Nneka Ogwumike says she isnt giving up on Sparks

CHICAGO — If you ask those with the Sparks day-to-day operations, not a ton has modified since they despatched Kelsey Plum to Phoenix at the commerce deadline.

Externally, the transfer to commerce away one of the league’s top scorers is seen as waving the white flag on yet another disappointing season. To Nneka Ogwumike, it’s just half of the business of the WNBA and she is still hoping for a likelihood to compete for the league’s last playoff seed.

“I’m just locking in and staying focused on being able to manage the variables of a season,” she said forward of the crew’s loss to Sky in Chicago on Wednesday. “I’ve been doing this a long time, so nothing that’s happened has really surprised me per se. Maybe in the context of this season, yeah, a few things have. But being professionals, coming out, understanding as we did last game, that no matter what, like a game has to be played, so you might as well win.”

The Sparks had been supposed to be back in playoff competition this season after bringing in Ogwumike, Ariel Atkins and Erica Wheeler. Instead, they’re six video games behind Washington for the eighth playoff spot after a six-game dropping streak forward of the commerce deadline that was finally snapped with a win at Portland on Sunday. A loss to Sky on Wednesday evening didn’t help.

The Sparks possession group fired common supervisor Raegan Pebley in mid-July, seemingly altering direction close to the deadline. Shortly after, Plum informed the crew she wouldn’t return after her contract expires this season.

“It’s also different when someone feels like they maybe want to fit somewhere else,” Ogwumike said. “I’ve been in situations where it was unexpected for everyone. It wasn’t so unexpected for us. We want her to be happy. We want her to be healthy, so I think that there’s a bit of comfort for everyone knowing that, and also being able to get it done in a way where I feel like everybody’s OK with it. It breathes a little bit of life into the situation.”

Head coach Lynne Roberts famous that since the Sparks have been without Plum since June 24 with a decrease left leg injury, that they had already adjusted to what life can be like without her on the court for the remaining of the season.

“It would have been more of an adjustment to add her back,” she said. “So we are just building on what we’ve been doing the last month.”

The Sparks acquired good worth for Plum in guard Monique Akoa Makani and a first-round choose in this 12 months’s draft that, like their own, is probably going to be a lottery choose.

“She can play the one and the two,” Roberts said of Akoa Makani. “She’s comfortable with both of those. What I like is that it’ll take some pressure off of Ariel and (Wheeler). They’re playing too many minutes, but Makani’s a tremendous defender, and (she brings) her on-ball ball screen defenses, her analytics, it’s elite. So that would be a huge boon for us. She was a starting point guard for a team in the WNBA Finals last year as a rookie. She’s a talent, so she’s going to fit in quickly and easily.”

If the Sparks don’t make the playoffs, they’ll probably choose sixth general, since the WNBA weighs outcomes of two mixed seasons to come up with the percentages. They would have an outdoors shot at the first general choose, where USC star Juju Watkins is predicted to be the top choose ought to she select not to return to college for another faculty season.

Ogwumike didn’t appear prepared to declare the season misplaced, even while acknowledging that issues have gone incorrect.

“We’ve been playing better,” she said. “We want to be able to turn that into some kind of streak.”