The 2025 WNBA season is just around the corner. The biggest women's basketball stars on the planet are set to compete this season, but a number of those stars are in different places now.
I don't think I grasped how much the landscape has changed until I put together a list of the top 10 MVP candidates — this list, the one you're about to read. Of the 10 players who made the list, 40 percent are playing for a new team this season.
Here are the preseason WNBA MVP power rankings, starting with No. 10.
10. Brittney Griner - Atlanta Dream
Brittney Griner has had a great WNBA career. She's made nine All-Star appearances. Led the league in scoring twice. Won the 2014 championship. When all is said and done, Griner's career will be viewed as a success.
But the Houston native still doesn't have an MVP award. If you'd asked me when she was drafted, I'd have said she'd have won multiple of them across her career, but the best she's done is a pair of runner-up finishes, most recently in 2021.
Griner could have a shot this year, but it's going to require her new Atlanta Dream team to gel quickly. If Atlanta can get a top five finish in the league this year, the team's jump in production will likely be attributed to Griner.
9. Arike Ogunbowale - Dallas Wings
With Paige Bueckers now in the backcourt as well, the Wings might be a playoff team after finishing 11th in the league last season. If that happens, Bueckers will likely run away with the Rookie of the Year award, but it's likely Arike Ogunbowale who would get the MVP love.
That's because Ogunbowale is still going to be the leader in Dallas for at least 2025. Bueckers will be a great complement, but Arike should still be the team's top scorer and go-to option as Bueckers adjusts to the WNBA.
8. Satou Sabally - Phoenix Mercury
Surprisingly, Satou Sabally was only the second-biggest get in Phoenix this offseason, as the team also added Alyssa Thomas. So, spoiler alert: Sabally is also only the second-highest Mercury player in the power rankings.
Sabally's MVP case is pretty simple: stay healthy and produce a season that looks like her 2023 campaign but with higher efficiency. That year, Sabally finished fifth in MVP voting and won Most Improved Player. It's certainly not an easy case, but it's at least easy to see what Sabally will need to do to win the award.
7. Kelsey Plum - Los Angeles Sparks
I don't think Kelsey Plum wins MVP this year, but she does have one potential narrative that could help boost her chances.
The Sparks were the WNBA's worst team in 2024. If they're significantly improved this year and in the playoff hunt, Kelsey Plum is largely going to be the person responsible for that huge jump in play and thus, she's going to receive some MVP votes in the process. For her to actually win though? The Sparks would need to make the playoffs and also finish over .500 for the first time since 2020.
6. Sabrina Ionescu - New York Liberty
Sabrina Ionescu's MVP case is tough, because she's probably always going to play second fiddle to Breanna Stewart in New York.
But maybe not. Ionescu shot just 39.4 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from 3-point range last season, yet her overall production netted her a sixth-place MVP finish. What if the addition of Natasha Cloud pushing Ionescu into more of an off-ball role leads to a return to her 2023 efficiency, when she shot 44.8 percent from deep?
5. Alyssa Thomas - Phoenix Mercury
Can Alyssa Thomas be the same Alyssa Thomas she was in Connecticut? Well, based on the roster construction in Phoenix, she should still be used as the primary initiator offensively like she was with the Sun, so the answer is "probably."
Thomas, who has finished in the top five of MVP voting in three consecutive seasons, should be in the mix again, but it's a little tough to fully see what her path to the award is. If the 2023 season where she averaged 15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists only got her second place, what would it take to actually win? Probably similar numbers, plus the Mercury being a top-four team, plus a couple of players ahead of her in the rankings faltering. Not impossible, though!
4. Caitlin Clark - Indiana Fever
Caitlin Clark: second in the betting odds, but fourth in the power rankings.
That's not a knock on Clark. Saying someone already appears to be a top-four MVP candidate in her second WNBA season is a compliment. Don't call me a hater! (Or a "Haitlin," a term I saw on social media recently that I thought was funny, though it was being used against someone who is definitely not a Clark hater.)
Simply put, I'm not comfortable putting Clark ahead of the next three names yet. All have shown over multiple seasons that they can be viable contenders for the title of "best player in the world." Clark hasn't shown that yet, which isn't to say she won't in 2025. I'm fully convinced that heading into 2026, I'll consider Clark an MVP favorite after another top-four MVP finish in 2025, but I just don't quite see this being the year she gets her first one.
3. Breanna Stewart - New York Liberty
Breanna Stewart might just fall victim to having too many star teammates. Stewart, who has finished in the top three in the MVP voting in her last six seasons, gave up a little scoring responsibility last year to Ionescu, and the addition of Natasha Cloud to the Liberty lineup means there's a lot of mouths to feed.
Stewie's still the best player in New York, but she might not have the room to post numbers that are good enough to beat out the next two players. Instead, she has to hope that the Liberty can go out there and prove they're in their own tier — the team needs to be so good that Stewart's MVP case becomes less about stats and more about how undeniable the Libs are.
2. A'ja Wilson - Las Vegas Aces
First, I want to acknowledge that I think A'ja Wilson is the best player in the WNBA. She's also the betting favorite to win MVP.
But Wilson's also a three-time MVP and the winner last season and her Aces team will probably be a bit worse this year after swapping Kelsey Plum out for Jewell Loyd and losing a lot of bench production.
It's also worth noting that while Wilson's won the award three times, she's never repeated. In fact, no player has repeated since Cynthia Cooper in the first two seasons of the WNBA's existence.
1. Napheesa Collier - Minnesota Lynx
Voter fatigue is a real thing. Even if Stewart and Wilson are the two best players in the WNBA, voters want to reward someone they haven't rewarded before, which is why my preseason MVP pick is Napheesa Collier.
Collier finished as the runner-up for the award last year while winning her first Defensive Player of the Year award. If she just keeps up her level of play from last season and the Lynx finish as a top-two team again, it's hard to see a strong argument against her.
Essentially, Collier can play exactly as good as she did in 2024 and win the award. Every other candidate needs to do something — individual-wise or team-wise — to improve from last year. That's a big reason I'm so high on Collier.