It’s been a tumultuous 2024 season in Los Angeles and Dallas, but guards Aari McDonald and Odyssey Sims are giving their respective teams some much-needed stability.
As the Los Angeles Sparks (5-15) continue to slide further out of the playoff race, and they’ve made several adjustments to their rotation as of late, though most have been out of necessity. Rookie forward Cameron Brink has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, while guard Lexie Brown is out indefinitely as she battles Crohn’s disease.
While veterans like Stephanie Talbot and Kia Nurse have seen increased workloads for the Sparks in the wake of these injuries, it’s been point guard Aari McDonald who has stepped up the most. McDonald, who was acquired in an offseason trade with the Atlanta Dream, got off to a modest start in her first month in Los Angeles, but has quietly been one of the WNBA’s more productive guards since then. In her last nine games, McDonald has posted averages of 13.2 points, 5.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game, and save for one dud against the New York Liberty on June 22, has shot the ball well, connecting on 47.1 percent of her field goal attempts and 39.5 percent of her 3-pointers during that span.
Call on Aari.
17 PTS | 3 REB | 6 AST pic.twitter.com/nOfyNQcANn
— Los Angeles Sparks (@LASparks) July 3, 2024
That’s good for 25.6 fantasy points per game, and McDonald doesn’t seem to be in danger of losing her spot in the starting lineup, either. Layshia Clarendon is still in the picture, but their playing time (11.1 minutes in the last five games) has fallen off considerably, and while the Sparks recently signed Crystal Dangerfield to an emergency hardship contract, that’s likely purely for depth purposes. McDonald is still rostered in only 31.5 percent of ESPN leagues, and with the Sparks playing more for lottery balls than for the postseason, their young lead guard should be on everyone’s fantasy radar.
Odyssey Sims is giving the Wings much-needed stability at point guard
Meanwhile, Odyssey Sims is back in Dallas on a hardship contract, and her play over the past week has fans questioning why she wasn’t on the Wings roster to open the season.
In four games, Sims is averaging 12.5 points, five assists and 1.8 steals while playing nearly 30 minutes per game. She quickly was put into the team’s starting lineup by head coach Latricia Trammell, who has been searching for answers since the beginning of the Wings’ season. Perhaps no team in the WNBA has been more heavily affected by injuries than Dallas, and it’s reflected in the Wings’ majorly disappointing 5-16 record.
Photo by Cooper Neill/NBAE via Getty Images
In Sims, Trammell now has a veteran guard who has been there before—figuratively and literally. This is Sims’ third stint with the franchise that originally drafted her back in 2014, and it’s easy to see why the Wings threw her into the fire immediately after bringing her back for 2024. They’ve fallen far short of preseason expectations and are in desperate need of stability at almost every position on their roster, and Sims gives them peace of mind that they simply weren’t getting from rookies Sevgi Uzun or Jacy Sheldon.
That being said, Sheldon is still the future of the point guard position in Dallas, and the 24.8 fantasy points per game Sims has been averaging since returning to the Wings may not hold for the rest of 2024. We still have yet to see Satou Sabally, who has not played due to a shoulder injury; if she comes back after the Olympics as initially projected, Sims won’t be as big of a factor in the team’s offense as she currently is.
Still, Sims is a player who should absolutely be added in fantasy basketball for the time being. She’s a more willing shooter than both Uzun and Sheldon, and seems to be the only Wings guard other than Arike Ogunbowale who is getting free reign on offense.
Diamond Miller’s future is bright, but the Lynx aren’t in a rush
The Minnesota Lynx have one of the WNBA’s deepest rosters, and it’s allowed them to thrive despite the extended absence of one of their more important players, Diamond Miller. The No. 2 overall draft pick in 2023, Miller’s professional career is filled with promise, but has been derailed by injury several times; a knee procedure prematurely ended her first winter overseas, and another knee operation earlier this summer kept her out for over a month of action.
Photo by Evan Yu/NBAE via Getty Images
Miller is back on the court now—perhaps earlier than expected—but hasn’t contributed much, averaging just 5.4 minutes in four games while coming off the bench. This should come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with how Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve tends to manage her players’ injuries, and Minnesota has done fine without Miller playing a large role to this point, currently sitting in third place in the WNBA standings at 14-6.
Given the talent Minnesota has on the wing—Kayla McBride, Bridget Carleton and Cecilia Zandalasini have all been excellent in their respective roles—expect Miller’s workload to remain delicate until further notice. She’s a key part of the team’s future, and Reeve likely won’t want to overexert her, even if it means the Lynx aren’t technically playing at full capacity for the rest of the regular season. It’s fine to leave Miller on the waiver wire for now.
For the purposes of this article, “fantasy points” refer to standard ESPN fantasy league scoring, in which points, 3-pointers, rebounds and assists are each worth one fantasy point and steals and blocks are each worth two fantasy points. All player and team stats for the 2024 season are current through July 4.
