2025 WNBA Offseason Report Cards (Pt 2)
Report cards for the rest of the W including trade partners LA, Vegas and Seattle plus the champion Liberty, runners up Lynx and more.
Free agency is all but over (indeed Breanna Stewart, finally, has her contract) and many of the marquee offseason leagues have wrapped up play; so, the WNBA draft is now the only thing standing between the league’s 13 teams and the start of the 2025 season. And while it’s becoming cliche to say this every spring, the upcoming season has to be the most anticipated in league history. A league-altering shift is coming after the season with the negotiation of a new CBA, but front offices around the league have clearly shown that winning now is a still a priority with their aggressiveness this offseason.
With only the draft left before the season begins, let’s grade teams’ moves so far to determine who has spent their pennies wise and which franchises may end up feeling their pounds (or, I suppose, dollars…) went foolishly.
JUMP TO TEAM
ATL | CHI | CON | DAL | GS | IND | LA | LV | MIN | NY | PHO | SEA | WAS
Los Angeles Sparks
The Sparks are a tricky one to grade because I’m a huge fan of their big swing (trading for Kelsey Plum), but I’m less certain about the way they’ve filled out the roster around their burgeoning big 4 (Plum, Jackson, Hamby and Brink). The role players that return—namely Azurá Stevens and Rae Burrell—are great options for new head coach Lynne Roberts, but players 7-10 may be a bit more hit and miss on a night-to-night basis. Mercedes Russell and Odyssey Sims (a returnee after playing the final month of 2024 in LA) are both talented players who can decide a game any night, but they also tend to see relatively large variances in their production over the weeks and months of a WNBA season. If GM Raegan Pebley is after a proof of concept for this core 4 ahead of Plum & Hamby’s free agency in the winter, this roster is positioned well enough to give her that, but I can’t help but wonder if 1-2 more key names off the bench could’ve pushed this team up the pile towards the fringes of contention. With limited picks left to work with (LA owes their 2026 first to Seattle for the since departed Kia Nurse), there’s few chips left to push in if a hot start suggests the Sparks can contend in 2025.
Grade: B+
Las Vegas Aces
The Aces have entered the interesting phase of any dynasty (or near dynasty if you require 3 titles to call them one) where one of the key players departs, and the re-tool begins. It’s inevitable and every great team has to face it, but there’s lots of different ways to approach it. For many, the goal is to hang on to as many pieces as possible and find cheap replacements for departing secondary or tertiary stars which, typically, doesn’t work. By adding 6-time All-Star Jewell Loyd, it’s safe to say Vegas wasn’t after a cheap replacement. The loss of long-term chemistry with Plum, of course, matter, but I think the more individual offensive nature of Loyd’s game could actually benefit the Aces stylistically in many scenarios—particularly when opposing defenses key in on A’ja. At the same time, the Aces have also seen turnover in other parts of the roster with a trio of players with unique roles (Clark, Colson and Hayes) all departing this winter. Replacing them are new faces like Dana Evans, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, Tiffany Mitchell and Elizabeth Kitley, and the quality of said names leads me to believe the Aces might be able to continue on without impact. In fact, the roster refresh can sometimes be key in keeping things from getting stale. Regardless, I think it’s hard to argue—at least until we see how everything fits—that Vegas has gotten better with a slew of assistant coach departures also of note. Still a title contender, but one that has a lot to figure out before the playoffs.
Grade: B-
Minnesota Lynx
It’s hard to say too much because, so far, the Lynx have done very little. Crucially, Natisha Hiedeman returns to be one of Minnesota’s top options off of the bench, but the only other move of serious note has been the departure of the team’s mid-season addition last year Myisha Hines-Allen to the Dallas Wings. French big Marième Badiane is an interesting name to watch on a training camp deal, but the overall name of the game is continuity which should serve Minnesota well.
Grade: Incomplete (in a quiet, not bad, way)
New York Liberty
Much like their championship rivals from a season ago, the Liberty have mostly kept the band together, but not for a lack of trying. Missing out on Satou Sabally will register as a definite disappointment, but adding Natasha Cloud in addition to entering camp with the W’s most competitive group of TC deals should help to soften the blow. Raquel Carrera, Rebekah Gardner, Isabelle Harrison, Marine Johannès, Esmery Martinez and Jaylyn Sherrod can’t all make the roster, but we have seen enough from each to this point in their career to say they’re good enough to get semi-regular minutes at the WNBA level. In other words, the depth will still be a huge advantage for the Liberty, and no changes to their core group (aside from Courtney Vandersloot who’s role had started to change last season anyways) means this is still the team in pole position to win the WNBA title. All in all, this isn’t a perfect offseason (the high price for Cloud and miss on Sabally are both at least worth a second look), but New York has stayed put with their core and continued to add exciting depth options; so, it’s another great winter from Jonathan Kolb and company in my book.
Grade: A-
Phoenix Mercury
Last season, I drew plenty of parallels between Mat Ishbia’s NBA and WNBA teams because of their similarly aggressive approaches and, like with the Suns, the second major transacting window with the Mercury has seen Phoenix not only hold their aggressive line but double down. However, it feels safe to say that the fit for Sabally and Alyssa Thomas alongside Kahleah Copper should be a lot better than the Bradley Beal fit was for the Suns. The question for the Mercury is whether Thomas and Sabally coming in for Cloud, Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi has definitely made the team better. The worrying part is that—despite all of the investment by Phoenix—I can’t give a definite yes just yet. First-year head coach Nate Tibbetts established a modern three-point centric approach a year ago, but Copper’s numbers declined considerably in that area (31%) while Thomas has never been much of an outside shooter (2 3PM in 320 games). Some of the other new arrivals like Kalani Brown (0 3PM in her career) and Sevgi Uzun (24% 3PT in ‘24) are also non-shooters. In other words, Tibbetts may need a large—not small—shift in approach with a roster that’s almost completely new. If this group works, it can easily contend, but the number of moving parts suggests this could be one of the first teams to unravel late in the season when individual focus starts to slip (intentionally or not) towards the winter’s free agent bonanza.
Grade: B+
Seattle Storm
Seattle experienced a slow start to the offseason that looked like it could leave them worse off than they were in 2024, but a strong close to the primary free agency period leaves the Storm in a relatively similar position to where they were a year ago—on the edge of contention but not quite in the picture. The good news is that Nneka Ogwumike, Gabby Williams and Alysha Clark are all back in Seattle while the second pick in April’s draft will give the Storm (1) an extremely talented player and (2) a chance at a degree of continuity in 2026 if others depart. The bad news is that Jewell Loyd is gone and, regardless of any tension that did or didn’t exist in the locker room, it will be difficult for any player chosen at #2 to replicate her production early on. The loss of emerging star Jordan Horston to a season-ending injury, while not in any way controlled by GM Talisa Rhea, is also a huge disappointment that came out of this winter. The picks are there for Seattle to position themselves well over the next couple of offseasons, but I’m not sure I can picture Seattle contending in 2025 based on the way the roster has evolved this winter—leaving them in a somewhat similar situation to Phoenix.
Grade: B-
Washington Mystics
On one hand, the Mystics have done very little to improve their roster which, in theory, is a good thing given they own their own picks in the next few drafts. A departure for Ariel Atkins, for instance, will be tough to stomach for some in the fan base, but the return feels suitable and could land players (both via the 2025 #3 pick and the Mystics’ “improved” 2026 pick) that help Aaliyah Edwards and company turn a corner in the future. Yet, the lack of any additions except for intriguing second-year forward Taylor Soule on a training camp contract is still concerning. Because while the quiet offseason aligns closely with the goal of being in the lottery, it’s bizarre to see no support given to the roster—especially with a couple of key players who have missed considerable time due to injury in the last couple seasons. In the front office, the hire of Sydney Johnson as head coach after just a single season of professional assistant coaching experience and simultaneous hire of general manager Jamila Wideman both register as head scratchers and the organization’s lack of desire to field a competitive roster suggests both (especially Johnson) may be lame ducks before their tenures truly begin. If Washington can “trust the process” long enough, this largely dormant offseason may be a key piece in the puzzle, but it can only sting the fanbase of the 2019 champions in the short term.