A face of the WNBA for two decades, Diana Tauurasi, has retired. A new collective bargaining agreement is being negotiated between the League and its players union, one that could bring higher wages. And although the finals of the WNBA in four of the last five years have presented the Aces of Las Vegas or the freedom of New York, that does not guarantee that its control over the league continues.
In this moment of transition comes a new season of the WNBA, which begins on Friday without shortage of intriguing players. NBC News breakd down who to see.
Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever
Having won the rookie of the year and led Indiana to the postseason, Clark has firmly established that he can guide a high -power crime. Now, Clark will not have such a heavy offensive burden to take in his second season, with the additions of the low season of Dewanna Bonner, Sophie Cunningham and Natasha Howard to an offensive that was one of the best in the league during the last half. With the ball constantly in his hands, Clark will have to solve the best ways to involve his teammates while playing their characteristic aggressive style.
Arike Ogunbowale, Dallas Wings
The seventh year guard has ended at the Top 10 of the MVP vote every season of his career, but one and has never averaged less than 18 points per game. Sometimes criticized as an inefficient scorer, 39% of race shooter is a superior option to create their own shooting in dribbles.
His challenge this season is to build chemistry with a new formula partner after a low season in which Dallas changed Satou Sabally and recruited the former Connecticut Guard Paige Bueckers in general. A rear track of Ogunbowale and Bueckers is dangerous in theory. How will it work in practice?
Angel Reese, Chicago Sky
Reese, last season, last season, last season, established last season that her star appeal at the University could transfer to the WNBA. For your bis, can you give diversify the offensive threat it represents? Thanks in part to their skill of offensive rebounds, 55% of all Reese shots last season occurred 3 feet from the basket. (Only four players who played at least 100 minutes took a higher percentage of their shots that were closed). However, the 49% precision of Reese on the edge was also among the worst of the League, and further from the basket its precision fell considerably.
Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas, Phoenix Mercury
For the first time since 2003, the Phoenix Mercury will begin a season without Tauuras, who retired, and Brittney Griner, who signed at the free agency with Atlanta. How is two franchise accessories replace? Make a low season exchange and wait for it. Phoenix has oriented his future around the new Sabally and Alyssa Thomas stars, the former star, while with Connecticut, who were brought to join Kahleah Copper as a trio of stars.
When Sabally, who lost 25 games for injuries, was healthy last season, joined Caitlin Clark as the only other player in the league to average at least 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. Mercury hopes that he can remain so efficient while playing with Thomas, a member six times of the League defense team while ending among the top five of MVP vote in each of the last three years.
Marine Johannes, New York Liberty
The WNBA Champions returns to the stars of Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, the pillars of the franchise that support the repeated aspirations of the team championship. However, not overlooking Johannes’s new firm, a 39% shooter of 39% of his career that can make opponents even more to defend freedom by spreading the floor.
Johannes joined The Liberty as a rookie in 2019 and played for the club in 2022 and 2023, but did not play in the WNBA last season while focusing on preparing for the Olympic Games, where he helped take France to the silver medal. Now, she has returned and makes freedom even better.
Brittney Griner, Atlanta Dream
There is an experiment in Atlanta, where the dream hired a university coach for a long time to implement a Uptempo offensive that emphasizes the movement to create space. Interestingly, within that offensive, the 6 -foot 9 -inch griner, who has tried only 44 triples throughout his career, said they have given him “the green light” to shoot more three. In the preseason, it began 3 by 3 from the depths, a small but remarkable sample size. If Griner, 34, can make deep shots consistently, open a completely new side of his game at the end of his career, and with his potential for his team.
Napheesa Collier, Minnesota Lynx
After losing for little at the WNBA finals last year with Minnesota, Collier went unparalleled, the low season league that she and Stewart of New York co -founded, and averaged 25.7 points per game in the league this winter. That should establish Collier, the MVP runner -up last season and the defensive player of the year, to start the season quickly.
