Tiffany Hayes Retires from the WNBA: Celebrating Her Career & What This Means for the Sun

Every now and then, despite being as tapped in as you can possibly be, you get hit with one of those "what on earth?" kind of revelatory moments or pieces of information. Seeing Khristina Williams' post that Connecticut Sun guard, Tiffany Hayes, had announced her retirement from the WNBA via podcast meets that criteria!

Hayes joined the Counted Me Out podcast to share her decision and announce her intent to focus on entrepreneurship and opening up her summers to spend time with family. She intends to still play overseas.

Hayes, 34, starred at the University of Connecticut, winning back to back National Titles with the Huskies before being selected 14th overall in the 2012 WNBA Draft by the Atlanta Dream. It's safe to say that if the 2012 Draft class were selected in hindsight, Hayes would undoubtedly go 2nd overall behind Nneka Ogwumike given her impact, longevity, and the peak of her career.

She was All-Rookie in 2012, named an All-Star in 2017, All-WNBA First Team in 2018, and finished 6th in MVP voting during that 2018 season.

One of the premier slashers in basketball, Hayes set the standard for two way play with her three level scoring, playmaking off the dribble, and defensive dynamism. While injuries hampered her final few seasons in Atlanta, where she spent the first 10 seasons of her pro career, she enjoyed a renaissance campaign this past summer with the Connecticut Sun. Hayes had one of the most efficient seasons of her career and played a pivotal part on Connecticut's run to the WNBA Semifinals, where they pushed the New York Liberty to 4 games in a tightly contested series in spite of key injuries to their roster again.

She deserves her flowers and then some for the body of work she put together in the WNBA, as well as a highly successful career overseas. Hayes was playing basketball that was even better than her box score suggests, and seemed primed to continue playing productive ball as a plus starter for the next few seasons. It's worth noting, as Hayes mentions on the podcast, how difficult it is to keep in constant condition year round as you get deeper into your 30's.

Hayes will be missed from the WNBA, one of my favorite players to watch, but if she's happy and feels right leaving, we should have nothing but joy for her!

Impact on the Sun

Connecticut is in an incredibly interesting spot headed deeper into the off-season and towards free agency and the draft. The Sun have all their own picks in this coming draft, including the 10th overall pick in the first round. 

The salary cap for the 2024 season is set to be $1,463,200 per Her Hoop Stats: The Sun have $296,469 culminated in Protected contracts, with Alyssa Thomas set to enter the final year of her Protected veteran deal ($218k) and DiJonai Carrington entering the final year of her rookie-scale contract, which is protected ($78.5k).

The Sun have just over $650,000 in total salaries for the coming year, including unprotected contracts:

• Natisha Hiedeman is entering the final year of her contract ($120k)
• Ty Harris ($97.1k)
• Olivia Nelson-Ododa ($71.1k)
• Leigha Brown ($66.6k)

DeWanna Bonner, Brionna Jones, and Rebecca Allen are all unrestricted free agents.

Hayes was set to be an unrestricted free agent this off-season after making roughly $163k in 2023.

While the Sun have a lot of cap space at the moment, I'd anticipate them looking to re-sign all three of their UFA's. Say they all sign, and that proposed cap space looks very different, and if the Sun want to keep building upon what they've done, re-signing all three is fairly imperative. Add on top of that that to me, Hayes is one of the hardest players to replace on the roster outside of Alyssa Thomas.

Tip was essential to creating easier looks and putting pressure on the rim in the halfcourt for the Sun. They've lacked a true guard who can get downhill, initiate sets, create for themselves and others, and be effective off the ball. That is one of the hardest player archetypes/molds to find in the WNBA, particularly on a non-max contract.

Can the Sun find an impact player with the 10th pick? That's not out of the realm of possibility with this draft class, as there is some depth to it. However, it would be unreasonable to expect them to come close to Hayes' impact as a rookie.

This is not a particularly strong free agency class either, as most of the marquee players signed extensions during the season. While there are impact free agents, again, it is hard to find the exact balance of fit, talent, and skill set that Hayes brought.

As the Sun look to retool around their core to try and join that upper crust with Las Vegas and New York, Hayes' retirement adds another level of nuance to how the team builds moving forwards.