The Las Vegas Aces under head coach Becky Hammon had only ever experienced “exit partying,” not exit interviews, she noted shortly after the Aces lost Game 4 of the WNBA semifinals in October.

In their first offseason without a WNBA championship in three years together, the Aces are quickly back to celebrating after the first domino of free agency fell on Sunday night. Las Vegas reportedly acquired two-time WNBA champion and six-time All-Star guard Jewell Loyd from the Seattle Storm in a landscape-shaking three-team trade. Loyd, who is on a supermax contract for 2025, asked to be moved earlier this offseason.

The Aces will reportedly send two-time champ and three-time All-Star Kelsey Plum, on whom the Aces used their core designation, to the rebuilding Los Angeles Sparks. Each player is a former No. 1 overall pick who won both titles with the franchise that drafted them. The Storm acquired the No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft and center Li Yueru from the Sparks. The Sparks and Aces also acquired draft picks.

It was poised to be a transformative offseason in Las Vegas as the franchise sought answers for the rest of the league catching up to its pace-and-space style. New York’s front office built a superteam, fell short in Year 1 and knocked out the Aces on their home court en route to a championship this past season. Seattle followed suit with its aggressive build to much less success than the Aces (but with nearly as many investigations). And the Lynx didn’t need major names in free agency to build a Finals contender that’s likely to return.

The Aces were going to need more than complementing their “core four” of Plum, A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young. When Hammon said the Aces were “not going to be the same group probably next year,” the underlying context was one of those core members was leaving.

Plum became the first of the franchise’s core to decline signing an early extension and entering free agency. She seemed to want a new start in a new city, and by coring her, the Aces were able to get a return. They received a near one-for-one swap in the backcourt with Loyd, who has experience playing with Wilson, Gray and Young on Team USA.

The Aces will have approximately $400,000 in cap room when the deal is made official after the Feb. 1 signing date. They have lacked offensive depth at the center position and could now address that.

Plum will be granted her new start in a market ready for her on and off the court. The Sparks won’t sorely miss their No. 2 pick for the talents of Plum alongside second-year stars Rickea Jackson and Cameron Brink. (Brink is on track to return before or during the 2025 season after tearing her ACL in June.) She’ll pair with forward Dearica Hamby, a close friend when they won Las Vegas’ first title in 2022. And the Sparks will look better to free agents this round.

There’s a familiarity between Plum, who held the NCAA Division I women’s all-time scoring record at Washington before Caitlin Clark took it, and newly named Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts, who spent a decade coaching at Utah. Roberts’ teams live inside the paint and outside the arc, a promising goal to achieve with this roster. They aren’t going to be a worst-to-first story, but playoffs are possible for the first time since 2020.

For Seattle, it marks an abbreviated end to their promising big three of Loyd, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike. And a questionable future. The latter pair were signed a year ago after Loyd’s two-year contract extension. She committed to the franchise after Sue Bird retired and Breanna Stewart crossed the continent for New York in free agency. The new trio was never fully in sync, underperformed and were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Aces.

The coaching staff was investigated in the offseason for allegedly mistreating players, and though no violations were found, Loyd still asked out. She reportedly filed the allegation. They’ll likely draft either Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles or USC forward Kiki Iriafen as a future building block, and whether the 2025 season goes well or poorly, they’ll be able to reset in 2026. Most players aren’t signing beyond next season as they negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement that should raise salaries and improve benefits.

The most monumental part of the deal is for the rest of the league. There are a pack of players who are potential sign-and-trade contenders, but those deals require the receiving team to have enough cap room to take on a supermax deal. That can be tough in the hard-cap WNBA. With two major names changing homes, prepare for more to come.