The Los Angeles Sparks didn’t make their move for Kelsey Plum because they were patient. They made it because they were done waiting.

Coming off the worst record in the WNBA, Los Angeles decided another top draft pick wasn’t going to fix things. So they swung big, sending the No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft and Li Yueru to Seattle in a three-team deal to land Plum, the No. 9 pick, and a future second-rounder. It was supposed to be the moment everything changed — the start of a new direction for a franchise trying to climb out of the bottom.

But less than two years later, that “new era” is already looking shaky.

Plum is now 31, dealing with an injury, and on an expiring contract. The Sparks are a lowly 10–17, stuck in a six-game losing streak, and on track for a sixth straight season without the playoffs. And with the trade deadline approaching, there’s growing belief around the league that Plum won’t be back next year.

What was supposed to be a bold reset is starting to look like a gamble that may not pay off at all.

Plum Wasn’t The Problem

The original trade didn’t go sideways because Kelsey Plum stopped being Kelsey Plum. If anything, she’s done exactly what you’d expect from a player of her caliber. In 2025 she was an All-Star, putting up 20 points and 6 assists a night, and she was a big reason the Sparks jumped from eight wins to 21.

And before this lower left leg injury slowed her down this season, she was honestly playing at an even higher level. Plum was averaging 24 points and 6 assists while shooting 52.7% from the field and 38.3% from three. If she had stayed healthy long enough to qualify, that scoring mark would’ve been one of the six best seasons the league has ever seen. So yeah, the production was absolutely there.

The uncomfortable truth for the Sparks is that Plum did her job. She showed up, she produced, she gave them exactly the kind of star they thought they were trading for. The problem is everything around her never really came together the way they hoped it would.

Meanwhile, Seattle turned the No. 2 pick they got from Los Angeles into Dominique Malonga, who already looks like one of the more exciting young bigs in the league. The Sparks, on the other hand, missed the playoffs in 2025, doubled down on veteran moves again, and still ended up unraveling to the point where they had to move on from general manager Raegan Pebley midway through this season.

Now the front office situation is kind of in limbo, with assistant GMs Zach Knowlton and Nate Nielsen sharing duties. And right in the middle of all that uncertainty is one of the biggest decisions this franchise has had to make in years — what to do with Kelsey Plum, and whether they can actually get anything meaningful back before she walks out the door for nothing.

Doing Nothing Is Still A Decision

Trading Plum isn’t as simple as just calling up a contender and asking for a first-round pick and calling it a day.

For one, her $999,999 salary is a real headache for a lot of teams. The WNBA doesn’t force strict dollar-for-dollar matching in trades, but the hard cap still means every team involved has to squeeze everything under the limit. That alone narrows the field pretty quickly. And then you add in the fact that Plum is currently injured and might only be a short-term rental for whoever trades for her, and suddenly no one is exactly lining up to pay a premium unless they feel pretty confident she’s sticking around after the season.

That said, this also isn’t a situation where the Sparks should panic and take whatever’s offered just to say they did something. A bad deal is still a bad deal, and rushing into one just to avoid the optics of losing her for nothing doesn’t really help either.

But at the same time, they can’t just sit back and hope it sorts itself out. Under the new CBA, the “core” designation only applies to players with six or fewer years of service time. Plum is well past that point, which means once she hits free agency, the Sparks don’t get to control the situation anymore. She’s not someone they can just lock in and plan around the way they might have a few years ago.

Special advisor Farhan Zaidi has already basically admitted as much, saying the Sparks went all-in and now have to zoom out and think bigger picture. And this is where that “bigger picture” talk actually has to turn into action, not just sound good in a press conference.

Because at the end of the day, this is the reality: Los Angeles gave up the No. 2 pick in a loaded draft because they believed Plum could be the piece that pulled them out of the rebuild. And to be fair, she did her part. She gave them exactly what they were hoping for on the court. The problem is everything around her still didn’t come together.

So now the Sparks are in this awkward spot where they’re not getting that No. 2 pick value back, not even close. That ship has already sailed. The only question left is whether they can at least salvage something before their biggest swing of the rebuild leaves and they get nothing back.

All stats courtesy of WNBA.com.

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