[OCcardinal]

There was some talk earlier in this thread on how brutal the roster situation is in the league. The flip is the Fever can lose half a team - I forget exactly, but they are up to 5 or 6 players out for the year - and still manage to be competitive.  At least against the Sky. They can sign Sims, and she is a useful player almost instantly.

If the Nuggets lost lost say Jokic, Gordon, Braun, Jones, Strawther, and Hardaway - so roughly their best, 3rd and 5th starter + 3 useful bench players - they wouldn’t win another game or even be interesting. And the replacement player they would be signing would be somebody you hardly remembered from College who would average .8 pts a game if they even made it off the bench. Blake Hinson as an example….

Fever injuries  - Clark, Cunningham, Bibby, Colson, McDonald - did I miss anybody?

Aside from the injuries you also had DeWanna Bonner, who had been signed to a $200,000 contract and was expected to be a star this season. She started only 3 games before going to the bench and eventually being waived after 9 games. Notably it was Lexie Hull who took Bonner's starting spot.  Of course Lexie has been getting even more minutes as a result of all the injuries and, with the Fever still in the playoff hunt, has become a fan favorite in Indiana as a result. Quite a turnaround for her, as a couple years ago people were calling for her to be waived.

As for Jones, her +/- has indeed been poor (especially when you compare Lexie Hull who often has a positive +/- even if the Fever lose).  Also unfortunate is the fact that Atlanta has been so much better this season without her.  Nevertheless, her stats have improved nearly across the board (she's even shooting 33.3% on threes now, which is top 50% in the league).  So hopefully there is a continued place for her and her game can continue to develop. 

All this goes to the fact that a roster size of 12 is ridiculous.  It made sense when the league was barely scraping by, but you've got teams worth more than half a billion dollars now.  A team like the Fever shouldn't have to restructure their roster every time there is an injury.  And the poor athletes on those 7-day/hardship contracts.  A team should be able to put in players that have been practicing with them and have been developing.  The NBA allows 15 players on standard contracts and an additional 3 players on 2-way contracts.  There's no G-league equivalent for the WNBA, but the W should at least increase rosters to 14 or 15 players in the next collective bargaining agreement. The WNBA and NBA have similar rates of injury per game.  There's no logical reason (other than money) to keep the rosters so small.  And the money seems to be there now.

[OCcardinal]

There was some talk earlier in this thread on how brutal the roster situation is in the league. The flip is the Fever can lose half a team - I forget exactly, but they are up to 5 or 6 players out for the year - and still manage to be competitive.  At least against the Sky. They can sign Sims, and she is a useful player almost instantly.

If the Nuggets lost lost say Jokic, Gordon, Braun, Jones, Strawther, and Hardaway - so roughly their best, 3rd and 5th starter + 3 useful bench players - they wouldn’t win another game or even be interesting. And the replacement player they would be signing would be somebody you hardly remembered from College who would average .8 pts a game if they even made it off the bench. Blake Hinson as an example….

Fever injuries  - Clark, Cunningham, Bibby, Colson, McDonald - did I miss anybody?

Aside from the injuries you also had DeWanna Bonner, who had been signed to a $200,000 contract and was expected to be a star this season. She started only 3 games before going to the bench and eventually being waived after 9 games. Notably it was Lexie Hull who took Bonner's starting spot.  Of course Lexie has been getting even more minutes as a result of all the injuries and, with the Fever still in the playoff hunt, has become a fan favorite in Indiana as a result. Quite a turnaround for her, as a couple years ago people were calling for her to be waived.

As for Jones, her +/- has indeed been poor (especially when you compare Lexie Hull who often has a positive +/- even if the Fever lose).  Also unfortunate is the fact that Atlanta has been so much better this season without her.  Nevertheless, her stats have improved nearly across the board (she's even shooting 33.3% on threes now, which is top 50% in the league).  So hopefully there is a continued place for her and her game can continue to develop. 

All this goes to the fact that a roster size of 12 is ridiculous.  It made sense when the league was barely scraping by, but you've got teams worth more than half a billion dollars now.  A team like the Fever shouldn't have to restructure their roster every time there is an injury.  And the poor athletes on those 7-day/hardship contracts.  A team should be able to put in players that have been practicing with them and have been developing.  The NBA allows 15 players on standard contracts and an additional 3 players on 2-way contracts.  There's no G-league equivalent for the WNBA, but the W should at least increase rosters to 14 or 15 players in the next collective bargaining agreement. The WNBA and NBA have similar rates of injury per game.  There's no logical reason (other than money) to keep the rosters so small.  And the money seems to be there now.