With the 2025 season just around the corner, few franchises have experienced more change than the Connecticut Sun. Having reached the postseason in each of the last eight years, the organization has established itself as one of the premier on-court forces in the WNBA, but the lack of progress on facilities to help them keep up with other rising powers like New York and Las Vegas was always pointing towards an unfortunate wake-up call in the future. This winter, that call finally came and the obvious question for Connecticut is now: what’s next? Let’s dive into how the new roster looks, how their new coach will want them to play, and what reasonable expectations for their season would be.
Aside from the winter exodus the Chicago Sky saw after their 2022 playoff exit to this same Sun team, it’s hard to think of another wave of high-profile departures a franchise has experienced that measures up to the one Connecticut underwent this offseason. Gone are six players who, together, played seventy-nine percent of all regular season minutes for them last year—including the entirety of their starting five—while combining to record over eighty percent of the team’s points, rebounds, assists, and steals (only Olivia Nelson-Ododa’s strong blocks total prevented a clean sweep). In short, no amount of replacement—whether in the trade that saw all of Carrington, Harris, and Thomas depart or via free agent additions—could help recover the productivity that they lost.
What the Sun did do is create a highly diverse training camp roster that will allow new head coach Rachid Meziane (more on him in a second) to explore lots of different personnel groupings before settling on a final roster of 12 players. The four most notable acquisitions (Charles, Morrow, Rivers, and Sheldon) all fit with the defense-first identity that is likely to define this team, and the arrival of Leïla Lacan from France (2024’s first-round pick) will only further enhance that strong defensive core. Morrow and Rivers, the team’s first-round picks from April’s draft, will be tasked with evolving their game at the WNBA level while making the most of the pro-ready skills they bring to the table. Charles, the marquee free-agent acquisition, will inevitably continue as a positive contributor in her fourteenth campaign—after finishing with a +15.5 net rating and climbing to second on the all-time WNBA scoring list a season ago in Atlanta. Elsewhere, it’s hard to say who from the new arrivals list—save for veteran guard Lindsay Allen—will make the opening-day roster. Allen, for what it’s worth, should be a solid option in the backcourt after an underrated season (5.9 assists per 36 minutes) in a varied role with Chicago in 2024.
Away from the on-court personnel, the Sun welcome Meziane after 2023 Coach of the Year Stephanie White left for the Indiana Fever. Despite having big shoes to fill following Curt Miller and White’s sustained success in Connecticut, the French coach comes with as many credentials as any first-time WNBA head coach could reasonably have. After a patient rise up the ranks of French basketball with Nice and Montpellier, Villeneuve-d’Ascq handed its reins to Meziane in 2019. There, he led the club through arguably the strongest period in its history, capping his final full season in charge with a French league title and a first-ever trip to the EuroLeague Final Four. Meanwhile, Meziane also took on the Belgium national team job in the fall of 2022 and led the country to its first major tournament victory at EuroBasket in 2023 and its best Olympics finish (4th) one summer later. Talented players—headlined by 2019 WNBA Finals MVP Emma Meesseman—obviously contributed to the successes with club and country, but there should be zero doubt that Meziane and his style of play (modern, adaptable offense + physical defense) are ready for the WNBA.
Projected Starting Five: Jacy Sheldon, Marina Mabrey, Saniya Rivers, Aneesah Morrow, Tina Charles
With so many new faces, only Meziane can really claim to have any idea what the Sun’s starting lineup will look like when the curtain rises May 18th against the Mystics. Yet, the above group seems to make the most sense based on the directional choices Connecticut’s front office made in the WNBA Draft. At 6’1”, Rivers is more than capable of handling the small forward position, and the decision to choose her just after Morrow means there are seemingly plans to try out the former LSU and DePaul forward at the four—a position where she’s going to be giving up size almost every game due to her 6’1” frame. In the backcourt, Mabrey will be a starter as long as she’s on the roster while Sheldon, on account of her youth (and being the key return in the blockbuster deal with Dallas and Phoenix) presumably gets the first crack at the starting point guard job.
In any case, the only certainty aside from Mabrey in the first five should be Charles—with the other four slots subject to change before and during the season. Lacan, once confirmed to play stateside this year, would have a chance to push her way into a starting backcourt spot while both of the veteran point guards on the roster (Allen and Yvonne Anderson) have what it takes to guide the offense. Diamond DeShields is another who, in theory, could open games at either the two or the three after 10 starts in Chicago last season while Nelson-Ododa—despite last registering starts in the 2022 season and not looking like a perfect fit with Charles—is probably the frontcourt name most likely to replace Morrow. To make a long story short, the make-up of their roster suggests that their 2025 draft picks (plus the two new arrivals from the ‘24 class) will be given a long leash to learn the W game.
Question Marks
Do Rivers and Morrow fit together as a three-four combo?
Given the Sun invested their 2025 first-round picks in these two and their 2026 draft capital consists of the Liberty and Mercury’s first-round picks (likely to be mid-round at best), Meziane and new GM Morgan Tuck need to find out whether this duo can complement each other before deciding how they’ll try to spend their money in free agency next winter. On one side of the ball, the potential is obvious and exciting as both are athletically gifted defenders with the motor needed to keep up with the highly physical style their new head coach will be aiming to play. On offense, however, there are numerous question marks about how these players can adjust. As mentioned above, neither are efficient outside options and the reaction from defenses—especially as it relates to guarding Rivers at the three-point line—will likely be pretty aggressive and counterintuitive to Morrow’s (and Charles’) ability to go to work inside. For as long as those clashes are created by these two players starting (or playing lots of minutes together), there’ll be questions about why Tuck chose to draft both instead of adding a more dynamic offensive option (Ajša Sivka, for instance) with one of the two picks. That said, Meziane has also drawn plaudits for his player development work overseas, and it’s possible he can help one (or both) improve their offensive arsenal with time.
What happens with Marina Mabrey?
As if the Sun’s three-point shooting woes weren’t bad enough already, there’s also Mabrey’s future to think about after the veteran guard publicly requested a trade in early February with the franchise denying the request just a few weeks later. The result is, essentially, an awkward stand-off between the two parties that leaves neither in a favorable position. Mabrey is faced with the option of playing for the Sun or skipping the season while Connecticut has lost all of the (very limited) remaining leverage it had to flip a player they acquired in a final push for an elusive WNBA title last July. At this point, Mabrey’s best option is likely to play to build her value as much as possible ahead of her impending free agency, but it’s no longer in Connecticut’s best interest to run everything through her (especially if Lacan plays in the W) given the low odds that she’ll re-sign. At the same time, the Sun will struggle to trade Mabrey because few, if any, teams will be willing to commit draft picks (that can eventually become cost-controlled players) to “win-now” deals right before CBA negotiations and a free agency period that sees nearly every veteran league-wide hit the open market. If Mabrey is dealt at any point, her departure would free up more minutes for young players (a positive) but would also likely add to the lack of spacing in (and thus, overall dysfunction of) the offense.
Their Ceiling
While it’s easy to make doomsday predictions about this roster, the quality of defensive talent on this roster means there will be chances to stay in games that, on paper, they look like massive underdogs in. If enough of the teams just above them in the standings experience significant dips in their play or injury issues and veterans beyond Charles and Mabrey can perform at or near their best level, it’s possible this Connecticut team “steals” a handful of those tight games and stays within reach of the eighth seed for much of the season in the same way teams with poor records like Washington (14-26) and Chicago (13-27) did last season.
Their Floor
After six straight trips to the semifinals or beyond, the Sun may finish the 2025 season with the worst record in the league. Of the players on the current roster for camp, only Mabrey (four times), Charles (twice), and Robyn Parks (once: file Parks away as a two-way name to watch for this team) have shot over 35 percent from three on two or more attempts in a season in the WNBA and neither of the first-round rookies look super likely to add to that list at this point in their careers. Thus, an educated guess can be made about how opponents will defend this Connecticut team with Mabrey—just like in Chicago a season ago—asked to cover a lot of holes with her shot creation abilities. As a result, the Sun will struggle to put points on the board with even the strongest of defenses only carrying a team so far before the dam bursts and a big run by the opposition puts the game out of reach.
