The women's college season just ended, but the compressed calendar of women's basketball means that the WNBA season is just around the corner.
We're in for a very interesting WNBA season. A handful of teams enter the year with very different rosters than they ended last season with, including the Connecticut Sun, who blew the whole roster up after years of being close but not quite close enough. Other teams added talent to try to get to the next level, like the Fever adding Natasha Howard and DeWanna Bonner in an attempt to turn the Caitlin Clark-led team into a title contender.
Here is the biggest question for each WNBA team.
Atlanta Dream: Will a Brittney Griner-Brionna Jones frontcourt work?
Atlanta was aggressive in free agency, adding two very talented bigs in Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones.
But this could be a case where there's too much of a good thing, because the two have a fairly overlapping skill set. Jones was fifth in the WNBA in field goal attempts per game in the restricted area last season, while Griner was fourth in field goal attempts per game in the non-restricted area part of the paint. It's not quite an overlap, but two players who are high-volume paint scorers makes for a bit of a mess. Even if Griner has a bit more range, the paint is going to be clogged up at times.
Maybe Atlanta is counting on Griner to continue moving farther from the basket on offense. She averaged a career-high 0.6 3-point attempts per game last year and should increase that number as she moves to a full-time power forward role offensively, but ... yeah, I don't know. It's going to be a weird fit.
Chicago Sky: Can Angel Reese improve as a finisher?
For the Sky to be the best version of themselves, Angel Reese has to finish at the rim.
Reese took more shots at the rim than anyone last year, averaging 8.4 attempts per game in the restricted area. The second-highest RA usage came from Dearica Hamby at 7.1 attempts per game.
The problem was that Reese shot just 47.0 percent on those attempts. Of the 18 players to attempt at least four shots per game in the restricted area, Reese's field goal percentage ranks last. In fact, she's the only player to shoot under 55.1 percent on those looks. That won't cut it if the Sky want to make a playoff run.
Connecticut Sun: Will this team win a game?
Haha. Ha. Hahahaha. Such a silly question, Justin. LOL. No team is going to go 0-44. Hahahaha.
But what if??? I mean ... Connecticut traded their whole team away. Marina Mabrey and Tina Charles are solid players, but they're also likely going to be high-volume, low-efficiency scorers this season with no real options around them to take the pressure off. Aneesah Morrow is an intriguing rookie, but is there a system in place that can keep her from making a ton of rookie mistakes?
Dallas Wings: Can Dallas make the playoffs in Paige Bueckers' rookie season?
The Dallas Wings traded away Satou Sabally this offseason. Usually, a star player demanding a trade in the WNBA is really bad, as you never get the value back that you ideally want.
But the Wings wheeled and dealed their way into having a pretty solid offseason, adding NaLyssa Smith and DiJonai Carrington and then drafting UConn star Paige Bueckers with the No. 1 pick.
Dallas has the league's second-worst record last season, but they enter 2025 with the playoffs as the goal. Bueckers is a game-changing talent and while it might take a bit to figure out the backcourt fit between her and Arike Ogunbowale, Dallas should have the talent to at least be in the playoff race.
Golden State Valkyries: Who on this team is part of Golden State's future?
The Valkyries shouldn't enter 2025 with the playoffs in mind. Instead, the team needs to figure out if they have any pieces of the team's future on the current roster.
The expansion draft netted the team some talented role players, but will any of those pieces be here in three years? Likewise, the team signed Tiffany Hayes to be their top scoring option, but Hayes was retired at this time a year ago. Surely she's just a one-year rental — or even, potentially, a trade deadline bargaining chip.
Will Justė Jocytė come over from the French league? If so, she might be part of the team's future, but other than that, fans might be watching a team that won't look recognizable in a year or two. Maybe Shyanne Sellers will prove to be the steal of the draft? We'll see.
Indiana Fever: Are Caitlin Clark and the Fever title contenders?
You can make a strong argument that no team went all-in more this offseason than the Fever, who added Natasha Howard, DeWanna Bonner and Sophie Cunningham. Indiana clearly wants to win now with Caitlin Clark.
But will they? The Liberty and Lynx still feel like better-constructed rosters, and the fit with a frontcourt made up of Aliyah Boston plus Howard and Bonner feels off. Bonner will have to play a much more tertiary offensive role on this team than she has in the past.
This is a good roster, but how it gels together is a huge question mark heading into the 2025 season. How quickly the team figures out its rotations and roles will determine how seriously we should take the Fever as title contenders.
Las Vegas Aces: Will Jewell Loyd work in the Vegas system?
Jewell Loyd has been a big-time volume scorer in Seattle since Breanna Stewart left for the Liberty, but now she'll have to prove she can play a scaled down role in Vegas.
Loyd will replace Kelsey Plum, who was traded to Los Angeles this offseason. Plum has been ideal as a high-volume, off-ball scorer for the Aces, someone who has the skill to make plays with the ball in her hands but who is also content to just fire away catch-and-shoot 3-pointers.
But Loyd's been a pretty ball-dominant player. Plum had a 24.8 percent usage rate last year, while Loyd was at 28.8 percent despite playing with Skylar Diggins-Smith, a player who also wants the ball in her hands.
Will Loyd settle for a more off-ball role? If she doesn't, will Vegas be able to use Jackie Young as more of that Plum-type player? The fit in Vegas feels like it's going to take some getting used to.
Los Angeles Sparks: Can Kelsey Plum turn this franchise around?
The Sparks had the league's worst record last season, but made a big splash this offseason by trading for Aces guard Kelsey Plum.
Plum is a very good player, but this will be her first shot to be the lead scoring threat on a team. In Vegas, she played second fiddle to A'ja Wilson, but in Los Angeles she should have full rein of the offense.
Is she up for that? Can she turn around a team that really, really struggled last season? That's the big question for the Sparks.
Minnesota Lynx: Is this the year that Minnesota breaks through?
2017 doesn't feel like it was that long ago, but actually it kind of was! That year, the Lynx won their most recent championship, with a roster that featured zero current members of the Lynx.
The new era of Minnesota basketball is built around Napheesa Collier, one of the five best women's basketball players on the planet, and last season Collier led the Lynx to the WNBA Finals, where the team lost in five games against the Liberty.
Minnesota is arguably the deepest team in the league and got even deeper by re-signing Jessica Shepard, who missed last season. This team probably has too many good frontcourt players, but that's not the worst issue to have.
New York Liberty: Can the Libs repeat?
New York finally won its first title last year. Now, the Liberty will look to make it back-to-back championships.
The Liberty will attempt to do so with a roster that looks a little different. Kayla Thornton was chosen in the expansion draft. Courtney Vandersloot left for Chicago.
But the team added Natasha Cloud, giving it one of the most intriguing backcourts and letting Sabrina Ionescu move off-ball a little more often, and the return of Marine Johannès should add to the backcourt depth.
This is a good roster. It has high-end talent like Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones. It has depth. But after decades of failing to win it all, can this team suddenly go out and win two in a row?
Phoenix Mercury: Will this new-look Mercury team actually make sense?
Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi are gone, but the Mercury rebuilt on the fly, adding Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally to the team while trading Sophie Cunningham and Natasha Cloud in the process.
On paper, this team has holes to fill. Alyssa Thomas will likely serve as the point forward to fill the big gap at point guard, but even then there's issues with guard depth. Up front, the team looks set to replace Griner with Kalani Brown, which is a downgrade, even though Brown's a solid player.
It's hard to really see the vision in Phoenix, but there are pieces — good pieces. How they fit together is just a huge question.
Seattle Storm: Are the post-Jewell Loyd Storm going to be contenders?
When the Seattle Storm initially dealt Jewell Loyd in a deal that landed them the No. 2 overall pick in this year's WNBA Draft, the general consensus seemed to be "cool, Olivia Miles is gonna be sick there."
Then Miles went back to school.
Seattle ended up with French teenager Dominique Malonga, a player with huge upside but who is also still a teenager. I'm a big Malonga fan, but she's not necessarily the player to help Seattle right now, in 2025.
There's definitely talent in Seattle, but backcourt depth is a major concern, especially with Nika Muhl and Jordan Horston out for the season. Who starts at the two? Do you run an Erica Wheeler and Skylar Diggins-Smith backcourt? Do you hope Lexie Brown can be a starter? Do you play Gabby Williams out of position at the two? (I'd probably go with that if I was coaching the Storm.)
Washington Mystics: How will the three first-round rookies work together?
The Mystics had three of the first six picks in the WNBA Draft, adding a nice influx of young talent.
But now that the talent is there, Washington has to figure out how to use it. There's a good chance Sonia Citron and Georgia Amoore both end up as starters, while Kiki Iriafen will likely come off the bench in a crowded frontcourt.
The state of this Mystics roster means that all three should get plenty of run, but will they prove to be long-term answers for the Mystics? Or will Olivia Miles' decision to return to school — thus costing Washington a shot at either her or Dominque Malonga — prove to be a thorn in the side of this franchise for years to come?