r/LASparks

This would make losing out on Paige hurt less ..

The contact came with about six minutes left at Barclays, in the middle of the Sparks’ 21-0 fourth-quarter run. Stewart lowered a shoulder into her midsection on a drive; an offensive foul was called, and Brink stayed down before being helped off with a towel over her head. She had 9 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal in 19 minutes before that.

The team has not released anything official yet. Lynne Roberts said postgame only that the medical staff was evaluating her, and Brink was listed as questionable Friday before being ruled out against Washington on Saturday, her first missed game since July 13. Her own account in the video goes well beyond the vague upper-body language on the injury report.

Sparks are at Connecticut on Tuesday, and a formal update should land before then.

via @jane_gorman on TikTok

The WNBA's salary structure creates some absurd value gaps. A rookie on a scale contract and a max-salary veteran can produce nearly identical win shares while one earns five times the other.

I pulled every player's 2026 salary from Her Hoops Stats and win share totals from Basketball Reference (as of 8/11/26) and calculated win shares per $1M to see who's actually delivering on their current deals.

The results sort into four tiers, from elite value down to contracts that aren't returning much of anything. A few names in the top group won't surprise anyone. A few in the bottom group might.

Note: I put a minimum of 250 minutes played, so players like Napheesa Collier (MIN), Ezi Magbegor (SEA), Brionna Jones (ATL), and Satou Sabally (NYL) did not qualify yet.

The evolution of three-point attempt rate (3PAr) helps explain how the WNBA has changed since its inaugural season in 1997. In the league’s first two seasons, less than 20% of field goal attempts were threes. The rate climbed to a then-record 26.6% in 2012 before jumping to 28.4% in 2018.

That 2018 season marked the beginning of the three-point revolution. From 1997-2017, the league’s average 3PAr was 22.9%. Since 2018, it has risen to 32.7%. This season, teams are attempting threes on 36.9% of their field goal attempts, which would eclipse last year’s record of 36.0%.

The increase has been especially dramatic among expansion teams. Golden State set the record last season at 45.8% and is currently second all-time at 45.1%. The Fire currently rank fifth all-time at 42.4%. The Liberty have seven of the top 12 seasons all-time, one from each of the last seven seasons. This year’s team is on pace to set another franchise record.

The volume has increased without a major decline in efficiency. League-wide three-point percentage (3P%) was 33.7% from 1997-2017 and is 34.3% since 2018.

Even posts have caught the three-point bug. Centers (according to positions listed on Basketball Reference) went from attempting threes on just 6.0% of their field goal attempts from 1997-2017 to 15.1% since 2018, a 2.5x increase, while their 3P% improved from 32.0% to 33.7%.

The graphs and tables sort every qualifying post player (minimum of eight games) from 2017 and 2026 into five shooting profiles using identical thresholds: 22.6% 3PAr for volume and 34.3% 3P% for efficiency. Only five posts were high-volume and efficient in 2017 compared to 13 in 2026. Meanwhile, the number of posts who attempted zero threes fell from 17 to six.

The change extends beyond the overall numbers. Five posts who played in both seasons completely changed their shot profiles by significantly increasing their own three-point volume.

Until three-point efficiency starts to fall, posts will keep stretching the floor.

I felt this was worth sharing because it's such a contrast with the way we all talk about this team, and it kind of blew my mind. Some excerpts from the story:

>And yet, despite all of that—and despite the lack of shooting, the injuries, the poor “clutch” play as of late, etc.—I think this team has a real heart. My heart.

>The Sparks trailed by 26 entering the fourth quarter on Thursday. They got down by as much as 28 with 9:48 left. And then something emblematic of their entire season happened: they did not quit. Los Angeles rattled off a monstrous 21-0 run, which then extended as far as 29-4 to bring them within just three points of the Liberty.

>No, their final shot attempt, a potential game-tying 3-pointer from Ariel Atkins, didn’t find the bottom of the net. But I don’t care. Why? Because a team in their position could easily quit. Even with all of these internal, external, and what at times feels like extraterrestrial forces working against them, the Sparks did not quit.

>“I’ve never really done that,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts answered postgame when asked if she had at all considered throwing in the towel after the third quarter and yanking the starters since, at the time, it was a blowout. “I’m not good at losing, or throwing in the towel. That’s just not who I am. That’s not how I want us to play.”

>...

>The season began with an idea of what the 2026 Sparks could be. But that idea was snuffed out rather quickly. What remains is something in its infancy: a beautiful, perplexing, enthralling organism filled with passion and fight.

>...

>But even with all of the absences and craziness of this season, the Sparks have kept fighting for each other and for their coach.

>“I have not sensed at all this whole season that there’s been any sort of lack of buy-in or frustration with what we’re trying to do,” Roberts expressed before the game. “It’s just we’ve had just a brutal season of injuries and inconsistent lineups. It’s really hard to gain momentum. … But even despite all of that, they’ve been locked in. I have felt like we’re all for one, one for all from the jump.”

>That sense of team and chemistry has not wavered, and it certainly didn’t after this result in New York.

>“Proud of these guys,” Roberts said about the fight her team showed.

>They didn’t win the game, but they won hearts. That’ll suffice for now.

>And that’s what has made the Sparks, for all of their on-court faults, a fabulous watch this season. They genuinely fight for each other, from the first player to the last, and from each coach to the rest.

>This team is not going to make the playoffs. They have to win their final 11 games to even finish with a winning record. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that this might be the most connected team, emotionally and in each other’s hearts, as any I have covered.

>“I believe in these guys,” Roberts said Thursday. “And I’ll fight for them to the end.”

>That’s a team. Win or lose.

>It’s impossible not to love them for it.

Pure delusion, or is the truth somewhere in the middle? (I mean: if the team is so connected, what went on with KP?) "A fabulous watch this season"?

(He also confirmed that Nneka's terrible slump is real: "Ogwumike has made just 15 of her last 41 field goal attempts (36.7%). It would be the fourth-worst three-game stretch of her career, field goal percentage wise (min. 40 FGA).")

Now with Plum gone, the organization essentially traded away Malonga for some baked beans. What a disaster of a front office to let this happen.