Why Kelsey Plum believes this is the Sparks’ year to win big

On a uncommon off day in Los Angeles, Sparks guard Kelsey Plum settles right into a quieter rhythm. She brings a ebook to a canine park close to her house, finds a spot, and reads. But even right here, the stillness is partial at greatest. Her thoughts retains working, circling the similar query that has adopted her by each stage of her profession. What does greatness really require?

Right now, Plum is studying “The Talent Code“, a book that digs into the tension between nature and nurture. It’s not exactly light reading for a day off, but then again, she isn’t really wired for days off.

“Talent,” she says, “takes countless hours of practice. Sure, you have some natural ability, but you have to train it. You look at like a Russian tennis player, why are they good? Is it random? The similarity with greatness is practical.”

That idea, practice as the great equalizer, shapes how Plum sees her career now, in a moment that demands more from her than ever before.

In the week before the WNBA season, she’s no longer in the calm of the park but inside the controlled chaos of midday at El Camino College’s gym. Between photo shoots, she sits on a green room couch in a makeshift makeup area, the morning already filled with obligations: a news conference, cameras, questions about what comes next. Beside her earlier was Ariel Atkinsone of the veterans she helped bring to Los Angeles, a signal that this next chapter is meant to be different.

“Have you ever driven a really expensive car, but didn’t have good insurance?” Plum requested. “When you’ve got nice protection, you may loosen up slightly bit. That’s what it appears like now, there’s so many individuals paddling on the boat with me.”

That sense of shared momentum didn’t come immediately. Not long ago, there was doubt.

Until a few weeks ago, Plum wasn’t entirely sure she had made the right decision to join the Sparks. After being traded from the Aces in 2025, she knew she wanted more responsibility, more ownership and the chance to be the face of a team. But belief in a vision is one thing; living through the roughest stretches of the transformation is another.

The Sparks went 21-23 last season, finishing two wins short of reaching the postseason. There were flashes, particularly late in the year when Cameron Brinkthe No. 2 overall pick in 2024, returned from injury. Still, the result was familiar in LA: another year without a playoff berth.

For a player like Plum, that kind of outcome lingers.

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum feared she might have made a mistake during some difficult moments early in her tenure in LA, but free agents’ decision to join her boosted her confidence.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

“I don’t think that last year I realized how big of a decision I made,” she said. “Obviously there is a you do not perceive the gravity of it till you are in it. I feel when Nneka [Ogwumike] signed this yearI used to be like, ‘OK, I’m not loopy. They’re seeing the imaginative and prescient I’m seeing.’”

That validation mattered. It reframed the threat as one thing shared.

The Sparks leaned into the course Plum believed in throughout the offseason. Some of that got here instantly from her affect and a few of it got here from the instance she set.

“KP came here because she wanted to test herself on how she impacts winning,” stated Sparks common supervisor Raegan Pebley. “And there’s a lot of things that go into impacting winning. It’s on the [score]board, but it’s also, are you a leader? Can you influence other people to come along with you? And she’s been able to do that. “She’s been a great, great person to partner with.”

Plum understands that distinction well. She’s been on championship teams before with back-to-back titles in Las Vegas in 2022 and 2023, but this is different. In Los Angeles, she’s helping defines what the organization will become.

The franchise hasn’t reached the postseason since 2020, the longest active drought in the WNBA. For a team in a major market, the absence has been noticeableeven as individual pieces hinted at potential.

Plum, in her first season away from the franchise that drafted her No. 1 overall in 2017 after her record-setting run at Washington, produced immediately: 19.5 points and 5.7 assists per game. But numbers alone weren’t the point.

“I felt like I can be the connector,” she said. “When you are a part of a championship tradition, you get to see what goes into it. And it is far more than simply basketball. It’s like the enterprise, the operations of all of it. They all work collectively. Obviously, what Mark Davis has executed is large in Las Vegas, and actually investing in that workforce. So, yeah, coming right here positively, I discovered much more than basketball, proper? About what goes into constructing a championship workforce, a roster, what goes into investing in gamers and making it really feel like a vacation spot the place gamers are like, ‘Ooh, I need to go play there.’”

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum accepted a decrease wage in order that the workforce may pursue key free brokers able to serving to win a championship.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

That perspective formed her selections this offseason in tangible methods. Despite being eligible for a $1.4 million supermax contract after her core designation, Plum selected to signal at a decrease quantity, giving the Sparks flexibility to construct round her.

They used that house to add Ogwumike and Erica Wheelerwhereas nonetheless leaving $1,468,650 in cap house for a possible in-season transfer. They additionally traded for Atkins from Chicago, beginning with 2024 first-round decide Rickea Jackson to ease the stress in the backcourt.

“I want to really help transform an organization,” Plum stated. “As a player, you don’t really know how good you are, or how much you can handle, capacity wise, until put in a situation that’s maybe a little over your head.”

Belief, in this case, turned contagious. Plum helped recruit Wheeler. Ogwumike, already conversant in the franchise, pointed to broader adjustments as a part of her determination to return.

With key items in play, Sparks guard Kelsey Plum stated the workforce should embrace excessive expectations. “We’re no longer the cute, young tadpole team,” she stated. “We have to win.”

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

“The last couple years have strategically been very, very focused with our ownership and improving the player experience,” Pebley stated. “We’ve got a practical facility that is being built. … Players are experiencing a much more consistent and high level, just player experience. And I think they can now look at their peers eye to eye and say, ‘This is where you need to be. you’re going to be treated really well here.’”

All of it builds towards a easy, unavoidable fact: this model of the Sparks cannot afford to stay in potential.

Plum’s legacy in Los Angeles will hinge on whether or not this reset turns into a turning level or simply one other chapter in a protracted rebuild. The expectations have shifted, internally and externally.

“Last year was tough,” Plum stated. “We were right there at the end. But I think this year is different. Obviously, with all the free agency acquisitions, this is very exciting. We’re no longer the cute, young tadpole team. We have to win.”