2025 has been a rough season for the Connecticut Sun. After losing their head coach and entire starting five, those struggles are no surprise.
The Sun currently have the worst offensive and defensive rating in the league, and will likely continue to hold that unflattering distinction for the rest of the season. Connecticut’s defensive rating has been especially bad.
Twenty-one games into the season, the Sun sport a 112.2 defensive rating. If the Sun finish the regular season with a similar rating, it will mark the worst defensive rating in the last ten seasons. Over that span, only two teams have been similarly bad on defense: the Dallas Wings in 2024 and the Indiana Fever in 2020.
However, the Sun might not be historically bad defensively for many more seasons. The rookie duo of Saniya Rivers and Leila Lacan looks ready to change the Sun’s defensive reputation.
Rivers and Lacan are already showing flashes of excellent defense as rookies
Saniya Rivers has played the second-most minutes for the Sun after veteran Tina Charles. During her time on the court, Rivers has already shown that she can be an All-Defensive Team player in the future. With her size, athleticism, footwork, and defensive instincts, Rivers is a nightmare to go up against for pretty much any guard or wing. That fact is embodied by the fact that she ranks fifth in steals per game in the league—she is the only rookie in the top five—and leads all guards in blocks per game.
Lacan hasn’t been with the Sun for quite as long as Rivers since she was representing France in EuroBasket before coming to the WNBA. Her steal and block numbers also aren’t as flashy as Rivers’s. Nevertheless, Lacan has also flashed immense defensive potential.
Lacan has shown great footwork, fights over screens, cuts off driving angles well, and just generally knows how to harass opposing ballhandlers. She even made life difficult for Caitlin Clark.
The on/off numbers only further underline Lacan’s and Rivers’s defensive potential. Connecticut is significantly worse on defense when the two rookies are not playing. When Lacan is on the court, the Sun have a 100.8 defensive rating opposed to a 117.9 defensive rating when she’s not on the court. With Rivers on the court, the Sun have a 108.7 defensive rating. When she is on the bench, the rating drops to 116.4.
Over the next few seasons, the Sun will likely build around Rivers and Lacan, as well as Aneesah Morrow and any other top draft picks they will get. With Rivers and Lacan on the wing, the Sun have an impressive defensive duo in place. Jacy Sheldon has also proven herself to be a gritty, physical defender on the perimeter.