On the first day of contract signing for WNBA free agents Saturday, an era officially ended for the Connecticut Sun.

The 2025 season was already going to come with growing pains for the team with a first-year head coach and general manager: French head coach Rachid Meziane was hired after Stephanie White left for the Indiana Fever, and 30-year-old Morgan Tuck stepped up to GM when Darius Taylor moved to a new role in the front office.

But free agency decimated the roster even further than expected, and the team will not return a single starter in 2025 from the roster that reached Game 5 of the WNBA semifinals last year. The Sun also has yet to sign an available free agent with only five players actively under contract.

Connecticut’s front office is well aware of how precarious the franchise’s position is in a rapidly growing WNBA as one of the only teams in the league without full-time access to a professional- caliber practice facility — or at least plans to build one. President Jennifer Rizzotti said after Meziane’s introductory press conference that the Mohegan Tribe is committed to keeping the Sun in Connecticut and investing in the team the way that a professional franchise demands.

“They value treating our women the right way, so they know that means facilities, and we’re in talks about how we’re going to get that done,” Rizzotti said. “If I’m being honest, I don’t think you can be a team right now that’s not looking into how to build a practice facility. I don’t think you can really compete for a player going forward if you’re not able to say to them, ‘Yes we are doing this.’ I can’t share everything right now, but it’s going to happen. You will not be in Connecticut without an ownership group that understands this.”

Breaking down Connecticut’s trades

Less than three weeks into free agency, the Sun have already traded away arguably their two most recognizable players for largely uninspiring returns.

Alyssa Thomas has been the face of the franchise for 11 years, but the 2023 MVP runner-up was vocal last season about the Sun’s lack of resources relative to the championship contenders in the league. Connecticut placed Thomas under a core designation and is finalizing a sign-and-trade deal to send her to the Phoenix Mercury. Starting point guard Tyasha Harris also went to Phoenix in the deal, though the Mercury immediately sent her the Dallas Wings to acquire two-time All-Star Satou Sabally.

The Sun received three-time all-defensive selection Natasha Cloud and veteran forward Rebecca Allen in the trade along with the No. 12 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. Cloud had 11.5 points, 6.9 assists and 4.1 boards for the Mercury last season, but she’s not likely to be a long-term piece for Connecticut. Cloud chose Phoenix as a free agent in 2024 and was enthusiastically recruiting her Unrivaled teammates to the franchise as recently as Jan. 16.

Connecticut reportedly finalized a deal to send Rebecca Allen to the Chicago Sky late Saturday, receiving Serbian forward Nikolina Milic and eighth-year guard Lindsay Allen. Milic sat out the 2024 season to continue playing overseas, while Allen averaged 6.6 points shooting 46.6% from the field in 24 minutes per game for Chicago.

DiJonai Carrington is the reigning WNBA Most Improved Player and anchored Connecticut’s league-leading defense as its top perimeter guard in 2024 averaging 12.7 points, five rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. She was a restricted free agent coming off of her rookie contract, meaning the Sun had first right of refusal to match any offer she received from another team. Instead, the team dealt Carrington to Dallas along with the No. 12 pick acquired from Phoenix to receive second-year point guard Jacy Sheldon, the No. 8 pick in the draft and the right to swap second-round picks in 2026.

Sheldon was a highly touted prospect, selected No. 5 overall by the Wings in 2024, but she averaged just 5.4 points, 2.5 assists and 2.1 rebounds in 23 minutes per game as a rookie. It’s a tall task for Sheldon to take the leap the Sun need from her in 2025, particularly on a from-scratch roster with a coach even newer to the league than she is. Cloud is currently Connecticut’s most veteran player entering her tenth year in the WNBA, but Olivia Nelson-Ododa will be the only returner that has played more than 16 games with the franchise.

Evaluating draft picks is particularly challenging this season because of widespread uncertainty around which players plan to declare in 2025. In ESPN’s early mock draft, six of the 12 projected first-round picks are eligible to remain in college for another season, so there could be far fewer options available than the Sun are anticipating at No. 8. Still, it’s a victory for the team to get back into the first round after it originally gave up its top pick to acquire Marina Mabrey from the Chicago Sky back in July.

Where Sun free agents stand

The Sun have four other free agents besides Thomas and Carrington, and three still have decisions to make about next season. Three-time All-Star Brionna Jones was drafted by the Sun and spent eight years with Connecticut but signed with the Atlanta Dream on Saturday. Jones returned to the court in 2024 after missing the entire previous season with a ruptured Achilles tendon, and she averaged 13.7 points plus 5.5 rebounds for Connecticut in her comeback year.

DeWanna Bonner hasn’t officially signed, but the 16-year veteran’s departure is all but certain. Bonner and Thomas got engaged in 2023, and Bonner has deep ties to the Mercury as the franchise that drafted her in 2009. The six-time All-Star played the first decade of the WNBA career in Phoenix and helped the team to two championships. ESPN reported Tuesday that Bonner had narrowed her decision to two teams, one of which was the Mercury.

Tiffany Mitchell and Astou Ndour-Fall round out the Sun’s free agents, though neither are major difference-makers for the team one way or another. Mitchell was traded to Connecticut in 2024 and began to hit her stride off the bench leading into the Olympic break, but she was sidelined for the second half of the season by life-threatening abdominal abscesses and sepsis. Ndour-Fall appeared in just 22 games and averaged less than five minutes on the court.