Over the past few years, the Los Angeles Sparks have been a rebuilding team.
They were trying to build through the draft with top picks. Success didn’t come, though, as they had the worst record in the WNBA in 2024 and have missed the postseason for five-consecutive years.
Through the 2020s, the Sparks have built a nice young core of homegrown talent with players like Rickea Jackson, Rae Burrell and Cameron Brink. All have shown flashes of brilliance, with the potential to be the future faces of the franchise.
What’s been made clear, however, that the future is now for LA.
Over the past two seasons, they’ve been making moves that increasingly signal they are focused on ready-now players, and that young players desiring a big role need to develop immediately.
In 2025, the Sparks hired Lynne Roberts as their head coach, and with the No. 2 pick, they could’ve drafted a young budding superstar like Dominique Malonga.
Instead, they traded that pick to acquire Kelsey Plum. The move worked in the sense that Plum was an All-Star guard for the Sparks, but they still missed the playoffs. It could certainly be argued that the long-term best course of action was to draft Malonga and build around her rather than trying to win as many games as possible with Plum in 2025.
For 2026, the Sparks have leaned even more into quality vets over budding prospects.
LA traded Jackson to the Chicago Sky for Ariel Atkins. This move is a risky one for the Sparks. Jackson is far from reaching her full potential and is already one of the most electrifying players in the league. She averaged 14.7 points and 3.2 rebounds last season; Atkins averaged 13.1 points and 3.4 rebounds. Their production is fairly even, and there’s no question Jackson has a brighter and longer future, considering she’s entering her third season, and Atkins will be playing in her ninth year.
But clearly, the Sparks like Atkins’ play and feel she’ll be the better player in 2026 than Jackson.
In a press release, Sparks general manager Raegan Pebley sang Atkins’ praises and mentioned how her play and fit bring them closer to a title:
Ariel is a proven winner and one of the most respected two-way guards in this league. She’s a champion, an elite defender and someone who understands what it takes to win in big moments. Her professionalism, competitiveness and versatility make her a perfect fit for our franchise and a key piece in our pursuit of a championship.
Even if Atkins works out and is a great fit for the Sparks, this was a bad trade.
LA should’ve at least gotten some draft capital for giving away a player with such a huge upside who already has performed well at the WNBA level. Then again, they clearly don’t have much interest in building through the draft, so any picks they would’ve gotten would likely just end up as trade bait.
The Sparks also didn’t seem interested in a chasing a young, namely Angel Reese, this offseason.
They instead went with Nneka Ogwumike. On the plus side, she is a Sparks legend and has remained a dominant player. Last year, she averaged 18.3 points, seven rebounds, was an All-Star, and was named a member of the All-WNBA Second Team.
However, her return to LA, along with Dearica Hamby’s, means there will be fewer frontcourt minutes for Cameron Brink. Currently, no one would argue that Brink is a better player than Ogwumike or Hamby, but how is she going to develop if she remains a bench player, playing around 15 minutes per game?
Plum is also coming back, agreeing to take less than the supermax so that the Sparks could execute these moves. That is a clear indication that the Sparks and their best player want to win now, and if Plum’s sacrifice results in the Sparks making other moves that sacrifice the team’s future, so be it.
That’s a tough place to be in for a franchise that hasn’t experienced playoff basketball in awhile.
On paper, the Sparks unquestionably got better. They have an All-Star frontcourt, a great backcourt player in Plum and if Atkins works out, KP will have a great partner on the perimeter. This team should make the playoffs, and the only question is how high a seed they can reach.
Still, given that they’ve moved on from young talent and signed older players to short-term deals, this has to work out immediately.
The Sparks want to win now, and considering the moves they’ve made, they’d better. Or else they’ll be back to rebuilding in a year or two, with different people in charge, trying to finally get this franchise back on track.
