Elena Delle Donne will take a break from basketball & NBA trade deadline updates

The GIST: While the defending champ Las Vegas Aces are running it back after re-signing Candace Parker to a one-year deal on Wednesday, the rest of the pro hoops scene is about to look pretty different amid stunning WNBA and NBA news.

Elena Delle Donne will take a break from basketball: The two-time MVP and highly coveted free agent has decided to take time away from the game and not sign the one-year supermax deal her current team, the Washington Mystics, offered her. EDD led the ’Stics to their only title in 2019 and has seven career All-Star appearances but has struggled with injury in recent years.

• Delle Donne missed the entire 2020 season due to health concerns and has overcome multiple back surgeries across her nine-year W career. Wishing her nothing but the best.

Toronto Raptors active at NBA trade deadline: The Dinos are collecting Canadians like infinity stones, adding British Columbia product and former Utah Jazz player Kelly Olynyk to a roster that already features Torontonian R.J. Barrett and Montréal’s Chris Boucher. Oh, Canada indeed.

• As for the rest of the league, most of the big names on the trade block stayed put, but yesterday’s deadline did see some sharpshooters and difference makers swapping jerseys.

• The surging NY Knicks made quite the splash, picking up double-digit scores Bojan Bogdanović and Alec Burks from the Detroit Pistons while the Western Conference–leading Oklahoma City “how did they get there?” Thunder gained three-point specialist Gordon Hayward from the Charlotte Hornets. Let the playoff push begin.