February 2, 2016
Players were able to sign contracts beginning February 1st and the biggest announcement of the day came from the New York Liberty as they announced the signing of Shavonte Zellous to a multi-year deal. Zellous will leave the Indiana Fever after playing there for the past five seasons. Zellous was a member of the Fever’s 2012 WNBA championship team and collected several accolades while a member of the Fever. She was a WNBA All-Star in 2013 and also won the WNBA Most-Improved player award that year.
New York did excellent in making this move as they will be without Epiphanny Prince for at least the first half of the season. Prince suffered an ACL injury while playing in Russia this off season. Zellous will have huge shoes to fill but if she can get her game back to her 2013 season where she averaged 14.7 ppg New York should pick up where they left off. The Liberty also re-signed restricted free agent Carolyn Swords.
We will update this post as signings are announced. There will be a * next to players who change teams.
2016 Free Agency Signings;
*Shavonte Zellous —> New York Liberty
Carolyn Swords —> New York Liberty
Mistie Bass —> Phoenix Mercury
Crystal Langhorne —> Seattle Storm
Shenise Johnson —> Indiana Fever
Lynetta Kizer —> Indiana Fever
Tiffany Hayes—> Atlanta Dream
*Deveraux Peters—> Indiana Fever (sign and trade w/ Indy)
Sylvia Fowles—> Minnesota Lynx
*Natasha Howard—> Minnesota Lynx (sign and trade w/ Minny)
Renee Montgomery —> Minnesota Lynx
Latoya Sanders—> Washington Mystics
*Elizabeth Williams—> Atlanta Dream (traded for the #4 pick in the 2016 draft)
Alysha Clark—> Seattle Storm
Jenna O’hea—> Seattle Storm
Shekinna Stricklen—> Connecticut Sun