After a rough offseason that saw almost every key player from the 2024 season depart, the Connecticut Sun entered the 2025 WNBA Draft with two first-round picks and the hope of finding young talent to build around for the future.
Connecticut selected Aneesah Morrow seventh overall and Saniya Rivers eighth. The team also drafted Rayah Marshall in the second round. All three rookies made the roster. Other than that, the Sun’s rotation currently features only two other players under 25: Jace Sheldon and Olivia Nelson-Ododa.
Rivers, Sheldon, and Nelson-Ododa all average over twenty minutes per game. Morrow and Marshall are well behind in minutes per game, averaging 12.9 and 6.8, respectively. The former has made a firm case for more playing time.
Aneesah Morrow should get more minutes
Aneesah Morrow was the Sun’s highest draft pick this year. Nevertheless, she averages the fifth-fewest minutes per game on the roster. Morrow dealt with an injury to start the season, so that likely factored into her limited playing time early on. In May, Morrow only played more than ten minutes once in four gams.
In June, she has gotten more playing time but her minutes are still up and down. Usually, she plays between twelve and 17 minutes. However, she only saw three minutes in an 88-71 loss to the Indiana Fever and then logged 23 minutes in the next game. After that, she saw fewer than 20 minutes for three games before playing a career-high 27 minutes against Seattle.
That last game was Morrow’s best game of the season. She finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds, one assist, and two steals. It marked her first double-double of the season and an obvious call for a bigger role.
Three forwards/ bigs are currently averaging more minutes than Morrow: Tina Charles, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, and Haley Peters. Charles and Nelson-Ododa are two of the Sun’s three top scorers. Taking minutes from them, especially Nelson-Ododa, who needs to be developed as well, would be a difficult decision. Morrow should consistently play more than Peters, though.
It’s not just that Morrow can produce more. The Sun won’t have a winning season anytime soon with how the roster is currently constructed. Their best hope for the future is to develop their young players. To do that, Morrow needs more time on the court and an opportunity to grow her game.
The Sun won’t have their own first-round pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft
Developing the young players already on the roster becomes even more important when one looks at the Sun’s 2026 draft situation. Chicago has the right to swap first-round picks with the Sun, meaning that any high pick Connecticut gets after finishing the season at the bottom of the WNBA standings will go to the Sky. The Sun got the Liberty’s first-round pick when they traded Cloud to the Liberty, though.
Unless the Sun make a few moves before the next draft, they will only have one first-round pick and hand one of the top talents in the draft to the Sky.