So, it seems like we now have an official number for what Natasha Cloud turned down and obviously Natasha Cloud is somebody that has been an important story of the offseason because everyone has talked about how Tash Cloud is not in the league because of her political stances and no team will sign her because of this, that she’s being blackballed.
She apparently has been offered, I’m not going to lie, in my opinion, within 100k of what she’s actually worth and she has decided to not play instead of taking the money. So, let’s take a listen. So, this is from the Daily W. And I think this is quite important. So, let’s take a listen here.
Why I know,
but you have a source.
I spoke to somebody about it. Yeah.
Okay. A reliable source.
Yeah. And I mean it’s part logic, but logic’s not enough to say, you know, now I know. So Tasha Cloud was offered somewhere in the neighborhood of a half a million to play.
Oh, on a one year.
I don’t know how many.
So a half a million.
And obviously this is from the Daily W show. Ironically, I was just listening to it in the background while doing some work and within one minute this comes up.
Natasha Cloud turning down a half a million dollars makes sense as to everything that’s happened. So, she did not get the money that she wanted and it’s funny because as soon as the Liberty re-signed Marine Johannes, people started asking can we sign Tash Cloud? We wanted Tash Cloud signed.
And the fact is that she was offered a half a million dollars. And I mean this when I say this. We are going to look at the WNBA and we’re going to see what team starting point guards are being paid. We’re going to go through all of this. And by the way, yes, I stand by the fact that there are worse players than Tash Cloud at the position making more than a half million.
So Atlanta Dream Jordan Canada, 600K. Who is better, Jordan or Natasha Cloud? I think that’s very close. I think Jordan Canada versus Cloud is very close. Jordan Canada is four years younger and I think it’s very, very close. Both players were on max contracts last year for anyone being like, “Oh, Cloud was on a max.” Yeah. As was Jordan Canada.
The Dallas Wings starting point guard is Paige Bueckers. And currently Natasha Cloud is being paid more money than Paige, or would be. Half a million is more money than Paige is making. And also we have to take into account as well that the backup point guard in Odyssey Sims, who I think did pretty well last year, is on a minimum.
The Chicago Sky Skylar Diggins is making 900K. Skylar Diggins is better. She’s straight up just better than Natasha Cloud.
The Golden State Valkyries point guard Veronica Burton is making I think 900K. Better than Natasha Cloud and younger. That has to be taken into account.
The Connecticut Sun’s starting point guard is making less than half a million.
The Las Vegas Aces starting point guard Chelsea Gray, I don’t think is actually that much better than Tash Cloud, but she’s won four rings.
The Sparks starting point guard Kelsey Plum has two rings and is making 900K. Kelsey Plum is the player that had to go under the million. Let’s be real, everyone took their pay cuts. Kelsey Plum is the player who had to take the biggest pay cut. Kelsey Plum’s getting paid less than Ariel Atkins. Why? Because partially she might have wanted to take that money and two, the point guard position is the one where every team is kind of getting screwed over.
Sabrina is much better than her.
The Lynx Courtney Williams, that’s the one thing she could be like, you know what, I’m better than her. She’s making 1.2 million.
The Phoenix Mercury starting point guard is on a minimum.
The Toronto Tempo starting point guard Julie Allemand is making 400K.
The Washington Mystics starting point guard is on 300 something K.
The Portland Fire starting point guard is Carla Leite on a rookie contract.
Seattle Storm Natisha Hiedeman 700K. That’s the one thing she can say. How is Natisha Hiedeman getting paid more than me? That is the one where I’m like she can actually be pissed.
That being said, Ty Harris is making 400K. There are players making not a lot of money. There are players who got screwed by this and we saw with Bec Allen.
Bec Allen in the open market is probably 600-700K. She really wanted to go to New York, she had to take 350K. She probably had to halve her money to go where she wanted to go. She could have made 700K in some places.
And that’s the unfortunate thing. She went through a couple of agents and the whole free agency period kind of came and went.
I would say that if she was willing to take 700K to play in Seattle actually, sorry, what am I talking about? She basically tried to imply that the Seattle Storm owner was cooking the books. What am I talking about? They would have never signed her.
That’s another thing you have to take into account as well. The one team who overpaid for an inferior point guard. One. One team who overpaid an objectively inferior point guard and it’s the Seattle Storm, who she implied the owner was cooking the books. During CBA negotiations she implied the owner was hiding revenue from the players.
So no, they were never going to sign her. Let’s be real. This is not a blackball situation because of politics. This is a “well, I didn’t get paid as much as this other player, so I’m done” situation.
Reality is that she’s going to get paid somewhat okay money. I have no doubt about that. No question about it. She will be in the league by the end of this year. Natasha Cloud will be in the league.
But this is genuinely one of those things where we’ve got a player who was willing to spur on the social media narratives that she was being blackballed for her political takes, being willing to not shut that down and allow that to be the prevailing narrative around everything, while it turns out she just didn’t get enough money.
She realistically got snubbed or she was probably looking for a million. There were probably offers on the table. There were probably situations where she could have gotten 650-700K because unpopular opinion, I think if she was willing to play for 600K a year, the Atlanta Dream would have signed her over Jordan Canada just because of what the Atlanta Dream want and their size and modern basketball.
I don’t think they’re similar level players, but I do think they would choose her over Canada. So there were situations she probably could have made 700K, but I would assume she was looking for a max.
And then by the time she was negotiating with teams who chose to sign other players, all those mid-tier upper mid-tier contracts were gone and the only money that was remaining was to overpay a big and she was a guard.
But anyway, yeah, at least we know. At least we know.
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