Today's WNBA headlines include plenty of trade predictions, especially as the deadline looms large over the minds of fans and teams alike. One of the more surprising is from Annie Costabile at The Athletic, who wrote today that Napheesa Collier could be exploring her options outside of the Minnesota Lynx.
That's a fairly seismic sentence, but it's one that isn't 100% out of left field. Collier, who was selected as the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft, has spent her entire pro basketball career with the Lynx, and might have reasons to explore other teams in other cities.
But it's also difficult to imagine. Collier is woven into the identity of who the modern Lynx are, and has largely been considered a crucial player for the team. Her return to the court this season after missing several games due to ankle injuries was a successful one, and she managed to remind everyone of an important fact: the Lynx have clearly proven they can win without her, but she's a leader of the team through and through.
Offseason predictions may influence what Collier does now
Costabile hinted that Collier could be exploring a midseason trade, something that may actually hinge on the offseason moves made by the Lynx and by other teams in the league. Those are impossible to know for certain at this point, but there are people who can make a few educated guesses about what they might be.
As Costabile put it, head coach Cheryl Reeve has to determine if Collier is definitely planning to resign with the Lynx before she can really decide what her moves are. The best way to do that would obviously be to ask, but at the end of the day players have to make these kinds of decisions on their own, and Collier might not be ready to reveal anything to her coach just yet. Reeve has also made it clear that the team can thrive without Collier on the court in a Lynx jersey—they are 22-6, thanks in large part to the work of rookie Olivia Miles.
Questions of trades are difficult to have because there's a lot of emotion behind them. The WNBA is a business like any other, and teams have to make decisions that benefit the business—but so do players. Like any other job, loyalty can be tough to measure when it comes down to it. It might be hard for fans to imagine Collier anywhere else, but at the end of the day, she might end up leaving anyway.
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