January 17, 2023
Locked on Women’s Basketball: Jonquel Jones to NY Liberty; Who’s next? Breanna Stewart? Courtney Vandersloot?!?
By The Next
Howard and Jackie discuss not only what the Jonquel Jones trade means but what it could mean for everyone from Breanna Stewart to Courtney Vandersloot
It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast. This episode features host Howard Megdal who broke the details of the three-team trade that sent Jonquel Jones to the New York Liberty, is joined by Jackie Powell, whose story on the Jones acquisition is full of new details and revelations about how it got done and what it means for the franchise. The two discuss in detail what the trade means and what it could mean for everyone, from Breanna Stewart to Courtney Vandersloot.
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Jackie talks about the biggest takeaway from this trade:
“The only reason why Jonquel Jones came at the price she did is because Connecticut had to act now. The reason that this all happened now and not during the free agency period was because they wanted to core Brionna Jones. And also, I think this goes back to the jamming that was done by Curt Miller in that he found a way to convince JJ to take a large amount less than what she is worth, right?
And many folks may be looking at this and saying, wait a minute, how was Natasha Howard earning more money than JJ? The reason was Curt Miller was able to convince JJ to take a certain amount in order to contend for the championship that the Sun, with both of those folks, could not achieve.”
Jackie talks about Rebecca Allen vs. Kayla Thornton:
“As someone who has covered Rebecca Allen very closely for many years, 2022 came with a boatload of asterisks; no doubt it was a season where she was pretty much concussed three times, which was something completely out of her control. And it’s fascinating to me that amid even that and amid what happened to her at the World Cup, when before her ribs were broken and her lung collapsed, she was playing the type of basketball that you and I have always known that she’s capable of playing.
I think the Liberty have seen her as an impact role player. That’s sort of at least the Liberty of now. And so, who I think they got in return for her is very much so an impact role player in Kayla Thornton.”
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