LOS ANGELES — The Sparks are in a familiar yet uncertain position after missing the playoffs for a sixth consecutive season, a franchise record.
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They enter the offseason without a definitive superstar after Nneka Ogwumike, the team’s all-time leading scorer with 6,625 points, retired from the WNBA at 36.
Some might even call it déjà vu, especially since Ogwumike left as an unrestricted free agent and signed with the Seattle Storm before the 2024 season.
The 15-year veteran averaged 17.3 points and nine rebounds in her final season with the franchise that selected her No. 1 overall in the 2012 Draft.
Guard Rae Burrell, the Sparks’ first-round pick in the 2022 draft, could be the team’s returning leading scorer and cornerstone player after averaging a career-high 14.6 points, nearly doubling her previous career best of 7.5 points. However, Burrell, who just finished her fifth season in the WNBA, is a restricted free agent, which means she can field and accept a contract offer from another team, but the Sparks have exclusive rights to match what the other team is willing to pay to keep her in L.A.
The Sparks are also without a head coach after firing Lynne Roberts on Sept. 25 after two seasons, and less than 24 hours after the season ended. Roberts went 37-51 overall and never made the playoffs. No timeline has been released for when the position will be filled.
Roberts’ brief tenure is another already-seen scenario, following the team’s firing of second-year coach Curt Miller on Sept. 24, 2024, who went 25-55 and also did not make the playoffs in two seasons. Miller’s departure came five days after the team finished 12th in the WNBA, which has added three expansion teams since.
The Sparks, who fired general manager Raegan Pebley on July 12 and hired Ariana Andonian to the same position on Sept. 4, hope they can get lucky in the lottery and move up to the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. However, Los Angeles will have the sixth- and seventh-best odds among seven teams, their own selection, and the rights to the Phoenix Mercury selection.
Andonian, 31, shared her long-term vision last week. She said it will begin with evaluation.
“Talent identification or player health or player development and really making sure we feel like we’re not only the best in the W but some of the best in basketball,” Andonian said. “That will take time to get there, but really having the standard of a championship-level organization across every department, having people who are willing to go the extra mile, having elite work ethics, who are super excited to be an L.A. Spark. I think those are all the things that I hope get us to where we hope to go.”
After going 8-32 overall in 2024, the Sparks were awarded the No. 2 pick in the 2025 Draft but traded it away for All-Star guard Kelsey Plum. Seattle used the pick to draft French national team center Dominque Malonga, a 6-foot-6 two-way player who can dunk, shoot 3-pointers, and block shots. In her second season, Malonga made her first All-Star team by averaging 17.1 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.4 blocked shots per game at just 20 years old, which is younger than the age at which American players can enter the draft out of the NCAA system.
The Sparks were 7-5 with Plum in the lineup and 8-8 overall after her final appearance for L.A. on June 21. Plum averaged 23.9 points, second in the league, but after a leg injury forced her to miss six weeks, the team’s record plummeted to 10-17 overall before trading away the five-time All-Star on Aug. 2.
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“I think the KP injury really affected everything,” Sparks guard Erica Wheeler said. “She was the head of the snake. She’s responsible for about five of us being here. She recruited us to be here, so I think once that injury happened, that’s when the turn happened.”
Meanwhile, Los Angeles will have two lottery picks in the upcoming draft for the first time since 2024, when they selected No. 2 and No. 4 overall. In that draft, they selected forwards Cameron Brink, a reserve for the past two seasons after a season-ending torn ACL and meniscus injury suffered midway through her rookie season, and Rickea Jackson, who was traded to the Chicago Sky before the season began for two-time All-Star guard Ariel Atkins, a 2019 WNBA champion and five-time All-Defensive team selection.
However, Atkins, 30, had a disappointing first year with the Sparks, averaging a career-low 8.5 points on 38.1% shooting from the field and 28.2% from beyond the arc.
“Obviously, I’m going to get back in the lab, go to work,” Atkins said. “I might go play somewhere (during the offseason), I might not. We’ll see how it goes but for me I have to come back better and that’s the goal to get better every year.”
The Sparks, who finished 16-28 overall, 12th out of 15 teams, and missed the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, have three starters under contract for next season. Veterans Atkins and Dearica Hamby are locked into two-year deals as the team’s highest-paid players.
Hamby, 32, averaged 14.5 points and seven rebounds, her worst season since becoming a full-time starter with the Sparks in 2024. She is a three-time All-Star.
Wheeler, the 2019 WNBA All-Star Game MVP, has one year left on her contract. The 35-year-old averaged nine points and a career-high five assists per game but only shot 32.6% from 3-point range.
“In the beginning of the season, if you look on paper, we’re a playoff team,” Wheeler said.
Second-year guards Monique Akoa Makani, whom the team acquired in August trade deadline deal for Plum, and Aaliyah Nye, whom the team signed off the waiver wire in late August, are under contract for next season. So are rookie guards Chance Gray and Tonie Morgan.The team controls the rights to re-sign rookie guard Jihyun Park, 26, who is a starter on the South Korean national team. They are also evaluating developmental contract players Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda and Shyanne Sellers, who are both rookies that got their starts in the league with the semifinal-bound Golden State Valkyries.
Veteran reserve forward Emma Cannon, 37, who has provided a steady veteran presence over the past two seasons, is an unrestricted free agent.
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