Chennedy Carter's stint with the Las Vegas Aces
ended the way two of her last three did. She was cut loose before her contract ever became guaranteed. Just ahead of the WNBA's midseason cutdown deadline that would have locked in her full salary for the year, and 12 weeks after she'd looked like the front-runner for Sixth Player of the Year. And on the July 9 episode of No Offseason: The Athletic Women's Basketball Show
, hosts Zena Keita and Sabreena Merchant pointed to something more familiar than form.
"She was straight up talking to media in person, saying like I'm not here to be a sixth woman and like… That is a wild thing to say on a team that includes Jackie Young
and Chelsea Gray
in the starting lineup," Merchant said.
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"And if they were not to be starting, Jewell Loyd
exists, you know, three-time champion Jewell Loyd and undefeated in WNBA finals games for what it's worth. So yeah, you know, it's just it's been a pattern of I think Kennedy wanting a bigger role than what was asked of her or provided to her in a lot of different stops."
"Like even in LA there were no suspensions, so to speak, with the Sparks. Still, she was, like, basically told she wasn't gonna play until things were fixed. She only played 24 out of the 40 games there that season, and that's what led to her first year out of the WNBA in 2023."
The Atlanta Dream
suspended Carter indefinitely back in July 2021 for conduct detrimental to the team. Atlanta traded her to the Sparks the following year. She played 24 of Los Angeles
's 36 games in 2022 before the team waived her in March 2023, and she sat out the entire season that followed. That history makes Las Vegas
Carter's fourth team since 2020, after stints with the Dream, Sparks and Sky that all ended the same rocky way.
This time, though, the role itself was never a mystery. Hammon laid it out for her from day one, telling reporters in May that Carter would be a "spark plug off the bench" behind a starting group of Wilson, Young, Gray and Loyd. Carter seemed to embrace it, calling the signing "the best decision I've ever made in my life," and she backed that up fast, scoring 96 points across her first five games, the best bench start to a season in WNBA history.
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But some of what she said later told a different story. Starting in May 2026, Carter began airing frustration with her role, mostly on social media, suggesting that even with the production, she felt boxed in.
The clearest example came after a May 28 loss to the Dallas Wings
, when fans compared her performance to rookie Azzi Fudd's. Carter wrote on Threads: "Not to mention, I made her ankle touch the ground. But y'all can hollar at me when my leash is off, too. It's completely unfair, even though statistically, it's not even close."
Earlier that month, after a May 17 win over her former team, the Atlanta Dream, Carter also made clear she wasn't happy watching the fourth quarter from the bench, telling reporters, "I'm still going through it. I'm a little bit disappointed. Happy we won," before cutting the press conference short.
On paper, the fit made sense: Las Vegas needed scoring with Dana Evans
out with a left leg injury, and Carter gave them that before her minutes started shrinking in June and July. The Aces have since signed rookie guard Justine Pissott, an Indiana Fever
developmental player, to take her place.
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