Who is ready for a free agent switcheroo?
The WNBA Finals are still going on, but most of the league has long since been sitting at home and preparing for another busy and important WNBA offseason. While this winter will lack the chaos of last year, when nearly the entire league hit free agency to take advantage of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, it still has some juice.
Jackie Young, the second-best player on last year's champions, is going to be an unrestricted free agent. So will Kelsey Mitchell, who just placed third in MVP voting this year and put up scoring numbers never before seen from a guard. They will be joined on the free agent market by players such as Napheesa Collier, Kelsey Plum and Alysha Clark.
Both Young and Mitchell could elect to stay put and re-sign with their current teams. Doing so would make each eligible for a supermax contract, which is a bit more lucrative than the "max" contract they can sign by switching teams. Yet if either has a reason to depart that trumps the extra money, their departures would leave massive holes on the teams they are leaving behind.
Unless, of course, they merely swap places.
Jackie Young could return home to the Indiana Fever
While Young's WNBA career has taken place soley on the Las Vegas Aces after they drafted her first overall in the 2019 WNBA Draft, she is not a Vegas native (few are). In fact, she spent her entire life prior to the W in Indiana.
Young was born in Princeton, Indiana and lived their for her entire childhood, winning Indiana Miss Basketball in 2016. She set the record for most points scored in Indiana high school history, by boys or girls. And when it was time to go to college, she did not go far, playing three seasons at Notre Dame. She famously helped lead them to a championship in 2018, playing alongside Arike Ogunbawale.
Could she return home to Indiana? Playing close to home could also give her a very different challenge. Instead of playing in the shadow of A'ja Wilson, she would be playing in the shadow of Caitlin Clark. Yet she would also have the chance to inject some championship DNA into her childhood team and build something new.
The Fever could absolutely use her. Young is capable of offensive fireworks, to be sure, but she is also one of the better defensive wings in the league. Slotting her next to Clark would give the Fever a more balanced lineup and maintain three stars. The basketball fit makes a ton of sense if Young isn't scared off by the drama clinging to the Fever at all times.
Kelsey Mitchell could join the Aces
Mitchell, on the other hand, has never won a championship. She has racked up plenty of other accolades, including scoring champion and multiple All-WNBA honors, and this year she was third in MVP voting.
Only in the last three seasons, however, has Mitchell ever even played in the playoffs, and never in the WNBA Finals. Attaching herself to A'ja Wilson would mean not having her "own" team, but it would mean a very real chance at winning a championship. Anytime you play with the best player in the world, you give yourself that chance. and Wilson has won three titles in the last five years.
If Young stays, the Aces could still potentially sign Mitchell and have an insanely loaded team (with even more depth issues, to be sure). Yet that may be too many mouths to feed, and Mitchell likely isn't looking to be an ensemble member so much as a co-star.
If Young leaves, however, that would open up space for Mitchell to come and still put up massive scoring numbers, while also joining a winning environment. Each of these two stars could effectively replace the other
How likely is this blockbuster switcheroo to happen? There are so many possible destinations for Mitchell, and Young could very well decide to stay in Vegas. Yet the logic is there for why the two players could indeed swap places.
It would be one of the most dramatic swaps in WNBA history.
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