Portland Fire Tweak Roster Before Saturday Night Matchup in Toronto
Three players were released, three contracts were added to the active roster, and one young starlet returned as a developmental player.
After Wednesday’s road rout in Indiana, the WNBA expansion Portland Fire made several changes to their roster.
On Thursday night, Portland released three WNBA veterans: guard Sug Sutton, tweener guard/forward Haley Jones, and guard Kamiah Smalls.
Sutton, picked in the expansion draft, was one of the most experienced players on the roster. Her brief stint in the Rose City featured a strong showing in the fourth quarter of the team’s second ever victory, an 83-82 slugfest with the Connecticut Sun. Repeatedly, Sutton took over the game with precise bounce passes, quick pick & rolls, and more.
Jones, like Sutton, was selected in the expansion draft. Her brief stint in Portland represents a career crossroads. Hampered by injuries throughout her WNBA career, the former Stanford star stayed healthy in the Rose City, but struggled to fit in Alex Sarama’s perimeter-focused attack: while averaging slightly over 11 minutes across 5 games, Jones missed all of her three point attempts.
Like Jones, Smalls’ production paled in comparison to her teammates. Appearing in just two games, the free agent signing from Atlanta averaged 15 minutes per game, putting up 7.5 points and 3.0 assists, while mostly playing late in contests with backups on the floor.
In their stead, the Fire activated free agent signing Teja Oblak - whose contract had been temporarily suspended due to injury - and upgraded developmental players Frieda Bühner and Holly Winterburn to the regular roster. Those moves freed up Portland’s developmental player slots, and the franchise acted quickly to fill one: yesterday, the Fire re-signed preseason phenom Jordan Harrison to a developmental player contract. After an excellent preseason, the West Virginia rookie undrafted free agent made history as a member of the Fire’s first regular season roster.
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Matt Bagley is a professional sportswriter and broadcaster with a passion for women’s sports. Outside of work, he cherishes quality time with his birth family, his chosen family, and one very pesky house panther.
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