Quite a bit has happened since our last WNBA fantasy basketball grab bag, including several players leaving the country to participate in FIBA’s EuroBasket Women competition, as our Łukasz Muniowski wrote last week. Most of these players are in the rotation for their respective WNBA teams, so those teams have had to adjust for their absences. The Golden State Valkyries, in particular, have seen two young players step up and become reliable fantasy basketball adds in the past week.
Elsewhere, the usual trends, such as injury replacements and minutes distributions, remain worth following. Let’s go over a few of the more popular WNBA fantasy basketball adds and discuss how these trends might hold—or not.
Carla Leite, Laeticia Amihere stepping up for Golden State
Of all the WNBA teams affected by the ongoing Women’s EuroBasket competition, none have been hit as hard as the Golden State Valkyries. They’re currently without four players (Temi Fagbenle, Julie Vanloo, Janelle Salaün and Cecilia Zandalasini), which has left quite a few minutes up for grabs.
Carla Leite is one player who is taking advantage. Her minutes have been up-and-down to begin her WNBA career, but the 21-year old guard has had a consistent spot in the rotation since Vanloo left, and she’s averaged 10 points, 3.7 assists and one steal in 26.4 minutes per game during that span (17.3 fantasy points). She’ll have a hard time unseating Veronica Burton as the Valkyries’ go-to ball handler, but as long as Golden State is short on guards, it will depend on Leite as a distributor and as someone who can break defenses down off the dribble.
Laeticia Amihere is also making an impact, though her situation may be a little more volatile than Leite’s. Originally a training camp invite who the Valkyries cut before the regular season began, Amihere was brought back to Golden State earlier in June, and she’s delivered several noteworthy performances in a row, totaling 24 points, nine rebounds, five assists and six defensive stats in her last two games. Amihere was originally drafted by Atlanta back in 2023 for her athletic potential, and though she still has some growing to do, she’s currently playing with a freedom she hadn’t enjoyed in her first two seasons in the WNBA.
From a fantasy perspective, both Leite and Amihere should be considered fill-ins for the time being. EuroBasket runs through June 29, and as the Valkyries’ absences return, Leite and Amihere will see their opportunities diminish. We’ve already seen enough to keep them both on watch lists moving forward, though, and given that they’re playing for an expansion team, their numbers may be called again later in the season. Make sure you don’t miss out if that happens!
Is Aneesah Morrow getting going in Connecticut?
Morrow was one of two players taken by the Connecticut Sun in the first round of the 2025 WNBA Draft (Saniya Rivers the other), but unlike Rivers, whose fantasy game we highlighted earlier in the month, Morrow has had to fight for her time on the court. She’s playing behind established veterans like Tina Charles and Olivia Nelson-Ododa, appearing in roughly 11 minutes per game thus far and even racking up a few DNPs.
Morrow has had a couple of strong games in a row, however, recording 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals last Wednesday and following it up with 10 points and seven rebounds on Friday. In both games, she played nearly as minutes as Nelson-Ododa, seemingly having established herself as Connecticut’s third big.
There’s no indication that Charles or Nelson-Ododa are going anywhere, but the Sun are off to a woeful start at 2-11, so they probably won’t be leaning too heavily on those veterans for the entire season. Morrow is a rebounding machine who leverages her physicality effectively, having been to the free throw line five or more times on three occasions this season—so she definitely has fantasy basketball potential. She’s not quite in must-roster territory yet, but if the Sun pack it in and commit fully to player development, she’ll be putting up bigger numbers soon.
Nyara Sabally stands to benefit from Jonquel Jones’ injury
The New York Liberty recently announced that star center Jonquel Jones will miss the next four to six weeks with an ankle sprain. In fantasy basketball terms, that means it’s time to consider adding Nyara Sabally.
Sabally is, of course, not going to single-handedly replace Jones’ averages of 12.1 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, but she’s currently posting career-highs of seven points, five rebounds and 1.5 steals per game (17.5 fantasy points), and if she’s playing starters’ minutes, she’s definitely worth a spot on fantasy rosters. In three previous games as a starter, Sabally averaged nine points, five rebounds, and a massive 4.6 defensive stats in 21 minutes; while it’s not realistic to expect her to continue that defensive production, Sabally will keep scoring at a high percentage from the field, especially when playing alongside New York’s best shot creators.
