Allyce Jones competing for the Bay Area Breakers at MLP Las Vegas in 2024.
Allyce Jones competing for the Bay Area Breakers at MLP Las Vegas in 2024. Major League Pickleball

MLP Trade: Jones to Black Diamonds, Truong to Breakers

The flurry of preseason Major League Pickleball trades continued Tuesday, with the league announcing a deal between the Premier level’s Utah Black Diamonds and the Challenger level’s Bay Area Breakers.

 

Here are the details:

Let’s get into how these moves impact each team’s roster.

Breaking things down

Utah: Connor Garnett, Tyler Loong, Yates Johnson, Mehvish Safdar, Allyce Jones, Genie Erokhina

This is an interesting move for Utah. Truong is coming off an impressive week in Texas where she made it to the mixed doubles semifinals alongside Eric Oncins, so the timing is a little suspect.

Jones is, of course, deserving of a starting spot on a Premier level roster. She consistently makes deep runs—especially in women’s doubles—and is as steady as anyone on the right side.

She—like Truong—has had success playing mixed doubles with Connor Garnett, so I would expect them to play together again once the MLP season begins.

Connor Garnett and Allyce Jones competing at the Pickleball Central USA Indoor Championships in 2024.
Connor Garnett and Allyce Jones competing at the Pickleball Central USA Indoor Championships in 2024. PPA Tour

Women’s doubles, at least for now, will remain a big question mark for the Black Diamonds. They took collegiate pickleball star Mehvish Safdar thirteenth overall in the free agency draft, which sets her up to play the left side with Jones.

By that logic, she would also most likely play the left alongside the lefty Tyler Loong in mixed doubles.

If Safdar doesn’t work out, Utah also has Genie Erokhina in one of its bench spots and could turn to her as a left-side player if needed.

Bay Area: Eric Roddy, DJ Young, Alix Truong, Danna Funaro

Bay Area has been the busiest team in the trade market since the free agency drafts concluded a few weeks ago.

The Breakers have made three trades, adding Funaro, Young, and Truong to complement Roddy, who was the first overall pick in the Challenger level draft.

Truong and Young bring with them valuable MLP experience, while both Funaro and Roddy will be making their MLP debuts in 2025.

We’ll see if Bay Area continues to modify its roster as the season-opening event in Orlando (scheduled for Apr. 24-27) fast approaches.