Fire’s surprise roster cuts leave WNBA fans baffled

The Portland Fire suffered their loss in their debut season after falling to the Indiana Fever, 90-73, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Wednesday. The Fire failed to capitalize against the Fever, who were handicapped without Caitlin Clark due to a back injury.

Following the defeat, which dropped the Fire to 2-3, the front office decided to tighten the roster. The Fire waived Haley Jones, Kamiah Smalls, and Sug Sutton, while signing Frieda Buhner and Holly Winterburn to standard contracts and activating Teja Oblak.

Before the season, Portland coach Alex Sarama stressed that he would be upfront with his players.

“For me, it starts with complete transparency with the players and having frequent and very regular conversations. I’m a huge believer that the best environments are player-led,” said Sarama in a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Brenna Greene.

Waiving Jones, Smalls, and Sutton must have been tough for Sarama, and fans were not too happy with the decision.

“Waving Sug Sutton is crazy. She’s been hooping,” said @fitzmagic13.

“Only explanation I have for this is that we weren’t tanking well enough,” added @pbj_5_.

“I’m not mad at the other names because they were on thin ice anyway, but Sug Sutton actually has been solid. So I’m really interested in the thought process here. Are they planning on bringing someone back over from overseas, or is there another move coming?” asked @MadamMaziel.

“Well, damn. Sutton started last night. Smalls had a start and Haley Jones played in every game. Interested to see the next moves,” wrote @Foernix_.

“That’s actually so stupid. Sug and Haley are so much better than Buhner and Winter (check the stats, y’all),” commented @rxmx778.

In three games, Sutton averaged 11.3 points and 5.7 assists. Jones put up 5.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in five games, while Smalls logged 7.5 points and 3.0 assists in two appearances.

Sutton will likely get picked up by another team.

The Fire will face the Toronto Tempo on Saturday.