Whats next for the Sparks? Struggling team is at

A day after common supervisor Raegan Pebley was fired, the Sparks had been in Atlanta and seemingly still centered on attempting to attain the playoffs this 12 months.

The suggestion that Pebley’s elimination was a signal that the team is performing poorly didn’t sit effectively with coach Lynne Roberts.

“I don’t think we underachieved last year and this year is still going,” Roberts said in Atlanta on Monday before the team’s loss to the Dream. “For where we want to get, that’s not where we want to be, but we tripled our win total in my first year — that’s not underachieving. We haven’t hit our stride, we’ve been injured all year. Hopefully we get [Kelsey Plum] and Cam [Brink] back. Our system is designed around KP. I’m not close to thinking we are underachieving.”

Pebley and the relaxation of the Sparks’ group signaled a clear intention to compete this season, signing veterans Nneka Ogwumike and Erica Wheeler in the offseason, signing Dearica Hamby to a three-year deal and trading for Ariel Atkins.

They are still in the playoff race halfway through the season, but have the second-worst defensive score in the WNBA and sit a sport below the postseason cutoff line.

They have competed without Plum, their top scorer, for 12 video games and former No. 2 general decide Brink during the past 9 contests.

But even with their struggles, culminating in an 82-64 loss to Seattle on July 6, the Sparks responded effectively with consecutive home wins against Indiana and Chicago. After those video games, Roberts appeared to assume the team was shifting in the proper direction, but team house owners made a major change.

The Sparks have a determination to make about how arduous they need to push the relaxation of this season as the team flirts with lacking the playoffs for a sixth consecutive season. With the commerce deadline on Aug. 2, they might make some strikes to improve this season or dump their veteran property and attempt to rebuild again.

The Sparks haven’t made the playoffs since 2020 and have made some controversial strikes while attempting to snap out of the stoop.

In addition to the questionable commerce of 2024 fourth general decide Rickea Jackson to Chicago for veteran Atkins this offseason, Pebley traded the picks that would grow to be Storm post duo Awa Fam and Dominique Malonga for Plum and Kia Nurse. In her sole season with the Sparks, Nurse averaged 7.6 factors per sport.

Pebley also traded the No. 8 decide in 2024 (that later was used to draft Alissa Pili) to Chicago for Julie Allemand and Li Yueru, then misplaced Allemand in the growth draft. Yueru was despatched to Seattle in the Plum commerce and is now enjoying with Dallas. The Sparks’ 2025 first-round draft decide Sarah Ashlee Barker was left unprotected and went to Portland in the growth draft.

The Sparks waived their top decide in this 12 months’s draft, Ta’Niya Latson, after barely enjoying, and she has gone on to be part of Las Vegas. Sania Feagin, a 2025 first-round draft decide, was waived and signed with Portland.

Most of those strikes, though, got here after the Sparks misplaced the top spot in the 2025 draft lottery to Dallas, which chosen Paige Bueckers with the No. 1 decide. Before the lottery outcome, it appeared like the Sparks — who went 8-32 in 2024 before that draft — had been lining up for a youth motion led by Brink and Bueckers. A lineup of those three, a healthy Feagin, Barker and Allemand could be an solely different sort of team.

Once that failed, they centered on including veterans who may win now and have only managed modest enchancment.

The Sparks have their next two first-round draft picks and 4 gamers still on rookie contracts after this season (Brink, Chance Gray, Kate Martin and Pili). Brink is their lone lottery decide left from their disappointing past six seasons. (Pili was a top-10 decide, but she has struggled to keep on a WNBA roster and just signed a participant developmental contract with the Sparks this month.)

Pebley told The Times in an interview on Friday that she was open to making strikes to compete at the deadline this 12 months.

Players on the Sparks’ bench have fun during a win over the Chicago Sky at Crypto.com Arena on July 10.

(Luiza Moraes / Getty Images)

“We are in a space where we are here to win,” she said. “This is a city that wants to win. We have an ownership that wants to win. You see what they’re doing with the Lakers. You see what they’ve done already with the Dodgers. … We have to always continue to invest in the roster. We have a responsibility to always listen and be aware of what’s out there.”

A league source not approved to talk about commerce conversations publicly told The Times that Pebley had been aggressive forward of the deadline, and now groups are uncertain what method the Sparks will take shifting ahead.

“I found out when everybody else did,” Roberts said of Pebley’s firing. “It was a surprise. She’s a good friend of mine. I think the tone is set that we need to keep building and get the Sparks back to where they have been. That’s been the tone. Raegan did some great things for our org in that regard and improved a lot of things. That work can’t go undenied. It’s full-steam ahead and I’m focused on what I can do.”

It could be tough to transfer some of their heftier contracts, particularly since WNBA groups can’t take on more wage than their remaining cap space permits in a commerce. Hamby, 32, is signed for two more years for more than $1 million per season. Atkins is also signed for two years at $1 million-plus and is having a career-worst offensive season, taking pictures 36.4% with 8.7 factors per sport.

Wheeler, 35, has another 12 months left on her deal, but a $625,000 cap hit for a participant who could be a backup level guard on most groups is a robust promote.

Plum and Ogwumike are on expiring offers, and the Sparks’ most helpful roster asset, Rae Burrell, is a restricted free agent, but one of the few younger gamers left on the Sparks’ roster.

The Sparks have a restricted $86,000 in cap space, too, so if they resolve they need to buy at the deadline, they’ve to discover a manner to clear space.

They enter the commerce deadline period in a tough spot as a team in purgatory that just fired its common supervisor.

Yet what they resolve to do in the next month is likely to be the most clearest signal of their ambition and hope for the future.