Every year, there are a few players who are inexplicably underrated in ESPN’s fantasy women’s basketball pre-rankings. Whatever the reason (injuries, reporting to their team late, or ESPN just plain missing the boat), low pre-ranks lead to late ADPs, and oftentimes these players are left off rosters entirely when the season begins.
The Connecticut Sun’s Leïla Lacan is one such player who seems to have slipped through the cracks.
Despite a brilliant finish to her rookie year (11.5 points, 4.6 assists
and 2.3 steals in her last 10 games), ESPN’s projections didn’t think much of Lacan, likely due to the fact that she was going to miss the beginning of the 2026 season due to overseas obligations. The Sun being widely expected to be one of the worst teams in the league probably didn’t help her cause, either; whatever the case, Lacan was for some reason projected to be less productive than she was as a rookie, leaving her undrafted in the vast majority of ESPN leagues.
If you’re in one of those leagues, it’s time to add Lacan. After missing the Sun’s first nine games, Lacan was activated last Thursday, and she made her season debut over the weekend, recording 12 points, two rebounds, three assists and one steal in 21 minutes.
Those might seem like paltry numbers, but consider the context. We already saw what Lacan did on a Sun team in what was essentially a lost season, and the highest-usage guard from that team, Marina Mabrey, is now in Toronto. Connecticut has very little in the way of ball handling on its roster; aside from rookie Charlisse Leger-Walker and Hailey Van Lith, who the Sun recently signed to a developmental contract, they don’t have any players besides Lacan capable of initiating offense consistently.
Here’s the most important part for Lacan’s fantasy outlook.
The Sun may be the worst team in the WNBA, but they do have a couple of building blocks for the future, and Lacan is perhaps the most important of them. While the few veterans on the team may be in and out of the lineup as the season goes on (don’t rule out a trade, either), Lacan is one of the few players the Sun will want on the court as much as possible. At 21 years old, Lacan’s best basketball is still ahead of her, and when she gets fully ramped up with starters’ minutes, those who have her on their fantasy teams will be reaping the rewards.
Don’t leave Lacan on your waiver wire.
The Fever’s frontcourt depth has created a difficult fantasy basketball situation
Adding reliable frontcourt depth was a point of emphasis for the Indiana Fever during the offseason, and while they signed free agents Monique Billings and Myisha Hines-Allen to a complement group that already included Aliyah Boston, Damiris Dantas and Makayla Timpson, none of them (besides Boston, of course) have been consistently productive, and their minutes have been all over the place as a result.
As a nine-year veteran and above-average rebounder, Billings might seem like the safest fantasy player of the bunch, and she started the season hot, totaling 19 points, 17 rebounds and six defensive stats in her first two games. She’s been quiet since then, however, and is currently shooting a career-low 38.7 percent from the field. Though Billings continues to start, she hasn’t exceeded 20 minutes in a game since May 20, and if she keeps shooting the ball poorly, the Fever may look elsewhere at power forward.
Some combination of Hines-Allen and Timpson would make the most sense, but while each player has their advantages—Hines-Allen’s passing and Timpson’s defensive playmaking—from a fantasy perspective, that could actually be a detriment. So far, neither Hines-Allen nor Timpson have played consistently enough to warrant a roster spot, and on a team like the Fever, neither of them are going to be shooting the ball often enough for their fantasy value to come from their scoring.
So, to put it simply, while the Fever have a lot of options to try at the forward and center positions, that’s not necessarily helpful for fantasy managers. Right now, Boston seems to be the only Fever big worth rostering.
Sydney Taylor is lighting it up for the shorthanded Sky
The Chicago Sky’s injury woes have been well-documented, and with nearly an entire starting lineup’s worth of players on the shelf (Rickea Jackson, Courtney Vandersloot, DiJonai Carrington and Gabriela Jaquez), they’ve been scrambling to find someone who can soak up some minutes on the wing—and preferably shoot the ball, too.
Sydney Taylor has turned out to be just what the Sky were looking for in that regard.
While she had played sparingly to begin the season, Taylor was pressed into action when Jaquez injured her knee, and she’s showing why Chicago kept her on its final roster out of training camp: She can score the ball. In her last three games, Taylor has totaled 45 points and six made 3-pointers, and she’s actually been Chicago’s second-leading scorer during that span.
Granted, Taylor hasn’t been particularly efficient, shooting 32.7 percent from the field and 21.2 percent from long range.
But Chicago desperately needs someone to step up and shoot the ball, and Taylor has proven to be a much more aggressive offensive player than Jacy Sheldon and Rachel Banham. Since sneaking her way into Chicago’s rotation, Taylor has attempted 14.3 shots in just 21 minutes per game, and as long as the Sky remain shorthanded, she’s going to keep getting the green light.
Consider adding her if you’re in a deep league that doesn’t penalize missed shots.
