Connecticut Sun waive two more players, down to 11 on WNBA roster
The Connecticut Sun have waived five players over a span of three days, most recently parting ways with Stephanie Jones and Beatrice Mompremier on Wednesday.
The cuts, which also included Kaila Charles, Taj Cole and Aleksa Gulbe on Monday, bring the Sun’s roster size to 11 players. Though the team hasn’t yet made an official announcement that this is the final opening day roster, 11 players is the number general manager/head coach Curt Miller was targeting.
The 11 players left on the Sun’s roster include forwards Jonquel Jones (6 feet 6), Brionna Jones (6-3), Alyssa Thomas (6-2) and Joyner Holmes (6-3), wings DeWanna Bonner (6-4) and DiJonai Carrington (6 feet), and guards Jasmine Thomas (5-9), Courtney Williams (5-8), Natisha Hiedeman (5-8), Nia Clouden (5-9) and Yvonne Anderson (5-7).
Jonquel Jones, Brionna Jones, Alyssa Thomas, Jasmine Thomas, Bonner and Williams were all on guaranteed contracts, leaving Miller with five spots to fill under a limited hard salary cap. He brought back Hiedeman and Carrington from the 2021 roster but elected to cut previous team members Charles, Mompremier and Stephanie Jones in favor of new additions Clouden, Anderson and Holmes. The latter two were on training camp contracts, while Clouden was the Sun’s first-round pick in this year’s WNBA draft.
Stephanie Jones, the sister of Brionna Jones, made the Sun’s roster in 2021 after earning her way from a training camp contract. In her rookie season, the 6-foot-2 forward played in 18 games for a total of 99 minutes, recording 25 points and 22 rebounds. Though that wasn’t a high output, Stephanie Jones went on a personal 9-0 scoring run for the Sun in a preseason win against the Atlanta Dream this past Sunday and finished with 11 points, making her cut somewhat of a surprise, especially considering Holmes didn’t have as strong of a performance.
Mompremier played in all 32 regular-season games for the Sun in 2021. She averaged 1.8 points and 2.4 rebounds per game while shooting 49.1% from the field. Mompremier, a 6-foot-4 forward, was drafted 20th overall by the Los Angles Sparks in 2020 and signed with the Sun in June 2020 after being waived by the Sparks.
The Connecticut Sun open the 2022 season on the road against the New York Liberty on Saturday. The game will air on ESPN at 6 p.m. ET.