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Teams Exceeding and Not Meeting WNBA Preseason Expectations The WNBA season is seven weeks in, with some teams exceeding expectations while others are not living up to the hype.
With Olivia Miles taking the reins of Minnesotas offense, Courtney Williams has been freed up off the ball and is having one of the best seasons of her career.
| Kelley L Cox/Imagn Images Now seven weeks into the WNBA season, many things have seemingly gone to plan.
The defending champion Aces have locked a spot in the Commissioner's Cup final, where theyll take on the Liberty, another squad that always has lofty expectations in recent years.
But what about the teams that arent quite following preseason expectations? There were plenty that were in obvious rebuilds, planning more for the future than right now.And there were others that used the offseason to build a roster that many expected to win now.
Our staff takes a look at those exceeding expectations, as well as those not living up to the hype.
The Lynx.
Preseason expectations for Minnesota were low.Napheesa Collier has been yet to play, the teams star recovering from offseason ankle surgeries.
Co-Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith, Bridget Carleton, Jessica Shepard, Dijonai Carrington and Natisha Hiedeman headlined a tidal wave of offseason departures from Minneapolis.
Rather than go out and make a splashy free-agency signing to account for all the lost talent, the Lynx opted to acquire veteran forwards Natasha Howard and Nia Coffey.Would Minnesota be able to compete without Collier, a blockbuster acquisition and so many of last years rotational players? As the old WNBA adage goes: Question Cheryl Reeve at your own peril.
It certainly helped Reeve that Oliva Miles turned out to be the steal of the draft , with.Averaging 18.5 points, 5.6 assists and 4.9 rebounds, Miles has emerged as one of the leagues best guards, taking the reins of Minnesotas offense with poise.
The addition of Miles has allowed Courtney Williams to move off the ball, and as a result, her stats have taken a jump, averaging a career-best 16.7 points per game.
Reeve has gotten the most out of Howard, too.In her 13th WNBA season, Howard is flirting with her career-high numbers and doing so with remarkable efficiency.
The Fire.
Portland is getting its flowers at the wrong time, just 37 over its last 10 games.However, the expectation heading into the season was to be closer to the Sun and the Storm at the bottom of the standings, not in striking distance of the last playoff spot.
Theres plenty of season left for the Fires slide to continue, but coach Alex Sarama has done a great job in the franchises first season.After the expansion draft, the presumption was that the Tempo set their roster to compete more immediately, while Portland took a more future-focused approach.
Thats still true, but Portland is surprisingly more competitive than expected.
The roster has meshed together well with lead guard Carla Leite taking a serious leap in her second WNBA season.
Bridget Carleton was the splashiest addition and shes been just as good with a real case tothis year.Megan Gustafson was a nice free-agent signing and Emily Engstler has been impactful in her minutes as a mainstay in Saramas starting lineup.
Plus,The group will need to improve defensively to put an end to the slide, currently ahead of only the Sparks in defensive rating.However, Portland just went through a tough stretch of its schedule that gets a bit lighter in the weeks ahead.
In a cluster of teams that will fight for the final playoff spot, the Fire have a chance if the group can shake off the recent woes.and Kahleah Copper), a good head coach and an invested ownership groupbut the teams on-court results have not lived up to the standard set by last seasons run to the finals.Whats gone wrong? Depth and defense.
The Mercury have been without Sami Whitcomb for the entire season.
They have also had to ward off absences from Monique Akoa-Makani and, now, Natasha Mack.All told, Phoenix has gone from first in bench scoring in 2025 to 13th this season as players like DeWanna Bonner, Noemie Brochant and Jovana Nogic have stepped into the starting lineup.
At the same time, the Mercurys defensive rating has slipped from 100.4 to 109.2.
Thats a 9% dropoff.
Phoenixs 613 record can be both a product of attrition and a marker of a squad that has been leapfrogged by teams like the Valkyries and the Wings.Afterthe Mercury are 3.5 games out of a playoff spot.
Are they capable of clawing their way back? Yes.
Will they shore up their defensive struggles and convalesce in time to become contenders again?Thats an open question.
: The Sky.
Thats partially out of their hands: How different might this roster look with a healthy Rickea Jackson? But the problems here go beyond her injury.Chicago retooled its roster this offseason with an eye on making a leap.
The front office added Skylar Diggins, Natasha Cloud and Azura Stevens, along with Jackson, in a series of big moves designed to make the Sky competitive.
There were some valid questions about fit and strategy.
But it was clear that Chicago was hoping to contend for a playoff spot.Instead..
well, there is no hope of contention here, to put it politely.
The 512 Sky are the worst shooting team in the WNBA: Their 46.6% effective shooting percentage ranks dead last.
They have the worst rebounding margin in the league.
Theyve repeatedly struggled to close out games even when they have a late lead.There are certainly a few big structural problems with this franchise.
But when it comes to fixing the product on the floor right now, there are so many issues that its hard to know where to begin.
Even the upcoming return of Courtney Vandersloot feels like it comes with more questions than answers: How many point guards can one roster have?Id ordinarily say the best-case scenario here is pivoting and hoping to land a high draft pick.
But, of course, that doesnt apply, because the Sky traded away their 2027 pick last year..
in order to acquire Ariel Atkins..
who has already been traded away herself.
Theres no pathway to tanking here.
Yet theres little pathway to anything else, either.Clare Brennan is an associate editor for Sports Illustrated focused on womens sports.
Before joining SI in October 2022, she worked as an associate editor at Just Womens Sports and as an associate producer for WDET in Detroit.
Brennan has a bachelors in international studies from the University of Wisconsin and a masters in art history from Wayne State University.Dan Falkenheim is a fact checker for Sports Illustrated, where he may inundate you with numbers when he writes women's hoops.
He joined the SI staff in September 2018 and also produces Faces in the Crowd for print.
A graduate of Montclair State, Dan first got hooked on womens basketball when covering the Red Hawks run to the 2015 Division III Final Four for the student newspaper.
He lives in New Jersey with his wife and sweet rescue dog, Hari.Blake Silverman is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated.
Before joining SI in November 2024, he covered the WNBA, NBA, G League and college basketball for numerous sites, including Winsidr, SB Nation's Detroit Bad Boys and A10Talk.
He graduated from Michigan State University before receiving a master's in sports journalism from St.
Bonaventure University.
Outside of work, he's probably binging the latest Netflix documentary, at a yoga studio or enjoying everything Detroit sports.A lifelong Michigander, he lives in suburban Detroit with his wife, young son and their personal petting zoo of two cats and a dog.
Emma Baccellieri is a staff writer who focuses on baseball and women's sports for Sports Illustrated.
She previously wrote for Baseball Prospectus and Deadspin, and has appeared on BBC News, PBS NewsHour and MLB Network.Baccellieri has been honored with multiple awards from the Society of American Baseball Research, including the SABR Analytics Conference Research Award in historical analysis , McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award and SABR Analytics Conference Research Award in contemporary commentary.
A graduate from Duke University, shes also a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America.