The Minnesota Lynx made a pair of additions to their suddenly shorthanded roster on Tuesday morning.
Ahead of Tuesday night’s game at home against the Atlanta Dream, the Lynx officially announced they have signed forward Asia Taylor and guard Kenisha Bell.
The news comes a day after Minnesota made the announcement that Karima Christmas-Kelly, who the team signed during the offseason, would miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery on her knee after struggling to stay healthy to start the 2019 year.
With Christmas-Kelly and Lynx rookie forward Jessica Shepard (ACL) officially out for the rest of the season, along with Seimone Augustus (knee) and Damiris Dantas (calf) working their way back from injuries, Minnesota had some room to make a few additions to its roster.
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Taylor, a 28-year-old 6-foot-1 forward out of Louisville, was originally drafted by the Lynx in the third round of the 2014 WNBA Draft and played in 22 games for Minnesota during the 2014 campaign, averaging 2.7 points and 1.4 rebounds per game.
After stops in Connecticut in 2016 and Washington in 2017, Taylor most recently played in 14 games for Indiana during the 2018 season, where she averaged 1.9 points and 1.8 rebounds in 8.3 minutes per game.
Throughout her four-year WNBA career to this point, Taylor has played in 64 regular season games, holding career averages of 2.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists in various bench roles. She has also appeared in six playoff games, two with the Lynx in 2014 and four games with the Mystics in 2017.
Bell, who graduated from the University of Minnesota this spring after ranking fifth all-time in Golden Gophers history in scoring average (18.1 points per game), spent time with the Lynx earlier this season in training camp.
Bell was originally selected by Minnesota in the third round of the 2019 WNBA Draft and appeared in two games for the Lynx. During that span, the guard tallied a total of two points in four minutes off the bench.
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We’ll see just how much of an impact Taylor and Bell have on the Lynx, but at the very least the two additions will help provide some depth while Augustus and Dantas continue to get healthy and Minnesota awaits the arrivals of Cecilia Zandalasini and Temi Fagbenle — who are both finishing up overseas commitments — yet this summer.
The Lynx, who head into Tuesday tied for fifth place in the WNBA standings at 6-6 overall and winners of two of their last three games, will take on Atlanta at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at Target Center.
