Hailey Van Lith has had one of the worst months in the life of a sports person. Former LSU and TCU star is now without a team in the WNBA. Van Lith was picked as the 11th overall pick by Chicago Sky in the 2025 WNBA draft. She played 29 games in her rookie year. This season Chicago Sky waived Van Lith in early May to bring veteran Natasha Cloud in the roster.
She joined Connecticut Sun and played 9 games for them this season. However, just weeks later, Sun has also waived Hailey Van Lith to sign Leila Lacan. The French international was drafted by the Sun in 2025. She was occupied by her overseas commitment but now she has returned. And the Sun has decided to let Hailey go to make space for Leila.
Many could not believe their eyes and felt bad for Hailey Van Lith. The fans thought it was brutal and Hailey did not deserve to go. Her recent performances had impressed many people. Fans also speculated one interesting reason for waiving Hailey Van Lith – an attempt at tanking for the possibility of picking JuJu Watkins as the first draft pick next year.
“What?! She’s literally one of the few ones trying on that team. They are truly committed to tanking for JuJu,” one fan said.
“Damn, they really dedicated to this tank job,” another speculated.
“I knew this was coming. She had a good game yesterday,” one fan said sarcastically.
“Unethical tanking ok,” another fan commented.
“This team is tanking anyway. Why not just let her play out the season? She had a few decent games. Their top pick Kneepkins hasn’t done anything,” one fan accused.
“They just want to tank bro,” one fan claimed.
“One of the best player of the team, yea they are tanking,” another stated.
“Sorry to the Suns, but your team is definitely gonna tank now,” another fan said.
After losing out on a whole season due to injury, JuJu Watkins missed her junior year. Next season when she completes her senior year, she will have the option of using her college eligibility or declaring for the WNBA draft. If she does end up declaring for the draft, JuJu Watkins is pretty much destined to be the number one draft pick.
Hailey Van Lith’s WNBA career so far
Hailey has not had the best of starts to her WNBA career. After being the 11th pick, there were expectations from her to showcase the talent and intensity that she played with in college. In 38 games so far in her career, she has only managed to average mere 4.6 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists.
In 9 games this season, she did show a little promise with the Sun. She averaged 8.1 points and 2.2 assists with shooting 49.2% from the field and 47.1% beyond the three-point line. However, she did not fit in Sun’s plans.
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