FOR TWO YEARS, Haley Jones reserved a drawer for her Atlanta Dream gear. In a span of 16 days, she cleared out two extra drawers for 2 extra groups. Julie Vanloo sped throughout 3,000 miles to take a seat and await a job supply she would possibly by no means get. Shyanne Sellers — she is aware of it sounds terrible — felt a twinge of hope when she noticed anyone get damage. Seven phrases from a basketball icon — You are not prepared for the league but — haunted Harmoni Turner. Diamond DeShields felt mocked by her personal juicer that hardly had time to juice.
5 gamers. Twenty transactions. Seventeen states. 4 international locations. Eighty-six days. That is life on the perimeter of the WNBA.
JONES STANDS JUST past the 3-point line and watches as her former teammates on the Atlanta Dream smother certainly one of her new teammates on the Dallas Wings.
There’s 3:42 to go within the July 30 sport, and Dallas is down 76-74 with six seconds on the shot clock. Wings veteran Arike Ogunbowale manages to seek out a gap within the Dream’s protection and kicks the ball out to Jones, however the move is excessive and it slips by way of her fingers. Jones retrieves it close to the brand with three seconds left on the shot clock. She whips round. She barely has time to recenter herself. She squats and launches.
The ball arches throughout almost half the court docket and lands squarely inside the online. Paige Bueckers, standing beneath the ring, punches her proper fist within the air to have fun her new teammate’s luck and the Wings’ one-point lead. Jones laughs out loud. It is her tenth sport with the Wings, the eighth since she signed her rest-of-season contract 21 days earlier. In 31 minutes, she scored 12 factors on 5-of-8 taking pictures and added three assists and three rebounds, however the Wings fell 88-85.
Nonetheless, social media erupted with feedback about how the Dream made an enormous mistake after they waived the sixth total decide within the 2023 draft proper earlier than the 2025 season.
Atlanta was the one dwelling Jones had recognized since she graduated from Stanford and moved out of the Bay Space. She’d settled in Atlanta along with her companion, who had taken a job there to dwell along with her. She’d even purchased an funding property within the metropolis. She was trying ahead to increasing her function throughout her third season with the Dream.
Then, on the second-to-last day of coaching camp, Jones turned the final participant on the group to be waived. Over the subsequent 56 days, she flew from Atlanta again dwelling to the Bay Space, then to Phoenix, then again dwelling, then to Dallas after which again dwelling earlier than returning to Dallas once more. She lived in 4 states, pingponged some 7,000 miles between houses, performed on three groups and located herself unemployed thrice.
“That was a curler coaster, what?” Jones stated, dragging the phrase “what” virtually like she’s shocked by the quantity of change she’s been by way of in a matter of months.
Haley Jones, the sixth decide within the 2023 draft, was launched by Atlanta after which by Phoenix earlier than ending her season in a beginning function for Dallas. David Becker/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs
Wild because it sounds, Jones’ journey is not all that distinctive.
The WNBA consists of 13 groups. Every group — in keeping with the CBA — can have a most of 12 gamers, which means a taking part in workforce of 156 at most. In 2025, 38 gamers had been drafted into the league that had 151 returning gamers. Econ 101: the provision is larger than the demand. Most years, fewer than half of the draftees land a roster spot for opening day. In 2025, 20 draftees made it till opening day, up from 13 of 36 in 2024. In 2023, it was 15. In contrast to the NBA, which permits groups to hold 15 gamers, the WNBA would not have a minor league system or a developmental league. So gamers who’re launched are sometimes unmoored, unemployed and sad.
However this is the factor: roster spots often open up within the WNBA — typically even shortly earlier than the playoffs — as a result of the CBA mandates that groups carry a minimal of 11 gamers. Accidents and participant commitments to nationwide groups create common alternatives for employment, a carrot for gamers on the perimeter. Consider it as temp work that comes with a quandary. Ought to gamers on the league’s fringe wait round hoping to get one other shot? Ought to they abandon their WNBA aspirations, possibly even their basketball goals altogether? Get one other job? And in the event that they decide to stay it out, the place do they dwell? Who do they prepare with? And the way can they pay their payments? To not point out the largest query of all: Will they ever be adequate to safe a gradual job within the WNBA?
“You are feeling shock, you are feeling embarrassment,” Jones stated. “After which it is a number of life you gotta determine.”
FIRST THINGS FIRST, DeShields thought. How do I get dwelling? And, ought to I take my juicer?
Do not blame DeShields for being a bit scattered after she was launched by the Connecticut Solar on Might 15. She’s a former league All-Star, a former WNBA champion. And she or he did not see the shoe that was about to drop.
“All the pieces was about me having a management function and being one of many vets on the group,” stated DeShields, who had signed a one-year contract with the Solar in February.
Her face, she stated, was plastered everywhere in the Mohegan Solar partitions. She had shot promo movies with the group simply days earlier. Each dialog revolved round her long-term progress with the group, she stated.
Then she was known as in and let go.
In a profession that has been filled with notable moments, this was a primary. She was the third total decide within the 2018 draft. She was named a WNBA All-Star in 2019. Later that yr, she was identified with a benign tumor in her spinal twine. She underwent a nine-hour surgical procedure and needed to discover ways to stroll once more. She made it again to the league for 13 video games in 2020. In 2021, she helped the Chicago Sky win the franchise’s first championship. Now, after a minor ankle sprain that had hampered her throughout coaching camp, she was unemployed. And shortly to be evicted.
DeShields sat on her mattress within the residence the Solar had offered for her and took inventory of her area. Her juicer, her exercise gear, her many, many baggage of garments she’d fastidiously organized in what she thought can be her dwelling for the subsequent yr stared at her as if they had been mocking her.
She known as an Uber. She wanted to get to a rental automotive lot so she may discover a automotive that might carry all of her stuff 1,000 miles again to Atlanta. The Solar, she stated, provided her a coach ticket again dwelling, which is remitted within the CBA, however would not cowl all her delivery bills.
“The group will ship three to 5 bins,” she stated. “However I’ve greater than three to 5 bins price of stuff.”
I must pack up and drive again dwelling.
The difficulty was, she could not discover something to drive. The primary rental place did not have a car large enough. Ditto on the second and the third and the fourth.
Dejected, she sat outdoors her ultimate cease and recorded a video. “Getting waived is loopy, as a result of what do you do after you get waived?” she asks, trying this fashion and that approach however by no means straight on the digital camera.
She posted the video on Instagram, hoping anyone may assist her discover a approach out of her predicament. Then she reached out to the Solar, who linked her to a rental automotive firm they’d a partnership with.
“In my thoughts, I am like, ‘Nicely, that will have simply been a lot simpler to know from the soar,'” DeShields stated.
Fortunately, they’d a truck that will do the trick. For the subsequent a number of hours she packed up her residence and squeezed it into her rental. Early the subsequent morning, she drove 15 hours south to Atlanta, solely stopping to take restroom and meal breaks.
When she arrived again dwelling, a to-do listing started to take type.
Julie Vanloo took a roundabout journey from Golden State to Los Angeles — by way of New York — earlier than settling in for a rest-of-season run with the Sparks. Juan Ocampo/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs
IN HER NINTH sport with the enlargement Golden State Valkyries this season, Vanloo dished out eight assists in an eight-point win over the Los Angeles Sparks. After that June 9 sport, the second-year WNBA participant flew abroad to play for Belgium within the FIBA Girls’s EuroBasket event. Vanloo helped lead Belgium to its second straight title after which skipped the celebrations and obtained on a aircraft to rejoin her Valkyries teammates in America. On June 30, an hour after touchdown in California, the Valkyries waived her. Want I had recognized {that a} day in the past, Vanloo thought.
She did not have a house and she or he did not wallow within the what-ifs. She known as her agent, who informed her there was an opportunity the Sparks may have a roster spot for her. She did not sit round and wait.
Vanloo purchased a ticket (along with her personal cash), packed a suitcase and obtained on a aircraft to New York as a result of the Sparks had been taking part in the Liberty in Brooklyn on July 3.
“If I’ve to pay for a flight and go to New York, fly all evening to be there and be prepared, I am going to do it,” Vanloo stated.
She arrived at Barclays Middle early — she nervous she would get caught in visitors and be late for a job she did not even have — and sat outdoors the doorway for 2 hours all within the hopes that the Sparks would possibly name. She pulled out her mobile phone and watched the time tick away till 5 p.m., when her two-day waiver timeline would elapse.
Her agent known as her shortly after 5 and informed her that Sparks basic supervisor Raegan Pebley was on her method to get her.
“Welcome to the Sparks,” Pebley stated.
A wave of happiness and reduction flooded Vanloo. Her previous 4 days flashed in entrance of her eyes: the gold medal, the waiver, the doubt and now the brand new alternative.
Two hours later, she was suited up and on the Barclays ground and performed two minutes.
Then she flew to Indiana with the group for its July 5 sport in opposition to the Indiana Fever. She entered the sport with 1:53 to go within the first quarter. Forty-six seconds later, she rattled in a 3-pointer from the wing, her first factors for the Sparks.
She returned to California, this time to L.A., and moved into her team-assigned residence. In some ways, she seems like she’s dwelling. She reunited with Julie Allemand, her Belgian teammate, with whom she’d simply gained the EuroBasket title. She has performed 21 video games for the Sparks to this point, averaging 10.6 minutes and a pair of.6 factors.
The Aug. 9 sport, Sparks at Golden State, was significantly emotional. Being a customer in her former dwelling, she stated, felt unusual. She reached out to the followers the day earlier than.
“Tomorrow I’ll be again in Chase Middle,” Vanloo wrote in an Instagram story. “I am unable to wait to see you all once more. It doesn’t matter what, Valks followers have a really particular place in my coronary heart.”
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase stated she seems like a “proud dad or mum” that Vanloo and different gamers who did not make her roster are contributing elsewhere. The issue is not with the gamers, she says, it is with the principles.
“We want extra roster spots,” Nakase stated. “These ladies deserve roster spots.”
Now Vanloo is hoping to extend her up-and-down season by serving to the Sparks safe a playoff spot. The shut name has given method to an necessary perspective.
“I am going to do something,” Vanloo stated, “for my dream.”
Shyanne Sellers felt like she achieved her childhood dream on April 14 when she was drafted by Golden State. By Might 12, she had been launched by two groups. Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Photographs
SELLERS WIPED AWAY a tear when WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert known as her identify because the seventeenth total choice within the 2025 April 14 draft. Sporting a lightweight blue go well with, Sellers walked to the stage, posed for pictures and held a Golden State Valkyries jersey for the cameras.
Nineteen days later, she was gone. “We will launch you,” Valkyries GM Ohemaa Nyanin stated. “You’ve got carried out every thing we have requested of you — however we will allow you to go.”
Fairytale endings are laborious to come back by for gamers on the perimeter. Particularly rookies on the perimeter.
Sellers, a former Maryland star, had put her belongings in storage earlier than flying to the Valkyries coaching camp. Now she was uncertain the place dwelling even was.
She knew she wanted to pack up the luggage she delivered to camp, and she or he knew she wanted to e-book a flight. However to the place?
Ought to she be part of her fiancee in New Jersey? Perhaps go spend time along with her dad, former NBA participant Brad Sellers, in Ohio? Query after query floated in her mind as she walked out of the coaches workplace towards her resort room.
She known as her agent, who informed her to remain put till they found out if different groups had curiosity. A day later, uninterested in ready, she informed them she was flying to New Jersey.
“I used to be like, alright, I simply need to get myself collectively — do laundry. Like, I have been dwelling out of a suitcase for a month at this level,” Sellers stated.
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Her garments nonetheless had that recent scent when her agent known as and stated the Dream wished to signal her. She repacked her suitcase — this time only a single one — kissed her fiancee goodbye and obtained on a aircraft to Atlanta 12 hours after she arrived in Jersey. She joined the Dream on Might 5.
Per week later, on Might 12, she was launched. She heard the identical phrases once more, this time from a special GM. Thanks for coming, we will launch you.
That very same day, she obtained on a aircraft however rerouted to her father’s home in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, the place he serves because the city’s mayor. She spent the subsequent few weeks paying out of pocket to rehab her tweaked proper knee.
At Maryland, she was the primary participant to have 1,500 factors, 500 rebounds and 500 assists. Now she may not even get a subject objective try this season within the WNBA. She stored going again to 1 thought: Two groups waived me in a matter of weeks. What are the probabilities a 3rd group will take an opportunity on me?
Fellow 2025 draftee Harmoni Turner, a flashy guard straight out of Harvard, thought she’d solely want one coach to take an opportunity on her. Drafted by the Aces within the third spherical, at some point she was geeking out about getting a textual content from her new teammate A’ja Wilson, the subsequent day she was a former WNBA participant who did not make it out of coaching camp.
“You are not prepared for the league but,” Aces coach Becky Hammon informed her.
Turner went again to Harvard, accomplished some classwork and took part in commencement ceremonies. Then she moved again in along with her mother and father in Mansfield, Texas. She did not actually have a paystub to point out for her time in Las Vegas. In accordance with the CBA, she obtained only a stipend for lodging, meals and journey.
Each time anyone again dwelling requested, “What’s subsequent for you?” she took it to imply that they thought her basketball profession was over — that they had been in search of a brand new reply from her.
Perhaps I ought to stop, she stored pondering.
Harvard’s Harmoni Turner tried to dam out all issues WNBA after she was launched by the Aces out of coaching camp. Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire
VANLOO IS ONE of the fortunate ones. Waived, picked up and now contributing for a brand new group. However for a lot of fringe gamers, the soul-searching begins after the chaos of getting launched ends.
DeShields could not abdomen the thought of sitting round Atlanta ready for her telephone to ring.
After spending per week again dwelling, she determined to maneuver to Los Angeles to work with a coach and physio she knew. As a result of the Solar launched her for medical causes, they owed her a proportion of her wage, about $20,000, however that would not final lengthy in L.A. She fastidiously budgeted her journey and coaching bills and reached out to some WNBA buddies within the L.A. space who would possibly be capable of assist her discover a place to remain. Lexie Brown, a childhood pal and former teammate who’s taking part in for the Storm in Seattle, provided DeShields her L.A. residence. DeShields thanked the universe for Brown’s generosity and for her fortunate break. She moved to the West Coast.
Weeks later, she signed a contract with OGM Ormanspor, knowledgeable group that performs within the Turkey Girls’s Basketball Tremendous League in Ankara. She left earlier this week and can return subsequent spring simply in time for WNBA coaching camps. The setback has made her objective even clearer.
“Once I get again on the court docket, I plan on making an impression,” DeShields stated. “I am going to positively be again taking part in subsequent summer season.”
It took Turner a bit extra time to determine issues out.
When she obtained again to Texas, she labored out with a private coach two hours a day, however she stored asking herself, “What was the purpose of this exercise?” USA Basketball invited her to play in a 3×3 event in Washington D.C., however her coronary heart wasn’t in it. Hammon’s voice stored ringing in her mind. On the one hand, she felt immense gratitude to Hammon for taking a shot on her. However these phrases stung.
When she wasn’t within the health club, she stayed dwelling and fixated on the long run. She muted any information concerning the WNBA on her social media. She could not bear to see individuals getting re-signed and getting second probabilities. The considered watching the season made her abdomen curdle, so she distanced herself. She went out with buddies virtually each evening to keep away from the video games.
However basketball’s pull was too nice. In the future, she made a promise to herself: I’ll spend the subsequent seven to eight months getting stronger, larger and extra bodily. I’ll get a name for coaching camp subsequent season. I’ll present Hammon — and everyone else — what I’m able to doing.
She signed with Landerneau, a group within the French league. She obtained on a name with head coach Wani Muganguzi. He informed her all the best issues. They liked her unorthodox model of play and wished to assist her develop.
She left for France on Aug. 12.
“[I’m going to use] these obstacles as stepping stones to get again to the W,” she stated. “However not solely get again to the W, however dominate at a stage that shocks everyone.”
In contrast to Turner, Sellers loves watching her buddies and former teammates within the WNBA. After she was waived for the second time, she began texting them — Diamond Miller, Brionna Jones, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough — and absorbed their views on preserve believing. “Your time will come,” they informed her.
She discovered a small health club in northern New Jersey close to her fiancee’s home. She additionally often went to her fiancee’s mother’s AAU health club to maintain creating her abilities.
“The world’s not over as a result of I did not make the WNBA on my first strive,” Sellers stated.
Some days, she heard information of a participant getting injured and she or he stared at her telephone questioning if she’d get a name to develop into their substitute. She’s not the sort of particular person to want an damage on anyone, however she’s conscious of how — in a perverse approach — information of an damage makes her hope.
She is aware of what she desires. And she or he’s keen to attend. And work.
“I’ve all the time informed individuals, there isn’t any plan B to basketball — it is simply basketball,” Sellers stated. “That is simply sort of what you are ready on… is somebody to offer you an opportunity.”
“That was a curler coaster,” Haley Jones says of the primary a part of her 2025 season. Michael Gonzales/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs
JONES FOUND A second after which a 3rd group to offer her an opportunity. And as grateful as she is, life on the perimeter has created some critical snarls.
Atlanta, the place she spent the primary two seasons of her profession, had develop into her dwelling. Now Atlanta did not need her.
After she was launched, she moved again dwelling to Santa Cruz, California, so she may work along with her coach and physio. She remembers first going again to her team-assigned residence and sorting her life’s belongings into piles. What do I want for the speedy future? What can I go away behind?
Seems her companion was one of many issues she needed to go away behind. He stayed in Atlanta, moved into their rental property (together with a lot of Jones’ belongings) and stored his job till he began legislation college within the fall.
Two weeks after Jones returned to her mother and father’ dwelling, she signed a hardship contract with the Phoenix Mercury. She knew what she was stepping into: She can be there for per week or so to fill the hole whereas Alyssa Thomas and Natasha Mack recovered from their accidents. Their return would imply a full roster and no room for Jones. It wasn’t very best, however she wished to maintain taking part in. She took it as a networking alternative and developed friendships with the gamers and met with coaches. Then, 4 video games and per week later, on June 8, she returned dwelling to the Bay Space. She’d carried out what was requested of her, and she or he was onto discovering her subsequent gig.
Per week later, on June 17, she heard from the Wings. It was one other hardship contract, this time to assist bridge damage absences and departures of gamers representing their nationwide groups. She performed two video games earlier than she was waived to create space for the European gamers who had been returning to Dallas.
Jones packed her suitcase and returned to the Bay Space. Once more. She nonetheless believed she may land a roster spot. Someplace. However the discourse on-line bothered her. “If you do not know the W, you are like, ‘Haley retains getting reduce,'” Jones stated. “However the actuality of a hardship contract is that I used to be there to fill a job.” Nothing extra. Nothing much less.
Jones stopped trying on the web and continued coaching.
Virtually two months after she was waived by the Dream, Jones obtained one other name from the Wings. This time, they provided her a contract to play by way of the tip of the season. She triple-checked with them that it was not one other hardship contract earlier than she allowed herself to get excited. She rapidly packed two suitcases and a carry-on bag, flew to Dallas and signed on July 9. She introduced principally cotton and linen outfits that will assist her get by way of the summer season in Dallas.
She and her companion are doing long-distance for the foreseeable future as he pursues legislation college and she or he goes after her WNBA goals that just about slipped away. She’s cautious about placing down roots. However she has discovered that house is individuals, not a spot. And she or he’s slowly discovering her individuals in Dallas.
The previous three months, the fixed strikes and the fixed uncertainties have made her extra resilient. When she walks onto the court docket, she would not linger a lot previously, however neither does she fixate on the long run. She performs like in the present day is all she has. And it exhibits.
Within the 19 video games she has performed since signing her rest-of-season contract, she’s averaging 8.3 factors, 3.6 rebounds and a pair of.3 assists. She began 13 straight. Advantageous is the road between star and spectator.
However Dallas, at 9-32, will not make the playoffs this season. Jones’ job is safe for 3 extra video games. Subsequent season, the league expands to Toronto and Portland. Extra jobs will likely be open. Gamers akin to DeShields, Sellers and Turner will likely be working to land them. A brand new class of draftees will be part of the fray.
Again dwelling within the Bay, Jones has a bed room drawer reserved for her Atlanta Dream swag. This season, she cleared out two extra: one for her Mercury swag and one other for her Wings swag. Her mother requested her if she’d like to offer any of it away to Goodwill, however Jones determined to maintain it. She simply would possibly want it sometime.
“Who is aware of what the long run holds for me,” she stated.