All is fair in love and basketball.
Dallas Wings break up core — and one couple — with shocking WNBA trade
The Dallas Wings have made a trade with the Las Vegas Aces, and it’s safe to say the players involved probably did not expect it.
Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Chelsea Leite has been writing about professional basketball since 2021, and covers both the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Tempo as a credentialed reporter for SB Nation.
That rings true today as the Dallas Wings have unexpectedly traded NaLyssa Smith to the Las Vegas Aces in exchange for a 2027 first-round pick, the teams announced.
The move came as a shock to Smith, and she took to social media as soon as the news broke to express as much.
Fortunately for NaLyssa, this allows her to go and play with A’ja Wilson and provide much-needed frontcourt depth for the Aces. Las Vegas has been struggling as of late, is not seeing production from Kiah Stokes, and on top of that, is missing Cheyenne Parker-Tyus (pregnancy) and Megan Gustafson (lower leg injury). Bringing in Smith allows them to bolster their big rotation.
Vegas needs that too, given that they are currently in seventh place in the WNBA standings with a .500 record (7-7). Given that they don’t own their first-round draft pick in 2026, not making the playoffs — only the top eight teams in the league do — would have huge implications for the Aces. In this trade, they lose their 2027 first-round pick as well, meaning Vegas has no intention of not making the postseason in the next two years. It’s a win-now move, and Smith was likely the best available on the market given their needs. Is it the best move possible...? Maybe not, given the free agency market next year, but something needed to change for Vegas.
On the other side, it’s a chess move from Curt Miller. 2027 is a DEEP WNBA draft pool (Juju Watkins, anyone?). If you keep both picks you have now, that’s double the chance for Juju, or you have an asset to use on the trade market for this year and next. With Dallas having Li Yueru now in the frontcourt, they can afford to move off of Smith. It’s yet to be seen how this may affect team chemistry.
That is always a factor in the aftermath of trades, but is especially relevant here, given Smith’s public relationship with her (now ex) teammate DiJonai Carrington. The two have been an item over the past few years, and this was the first season they were playing in the same market, which is surely a factor in the shock Smith expressed above.
This could also be the first move in a set of moves being done by these two teams. With a couple of days of break here now for the Commissioner’s Cup game, teams could make a few quick moves with the time to assess their roster and needs. The WNBA trade market has heated up in recent years, along with the free agency market, and with all the change coming in the league in the next few years, trades and “win-now” moves will be the fad.
Smith seems excited to be headed to Vegas, given the fact that Wilson is her “GOAT.”
The WNBA trade deadline is not until August 7, so expect more moves in the weeks ahead.
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