I know Lynne or the GM isn't going to lay out their entire plan for Kate, and that they have to keep a lot of things under wraps, but I would be so curious to know what their long-term plan is. Because anyone with eyes can see that Kate's been really strong, even despite the fact that she's had like no consistency to her season.

honestly I’m kind of glad with the sparks almost losing yesterday. I think they didn’t activate kate because they didn’t want to waste a game and wanted to give other players a try and that just didn’t work out at all. Instead, they just played Park 1 minute and everyone else had to play heavier minutes. Hardly effective. IMO it showed that they do need kate. No she’s not going to win them the game and take over, but she takes a lot of pressure off the starters while they get a breather and is a key bench piece with her scoring and defense. No disrespect but neither park nor gray were effective yesterday. Gray is getting better and looking much more confident so I think her place in the rotation is safe but the others on the bench I really don’t know what’s going on there. I will take kate not playing in a game they scrape a win if it means they realize how impactful she is for them

The whole thing is truly bizarre and makes me a little nervous on if they even plan on upgrading her. I still think they probably wouldn’t have used 7 games this early on if they weren’t considering it, but they then do things like last night where she isn’t activated and they play Park (only for 2 min though). I still think they have to realize Kate is better than half their bench but the fact that they haven’t done anything yet is so confusing to me.

The sparks losing to this Storm team is awful. They could have really used Kate because Lynne doesn’t use that bench at all

Honestly, I said this a couple of days ago, but the Sparks is the right place for her at the moment. She has the potential to get a lot more playing time...if she were on the Valkyries, she'd be shoved to the very end of the bench.

as bad as the front office for the sparks is I think what the coach is saying is the biggest clue. She has said herself that it’s not fair on the players to have kate play some games and not others as they’re building chemistry. And as bad as the coach can be with her rotations she’s still a professional coach and she’s not dumb. Playing someone that much for 12 games and then never playing them again would be coaching malpractice. The fact she plans to play kate so many minutes a game is telling. She has obviously made her decision about kate and it’s just up to the front office when they do it. I’m sure there’s financial reasons we’re not aware of that they haven’t done it yet but all the players with DNPs are on unprotected contracts so they can cut any of them at any time. I really think they will use her 12 because it gives them the option of 13 players on the roster basically and then make some decisions

I also think the first handful of games Kate played in they were still assessing her vs others. Because Kate would play one game, Park the next. Latson played in a couple when KP was out. Now I feel like they are at the point where they know Kate is above those players (hence the two games in a row where she played and others didn’t). My guess is they either use her 12 games and then do it or after this 3 game road trip. There is no way they play her this much and build chemistry not to upgrade her. Also KP’s comments hold a lot of weight imo.

LA getting all these DNPs for the Valkyries, still dont understand why they cut Kate for her. 🤔

Not sure what the front office is waiting for lmao

The other dev pool player had nice things to say about kate, talked about how they help each other with extra workouts and how kate’s stepped up as a leader despite being a DP (kate is being interviewed in the background so we’ll wait on that one)

Coach Roberts was interviewed after practice today saying that she intends to play Kate more and that her plan has been to play kate 15 minutes but things go awry and so she has to change the sub plan for whatever reason but that they plan to try and increase kate's minutes. She was asked about upgrading kate and she said 'that's a front office decision' but smiled slightly so I think she's trying to stay neutral officially but I think her slight smile said a lot

Kate finally driving to the basket again but she needs to be making those free throws 🥴 and hopefully bring back her midrange a bit

something that i've also noticed about kate's game so far this season is she's doing a good job of finding ways to score that aren't just 3 pointers. she's driving to the basket, getting fouled, etc. i honestly think she improved in this area during unrivaled, so it's nice to see her bring it into her W game this season

you know what anon, I actually agree! Lynne Roberts is a frustrating coach, and I dont understand her rotations or distribution of bench minutes 90% of the time, but I think this team allows Kate to do what she does best.

i have a hot take - despite not getting a ton of playing time, I think this Sparks team is a much better fit for Kate than the Valkyries

Yea Roberts talking about Kate needing consistency not only for herself but for her teammates definitely makes me feel like moves will be made soon.

honestly part of the reason I think the Sparks haven't waived someone for Kate yet is not because they're unsure about Kate, but because they dont know which player to waive. I feel like they're trying to decide between like 3 or 4 and maybe aren't totally certain