Brionna Jones' injury latest for unlucky Sun who win despite missing key players, yet still in search of 1st title

It takes a little bit of luck to win a championship. A little more to build a dynasty. There may be no team more understanding to that than the Connecticut Sun, who watch hundreds ride the waves of luck at the slots outside of Mohegan Sun Arena and can’t catch a break of their own.

In each of the last three seasons, the Sun have succeeded despite being without at least one of their starters for most of the year. The unwanted streak continued when Brionna Jones, a former Most Improved Player and Sixth Player of the Year who the team cored in the offseason, sustained a non-contact leg injury late in a win against Seattle on Tuesday night. The team later announced Jones suffered a ruptured right Achilles tendon, underwent a successful reparative surgery and will miss the rest of the 2023 season. The Sun said in a statement that there is no timetable for her return.

Twice in the last four years, the Sun have persevered without a key player and reached the WNBA Finals. The other two years, one of which was without their star center, they lost in the semifinals. They’re the winningest franchise since 2017. Yet, there isn’t a WNBA championship to their name.

It would be fair to assess the Sun as the unluckiest team in the league over the past five to 10 years. Arguments could be made for the Seattle Storm, who couldn’t run it back after losing Breanna Stewart for a year to Achilles rehab, and the Washington Mystics, whose MVP Elena Delle Donne missed time after their title to undergo two back surgeries.

Counter argument: There’s at least one trophy sitting in their cases. Point awarded to the Sun, who at least own that title: Most Unlucky.

Connecticut is one of three teams still searching for its first WNBA championship. The franchise watched in person as Washington dropped from those ranks in 2019, then sat at home because of the Chicago Sky and watched them enjoy their first Finals confetti in 2021. Last fall, at their own house, they walked by the celebratory Aces locker room as the team celebrated the first title in franchise and city history.

A title in 2023 was already viewed as a long shot in preseason chatter. The Aces are favorites with all five starters returning and the addition of two-time champion Candace Parker from that Sky title team. The New York Liberty, the only original franchise without a title, built a super-team by adding the Sky’s Courtney Vandersloot, two-time Storm champion Stewart and former league MVP Jonquel Jones in a trade with the Sun.

They were overlooked because of the super-teams, the change to their core six and a move from former two-time Coach of the Year Curt Miller to first-year leader Stephanie White. But more than a quarter of the way into the season, the Sun (11-3) are second in the standings and the only team so far to defeat the mighty Aces.

It was looking up until Jones went down. She averaged 15.9 points, 8.2 rebounds (ninth in the league), 2.4 assists and 1.8 steals (fourth) while shooting 57.1% (fifth) from the field. Her offense trails only DeWanna Bonner’s 17.9 ppg for a balanced Sun team with four in double digits. Her Hoop Stats has her fifth in win shares behind two Aces, a Stewie (Stewart) and teammate triple-double star Alyssa Thomas.

Losing such a high-caliber player amid a strong postseason run isn’t new in Uncasville. (Or Connecticut in general, really). But replacing that talent and chemistry isn’t easy.

An unlucky run of health

The Sun’s front office wasn’t stagnant after reaching the 2019 Finals and losing the fourth quarter of Game 5, and thus the series, to the Mystics. They were the No. 2 overall seed (the Mystics were No. 1) and had made it to the Finals for the first time since 2005, building on back-to-back second-round exits.

That February, they swung the first splashy move of the new 2020 collective bargaining agreement that opened up better free agency periods by acquiring Bonner in a sign-and-trade with the Phoenix Mercury. It allowed the Mercury, who acquired three first-round picks from the Sun, to bring on Skylar Diggins-Smith, the move that drew the most super-team chatter and in retrospect pales in comparison to the Sun adding a two-time champion to their core.

“Never easy to give up draft picks, but we looked at it as, we’re in a window right now with an outstanding roster right now where we felt like adding another established, talented piece was very, very important to us,” Miller said at the time. “We made the decision to not try and break up the core, and the way to do that was to include draft picks instead of necessarily players.”

A core that never played together, never drew enough luck, never could make their own case as a super-team with titles to their names. It’s because they were never healthy.

The Sun were among the early favorites in 2020 with an experienced starting five of Bonner, Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones, Jasmine Thomas and Briann January. But the season was moved to a bubble in Bradenton, Florida, and Jones opted out of the shortened season.

No matter. Connecticut survived an 0-6 start and third-worst offensive rating to reach the semifinals with a breakout season from center Brionna Jones. They lost to the Aces in Game 5 of that series. Bonner, one of the period’s “most coveted free agents,” per Miller, led the Sun offense with 19.7 points per game. Brionna Jones, who averaged 8.4 minutes and fewer than two field goals per game the season prior, shot a career-best 60.7% in 26.1 minutes per game and averaged three times as many buckets.

Everything was in place for 2021, until Alyssa Thomas ruptured her Achilles tendon while playing for ZVVZ USK Praha in the Czech Republic. (Thomas already plays with two torn labrums after she injured her right shoulder in 2015 and her left in 2017.) She underwent surgery on the Achilles in January 2021 and was expected to be out for the entire WNBA season.

It gave Miller time to pivot, the word he often used, and fill the space left by the team’s “Engine.” Brionna Jones slid into the starting lineup next to Jonquel Jones and won Most Improved Player of the Year. Jonquel Jones was named MVP, averaging career bests in scoring (19.7), rebounding (11.2), assists (2.8) and minutes (31.7). The team moved back up to second in offensive rating, first in defensive rating and first in net rating (+13.2).

They earned a double-bye in the former postseason system as the No. 1 overall seed riding a franchise-record 14-game winning streak and a 15-1 mark at home. Even better, Alyssa Thomas returned roughly eight months after her injury to play three regular season games in preparation for the playoffs. She played every game of the series.

The Sky had other plans that postseason, riding their own hot streak to an upset of the Sun in Game 4 of the semifinals. Luck isn’t always health, though Miller noted after the loss that the Sky were healthy and playing as everyone expected them to the year prior. It’s also the right matchups, and the Sky’s late tear was tough for any team to overcome. They became the first team not seeded No. 1 or No. 2 to win the championship.

“This player-for-player team is just dynamic offensively and there’s a real confidence with them right now,” Miller said after the loss. “But what’s really impressive is how hard they’re playing. You have to credit them playing well.”

It felt like years since they’d all been there together and 2022 looked promising. It was “here comes the Sun” with a healthy Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones, Jasmine Thomas and Bonner. Courtney Williams, the standout shooter of the 2019 Finals run, re-signed after two seasons with the Atlanta Dream to fill out the starting five. Brionna Jones was an unfair advantage off the bench and went on to earn a rare All-Star nod as a reserve.

This was it, this was the team. And then five games in, point guard Jasmine Thomas tore the ACL in her right knee and was ruled out for the season. They rode out another early pivot, replacing Thomas with returning reserve Natisha Hiedeman. The fourth-year guard had started nine games prior to it, but averaged 7.6 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 20.1 minutes per game in 2021. She played similarly in the starting role, and the Sun earned the No. 3 seed by falling one game behind the No. 1 Aces and No. 2 Sky.

They lost in four games to the historic Aces offense and afterward, Alyssa Thomas made sure to note no one expected the team to get through to the final days.

“It just didn’t go the way we wanted [it] to,” she said.

“We wish that the cards would have been dealt differently for us,” Williams said.

“Everybody has made sacrifices for us to be able to be back here,” Jonquel Jones said. “And like Courtney said, the chips didn’t fall the way we wanted them to.”

The deck has different logos now for many of the winningest core. Williams signed with the Sky as a free agent and Jones asked for a trade to New York. Jasmine Thomas was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks, where Miller was named head coach shortly after the Finals loss. She’s played six games in her return from the ACL injury.

Replacing another starter

Connecticut’s chips were looking good. Alyssa Thomas is off to an MVP-caliber season and notched her WNBA-record fifth triple-double on Tuesday. Bonner is in prime form and dropped 41 points, tied for second-most of the season, in that win over Vegas. Hiedeman continues to lead the offense and veteran shooting guard Tiffany Hayes is back in her collegiate home state as a starter.

Replacing Jones won’t be as easy and will require a step up from a young player. Veteran guard Rebecca Allen moved into the starting lineup in the win against the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday and Thomas shifted to center. Allen had eight points and four rebounds in 28 minutes.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa, who the Sun acquired in that trade for Jasmine Thomas, is the only other true listed center on the Sun roster. She played a season-high 19 minutes on Thursday with four points, four rebounds and four assists. In Los Angeles as a rookie, she averaged 4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 56.6% shooting in 14.5 minutes.

Heading into Thursday, the lineup with Nelson-Ododa was the sixth-best one in offensive rating (83.0) of lineups that had played at least 20 minutes together. Every one above it, leading with Bonner-Thomas-Jones-Hiedeman-DiJonai Carrington (129.5) had Jones in it. That lineup was also their best defensively. Their starters are 104.0 (the team averages a fifth-best 103.8) and 97.4 (the team averages a third-best 98.6).

Carrington also played a season-high 22 minutes in a productive 17-point (1.31 points per play) and five-rebound outing. She was 3-of-4 from 3-point range.

The Lynx, who are without No. 2 overall pick Diamond Miller among other injuries, are struggling at 4-9. The Sun return home to host the Sky on Sunday, another squad trudging through, before things turn difficult with games against the Liberty at home on Tuesday and at the Aces on July 1.