Aces president discusses roster moves in Q&A: ‘We believe in this team’

Even though NaLyssa Smith has been an Aces player since June 30, she slept in her new Las Vegas apartment for the first time Friday night.

Smith, a 6-foot-4 forward, laughed when she made that realization following her team’s win over the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday. It was an example of just how fast things changed after she was acquired from the Dallas Wings for a 2027 first-round pick.

Smith, 24, has played five games for the Aces (10-11) so far, averaging 6.8 points and five rebounds per game. She’ll return to Dallas to take on her old team at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

“The transition has been smooth, honestly,” Smith said. “There’s been a lot of people that have helped me out with this process because they know how rushed it was, so I feel like I have a lot of people in my corner.”

Smith said three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson has been the “biggest help” as she acclimates to her new team.

“She’s just constantly coaching me up,” Smith said.

Wilson’s presence was a silver lining for Smith after learning she’d be traded. Smith posted to X that she was sick to her stomach upon hearing the news, but added she was excited to play with her WNBA “GOAT.”

The deal separated Smith from her partner DiJonai Carrington, a guard-forward for the Wings (6-16). Dallas general manager Curt Miller told reporters the trade was too good to pass up.

“(Smith) was fantastic,” Miller said. “Ultimately, the balance between now and the future is something that you’re always trying to look at as a GM. … It’s certainly not often, especially coming out of a new CBA, that a first-round pick is available.”

Aces president Nikki Fargas offered her thoughts on the trade in an interview with the Review-Journal before Wednesday’s matchup:

RJ: What led to the decision to exchange a first-round pick for Smith?

Fargas: When you’re looking at putting the pieces to the puzzle together, an area that we needed to challenge ourselves to be better in was on the boards, offensively and defensively. Smith also matches the physicality of this league and brings a toughness while also being able to score the basketball.

We needed some additional help for A’ja Wilson, and (Smith) fit that. She’s fit right in with this team. And she’s not new to the game but she’s still young as far as how many years of service she’s been in the W, so we looked at that also as a future investment. We can see her staying with the organization as someone that we can continue to build with.

When you have an opportunity to gain all that when we don’t know what things are going to look like with expansion drafts and with the CBA, we felt Smith could be a future piece while impacting us right now.

RJ: Coach Becky Hammon has spoken positively about Smith since she was selected No. 2 overall by the Indiana Fever in 2022. Did Hammon ask about her?

Fargas: No, it started with conversations between Curt and I. I’ve followed Smith’s career as a Texas kid since she was at Baylor. She won a national championship. She was a Wade Trophy winner (for the best player in women’s college basketball). You always keep your eye on that type of talent. For it to happen that we could come in and get NaLyssa, we were extremely excited about what this young lady could do right now. She’s a walking double-double. There’s certain things that you want as you continue to build your team and as you continue to make a run in the playoffs, and one of them is consistency. I feel like we’re going to get that from her.

RJ: In addition to the first-round pick, you had to waive free agent signing Tiffany Mitchell and 2024 second-round pick Elizabeth Kitley to make room for Smith. How did that factor into things?

Fargas: It was hard. Tiffany Mitchell has been nothing but solid in this league. And (Kitley) is going to be solid, she just needs some more time. But when you’re absorbing a contract, and when your salary cap is restricted a little bit because of the replacement player — you wish that it could work out from a cap standpoint, but it just didn’t. So we had to make those tough decisions.

RJ: There are 10 active players on the roster now that center Megan Gustafson has returned from an ankle injury. What are your options moving forward? Can you add someone else while waiting for forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus to return after giving birth to her second child?

Fargas: We believe in this team. We believe in the core and the supporting cast. We feel like we have enough. Although our record is not reflecting it, you can see there’s a shift in us. We’re going to be peaking at the right time. So we’re going to stay with our nucleus. We added (Smith) and we now have (Gustafson) coming back. We’re looking forward to when that time comes for (Parker-Tyus) to join us. We’ve got still pieces coming in, and I think that’s going to allow us to have this spark. Gustafson gives you everything that she has. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus is an All-Star, another dominant post player. It’s going to change how we look on the floor. I know coach (Hammon) loves playing small ball, but now she can go to big ball if she wants to as well.

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.