WNBA Trade Featuring Four Teams, Numerous Draft Picks Is Official
A fast and furious WNBA offseason got a little more exciting on Saturday after the Mercury, Liberty, Sky and Wings agreed to terms on a massive four-team deal involving multiple players and draft picks.
Dallas will acquire Mercury guard Diamond DeShields, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2023 draft and a ’24 first-round pick from the Sky, and the swap rights to a ’25 first-round pick with Chicago while Chicago will land Wings guard Marina Mabrey (via sign-and-trade) and a Mercury ’24 second-round pick. Additionally, Phoenix will acquire Liberty forward Michaela Onyenwere, as well as the Sky’s ’24 third-round and ’25 second-round picks, and New York will add Chicago’s ’24 second-round pick, a ’25 first-round pick swap with Phoenix and the player rights to German forward Leonie Fiebich.
DeShields, the No. 3 pick in the 2018 draft, will stay in the Western Conference after averaging 13.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists with the Mercury last season. The 2019 All-Star previously spent the first four years of her career with the Sky, where she won a WNBA championship in 2021.
Phoenix will look to help replace some of DeShields’s scoring with the addition of Onyenwere, a former No. 6 pick who won rookie of the year in ’21. The second-year forward has averaged 6.6 PPG and 2.5 RPG in her career.
Elsewhere, Mabrey will move on to the East for the first time in her career after playing for the Sparks her rookie year and the Wings over the next three. The former Notre Dame star has averaged 10.4 points, three rebounds and 2.5 assists per game over four seasons.
With the four-team trade now official, all four franchises will have a plethora of assets to sort through as they continue rebuilding and re-tooling ahead of the ’23 season. The Liberty and Sky recently made headlines after veteran guard Courtney Vandersloot departed Chi-town to join former Storm star Breanna Stewart in the Big Apple.
