As per usual, the 2026 WNBA trade deadline was a fairly quiet one.
Aside from the Connecticut Sun trading Aneesah Morrow to the Toronto Tempo and the Phoenix Mercury going all in on Kelsey Plum, there wasn’t much activity, which may have been a letdown for fantasy basketball managers looking to get ahead of things in their respective leagues.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t moves to be made, however.
While the Plum trade is pretty straightforward from a fantasy perspective—those with Plum on their teams
are obviously holding, and Monique Akoa Makani remains a decent end-of-the-roster option—it’s worth taking a deeper dive into Morrow’s move to Toronto and discussing the fantasy implications.
Morrow should have a more consistent role in Toronto
It’s easy to pan Morrow and the Tempo as the big winners of the trade. Several of Toronto’s frontcourt players—Nyara Sabally and Temi Fagbenle, in particular—have struggled to stay healthy this season, so adding Morrow to the mix will, at the very least, shore up the team’s depth.
There’s opportunity for much more, though.
From Morrow’s perspective, the trade represents a fresh start. She’s moving on from a volatile situation in Connecticut where she was constantly competing with both veterans and other younger players for playing time. And while she didn’t have a problem racking up the counting stats as a Sun (11.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.5 defensive stats per game), she started only nine of the 20 games she played there, which limited her fantasy upside.
We have to assume the Tempo have more in store for their new forward.
It’s probably going to take Morrow a few more games to get fully acclimated in Toronto, but ideally she won’t be looking over her shoulder as often. The Tempo were the ones who traded for her, after all, and they also have the guards to maximize her talents as a play finisher; rookie Kiki Rice should be able to get the most out of Morrow, and when Brittney Sykes returns, she’ll have another target to find when defenses hone in on her.
It goes without saying that if Morrow is on your league’s waiver wire, she should be added.
Don’t forget about Aaliyah Edwards or Olivia Nelson-Ododa in Connecticut
Just as the move to the Tempo will give Morrow a bigger opportunity, the Sun should now have a clearer-cut hierarchy in their own frontcourt. Connecticut may be one of the WNBA’s worst teams and a total mess in terms of game-by-game rotations, but the move did clarify one thing: The Sun believe in Aaliyah Edwards.
Edwards, who was acquired by the Sun in a midseason trade last year, hasn’t had much of a chance to reward their faith—yet.
She’s missed 10 of her team’s 31 games, most recently going through an extended absence in July, and was competing with Morrow and Olivia Nelson-Ododa for a starting job. When she’s been on the court, she’s been solid, averaging 9.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 defensive stats per game, but until now, the minutes (19.2) simply haven’t been there.
That should change now. In Edwards’ first game after Morrow was traded, which, incidentally, also was her first game back since injuring her knee in mid-July, she recorded 14 points and eight rebounds in 24 minutes against the Mercury. The nature of Edwards’ injury and the length of her absence suggests that she was on a bit of a restriction, but seeing as how she won’t have as much competition at power forward for the rest of the season, she’s worthy of an add.
Don’t forget about Nelson-Ododa, either.
She’s averaging career-highs in scoring (9.7) and rebounding (6.0) and in the 14 games since being named a full-time starter in June, she’s posting averages of 11.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.2 defensive stats in 25.2 minutes per game. It’s much less likely that Nelson-Ododa is still available in your fantasy league, but double-check just to make sure; at this point, there’s not much reason for the Sun to play Brittney Griner, and they’re probably going to want to spend the rest of the season evaluating how Nelson-Ododa and Edwards fit together.
