Last season, the Atlanta Dream went 15-25, good enough for a playoff spot but not good enough for head coach Tanisha Wright to keep her job, as the team moved on from her after three seasons. In her place, the team hired Karl Smesko, who left Florida Gulf Coast for the job.
Atlanta was busy this WNBA offseason, bringing in a whole new frontcourt. Gone are Tina Charles and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus. In their place, the team added Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones.
Here are three important questions for the Atlanta Dream heading into the 2025 WNBA season.
Can a Brittney Griner-Brionna Jones frontcourt work?
I was hoping we'd get to see extended minutes from the weird frontcourt configuration of Brionna Jones and Brittney Griner this preseason, but we really didn't get much — against the Mystics, they started together but didn't play a ton of minutes on the floor with each other, while in the second preseason game, Griner played just two minutes before exiting the game for non-injury rest purposes.
The concern with this backcourt is that spacing will be a nightmare. Jones was among the highest-usage players in the league in the restricted area last year. Griner was among the highest-usage in the non-restricted area part of the paint. Things could get clogged up.
The solution isn't a perfect one: Griner has to be more of a stretch four. She averaged a career-high in 3-point attempts last season, so it could happen, and she was 3-for-3 from deep in the first two preseason games. I know — small sample size. Still, getting Griner outside of the paint more often is likely the only way to make this pairing work. That, and staggered minutes that let both spend time at center with the other off the floor.
Will Haley Jones put it all together in 2025?
Haley Jones was a fairly divisive prospect in 2023 when the Dream drafted her at No. 6 overall. Some people — me included — thought she was the second-best prospect in the class, behind Aliyah Boston. Others thought that her lack of 3-point shooting was going to make it tough for her to adapt to the WNBA, no matter how much else she brought to the table.
The others have been right so far.
Jones has really struggled with her scoring efficiency in the pros, which has prevented her from getting enough minutes to really make an impact as a defender and playmaker.
2025 might be it for Jones. She has to improve her shot-making ability if she wants to have a long-term future in the league.
Is Te-Hina Paopao the steal of the draft?
I spent much of the pre-draft cycle beating the drum for Te-Hina Paopao. An elite 3-point shooter, the former South Carolina point guard made a lot of sense for a lot of teams in the first round. Starting around Pick 8, you could have made a strong argument that every team from that point on should have gone after Paopao.
Somehow though, she fell all the way to Pick 18, where the Atlanta Dream snatched her up. Atlanta needed backcourt depth, and it appears they found it with Paopao.
Atlanta needs to improve its shooting after a season that saw the team finish 11th in the WNBA in 3-point field goal percentage. New head coach Karl Smesko comes over from FGCU, a team that relied on shooting 3s at a high volume during his tenure.
Enter Paopao, who shot 37 percent from deep last year. That's a good number, but what's even better is that it was actually the second-lowest mark of her college career. She shot over 40 percent from deep twice.
She won't immediately solve every issue for the team, but having a guard who can come off the bench and fire away from deep while also having capable ball-handling skills should be a major plus for this Dream team. It wouldn't be shocking to see Paopao challenge for a spot on the All-Rookie team in 2025.