Indiana Fever lose Justine Pissott to Las Vegas Aces, make no cuts

The contract guarantee deadline for the WNBA passed on Tuesday, and the Indiana Fever did lose a player... but not because they opted to waive one of their standard contract talents.

Second-round draft pick Justine Pissott is no longer with the team. She's headed to the Las Vegas Aces, who gave her a qualifying offer of a standard contract on Monday. The Fever were given one day to match, meaning they had until 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday to determine if they wanted to have Pissott on a standard deal.

Doing so would have required waiving a player and opening up a standard roster spot, and Tuesday was fittingly the final day for the Fever to move on from a player on an unprotected contract and not have their deal count in full for the remainder of the season.

While that dynamic gave the team more options, Indiana opted not to match Pissott's offer. She's now under contract with Las Vegas and no longer with the Fever.

"I think just not feeling like we had the ability to open up the roster spot," Fever head coach Stpehanie White told reporters in Los Angeles about the choice to not match the offer.

Pissott didn't play in a regular season game for the Fever and was never made active on her developmental deal. Her lone appearance for the franchise came in the preseason, when she suited up for 10 minutes in a tune-up game against the New York Liberty.

The Vanderbilt product had eight points and one assist that night, including hitting two three-point shots on three attempts.

The Fever have only activated a developmental player three times this season, and on all three occasions it was Bree Hall. In the first instance of that happening, I asked White why Hall, rather than Pissott, was activated – and the head coach explained that it was due to the position Hall played. Sophie Cunningham, who White called a guard, was out that night. Hall, a guard, filled in.

Pissott was stuck behind a largely healthy Fever frontcourt so far this season. Myisha Hines-Allen hasn't missed a game. Aliyah Boston and Monique Billings were only too injured to play once. Makayla Timpson has just a single DNP, and that was not due to injury.

Small ball options have been deployed. Grace VanSlooten and Damiris Dantas have taken up the garbage time minutes. Without poor health, there was little reason for the Fever to use their limited developmental contract games (12 in total) to activate Pissott – it is prudent to wait until that is necessary. (Outside of situations in which the developmental player is more talented than standard contract pieces – See also: Kate Martin in LA).

Now, the Fever have an open developmental contract slot. Some wondered if the Fever would move on from Dantas or VanSlooten (those two, plus Raven Johnson, Caitlin Clark, Tyasha Harris, and Makayla Timpson were the team's unprotected contracts entering Tuesday) to open up a slot for Pissott, but the team made no moves on contract guarantee deadline day.

"Great culture players. Great culture teammates," White told reporters of VanSlooten and Dantas. "They're going to continue to be ready when their number is called."

White mentioned Dantas being a veteran and VanSlooten being someone they believe can develop into a solid four. Clearly, the team likes VanSlooten – they signed her to a standard contract back in May when they could have promoted Pissott.

The Fever waived nobody on Tuesday, so their entire roster is now on protected contracts. They can still make waivers but will gain no financial flexibility by doing so. And they have no salary cap space, meaning won't be able to sign a new player until the final two days of the season. They'd have to make a waiver to open up a roster spot.

Also, on the Clark injury front...

Clark spoke to reporters in LA on Tuesday, a good sign for her health and practice status. As it pertains to Fever-Sparks on Wednesday...

"Very hopeful for tomorrow," Clark said. She acknowledged it would be difficult to play in both games of the Fever's upcoming back to back – they play in Phoenix on Thursday. Clark expects to have a restriction of just over 20 minutes tomorrow.

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