WNBA 2025 Season Thread
Watched a little of the Aces-Sparks game last night, most of which I would describe as Kelsey Plum and the L.A. front court getting abused, I mean we're talking call protective services abused, on defense.
Aces lose by 53 at home to Lynx. After losing by 31 on the road to them a week ago, and a 14 point road loss earlier.
LV 14-11 +1.1ppg vs the rest of the league, add the Lynx games in and they drop to
14-14 -2.5ppg, literally 3.5 ppg worse over 28 games, A'ja is the 2nd best player in the world right now but the Aces are not a serious contender.
This Sky-Fever game is obviously less of a draw without CC or Angel, but it's still entertaining. It is really amazing how physical the WNBA is, no whistles for touch fouls, hell you're probably not going to get one for body checking someone to the ground so why not do it.
the W ****ed up by cramming in more games this year, but not making the season any longer. the players don't have time to rest, and are injured more often. so we missed out on an angel vs cc game. both players missing a lot of time this year.
hope they fix this next season.
also Kelsy plum is a dirty player. she kicked a girl last night
Huge win for the Sparks tonight and huge L for the Storm. Tightening up around the 8 seed.
This lady is going to lose her job being .500 with now 4 current all-stars on the team
the W ****ed up by cramming in more games this year, but not making the season any longer. the players don't have time to rest, and are injured more often. so we missed out on an angel vs cc game. both players missing a lot of time this year.
hope they fix this next season.
also Kelsy plum is a dirty player. she kicked a girl last night
Something about her rubs me the wrong way. And, wow, I just watched the video ...
At least Draymond makes his dirty plays look natural ...
A'ja Wilson puts up 32 and 20 against the Sun.
Unsurprisingly the highlight reel doesn't include one epic second half highlight, where A'ja didn't like how she was being guarded on the perimeter, took both hands to a defender and shoved her about fifteen feet, was called for the obvious foul and then whined about it.
Where can I bet on the Dallas coach getting fired?
Pretty compelling race to the finish line here, although pretty lame that 3 of the 5 best players are injured. Hope all 3 come back before the playoffs.
Minnesota (27-5, proj 34w) has basically locked up the 1 seed, only question there is when Phee comes back and how healthy she will be
Behind them is either one 5-team morass, or if you want to be more granular, a 3 team cluster and a 2 team cluster:
NYL (20-11, proj 28.5)
ATL (20-11, proj 29.2)
PHX (19-12, proj 27.7)
The addition of Meesman should make NYL a juggernaut once Stewie is back. Up and down season with Stewie, JJ and Leonie all missing significant time. Vegas still thinks this team is the best at peak, which seems pretty reasonable, but they're not invincible even with all their players.
Atlanta is making a late surge up the power ratings, going 7-1 in their last 8 including sweeping PHX 3-0 and beating MIN. They're favored on the road against Seattle, meaning their power rating is probably just pipping Stewie-less NYL right now
PHX was a bit of a Vegas darling for a while, but has settled back down to earth, going 4-6 in their last 10
A slight step behind them, you have Vegas and Indiana, two preseason title contenders:
Vegas (18-14, proj 25.6)
Indiana (18-14, proj 4.8)
No idea what's happening with Vegas this season. Aja is continuing to put up bonkers numbers, but the supporting cast just hasn't been good. They're 0-5 against NYL and Minnesota, with the MN losses coming by 53, 31, and 14. Minus the Minnesota beatdowns, they're 9-1 in their last 10 though, so who knows.
Indiana was supposed to make the leap this season, but has also struggled with guard injuries. Obviously the big story is CC missing most of the season so far, struggling when she did play, and having no timetable to return. But losing Colson and McDonald went down in the same game leaving them with basically one ballhandler on the entire roster. They made it work for one game, blowing Chicago out leaning heavily on the Mitchell-Hull-Cunningham-Howard-Boston lineup, and then were able to sign Odyssey Sims yesterday for a bit of depth.
Then you have the four way race for the last two playoff spots:
Seattle (16-16, proj 22.9)
GSV (16-15, proj 21.3)
LA Sparks (15-16, proj 21.1)
Washington (14-17, proj 19.2)
Washington was right in the thick of it until they traded Clark to Seattle for a draft pick and building for the future. I read that the diff between 8th and 9th this year is particularly important, since the expansion teams will draft between them.
Sparks have been on a heater as of late, and Cameron Brink is finally back and having an impact over her first 5 games
GSV surged as I expected when they got all their players back from Eurobasket, but the injury to Thornton was pretty devastating. They've been staying afloat though, and a key home win over the Sparks gives them a 3-1 edge H2H and thus the tiebreaker.
Not sure what's going on with Seattle. They got Clark from Washington who had been playing great, and Malonga is slowly earning more minutes and playing well, but they've hit a cold streak losing 5 in a row. All 5 losses were by 4 points or fewer though, so maybe it's just unlucky. They have 3 home (one in Toronto) games against ATL and PHX coming up, that will determine whether they graduate back into the second tier, or whether they fall and threaten to miss the playoffs
nice post goldenbears! thanks!
you've mixed up Alysha Clark and Brittney Sykes who were traded for one another
Alyssa Thomas has risen to +250 for MVP. would be a sickening loss
AT stats are sick
Aces have looked unstoppable lately.
Very bullish on Washington, Citron and Iriafen are so talented.
Indy might have an entire starting 5 playing on emergency 7 day contracts by the end of the season at this rate. They can't catch a break. In related news, WNBA officiating sucks gigantic donkey balls.
What, iyo, would be a “fair” minimum WNBA contract and a “fair” maximum ?
By "fair" I assume you mean a general sense of fairness, not tied to detailed league/team finances, TV contracts, etc. (Otherwise, I wouldn't know what's even feasible without knowing more of those details.)
Right now: Rookie range is $70-80k, max is $250k (only 4 players), bottom is $6-20k (although I assume many of those are short-term, special circumstances ,etc).
So, from a popular/eye-test/ethical standpoint, I would say "fair" would be doubling the max to $500k at least, and I would have rookies making at least $100-125k.
As a fan of the sport and the league, I could at least sleep easier with those figures. No "star" player should ever have to play overseas, IMO, and right now many of them do (unlike NBA where only the developing/struggling players do so). I also think that the NBA could/should supplement the league (or supplement it more, since I don't really know the details there either, but I know they have a s***load of money).
Right now, I completely expect a work stoppage after this season, and I would pretty much support that. Look what unrivaled was able to do in one year (although -- and I hate to say this, but it's true -- that probably would not have been possible pre-Clark, even though she didn't play in it).
The NBA has been funding the WNBA and losing money every year since its inception.
Maybe the WNBA should pay back the NBA before compensating the players more.
It’s only fair.
They definitely have been hiding the severity of Clark’s injury in Indiana. No updates on anything ever and the playoffs begin in 12 days
The Lynx are fun to watch. Sure Collier is a star but they spread it around. With too many of the other teams it's all about one player.
First team
N. Collier
A. Wilson
A. Thomas
A. Gray
A. Boston
Second team
J. Young
N. Ogwumike
S. Ionescu
K. Plum
B. Stewart
Could Aja Wilson be a roleplayer in the G leaugue?
another example of hateful angel reeseI'm telling you she is a great teammate, and great to have in the clubhouse. she's also currently 6th in EFF. the 5 players in front of her are all total beasts. and this is after a bad start for angel.
I don't understand how her teammates love her after she said they all suck and the team suspended her.
