Sparks shuffle roster amid injury to trade deadline acquisition

The Los Angeles Sparks acquired point guard Monique Akoa Makani at the trade deadline while sending Kelsey Plum to the Phoenix Mercury, and through Akoa Makani’s initial two games, she put up a solid debut. But since then, the second-year guard suffered an ankle injury and has been sidelined for four consecutive games now. As a result, the Sparks shuffled the roster on Saturday with a couple of moves designed to address their guard depth.

Late on Friday evening, the Sparks tendered an offer sheet to Connecticut Sun rookie guard Ashlon Jackson, who was playing on a developmental contract, but the Sun matched the offer sheet on Saturday morning causing the Sparks to pivot. Los Angeles had waived veteran guard Kiana Williams in anticipation of the Jackson signing, and with a freshly opened roster spot, the Sparks simply converted rookie guard Tonie Morgan’s deal to a standard contract.

Morgan was signed to a developmental contract last month and recently made her WNBA debut during the Sparks’ loss to the Phoenix Mercury last Tuesday. Prior to the Sparks’ game against the Washington Mystics on Saturday, head coach Lynne Roberts spoke about what she had seen out of Williams to this point.

“We love having Kiana. She was an absolute pro, handled it like I knew she would, as tough as it is. I thought she did what we asked her to do in terms of, when KP [Kelsey Plum] went out and we needed another guard, she came in and made some big plays for us,” Roberts said during her pregame press conference. “I absolutely loved coaching her.”

The Sparks’ recent need for a guard though has come amid the Akoa Makani injury. She sustained an ankle injury during the team’s win against the Minnesota Lynx back on Aug. 6 and has been out of the lineup ever since. In the two games she played, she was averaging 5.0 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists in a little over 17 minutes per game.

With no further update on Akoa Makani’s injury status, Morgan is the backup point guard for the time being. Prior to the Sparks’ game against the New York Liberty last Thursday, Roberts spoke about how Morgan has adjusted to being thrown into the rotation after not having appeared in a game for about a month.

“When you play in your first WNBA game, there’s gonna be nerves and all of the things. I thought she did a good job in the first half. Second half I thought she went in and immediately Phoenix went zone every time … we hadn’t done anything with zone with her so she looked understandably like a little bit on her back foot,” Roberts said. “We’ll continue working with her. But I thought we need more players that can put pressure on the rim and she’s someone that can do that.”

The Sparks will have 10 games in the regular season remaining after their matchup against the Mystics.