Liberty Trade Tina Charles to Mystics in Three-Team Deal

The Liberty now have four of the top 15 picks in Friday’s draft, including the No. 1 pick that is expected to be used on Ionescu.

The trade reunites Charles with her former coach Mike Thibault. The pair were together with the Connecticut Sun for Charles’s first four years in the league after the team drafted her No. 1 over all in 2010. She was traded to New York in 2014 on draft night and had been the cornerstone of the Liberty franchise ever since.

“We are extremely excited to bring Tina Charles to the Washington Mystics,” Thibault said. “It gives us a dynamic new weapon at both ends of the floor. Having coached Tina before in Connecticut, I know what a huge impact she can have on the game every single night.”

A New York native who has averaged 18.1 points in her career, Charles, 31, is still looking for her first W.N.B.A. championship. The Liberty signed her before trading her so that she could earn an extra $30,000; the new maximum salary in the collective bargaining agreement is $215,000. If she had been traded to Washington without first signing with the Liberty, the maximum she would have been able to earn was $185,000.

Washington is coming off the franchise’s first W.N.B.A. championship. Most of the key pieces are back for Thibault, including Elena Delle Donne, the reigning Most Valuable Player Award winner, and Emma Meesseman, who was the M.V.P. during the finals.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/sports/basketball/liberty-trade-tina-charles-mystics.html