It didn’t take long for Hailey Van Lith to find a new home.
After the second-year guard was waived by the Sky in favor of signing Natasha Cloud on a one-year deal, Van Lith was claimed on waivers by the Sun, the team announced Wednesday.
With the Sun, she will be reunited with team president Jen Rizzotti, who was Van Lith’s coach on Team USA’s 3×3 basketball teams, including at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Van Lith joins several other new faces on the Sun following a booming free agency period, including 10-time All-Star Brittney Griner, ex-Liberty forward and 2024 champion Kennedy Burke, Diamond Miller and Shey Peddy.
She will also team up with fellow second-year Aaliyah Edwards, who is entering her first full season with the Sun after being acquired as a midseason trade in 2025.
Chicago’s signing of Cloud just came hours after Van Lith was released.
Interestingly, the Sky traded draft picks to the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo ahead of the expansion draft in April to prevent either team from taking any of their unprotected players, including the former TCU star.
Van Lith was drafted by the Sky as the 11th overall pick in 2025.
In her rookie season, she averaged 3.5 points on just 33 percent shooting across 12.4 minutes per game. Van Lith only participated in 29 contests as an ankle injury cut her campaign short.
Before leaving Chicago, she averaged 12.5 points and 4.5 assists while shooting 71.4 percent from the field across their two preseason games.
The Sun open their 2026 season against the Liberty at Barclays Center on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
