Connecticut Sun Youngsters Build ‘Natural’ Chemistry During Lost Season

If the Connecticut Sun are going to be a better team, the struggles their young players went through this season can be a foundation.

Connecticut Sun guard Leila Lacan (47) looks on during the first half against the Dallas Wings at College Park Center. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

If the Connecticut Sun are going to get better after their second-worst season in franchise history, it’s the youngsters that will have to lead them.

There are no guarantees that veterans like Tina Charles, Marina Mabrey and Bria Hartley will be back next year. What it will take to keep those veterans in free agency won’t be clear until the WNBA and the WNBA players’ association comes to an agreement on a new deal, which will set the parameters for free agency, revenue sharing and a new salary cap limit.

Those players could get paid elsewhere. But four young players, led Saniya Rivers, could be the key to the Sun’s future, no matter where those veterans end up.

Saniya Rivers on the Young Core

David Butler II-Imagn Images

Rivers was one of several young players that the Sun leaned on as the season progressed. She was a first-round pick of the Sun earlier this year, along with forward Aneesah Morrow. Last year’s first-round pick, guard Leila Lacan, joined the team at midseason after wrapping up her commitments in Europe. Connecticut also acquired forward Aaliyah Edwards in a trade during the season.

It gives the Sun four quality players to build around, players that they have under team control for the next two years, no matter what happens with the collective bargaining agreement. From Rivers’ perspective, the quartet has already built something durable for next season, something that can accelerate their rise — chemistry.

“It was so natural, and we just flowed,” Rivers said to reporters after the end of the season, including CT Insider (subscription required). “It wasn’t forced, and I feel like those are the most wholesome connections that are made, the ones that are just genuine … I’d heard horror stories before I got to the league about bad locker rooms, so I was just blessed coming in here as a rookie and be in in a great locker room, because obviously it’s a little less intimidating when you can come in and just be yourself.”

Lacan was named WNBA all-rookie after she finished the season with 10.4 points, 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game. She was the only rookie on the team that averaged more than 10 points per game. Rivers emerged as a starter by season’s end and averaged 8.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.5 steals.

Morrow poured in 7.7 points per game, along with grabbing 6.9 rebounds per game. She ended the season with more rebounds than Charles, who is in the Top 2 all-time in WNBA rebounding. Edwards played in 17 games, all off the bench, and averaged 3.7 points per game. Between the four they averaged 30 points per game. It’s a good starting point for 2026.