No. This is not a joke...

https://www.sbnation.com/wnba/2019/4/22/18511059/lynx-trade-odyssey-sims-whalen-jones-sparks

Oh the Irony

Could be a middle stop for Odyssey. She earlier tried to sign with Phoenix. Looks like Los Angeles may be clearing cap room for Liz Cambage. Maybe a chance yet for Dallas to get Kalani.

Even if they do not get Cambage in a trade they still needed to clear cap space. I would think that if a Cambage trade is involved it would include Brown and perhaps even Jones. I think Dallas would much prefer Jones than Sims and her 3-year max salary. Jones could play the point until Skylar came back. Sims is much more an off guard at this level. This would be a much more desirable trade for Dallas. They would still have to add something beside them but that's doable.

Minnesota needs some help, unless they are just going to make this a throwaway year to enter lottery next year, as Maya Moore is taking a sabbatical, and I wouldn't be surprised if she decided to retire and move on to her next phase in life

Affect on a potential Cambage trade
"Back in January, Dallas Wings center and 2018 WNBA MVP runner-up Liz Cambage requested a trade. At this point, the biggest open secret in the league is that she wants to play for the Sparks.

But with the season just a month away now, no deal has been completed, despite Wings president Greg Bibb telling High Post Hoops, "There have been several times where I thought we had a deal done. Two times, at least, where I was rather confident we were heading to a resolution only to have things, for lack of a better word, fall apart at the eleventh hour."

Earlier this offseason, the Sparks matched what was reportedly a three-year max deal offer sheet that Sims signed with the Mercury. While the WNBA is notoriously secretive with salary and contract information, this put the Sparks in an interesting position. Not only did they already have big money tied up in Candace Parker, Nneka Ogwumike and Jantel Lavender, but they still needed to re-sign star point guard Chelsea Gray -- something that still hasn't been accomplished.

Without any inside knowledge, this certainly feels like a move to clear the books in order to re-sign Gray and then potentially complete a trade for Cambage."

- Jack Maloney, CBS Sports, 23 April 2019

I beleive they already have a verbal contract in place with Gray so that they are waiting to sign her last after they have made all the moves they plan on making. She may even have agreed to take a bit less than a maximum deal if necessary. Sims took a pay cut last season so that they could sign Cappie Pondexter. I think they also need to dump Lavender if possible. They signed Lavender to a max deal a few years ago after she was named 6th player of the year. Her production has dropped since and she certainly is not worth a max contract now. She is making the same amount as Nneka Ogwumike and Candice Parker.

WNBA salaries are weird. Players have to play on a rookie scale for a number of years until they are allowed a small raise for one year, after which they are eligible for what is called a max salary based on how long they have been in the league. Sim was eligible for and was signed to a 3-year max deal her which more than doubled her previous year's amount. This is why the had to trade Sims- to clear salary space.
they traded Sims Max contract for Jones rookie salary. It's a complicated scale which is very confusing. But a team can only afford a certain number of max salaries to keep them under the cap.

The certainly needed to clear cap space if they wanted to work out a deal with Cambage, because unless they sent a Max salary player to Dallas it wouldn't work. Dallas certainly doesn't want Lavender and probably not Sims either. So if they send a player, or combination of players, as part of the deal it will have to be either Vadeeva, Brown or Jones. Two of them might come close to Cambages salary. Even without any Cambage deal, they still had to clear space to sign Gray. Both Dallas and LA might go for Vadeeva or Brown along with Jones and a first next year for Cambage. Or even Brown and Vadeeva. Dallas really wanted either Ogwumike, or Gray straight up, but that was not going to happen.

Lynx on bringing former rival Odyssey Sims into the fold
'She's a great player, so welcome'

"While she was a late arrival to the drama, Odyssey Sims carved out her own chapter in the now-famed Lynx-Sparks rivalry that helped put the WNBA on the map. Thanks to Lindsay Whalen.

It was Sims who Whalen fouled hard on a play that was ruled a flagrant-1 foul early in Game 4 of the 2017 WNBA Finals. That foul is credited with shifting the series, as the Lynx went on to steal Game 4 in Los Angeles to bring the series back to Minnesota, where it secured its fourth league title.

The ensuing season's opener pitted the Lynx against, who else, Los Angeles. That's when it became clear Whalen and Sims had some residual beef. Heading off the court after a timeout was called, Sims and Whalen tried to walk through, well, each other, which started a shoving match.

Somewhere along the road, Sims and Whalen became the gasoline further fueling the rivalry between the WNBA's long-time powers. So it seems almost awkward that, in the week following the announcement that Minnesota will hang the jersey of the recently-retired Whalen in the Target Center rafters prior to a Sparks game this summer, the Lynx made another announcement that Odyssey Sims will indeed be in attendance at that game as expected, but in a Lynx uniform after Minnesota acquired the point guard in a recent trade.

What will be more odd? Seeing Whalen not wearing a Lynx jersey, or seeing Sims in one?

"It will be (weird)," Lynx veteran Rebekkah Brunson admitted at Tuesday's Timberwolves and Lynx's event aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles for children.

But not awkward. Not according to Brunson and guard Danielle Robinson, anyway. Neither felt as though any air would need to be cleared between Sims and her new teammates when training camp starts this spring.

"Maybe (between) her and Lindsay," Robinson joked. "No I'm just playing. No, I don't know, I don't think so. I think you come here and you welcome her with open arms. It doesn't matter where you're coming from, but I think it's important that she's brought in from the beginning and shown the reins .. and we just have a good time."

Robinson already started that welcoming process. She has texted and spoken with Sims, and said the veteran guard is "excited to be here." The feeling, apparently, is mutual.

"I'm happy to have her on our team," Robinson said. "Odyssey is a great player. I think her energy, her passion, her grit, I think that's the biggest thing she's going to bring to us is just how hard she plays, how competitive she is. We're glad to have her on our side, now."

Brunson called Sims "a competitor," noting the Lynx always knew they had their hands full when facing her. Brunson said every player who steps on the floor is there to do whatever she can to ensure her team is successful. That, Brunson said, is what Sims did for Los Angeles. The hope is she does something similar in Minnesota.

"It's a weird dynamic to see her come over to the Lynx side," said Brunson, who declined to discuss whether she'll play this season. "But we're all about what we can do to continue to grow our culture, continue to win and put the right pieces in place so that we can be successful. That's all it is. She's a great player, so welcome."

- Jace Frederick, Twin Cities Pioneer Press, 24 April 2019

Odyssey Sims

Honestly, Odyssey might be the best all-around player to have worn a Lady Bears uniform.

The only WNBA team that wouldn't want to have her is a team that doesn't want to win.

ALEXIS JONES

May 8