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Jewell Loyd and Mark Davis. (Photo by Michael Kirschbaum) | NBAE via Getty Images
A Las Vegas Aces’ reserve is the talk of the WNBA right now.
Yet, it’s not the player who has six All-Star Game appearances, a scoring title, three rings and a 10-0 record in Finals games.
The player known as the Gold Mamba, whose illy moves made her one of the best Robins in WNBA history when she helped Batman Breanna Stewart win two championships for the Seattle Storm. The player who the Aces gave up Kelsey Plum to get, even though Plum once finished third in MVP voting and was one of the Big 4 that brought them two titles. The player who, at the time of her acquisition, was thought to be the new member of Vegas’ Big 4.
No, it’s not Jewell Loyd.
BREAKING: Kelsey Plum is being traded the Los Angeles Sparks in a multi-team deal that sends Jewell Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces, per @ShamsCharania, @ramonashelburne, @alexaphilippou, @kendra__andrews
WOWpic.twitter.com/R9ZAVifLnS
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 27, 2025
It’s Chennedy Carter, a player with no All-Star appearances and no rings who has been in and out of the league since joining in 2020. She’s stealing headlines as she puts her rumored locker room issues behind her and lives up to her talent as the No. 8 scorer in the league with 20 points per game.
Carter is basically providing what some expected out of Loyd last year when she first came over from Seattle, while Loyd slips further into the shadows. Having already averaged just 11.2 points per game in 2025 while deferring to A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray, Loyd is posting just seven points per contest through six games this year as Carter becomes another scoring option ahead of her.
The 11.2-per-game scoring average was very low by Loyd’s standard and her lowest since her rookie season of 2015. She averaged 19.7 points the year before and a league-best 24.7 two years prior. Her career average of 16.1 is weighed down by all the years she played with the then-best No. 1 scoring option in the world (outside of maybe Elena Delle Donne) in Stewart.
Her fit in Vegas was called into question when the Aces got off to their slow start in 2025. As it turned out, they won the championship, with Loyd scoring 18 points in Game 1 of the Finals and 16 in Game 3. For the series, she averaged 13.8 points and shot 13-for-29 (44.8 percent) from 3. She wasn’t a superstar, but by that point, that wasn’t the expectation.
She lifted her reputation from bad fit to key X factor and, ultimately, the ultimate winner, considering she now had three chips and the still-perfect Finals record.
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So any complaining about Loyd’s production, or lack thereof, stopped. And it’s not coming back—not from the fans or the organization, as long as the Aces keep stacking championships.
It’s likely not coming from Loyd either as long as her team keeps winning. All indications are that she loves the fit with the Aces despite her lesser role. She said as much in the press release upon re-signing for 2026, which ended being for three years at $800,000 this season and $880,000 by the end of the deal in 2028.
That’s comfortably below the max of $1,190,000, which a lot of lesser players ended up getting. Our editor-in-chief, Cat Ariail, talked about how it was kind of fuzzy who got paid more and less this year under the new CBA, but, in this case, Loyd understood why she was taking less—to win and because her role is no longer at the same level as her talent.
In a 2022 postgame press conference, Loyd demonstrated she fully understands that money should only be doled out when it’s deserved. She was then on a supermax deal with the Storm and said:
That was stated like someone who doesn’t take anything for granted and truly understands responsibility. It also sounds like someone who wants to be a star. But we’ve learned in the last year and change that she can live without the stardom. Meanwhile, the responsibility never changes.
Loyd, and her fans, are adjusting to a new, different Gold Mamba experience
Through six games last year, Loyd was averaging just 10.2 points, but already had a 20-piece. Her current season-high is only 11 points. Last year, she went on to score 20-plus seven times, with a season-high of 27 points. She’s completely capable of having some moments like that this season, but all indications are that she won’t be a consistent superstar again, at least not in Vegas while the Aces are structured like they are with Wilson, Young and Gray as the core.
In a different situation, I wouldn’t put it past Loyd to put up scoring averages in the mid- to high-teens in her late 30s like Diana Taurasi did, especially guards tend to have better longevity than posts in the WNBA. But, for now, we’re watching a 32-year-old player whose prime may fizzle out in single digits.
Loyd is an entertaining player, so it’s fitting that she shone amid the flash and pizazz of the All-Star Game, winning MVP in 2023 after hitting a WNBA-record-for-any-game 10 combined 3s and 4s.
Is it sad that she missed the All-Star Game last year and will likely miss it again after six-straight appearances? Is it sad that she’s no longer competing for scoring titles or dominating headlines?
To a certain extent, yes. Especially for the diehard fans of the Gold Mamba experience.
But she has the chance to continue to solidify her legacy as the ultimate winner.
According to StatMuse, her 10 wins without a loss in the Finals is a record for the WNBA or NBA. It’s four higher than the next-highest W player (Jordin Canada, who was part of the same two Seattle sweeps as Loyd). The NBA doesn’t have anyone with more than four.
What makes it more impressive is that Loyd contributed to all three series wins in a big way. She’s averaging 23 points in Finals Game 1s and 15.2 across all games. Plus 5.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 47.6 percent from the field and 35.2 percent from 3.
Also, it’s telling that her 27-point game last year came the game after the infamous 53-point loss to the Minnesota Lynx in what was the first win of the ensuing 17-game winning streak that turned everything around. She led Vegas in scoring in that game and was 7-for-11 from 3, as the Aces defeated a pretty good Golden State Valkyries team by 24.
Talk about a response.
She’ll always be a mamba, with that killer instinct and clutch gene. And the skill set and the moves don’t change. We still get to witness them. So we’ll accept that the scoring volume has decreased and hope that Jewell is happy, which she seems to be.
As they say in the Davis family, “Just win!”
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