Expectations around the Sparks are higher than they’ve been in some time. During Thursday’s media day, that was evident.
The Sparks reloaded for this season, adding veterans Nneka Ogwumike, Erica Wheeler and Ariel Atkins to returners Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink.
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After falling just two games short of the playoffs last season, this year’s goal is clear.
“Transformation takes time, and it’s a process, right?” Plum said. “And I think I see that we’ve had tremendous growth. To bring in players like Nneka, Erica Wheeler and then Ariel, we have everyone in camp fully healthy.
“I think, really, our depth and our talent is immense this year, and the mission is very clear from everyone on this team and equipped with the jump and training camp, very excited about the hunger and sense of urgency that we have. We want to win now, that’s very important to us.”
In her own right, coach Lynne Roberts has a new comfort level in her second season as well with a much more intentionally built team.
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Read more: Kelsey Plum and Sparks leaders convinced top free agents they can win now
“I feel a lot more aware of what to expect,” she said. “I think our training camp was much more efficient. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m confident in my ability and coaching, but I was new, and it’s a learning curve, just like it is for players to go from college to pro, it was for me too. So, learn from making mistakes. Learn from doing things right.
“But it feels different.”
A loaded backcourt
General manager Raegan Pebley noted that Plum wants to play point guard more often this season, and she will have to do that often when she and Atkins are on the court together. But the goal is to keep Plum as a scorer, too, with the depth that is around her.
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“I want [Atkins] to put the ball in [Plum’s] hands and get it back to her, versus her feeling like she has to create from every possession on the catch,” Roberts said. “So part of bringing Ariel in, a big priority for us was bringing in backcourt support for her, she had a lot of pressure on her last year to not just create for herself, but create for others.”
Wheeler is their only veteran point guard, and the 36-year-old will come off the bench and handle the ball, but the Sparks are buying into a less-defined backcourt.
“I think Lynne’s system is really about not having just one clear point guard and two guard,” Pebley said. “It’s about having two lead guards out on the floor, and it’s that pace in that space. So I think you’re going to see [Plum] playing quite a bit of point, but you’re going to equally see her on the floor where you can’t tell if she’s a point, if she’s the lead guard.”
Brink off the bench
Roberts said that if “there were games today,” Brink would be coming off the bench behind Dearica Hamby and Ogwumike.
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“Her and Dearica will kind of rotate, and Sania Feagin, she had a great offseason too,” Roberts said. “So another big to bring in, but I think that the addition of Nneka takes some pressure off of [Cam.] As I’ve mentioned many times, she played 33 games in two years, and it was plagued with peaks and valleys of injuries, and she’s healthy and she’s confident and she’s strong, so I think she’s looked as good as I think she could look.”
Hamby signed a three-year deal for $3.4 million to return to the Sparks, and she averaged a career-high 18.4 points per game last season and 7.9 rebounds.
Brink returned from an ACL tear in her rookie season in the second half of last year and she averaged 5.1 points and 4.3 rebounds in 15 games while shooting 42.7%. The No. 2 overall pick in 2024, she has long been projected as a starting center in the WNBA.
Read more: Sparks surprised, excited to land versatile South Carolina guard late in WNBA draft
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If she comes off the bench, though, that does give the Sparks one of the deepest frontcourts in the league.
“My goal is purely just to win, to be a great teammate, to learn from all my amazing vets,” Brink said. “My motto here is that I’m just here to play basketball.”
New president
The Sparks announced Stacy Johns is their new president earlier this week after the former chief business officer for LAFC spent three months as the CEO of the NWSL’s Bay FC.
Johns succeeds Christine Monjer, who spent two years in the role.
The Sparks have reinvested going into this season, working to build the team’s permanent practice facility that will debut next season, and now have new leadership in the front office, led by Johns.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
