Brown’s new contract will keep her with the Sky for the remainder of the 2021 season, something she wasn’t anticipating when she was waived following training camp.
The Sky’s roster has looked like a never-ending rotating door of talent since the start of the season.
Combining an Olympic year with early injury is a recipe for disaster — or at least an abundance of replacement or hardship contracts.
Lexie Brown was one of those players for the Sky, but she turned a temporary stint into a rest-of-season contract, which she signed Monday afternoon, after her 20-minute game against the Phoenix Mercury.
“It’s been a lot mentally and emotionally the last few weeks,” Brown said. “But I knew this signing was coming after the Phoenix game.”
A replacement contract is one a player and team enter into under the WNBA’s hardship exception. The standard hardship exception applies to teams with two or more players out because of injury, illness or other conditions.
An emergency hardship exception is granted when a team drops below 10 available players. In the Sky’s case, they dropped below 10 available players when both Candace Parker and Allie Quigley were injured and Stefanie Dolson was representing Team USA in the 3x3 qualifying tournament in Austria.
As players return to the team, replacement contracts must be terminated. Which was why Brown was brought in to play for the Sky on June 1 and subsequently waived when Dolson returned.
Brown’s new contract will keep her with the Sky for the remainder of the 2021 season, something she wasn’t anticipating when she was waived following training camp.
“I was very close to being like ‘I don’t care who calls. I’m not playing,’” Brown said.
Brown is not alone in riding out the frustrations and emotions of the roller coaster that is a temporary contract in the WNBA. In June alone, four teams have entered into hardship contracts.
The Sky traded rookie Shyla Heal, waived rookie Stephanie Watts and signed and waived rookie Natasha Mack in June.
Coach and general manager James Wade said the reason for waiving Watts and trading Heal who was subsequently waived by the Dallas Wings was to make room for Brown’s rest-of-season contract. Depth at the guard position has been an issue for the Sky, specifically when Quigley went down with a hamstring injury.
It was clear early on that Heal was outmatched as Courtney Vandersloot’s backup. Without time to develop her, Wade went looking for a more experienced guard he could afford. Brown was it.
After being waived following training camp, Brown flew home to Atlanta and was right back in the gym. She gave herself a day to sulk, she said.
When she was released by the Sky following that single game on June 1, Brown opted to stay in Chicago instead of flying back to Atlanta. She spent nearly every day in the gym over the 13 days she was between contracts.
The details of Brown’s ROS contract were not disclosed, but according to Her Hoop Stats the Sky have $47,407 in cap space.
“She’s the type of player that can jump into any team,” Dolson said. “She does whatever the team needs.”
Brown’s reappearance with the Sky will come in the team’s Tuesday night matchup against her former team, the Minnesota Lynx. She said it’s kind of poetic.
The expectation for Brown is that she’ll rotate between the one and three position depending on who she’s playing with.
The Sky finish up back-to-back road games Tuesday night. They follow it with a huge test in the Eastern Conference-leading Connecticut Sun, who come to Wintrust Arena for two games in front of a 100% capacity crowd on Thursday and Saturday.
“We could really make a statement and we’re ready to do that,” Brown said.
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/3gyQe5n
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