With spring in full swing, many are eager for the sun to maintain shining. But for basketball fans in Kingston, Ont., the Sun they\u2019re searching for is in Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Limestone City native Aaliyah Edwards is getting set for her third season of skilled basketball, her first full season with the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA.<\/p>\n
The previous Frontenac Secondary School standout was moved to the Sun before the trade deadline, after being seldom utilized by the team that drafted her sixth overall in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough stuff that I needed to undergo that,\u201d Edwards said from her hotel room in Toronto, where she is getting set to tackle the Toronto Tempo in pre-season motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the identical time, I\u2019m grateful that I went through it so early on in my profession.\u201d<\/p>\n
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She adds that league veterans have encouraged her to maintain her head up, as trades and team movement are far too common in skilled sports.<\/p>\n
But Edwards says she\u2019s not dwelling on her turbulent sophomore season and is as a substitute using it as motivation to maintain progressing as knowledgeable basketball player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like my name to be thrown across the league, and I would like to prove people fallacious,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to my third yr, obviously, I\u2019m going to be team first. But individually, I\u2019ve been working really hard to form of get back to what I do best, which is simply to dominate.\u201d<\/p>\n
During her rookie season with the Mystics in 2024, Edwards averaged 7.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game. But her production dipped in 2025, averaging 5.4 points and three.7 rebounds per game. Nonetheless, that got here in a median of seven fewer minutes per outing.<\/p>\n
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Heading into this season, Edwards says she\u2019s been told by Sun management and coaches that she\u2019ll be an integral a part of the team in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited and just embracing that role and embracing just having that responsibility and accountability,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A part of the rationale she\u2019s caught the eyes of the Sun brass is her outstanding showing during Unrivalled, the off-season 3-on-3 league, where Edwards averaged a double-double.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI used to be able to essentially show that and just perform and it really just gave me that, that joy of the game again, after having such a troublesome season with a variety of adversity thrown my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
And although Edwards will probably be more heavily relied upon in 2026, she is hoping to make use of the season to be a mentee to league veteran, Britney Griner, who signed with Connecticut within the off-season. Griner is a 3-time Olympic Gold Medalist, in addition to a former NCAA and WNBA champion.<\/p>\n
The addition to the Sun caught her off-guard, but she\u2019s excited at the chance to learn from among the best to ever play within the WNBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo form of like pick her brain and to utilize her to assist me be a greater player goes to be great for me this summer,\u201d Edwards said, before joking that it is going to be nice to not play against her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe to this present day is considered one of the hardest people I\u2019ve had to protect, just together with her size and her mobility at six-eight, like that\u2019s really unheard of on this league. So to have her on our side of the team wearing our jersey, we like to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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