The Las Vegas Aces found a lineup combination that worked really well this week. Unfortunately, it wasn't the team's most heavily used lineup. The most heavily used lineup — the team's normal starting five — was actually pretty bad over the past four games.
Over the past week, seven WNBA lineups have played 25 or more minutes together. Only one of those lineups has a negative net rating. Want to guess what that lineup is?
If you said, "well, based on the topic of this article, I'd bet it's the Aces starting five," you'd be write. The quintet of Kiah Stokes, A'ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Jewell Loyd and Chelsea Gray played 51 minutes together this week with a net rating of minus-12.5.
But the lineup that's tied for the best net rating among the lineups to play 25 minutes this week? It also belongs to Vegas, and one small change made a huge difference.
It's time for the Aces to embrace small ball
That change? Replacing Kiah Stokes with Aaliyah Nye. That lineup has 28 minutes over the past week, the fifth-most minutes of any WNBA lineup. The group has a plus-40.8 net rating.
The reason for this change is obvious. Nye adds shooting to the floor, while Stokes is a complete non-entity on the offensive end.
The veteran big is averaging 2.3 points per game, and it's not like that's some sudden drop off. The last time Stokes averaged over three points per game was back in 2020, when she played for the New York Liberty. That was during the bubble season, when New York was running lineups filled with rookies who aren't even in the league now.
Stokes gives Vegas some good rebounding, but she's having her worst season of her career as a rim protector, so there's less reason to have her on the floor than there has been in recent seasons.
When Vegas is running a frontcourt of Stokes and Wilson, defenses can basically just ignore Stokes and throw all their attention at Wilson. It's part of why Wilson is facing so many double teams this season, which has really hurt the Aces' offense.
But if you move Stokes to the bench, slide Wilson to the five and let Nye play out on the wing in a four-out system, defenses suddenly can't afford to send an all-out blitz at Wilson, because that will leave a shooter open for her to pass the ball back out to. Nye's only shooting 34.9 percent from deep at the moment, but that mark will likely improve as she gets more and more used to WNBA reps.
This small-ball approach seems to be working well for the Aces, especially when compared to how the lineup with Stokes at the five has been struggling. If Vegas runs this lineup more going forward, the team might finally be able to shrug off its poor start to the 2025 season and get something going.