Chennedy Carter continued to allude to her frustration with the Atlanta Dream on Sunday. The team suspended the second-year guard indefinitely in July following a verbal altercation in the locker room after a game against the Las Vegas Aces.

The Dream have not given any indication of their plans with Carter, whom they drafted fourth overall in 2020. The sides had reportedly been in contact throughout Carter’s suspension.

Atlanta went 2-13 in Carter’s absence and finished the season in second-to-last place, missing out on the WNBA playoffs for the third straight season. Before her suspension, the 22-year-old averaged 14.2 points and 3.3 assists in 11 games for the Dream.

Carter broke her silence at the end of the season, tweeting, “They play big dawg until it’s actually time to be one.”

Chennedy Carter hasn’t played with the Atlanta Dream since July, staying relatively quiet during her time away from the team.

That changed on Sunday as Atlanta finished out their regular season without Carter, falling to the Connecticut Sun 84-64. Following the Dream’s thumping, Carter took to Twitter, publishing a cryptic Tweet after weeks of social media silence.

The timing of the post feels significant, with Atlanta’s rocky season concluding within minutes of the Tweet.

Carter has been away from the team since her July suspension from the Dream following a verbal altercation in the locker room during a game against the Las Vegas Aces.

Atlanta has yet to comment definitively on Carter’s long-term future with the team.

Two months have passed since the Atlanta Dream suspended Chennedy Carter, and with only a handful of games left on the schedule, she looks unlikely to return to the team this season.

The second-year guard was suspended from the Dream following a verbal altercation during the team’s July matchup against the Aces.

Carter has not taken the court with Atlanta since the incident, and according to reporting from Spencer Nusbaum published on Aug. 18 in The Next, the team is planning to finish out the remainder of the season without her.

According to Nusbaum, Carter’s return is contingent upon “meeting several conditions” set by the Dream’s front office. The team and Carter are said to have remained in contact throughout the suspension.

Atlanta has struggled without Carter on the court, with the second-year guard putting up 14.2 points per game and 3.3 assists per game this season before her suspension. The team was 6-11 with Carter on the court and have since fallen to last in the WNBA standings off an 11-game losing streak.

The Atlanta Dream will take on the Dallas Wings on Sunday with the hopes of ending their double-digit slide.

Atlanta Dream owner Renee Montgomery stopped by the latest episode of Tea with A & Phee to talk about her journey from WNBA player to owner, and what it means to be making history with the Dream.

About 24 minutes in, Montgomery alluded to the Dream’s recent suspension of Chennedy Carter. The former WNBA guard said the team was in “figuring it out mode” after Carter was disciplined for reportedly arguing with teammate Courtney Williams. Montgomery said her experience as an athlete has been helpful in addressing the situation.

“Athletes are equipped for this. Like, we’re made for this,” she said. “Everybody knows we have different things going on with our team, the Atlanta Dream, right now. But for me, I’ve been in the locker room before so I’m not panicking, I’m not too concerned. I’ve been here. I know what it’s like.”

Montgomery suggested they’re having internal discussions about Carter, the Dream’s fourth overall draft pick in 2020 who’s already made an impact for them on the court.

“I’m like, ‘Yeah, all right, everybody get off the internet. Let’s stop talking about it on social (media) and let’s just all figure this out,’ because it’s a family,” she said. “As a family, you argue. As a family, you figure it out. We’re in the ‘figuring it out’ mode.”

The Dream suspended second-year guard Chennedy Carter earlier this week after she stayed in the locker room for the second half of the team’s game against the Aces on Sunday, sparking widespread speculation.

Reporting from Spencer Nusbaum published in The Next provides important context into the events leading up to Carter’s early exit from Sunday’s match and the resulting suspension.

According to the report, Dream guard Courtney Williams implored Carter in the first quarter to get more engaged in the game and cheer for her teammates from the bench. An argument ensued between the two teammates, and Carter did not re-enter the game after the opening quarter.

Following the game, Carter approached Williams about playing time and suggested she wanted to fight her teammate, sources told Nusbaum. Williams, who reportedly got into an altercation in 2018 with then-Sun teammate Alex Bentley, made it clear she didn’t want to fight and removed herself from the situation.

While no physical altercation occurred, Atlanta announced on Monday that Carter would be suspended indefinitely for “conduct detrimental to the team.”

Carter’s clash with Williams is part of a broader pattern, Nusbaum reports.

Carter’s negative impact on the locker room could affect her long-term future in Atlanta, but according to Nusbaum, the team is still optimistic that relationships can be mended.

To date, Dream ownership has made no moves to trade Carter, their fourth overall draft pick in 2020. The Dream are operating without a general manager after Chris Sienko was fired in April, and interim coach Mike Petersen — who took over in preseason after Nicki Collen departed for Baylor — has said he does not intend on keeping the head coaching job.

The Atlanta Dream have suspended guard Chennedy Carter until further notice for what they said was “conduct detrimental to the team.”

Carter started the Dream’s game against the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday, a 118-95 loss, but went to the bench after five minutes and 34 seconds and did not return. Coach Mike Petersen said after the game that Carter’s absence was not injury-related but rather something they were “dealing with” as a team.

Dream co-owner Renee Montgomery and teammate Courtney Williams commented on the situation on Twitter.

The No. 4 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, Carter averaged 17.4 points and 3.4 assists during her rookie season in the bubble, becoming the youngest player in league history to score at least 30 points in a game. 

This season, Carter has averaged 14.2 points and 3.3 assists through 11 of the Dream’s 17 games. She missed nearly a month with an elbow injury she suffered on May 29.

The Dream next play at Connecticut in a doubleheader on Friday and Sunday before the Olympic break.

The Atlanta Dream got their first win of the season Friday night on the road against the Indiana Fever.

The game remained close until the final minutes, when a fourth-quarter burst from Chennedy Carter pushed the Dream to an 83-79 win.

Carter dropped a season-high 23 points Friday night, shooting 53 percent from the field. Last season, Carter scored in double digits 13 times and averaged 17.4 points per game, putting her in the Rookie of the Year conversation.

If Carter can keep pace with her 2020 numbers and play to the level she did against the Fever, Atlanta’s offense will become its biggest weapon as it tries to make the playoffs for the first time since 2018.

The Fever (0-4) will look for their first victory against the Mystics on Sunday. The Dream will stay on the road to face the Chicago Sky on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, it was Vote Warnock and Vote Carter. The Atlanta Dream — and numerous other teams — made a statement with their t-shirts. Chennedy Carter made a statement with her play.

In just her fifth game in the league, Carter came away with a career-high 26 points. A score-first guard from her three years at Texas A&M, where she averaged over 19 field goal attempts per game, Carter has reached double digits in all five of her WNBA games. This time, however, she also knocked down 11-of-21 shots, marking her second straight game shooting above 50%.

Heading into the game, the rookie had the second highest usage rate in the league — 31.6% — and she only saw that number increase. Down the stretch in a tight game, Carter was the go-to option for the Dream. Going right at Diana Taurasi with under five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Carter went high off the glass unfazed. About two minutes later, she coolly answered Taurasi’s 3-pointer with one of her own.

Carter’s game looked smooth and clean. It is clear that she has improved, even from her final college game in March. The end result is a rookie who’s making it look unusually easy.

In her first professional game, Carter dropped 18 points, with 8 assists and 5 rebounds — and the Dream won. Although Carter has not reached that number of assists since, she still has the eighth most among all players, including four against Phoenix.

And even with the eighth most field goal attempts in the WNBA, Carter still ranks 34th in the league in efficiency, though granted it’s a small sample size.

Carter’s name was mentioned in the now-infamous Instagram Live “A Touch More” episode in which Taurasi and Sue Bird debated which rookie would have the best career. Carter’s Tuesday rival, Taurasi, chose Sabrina Ionescu. On the other hand, Bird picked the No. 4 draft pick — Carter.

Ionescu will miss significant time with a sprain of her left ankle. Before her injury, Ionescu was the only rookie averaging more points per game than Carter. Compared to the entire league, Carter’s 17.4 point per game stacks up at 11th. And while she likely won’t get a chance to match up with Ionescu again, Carter’s play so far has proven the league has a lot to look forward to as the 2020 draft class continues to grow.

In the end, Atlanta wasn’t able to pull out the win against a Phoenix team. While expected for a young team with almost all new faces, 23 turnovers was too much to overcome. Carter committed five of those turnovers, which surprisingly did not even lead the team — Elizabeth Williams had six.

Still, things are looking up. Coming off an eight-win season, the Dream already have their first two of 2020. The ceiling for this team is wherever Carter will take them. As such, fans might want to buckle up now, because this rookie looks ready for lift-off.