August 24, 2020
What Kaela Davis brings to the Atlanta Dream
Atlanta signed Davis, waived Alexis Jones
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The Atlanta Dream have signed Kaela Davis to a seven-day contract and waived Alexis Jones, the team announced Monday.
Jones came to the Dream in the offseason after being claimed on waivers and appeared in six games this season. In her most recent outing on August 16, Jones played just three minutes off the bench and scored just two points.
Atlanta signed Jones to provide guard depth before adding Betnijah Laney after Tiffany Hayes and Renee Montgomery both opted out of the season. Jones was coming off a knee injury at the end of last season and subsequent surgery, which could’ve contributed to her looking a bit unsettled with the Dream thus far this year.
And as Laney has become a star and a candidate for the most improved player in the league — in addition to Blake Dietrick’s performance while backing up Chennedy Carter — Jones’ role diminished. She did not play in Atlanta’s three most recent games.
Davis is expected to join the team later this week after going through quarantine protocols at IMG Academy. In her three-year WNBA career, Davis has played 92 games for the Dallas Wings and started 22. Last season, she tied her career high of 33 games played and started a career-high 16 of them.
With the Wings in 2019, Davis averaged 17.2 minutes per game with 6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists. At 6’2, she’ll add size, athleticism and versatility to the Dream as they continue to battle through the 2020 campaign.
Davis’ size and versatility will be particularly important as players like Glory Johnson and Monique Billings have had up-and-down seasons so far with the Dream. Johnson had a breakout game against Los Angeles with a season-high 23 points on Friday, and Billings has looked more settled lately with two double-doubles in Atlanta’s last three games.
But neither Billings nor Johnson has been overly consistent, and a versatile talent with WNBA experience is never a bad thing to add to a team. It remains to be seen how much Davis will play or even when she’ll be able to join the team after clearing quarantine, but she should add depth and size to a team that could always use both of those attributes.
