Guard Crystal Dangerfield, the 2020 WNBA Rookie of the Year, has been cleared to return to play for the Dallas Wings after missing the previous four games with an ankle injury. Because Dangerfield is back, the Wings released guard Odyssey Sims, who had been playing for Dallas on a hardship contract.
Sims, 30, was signed on June 7 and played in four games for the Wings, averaging 4.8 points and 5.8 assists. Dallas was allowed the hardship contract for Sims because the team had less than 10 available players following injuries to guards Diamond DeShields and Lou Lopez Senechal, Dangerfield being out and the center Teaira McCowan absent while competing for Turkey in Eurobasket competition.
Sims, the No. 2 draft pick in 2014 out of Baylor, was a starter as recently as 2021 with the Atlanta Dream. She played just seven games in 2022, split between two franchises. But her playmaking stood out the last four games with Dallas.
Dangerfield, the former UConn Huskies standout, was a second-round draft pick in 2020 and won the rookie of the year honor with the Minnesota Lynx. After being waived by the Lynx in 2022, she had a brief stint with the Indiana Fever but played most of the season with the New York Liberty.
Dangerfield was then part of a multi-team trade in January that sent her to Dallas. In her first six games with the Wings this season before the ankle injury, she averaged 8.8 points and 2.2 assists.