it all together, what skill set strength of theirs makes most sense to round out our roster,” Sun coach/general manage Curt Miller told the AP last week.
The WNBA is still working through multiple scenarios that could potentially allow the 2020 season, which was supposed to begin May 15, to proceed later in the summer.
The Sun’s roster returns Natisha Hiedeman, Bria Holmes, Jonquel Jones, Brionna Jones, Theresa Plaisance, Alyssa Thomas
and Jasmine Thomas, along with newcomers Charles, DeWanna Bonner, Briann January and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. They’ll look to win a franchisefirst WNBA title whenever the league returns to play after losing in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals last October.
“Ultimately we have to decide, because we can’t do it all together, what skill set strength of theirs makes most sense to round out our roster.”
— Curt Miller, Sun coach/GM