Hailey Van Lith waived for second time in May as Sun part ways with second-year guard after just 9 games

The Connecticut Sun announced Thursday that they’ve waived Hailey Van Lith. The second-year guard averaged 8.1 points and 2.2 assists per contest in nine games with the Sun, who claimed her off waivers earlier this month after the Chicago Sky moved on from the college star and Olympic 3×3 bronze medalist.

While the Sun parted ways with Van Lith, they activated Leïla Lacan. A French guard, Lacan was on a contract suspension due to overseas obligations, but now she’s back from the 2026 La Boulangère Wonderligue, where she won a title with Basket Landes and earned Finals MVP honors along the way.

Lacan is expected to make her season debut on Saturday against the Los Angeles Sparks, according to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou and Kendra Andrews.

As for Van Lith, she’s now been waived twice in a month.

The Sky drafted Van Lith 11th overall last year. She was coming off a stellar campaign at TCU. Before that, she played at LSU and Louisville.

At Louisville in 2022-23, she averaged a career-high 19.7 points per game. When starring for TCU in 2024-25, Van Lith logged, at the time, the most points (680) and assists (204) a Horned Frogs women’s basketball player had ever notched in one season, picking up Big 12 Player of the Year accolades and guiding the program to its first Elite Eight appearance.

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Last season with the Sky, Van Lith reunited with LSU teammate Angel Reese. Chicago traded Reese to the Atlanta Dream this offseason as part of an overhaul that ultimately included saying goodbye to Van Lith, too. In other words, the Sky pivoted from a first-round pick from their 2024 draft class and a first-round pick from their 2025 draft class after finishing a meager 10-34 last year.

The Sky’s decision to waive Van Lith was based on the coaching staff’s “style-of-play preference,” Andrews reported on May 4.

Van Lith then joined a Connecticut team littered with youth. She got a chance to showcase her development. The 5-foot-9 Van Lith improved her numbers across the board after limited success as a rookie in Chicago, where she dealt with an ankle injury.

She shot an efficient 49.2% from the field, including 47.1% from deep. Granted the rebuilding Sun are 1-8, but Van Lith came into Thursday ranked second on the team in field goals (30) and tied for second in 3-pointers (eight) — and that’s despite her starting only three of the nine games she played in.

Van Lith averaged 17.6 minutes per outing and tallied nine-plus points each of her first five games with Connecticut. That said, she went scoreless in the Sun’s lone victory this season, a May 20 win over the Seattle Storm.

Her brief stay in Connecticut is over, but, according to Philippou and Andrews, Van Lith is grateful for the transparency and the opportunity the Sun offered her.

Van Lith’s hunt for a more permanent home in the W continues.