WNBA: Lynx Offseason Update: McBride, Shepard, and Carleton continue to play strong

With WNBA Free agency underway for the Minnesota Lynx and the rest of the league Minnesota is trying to reload this season with High aspirations to bring in some of the best free agents to be added to the list in 2023.

With that happening, a few of the current Lynx players continue to play outside to hone their skills to be able to hit the ground running alongside whoever is ultimately on Minnesota’s roster this summer.

A week ago, we updated you again on Kayla McBride, Jessica Shepard, and Bridget Carleton at Lynx Offseason Update Version 6 While they continue to play in Turkey, Italy and Spain.

Over the past week, McBride has bounced back, Shepherd has continued her double-double trend of late, and Carlton has delivered a pair of well-balanced performances overseas.

Let’s take a look at how the Lynx performs outdoors in Offseason Update 7.0.

Kayla McBride

Fenerbahçe – Euroleague – Istanbul, Turkey

After a bit of a production dip last week, McBride bounced back this week while playing two games for Fenerbahçe.

Since our last update, McBride has played in one Euroleague game on January 18th and one game between Turkey and KBSL on January 21st. On January 18 against Olympiacos, McBride scored 16 points, a season-high eight assists, three rebounds and two steals. Over 31 minutes in a 92-58 win. On January 21, she recorded 23 points, six rebounds, four assists, and one steal in 33 minutes during an 88-64 win over Botas Ankara.

So far this season, McBride has averaged 19.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1 steal over 29.5 minutes in 14 Turkey-KBSL games. She also averaged 16.7 points, four assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 35.3 minutes over 10 Euroleague games this offseason.

Jessica Shepherd

Umana Reyer Venezia – Italy Serie A1 / EuroCup – Venice, Italy

Over the past week, Shepherd has taken the field in one game with Omana Riere Venezia, one game between Italy and Serie A1 while continuing her double-double trend of late.

In a 79-74 loss against Sassari on January 21, Shepherd recorded 17 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, and one steal over 34 minutes. That double-double was her second in a row in a Serie A match against Italy, after she had scored double-doubles in five of her last seven matches. In both the Italian-Serie A1 championship and this off-season’s EuroCup, Shepherd has recorded nine double-doubles.

This off-season, Shepherd averaged 19.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 27.1 minutes over 14 Serie A games. She averaged 16.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 26 minutes in six EuroCup matches this year.

Bridget Carlton

Perfumerías Avenida – EuroLeague – Salamanca, Spain

Carlton is back on Earth with their Spanish club as they feature in one match between Spain and LF Endesa and one match in the Euroleague.

In the Euroleague game on January 18, Carlton had eight points, three assists, three rebounds, and two steals in 32 minutes during a 72-61 loss to Schio. On January 21, in the Spain–LF Endesa game, Carlton posted a double-digit total with 12 points, six rebounds, a season-high four steals and two assists over 26 minutes in a 75–73 win over CP Islas Canarias.

So far this offseason, Carlton has averaged 9.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.7 steals and one assist in 25.9 minutes in seven Spain-LF Endesa contests, while averaging 11.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 29.8 minutes over Five matches in the European Cup.

This will lead to this week’s release of the Lynx Offseason Update. Enjoy all of the free agency activity over the next week and we’ll see you all next week with another off-season update.