Lynx get more defensive, trade for guard DiJonai Carrington

In a move geared for the stretch run, the Lynx stunned the WNBA by trading for veteran DiJonai Carrington on Sunday.

In return, the Lynx will send forward Diamond Miller, guard Karlie Samuelson and a 2027 second-round pick to the Dallas Wings.

Averaging 10.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists with the Dallas Wings this season, Carrington, 27, has emerged as one of the best defensive guards in league due to her length and tenacity.

Carrington, a second-round pick out of Baylor in 2021, was named the WNBA’s Most Improved Player last season, when she was also chosen all-defensive first team. The 5-11 guard was in her first season in Dallas after four years with the Connecticut Sun.

Carrington also has legitimate postseason experience. She appeared in the 2022 WNBA Finals with the Sun and followed that up with back-to-back semifinals appearances in 2023 and ’24.

Miller was the second overall pick in 2023 out of Maryland and made the all-rookie team that year, but she was hampered by injuries last season and saw limited action this season, averaging 4.1 points per game. She didn’t play in Saturday’s historic 53-point rout at Las Vegas, and afterward coach Cheryl Reeve told reporters that the decision was not related to injury, adding that she saw it as an opportunity to give playing time to Anastasiia Olairi Kosu.

“We don’t get to see Ola very often,” Reeve said. “... That was unfortunate, but that was our mindset.”

Carrington could see her first action with her new team when the league-best Lynx (24-5) visit Seattle on Tuesday.

Lynx All-Star forward Napheesa Collier left Saturday’s game because of a sprained right ankle but was able to walk off the floor under her own power. Reeve said Saturday that Collier needed further testing to determine the extent of the injury.

Collier, the WNBA’s leading scorer at 23.5 points per game, suffered her injury after colliding with teammate Alanna Smith late in the third quarter with the Lynx up 43 points. Asked afterward if the injury made Reeve reconsider the decision to have Collier on the floor at the time, the coach said it did not.

“No. No. I don’t think about those things,” Reeve said. “You know, it’s a third quarter of a game on someone else’s floor. I don’t think the game is over. I don’t think like that. She had a sub there and she wasn’t going to play in the fourth quarter.