The WNBA trade deadline hits Sunday, and the rumor mill is spinning hard around one of the league’s biggest stars. Kelsey Plum, the Los Angeles Sparks guard currently sidelined with a lower leg injury, is reportedly not planning to re-sign with the team this offseason, according to multiple reports. That puts the Sparks in a tough spot: trade her now or risk losing her for nothing in free agency.
Before Tuesday’s loss to the New York Liberty, Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts gave a pretty direct pregame message about the team’s situation amid all the trade speculation. She didn’t name Plum specifically, but the timing was hard to ignore. By Wednesday morning, the buzz had only gotten louder. WNBA insider Marisa Ingemi reported that the Sparks have already fielded calls from several teams interested in acquiring Plum, and the plan, as of now, is to move her before Sunday’s deadline.
Plum is in her second season with the Sparks after signing a one-year deal this past offseason for slightly less than the new max salary. She came to LA before the 2025 season via a multi-team sign-and-trade that sent the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft and Li Yueru to the Seattle Storm. That was a huge move for the Sparks at the time, and now they’re staring down the possibility of getting only a fraction of that value back.
Here’s the thing about Plum’s value: before the injury, she was playing the best ball of her career. The former No. 1 overall pick averaged 23.9 points, 6.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 52.7 percent from the field and 38.3 percent from deep. Those are legit MVP-level numbers. The Sparks are 7-5 this season when she’s on the floor and 3-12 without her. That’s a 14-game swing over a full season.
But the injury complicates everything. Plum has missed 15 games this year, and no one has said publicly when she’ll be back. Trading an injured star isn’t impossible, but it usually means the return takes a hit. And a team giving up assets for a half-season rental — assuming Plum won’t re-sign — is a hard sell unless they think they can win it all this year.
There’s also the question of what the Sparks even want to do. They’re not a bottom-feeder, but they’re not a contender either. Moving Plum could signal a reset, or it could be a pragmatic move to get something before they lose everything. Either way, the next few days are going to tell us a lot about how this front office sees the next couple of seasons.
Plum hasn’t commented publicly on the trade chatter. The team hasn’t confirmed any deal is close. But when a half-dozen league insiders are all pointing in the same direction, it’s usually because something’s about to happen. Sunday’s deadline is the hard stop.
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