10 biggest questions for WNBA offseason: Liberty repeat? Clark encore? Taurasi retirement?
Credit to Author: Michael Voepel and Alexa Philippou| Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2024 15:40:55 EST
The 2024 WNBA season is over. Next season is seven months away.
But there’s a lot to digest before then.
The WNBA players’ union announced Monday that the players voted to opt out early from their current collective bargaining agreement with the league. The WNBA and the union have until October 2025 to strike a new deal.
The draft lottery will be held Nov. 17, with the Los Angeles Sparks, Dallas Wings, Chicago Sky and Washington Mystics in contention for the No. 1 pick. And the expansion draft for the Golden State Valkyries is set for Dec. 6.
A new women’s basketball league, Unrivaled, will feature 30 players in a 3-on-3 format held entirely in Miami starting Jan. 17.
And in February, WNBA free agency will begin. Although, with a new CBA on the way for 2026, most players aren’t expected to do long-term deals.
The 2025 season will expand to 44 regular-season games, with changes made to the playoffs, as well, including a best-of-seven WNBA Finals.
ESPN answers the 10 burning questions ahead of the 2025 season.
The New York Liberty appeared in back-to-back Finals for the first time since 1999 and 2000, falling in 2023 to the Las Vegas Aces but winning it all Sunday in a memorable Finals against the Minnesota Lynx.
Liberty fans have even more reason to continue celebrating, because nearly all of New York’s core players are expected to return. Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot are free agents, but Stewart has said she won’t be going anywhere. Vandersloot saw a reduced role toward the second half of the season, so her future is more uncertain.
Still, running it back with Stewart, Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, all-WNBA selection Sabrina Ionescu, All-Star Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, rookie standout Leonie Fiebich and Finals Game 5 star Nyara Sabally seems like a pretty good recipe for success. New York looks to join the Aces as the only teams to repeat since the league’s first six years. — Philippou
Napheesa Collier was runner-up this season to Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson, but there was nobody better than the Lynx forward in the playoffs. Collier averaged 23.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists in the postseason. She consistently has multiple sequences in games defending more than one top player, showing why she was Defensive Player of the Year.
Collier turned 28 in September. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve made a point during the playoffs to reiterate what she said during the regular season: Collier should be considered in the top tier of WNBA players along with the likes of Wilson and Stewart. Few would argue that after the season Collier had. — Voepel
Yes, especially when you consider it wasn’t that bad of a season overall. The Aces weren’t dominant in 2024 like they were in 2023, when they had just six losses in the regular season. But that is a high bar for comparison. This year’s Aces didn’t have Chelsea Gray until June 19 (foot injury), didn’t defend consistently and didn’t shoot as efficiently.
Coach Becky Hammon also noted the Aces weren’t always as locked in as they were in 2022 and 2023, and didn’t have the same hunger. She attributed that in part to human nature, and the fact that other teams wanted to take down the Aces.
We will wait to see if guard Kelsey Plum — the one member of the Aces’ core four who is an unrestricted free agent — returns. She has been a big part of Las Vegas’ success. The Aces need another scoring threat inside, too. — Voepel
A month from now, we’ll know which team owns the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft, as the draft lottery will take place Nov. 17 (5 p.m. ET, ESPN). The 2020-21 national player of the year, Paige Bueckers of UConn, is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the April 14 draft.
The four teams that missed the playoffs — Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and Washington — will appear in the lottery. Based on the cumulative two-year records, the Sparks have the best individual chance of getting the top pick (44.2%), but the Wings’ odds are effectively a combined 45.4%, because they have their own pick plus they can swap picks with Chicago thanks to a pick swap they acquired when they traded Marina Mabrey in 2023. The Mystics have only a 10.4% chance. — Philippou
Indiana’s Caitlin Clark, Chicago’s Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, and Los Angeles’ Rickea Jackson, all of whom came out of college to April’s draft, were named to the WNBA all-rookie team.
The fifth, Fiebich, started her pro career in her native Germany at age 16 in 2016. She was drafted into the WNBA in 2020 by the Sparks, but she didn’t play until this year with the Liberty. She had 13 points and seven rebounds in the clinching Game 5 Sunday. Fiebich, 24, is expected to become even more of an impact player next year.
Clark had a spectacular season, and the Fever got back into the playoffs for the first time since 2016. She quickly proved she could compete at the next level and will return after getting some rest and time away from basketball this offseason.
Reese and Cardoso had some really good minutes together on court, and now we wait to see who will be their next coach. Jackson is in the same situation.
The No. 2 draft pick, Cameron Brink, played 15 games before a season-ending knee injury in June. There will be a lot of anticipation to see Brink and Jackson playing together next season, potentially with Bueckers delivering them the ball.
It felt like we witnessed the final games of Diana Taurasi’s career when the Phoenix Mercury were swept out of the first round of the WNBA playoffs. Taurasi hasn’t publicly announced a decision, and perhaps she’ll take some time to make up her mind. But the Mercury will likely want to know soon for planning purposes, especially with the expansion draft coming up and then free agency not too far behind.
Brittney Griner is an unrestricted free agent, but veterans Kahleah Copper, Natasha Cloud, Rebecca Allen and Natasha Cloud are all under contract for 2025. If Taurasi retires, who else can general manager Nick U’Ren and coach Nate Tibbetts recruit to round out the core? And can the Mercury emerge as the superteam some thought they were capable of being last year before a meager 19-21 regular season? — Philippou
The Connecticut Sun have been the bastion of consistency in the league, with six consecutive semifinal appearances. But throughout that stretch, which included 2019 and 2022 Finals appearances, they haven’t broken through for a title. This season ended with a semifinal loss in five games to the Lynx.
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Don’t be shocked if the 2025 Sun look much different than the 2024 team. In Stephanie White’s second year, the team didn’t shy away from talking about its championship window closing. Most of the team will become free agents heading into 2025, most prominently including unrestricted free agents DeWanna Bonner, Brionna Jones and Alyssa Thomas (Thomas, the franchise’s longest-tenured player, is the only one who can be cored).
Even White was recently asked about her future with the team, although she disclosed that she’s currently dealing with a family emergency and her focus is there at the moment. — Philippou
Four teams — the Sparks, Dream, Wings and Sky — fired their head coaches after the season. They aren’t the only ones in the market for new coaches: Golden State hired Becky Hammon’s top assistant, Natalie Nakase, and Toronto and Portland will eventually be hiring, too.
Sparks and Sky management will want to find coaches who can guide young talent in Brink, Jackson, Reese and Cardoso. The Wings and Dream are recent playoff teams that have struggled with consistency and in taking the next step as a franchise. L.A. and Dallas also both have the best chances of earning the No. 1 pick and being tasked with developing an emerging franchise player.
Will Curt Miller (Sparks), Teresa Weatherspoon (Sky), Tanisha Wright (Dream) or Latricia Trammell (Wings) get chances to coach elsewhere? Will well-respected assistants like Katie Smith, Kristi Toliver or Tyler Marsh get looks? — Philippou
The Golden State Valkyries’ expansion draft is Dec. 6. Each existing WNBA team can protect a maximum of six players who won’t be eligible to be drafted. Teams will have to submit their lists approximately 10 days before the expansion draft, but most of the teams are likely prepared now to name their protected players.
The Valkyries will be targeting players who can hit the ground running, so it’s likely some other WNBA teams will lose veterans that have helped stabilize their benches. And young players who haven’t gotten a lot of playing time might welcome the chance to go elsewhere for more on-court opportunities.
The last expansion draft was in 2008, for the Atlanta Dream. They picked 13 players and also made three trades right away. The Dream went 4-30 in their first season, but then made the playoffs six years in a row, advancing to the WNBA Finals three times in that stretch. — Voepel
Next season’s WNBA Finals will be best-of-seven — two games at the higher seed, two at the lower, and then alternating 1-1-1. It means the season will be a little longer. It will be more challenging in years when the FIBA World Cup is held after the season, because of how many games will need to be compressed into a shorter period of time.
Fatigue can be another issue in a seven-game series, and it seemed to affect play Sunday in Game 5. Was the defense good? Yes. But did tired legs also appeared to contribute to the Lynx shooting 37.1% from the field and the Liberty 30.6%? After Game 5, Stewart, who was 9-of-36 combined in the last two games, said the league needed to provide a little more rest between games.
The league will also move to a 1-1-1 format for the first round, rather than two games at the higher seed and a potential third game at the lower seed. The new format guarantees at least one home game for every playoff team. But New York’s Sabrina Ionescu said she’s concerned the change takes away some of the advantage of the higher-seeded teams.
Overall, most players and fans seemed pleased with the playoff changes, as did the coaches, saying they bring the WNBA more into alignment with other pro leagues. — Voepel