A'ja Wilson is the best women's basketball player in the world, but the Las Vegas Aces are failing at something very important in 2025: surrounding their star with talent.
Replacing Kelsey Plum with Jewell Loyd has been a disaster, and another year of wear and tear on Chelsea Gray has really reduced her effectiveness; she's currently averaging her fewest assists since 2016 and her most turnovers ever. That's basically left the Aces as a two-player team with Wilson and Jackie Young.
It's also allowed defenses to key in on stopping Wilson in a way they haven't before. It's a smart move by the opposition, as the rest of the Aces haven't proved they can step up when Wilson gets doubled.
Defenses are doubling A'ja Wilson a lot in 2025
Vegas was without Wilson for a three-game stretch because of a concussion, and the team just couldn't get it done without her. The problem, though, was that it couldn't get anything going in her return either, losing 90-83 to Seattle in Wilson's first game back despite her scoring 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting.
Wilson needs to take more than 11 shots. Last year, she led the WNBA in scoring while averaging 19.6 field goal attempts per game. This year, she's down to 15.3 per game. A big part of that is defenses doubling her up, which forces her to get the ball out of her hands. Prior to the Seattle game, Wilson was being double-teamed on 31 percent of her post-ups, per GeniusIQ. That number was 16 percent in 2024.
Wilson's career-high 3.8 assists per game are a function of defenses forcing her to give the ball up, but her teammates largely aren't doing much with those passes. She's recorded 22 assists to Young and Loyd, but just 12 to the rest of the roster combined.
Vegas needs to find another scorer or two who can make defenses pay when Wilson is doubled. While Loyd's shooting well from outside, she's been a disaster inside the arc, shooting just 26.4 percent from 2-point range. That's a big part of why Vegas has the league's worst field goal percentage despite ranking fifth in 3-point field goal percentage.
This is also where Kiah Stokes being a non-factor offensively comes into play. If the defense can double-team Wilson and get away with completely ignoring the other frontcourt player because of her lack of an offensive arsenal, then the whole advantage created from a double-team is gone. In theory, doubling Wilson leaves someone open. If that someone is Stokes, though, Vegas isn't able to take advantage.
It's a problem. Wilson's really, really good, but when defenses force her to get the ball out of her hands and the rest of the Aces team can't take advantage of that, it really hurts the world's best player's chances of showcasing her talent. It means defenses can just keep taking this same approach, over and over.