Aces designate Cambage as a core player, re-sign Allen and Cannon to training camp deals

Subscribe to make sure this vital work, creating a pipeline of young, diverse media professionals to write, edit and photograph the great game, continues, and grows. Paid subscriptions include some exclusive content, but the reason for subscriptions is a simple one: making sure our writers and editors creating 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage get paid to do it.

In their first business of the WNBA offseason, the Las Vegas Aces on Wednesday officially re-signed Lindsay Allen and Emma Cannon to training camp contracts and extended a qualifying offer to Liz Cambage, making her the team’s official cored player.

The Allen and Cannon contracts were officially announced by the Aces on Wednesday afternoon while the Cambage offer was announced on the WNBA transactions page before being confirmed as a core designation by multiple reporters including Gabe Ibrahim and Rachel Galligan of Winsidr.

As with every season, Cambage will likely take her time with her decision about whether to play in the United States, especially after being granted an opt-out for medical reasons in 2020 and uncertainty about the virus still omnipresent in this country. But by coring her now, the Aces will lock Cambage in at a “super-max” salary of $221,450, as explained by Her Hoop Stats here.

The other important ramification of extending the core qualifying offer to Cambage despite seemingly not yet having her firm decision on coming to the WNBA in 2021 is that it cannot be used on unrestricted free agent Kayla McBride.

With just over $673,000 already committed for 2021 and a slot being held for Cambage’s super-max, the number crunch for the Aces is already in plain view. McBride will likely remain the priority but an aggressive team could likely pry her loose, as discussed in our Aces free agency preview this week.

After being initially drafted by New York in 2017, Allen was the Aces’ starting point guard in the Bubble in 2020, replacing Kelsey Plum after Plum ruptured her Achilles’ tendon in the late spring. Allen played 13.5 minutes per game and shot 35.3 percent but was hardly involved in the offense at all, shooting just 8.4 times per 36 minutes.

Cannon was added to the Aces’ roster late in the season after Dearica Hamby went down with an injury, playing in just one game. Her only other WNBA season came in 2017 as a bench piece in Phoenix.

It’s just a start, but the Aces’ business on Wednesday only continued the intrigue surrounding the team heading into 2021.