We've reached the ceremonial halfway point of the WNBA season: the All-Star break. Teams have all played approximately half of their games and now have a little breather before they get back on the court. Some things feel pretty certain at this point. The Minnesota Lynx are the league's best team. The Connecticut Sun are the worst. Napheesa Collier is the MVP frontrunner.
But there are still plenty of things that remain up in the air. Let's make five bold predictions for how the league will change over the second half of the season.
The Aces finally figure things out
It's been a rough season for one of the preseason favorites. The Las Vegas Aces likely thought they'd still be title contenders despite swapping Kelsey Plum for Jewell Loyd, but it simply hasn't been the case.
Instead, Loyd could barely buy a bucket inside the 3-point line, and the Aces entered the All-Star break at 11-11 on the season, putting the team eighth in the overall standings.
But the Aces won two in a row entering the break and have solved one of their biggest issues, which was the fact that they had no offense from any frontcourt player outside of A'ja Wilson. The trade for NaLyssa Smith probably still goes down as a loss for the team because this isn't a team that can win a championship, but Smith has raised the floor in Vegas. The back-and-forth between being in and out of the playoffs is over. Vegas will land solidly as the No. 7 seed when all is said and done.
Arike Ogunbowale will be moved...to the bench
I just don't see an Arike trade happening. Her contract's too big. Her production is down too much. It's just probably not happening.
What I do see happening is the Wings pushing their lineup experimentation as far as it will go and moving Ogunbowale into a reserve role. As the team's sixth player, Dallas can take advantage of her quick trigger as a shooter, but without a potentially cold start to the game, putting the Wings in an instant hole.
And let's face it — Dallas seems to have found a little something with a Paige Bueckers and J.J. Quinerly starting backcourt. Ogunbowale is a weird fit at the three, so once either Dijonai Carrington or Maddy Siegrist are ready to return to the floor, this move could make a lot of sense.
Golden State falls out of the playoff race
The expansion Valkyries have been the league's best success story, as a group of cast-offs from other teams has gelled quickly and has spent the season right at the playoff cutline.
But at some point, Golden State missing a true go-to scorer will become an issue. Losers of five of their past games, the Valkyries are starting a downturn that will be tough to pivot out of, even with the post-break addition of center Iliana Rupert.
Still, this is a successful first year for Golden State, a team many expected to be in contention for the dubious title of "worst team in the WNBA." Instead, they might wind up being one of the most successful — if not the most successful — expansion teams in WNBA history.
Emma Meesseman signs with the Liberty
We haven't seen Emma Meesseman in the WNBA since 2022, but with EuroBasket over, there are rumors she's been talking with teams.
The Liberty don't need to sign Meesseman to win a second title in a row, but it sure wouldn't hurt. With Jonquel Jones sidelined by injury, Meesseman would give the Liberty a huge boost up front. The sky would be the limit for New York if it added one of the best offensive bigs in the world to the roster.
It might be tough to sort out the lineup once Jones is back, but that's a good problem to have. Meesseman would likely nudge the Liberty ahead of the Lynx when it comes to being the title favorites.
The Fever pass the Dream in the final standings
This is contingent on Caitlin Clark staying healthy in the second half, which is far from a guarantee. But if Clark is mostly good to go over the rest of the year, Indiana will get past Atlanta in the final standings.
Despite having an easier schedule going forward, Atlanta theoretically drops behind Indiana for a few reasons. First, the team is just 3-5 over its past eight games, which includes a head-to-head loss to the Fever as well as a double-digit loss against the Dallas Wings.
Second, there's the fact that a huge part of the team's success this year has been Allisha Gray playing like a top-five player in the league. I love how Gray plays basketball, and she's long been an underrated player, but I'm not sold that she can sustain her current level over the final 22 games.
Finally, I'm just still not sold on this roster being the best one to play the kind of 3-point focused offense that head coach Karl Smesko wants to play. It's worked out so far, but the team's starting lineup features three poor shooting threats, which makes for a shaky situation.