First, they focus on how injuries have impacted Dallas’ current roster and the knock-on effects these injuries will continue to have on roster construction going forward.
“We entered the season with 11 players under contract,” Bibb explained. “We knew one of them, Satou, was injured for an extended period of time. What we didn’t account for was the surprise injuries to [Jaelyn Brown] and Natasha Howard early, and then subsequently the injury to [Maddy Siegrist] later. As a result of those injuries, while we started the season under the salary cap with a little money to spare that we planned to utilize to sign a 12th player as we made a second half run, we were forced into a hardship situation. We signed [Monique Billings], really, after the first week of the regular season, and then subsequently we added [Odyssey Sims] later. Those two long term hardship contracts have essentially eaten through the extra salary cap space that we have. So as we sit here today, we are a capped out team financially.”
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Bibb continued, walking through how those key injuries have kept the Wings cornered in terms of cap space. As players start to return, there will be limited options to adjust the roster in the back half of the season:
“When the injured players come back, when the first injured player returns, we will be forced to release one of the two hardship contracts. That’s either Monique or Odyssey … There’s no ability to say, you know what, both players are playing great, and by the way they’ve been tremendous for us, we’ve decided that we’ll keep them and we’ll release another player. Can’t do that. … When the second injured player returns, the second hardship contract must be released. … in order for us to resign either one of those players coming off a hardship contract, we have a 10 day wait. … [and] in order to resign both Odyssey or Monique or even one of the two players, we would have to create cap space. Because we are in the second half of the season, all contracts have been guaranteed by this point, the only way that we create cap space is to trade a player to another team and not bring back a salary from that team. That is a complicated situation, because much like us, almost every team in the WNBA is either at the cap or very close to the cap. … if we can find a way just to bring back one, if not both, of those players, that is a priority. I just don’t know if it’s going to be a reality.”
Then, Megdal talked through Dallas’ continued struggles at the point guard position in particular, and the challenge of finding players to place around a growing star like Arike Ogunbowale:
“The net result is with a young point guard, untested, who has struggled, they’ve had to try and figure things out,” Megdal said. “Jacy Sheldon, a combo guard, [is] somebody who I believe, and Greg Bibb has said this when we talk to him, has the opportunity to play extended time at the one down the road, but that’s not where she is right now. And Sevgi Uzun, her turnover issues ultimately led to seeing her coming off the bench, and Odyssey Sims has been a really strong temporary solution, but … they cannot keep her. … Teams need point guards, I would not be surprised to see Odyssey Sims picked up by somebody else … and it sounds, by all rights, like Greg Bibb … would not be surprised [either]. So what does it all mean? And what’s the solution? Because … Arike Ogunbowale continues to excel. Who’s next to her for this team to look like a winning team, right? The same question Seattle had during the period of time the Jewell Loyd stayed, but Sue Bird retired. It’s been the same question that the Indiana Fever had from the moment they drafted Kelsey Mitchell until the moment they drafted Caitlin Clark. So this is not a small question. It is a key focus.”
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“I think the combination of who’s currently on the roster, the combination of who we have rights to, i.e. Carla Leite, the 20-year-old player out of France who we drafted with the ninth overall pick, I feel confident that we have our long term solution ‘in house,’” Bibb said. “With that said, we will always look to enhance every position between now and next season, and that will be inclusive of the point guard position. … but turning over the ball, not being as deliberate inside, are two of the bigger reasons, in my opinion, that we’ve struggled. And again, a lot of that is a direct product of we don’t have the personnel that we were going thought we were going to have. I mean, amongst the many things that [Sabally] does is she rebounds the heck out of the basketball, right? And she is a legitimate 18 to 20 point per game scorer, and some of that comes from the outside, but some of it comes from the inside, and she makes defenses play us in a different way, and it creates space inside. So there’s multiple multiplying factors that go into all this.”
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