The WNBA season tips off tonight : NPR

By practically each measure, final 12 months’s WNBA season was a tremendous success.

Attendance was up. Scores have been up. And it wasn’t all due to the rookie phenom Caitlin Clark — the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx averaged greater than one million viewers, with the thrilling Game 5 finale drawing 3.3 million viewers at its peak. That is greater than loads of NBA video games.

Now, it is on the league to maintain that success going.

The common season suggestions off this weekend with a slate of big-time matchups, together with the primary common season look of the hyped rookie Paige Bueckers, a possible playoff preview between the Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces, and a Saturday afternoon showdown between Clark’s Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese on community TV.

This is a preview:

Have the Fever achieved sufficient to money in on Caitlin Clark? 

Caitlin Clark’s first season with the Fever was a sensation. The rookie completed the season with the fifth-most factors and most assists within the league — and she ranked within the high 20 in virtually each different main statistical class: rebounds, steals, even blocks. It was simple to award her Rookie of the 12 months.

Relatedly, Clark performed the second-most complete minutes of anybody within the WNBA, behind solely Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale (who should even be feeling some reduction to get some assist in the type of Paige Bueckers this summer time). That led Clark to steer the league in dangerous issues, too, like her 5.6 turnovers per recreation. Plus, the Fever had one of many worst defenses within the league.

This staff took the offseason significantly. The Fever sacked their head coach and introduced within the veteran Stephanie White, who took the Fever to the WNBA Finals again in 2015. They obtained Clark some offensive assist by signing six-time All-Star DeWanna Bonner, who averaged 15 factors per recreation final season with the Connecticut Solar, and addressed the defensive weaknesses with a former Defensive Participant of the 12 months in Natasha Howard.

It is promising! The Fever at the moment have the third-best odds to win the title. That is likely to be optimistic, however they need to be a stronger contender than they have been final 12 months. (And by the way in which, what an exciting time to be an Indiana basketball fan, with the Pacers again within the Japanese Convention Finals.)

Paige Bueckers hasn’t but performed an everyday season recreation for the Dallas Wings. However the autograph of this April’s high draft choose was already in demand throughout the preseason.

Sam Hodde/Getty Photographs

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Sam Hodde/Getty Photographs

Simply how a lot can Paige Bueckers assist Dallas? 

In her faculty profession at UConn, Bueckers misplaced solely 13 video games throughout 4 seasons. Her new WNBA staff, the Dallas Wings, in the meantime, has misplaced a minimum of that many video games in each season because the staff moved to Texas in 2016.

It is an excessive amount of to ask of Bueckers, 2025’s most hyped rookie, to show Dallas round this season — in spite of everything, it is a franchise that received just one playoff collection previously 15 years. Studying to abdomen the losses can be an adjustment, she admitted final week.

“I’ve come to the belief that I have been extraordinarily blessed and lucky to be in nice conditions in highschool and faculty,” she informed reporters. “It is completely different within the W. You do not see groups going undefeated.”

Final season, the Wings have been a dreadful 9-31. However with the ache got here a prize: Bueckers, after all, who was chosen with the top overall pick in final month’s WNBA Draft barely per week after she had led UConn to an NCAA championship.

Bueckers is predicted to be a starter on Day 1, and he or she’s already the frontrunner for Rookie of the 12 months. She scored 10 factors within the Wings’ preseason recreation towards the Las Vegas Aces (though the Aces smoked the Wings by 37 factors).

That is an excellent begin, although it’s going to take time to regulate to the elevated physicality of the WNBA. Give her a month to regulate and see how she’s doing by the tip of June — the Wings can solely go up from final 12 months, and a ROTY-level marketing campaign from Bueckers can be an awesome begin to her profession in Dallas.

Can A’ja Wilson turn out to be the primary participant to win MVP 4 occasions? 

Talking of the Aces: A’ja Wilson continues to be the best player in the league. She has received MVP in three of the previous 5 seasons, and he or she’ll be a frontrunner once more this 12 months till another person can show in any other case. (Paging Napheesa Collier: Is that this your 12 months?)

Final 12 months, Wilson turned the fourth participant within the league’s historical past to be named MVP for a 3rd time, becoming a member of Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson. These gamers have been legends, after all, however their accomplishments got here in a special period for girls’s basketball. Wilson’s dominance within the fashionable recreation — especially last season, with her unanimous MVP vote — is one thing outstanding (and he or she’s solely 28).

In a survey this week, the WNBA’s basic managers mentioned that the Lynx’s Collier, who completed second within the vote final season, was almost certainly to be this 12 months’s MVP. Wilson was second, and Clark was third. The betting markets favor Clark.

For the Aces, capitalizing on Wilson’s efficiency is the larger image, after all. Final season was a little bit of a letdown after the Aces received all of it in ’22 and ’23. A 3-peat was at all times going to be powerful, because the league round them stored bettering. Now, it is on Vegas to point out that they’ve made themselves higher, too.

Greater than 17,000 followers got here to see the primary preseason recreation for the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s first enlargement staff since 2008.

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Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Photographs

A debut for the Golden State Valkyries

This can be a large second for the WNBA, with the Valkyries making their debut because the league’s first new enlargement staff since 2008. Two extra groups are set to hitch the league subsequent season — one in Toronto, and one in Portland — and the WNBA expects so as to add a fourth in 2028, bringing the league to 16 groups for the primary time since 2002.

“This progress is one other testomony to the energy of our league and the demand we’re seeing from our followers — and from cities and from homeowners who wish to be a part of the WNBA’s future,” mentioned league commissioner Cathy Engelbert ultimately month’s draft.

Enlargement groups often wrestle of their first season, regardless of the game. That is very true within the WNBA, the place solely one of many earlier 10 enlargement groups completed their inaugural season with a successful document.

So it might be too bold to count on the Valkyries to succeed in the playoffs — and even end above .500. However this 12 months can be a hit for them if the staff can get individuals within the door, if the sport expertise is nice sufficient to maintain followers coming again, and if persons are out and about sporting Valkyries gear and speaking in regards to the staff.