Early Trends We’re Following for the 2026 WNBA Season

Plus, the players who are fitting in with their new teams and which stumbling contenders should be worried.

Natasha Howard and Olivia Miles have clicked early, making the Lynx a more formidable team than many expected at the start of the season. | Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

With three weeks of the WNBA season now complete, we’re starting to get an understanding of what each team is made of this year. Expansion teams exceeding expectations. Rookies taking over their new squads. And even some preseason contenders experiencing early hiccups. 

How much can we make of all this? Well, we’ll let the 2025 Aces remind you just how quickly a season can change. But for now, here are the early-season trends our writers and editors are following, plus which players are shining on new squads. 

What’s a trend you’ve been following this season? 

Emma Baccellieri: We’ve already spent plenty of time discussing the new refereeing emphasis on freedom of movement—but it’s still the most interesting trend here for me. What I’m most curious to see is how much players do (or do not!) adjust going forward. There’s been an uptick in scoring this season driven almost entirely by the uptick in free throws: 85.9 ppg with 22.2 free throw attempts this season up from 81.7 ppg with 18.2 free throw attempts last season. Do we see that continue as the year goes on? Or will teams cut down on fouls as they adjust to a better sense of what gets called and what doesn’t?  

Clare Brennan: Throwback jerseys. In honor of the WNBA’s 30th anniversary, the Liberty, Mercury and Sparks (the three original franchises that are still in their original market) debuted retro-inspired kits. Phoenix and New York both donned vintage looks during their May 27 matchup at Barclays Center, which made the product pop, especially on TV. (Shout out to the Liberty for carrying over the retro theme to their social media, too.) While we’re here, the Valkyries get an honorable mention for their lavender uniforms. Watching Golden State’s swarm of purple collide with New York’s seafoam-clad squad was a sight to behold. 

Dan Falkenheim: The death of the two-hour game. Through 53 games, the average time it’s taken to get from the opening tip to the final buzzer has stretched to 128.2 minutes. It has never taken longer to complete a game during the first four weeks of the season, and games are lasting five minutes longer on average than they did even a year ago. While games have tended to drift past two hours since the introduction of the coach’s challenge in 2023, there are two clear culprits for this year’s spike: more fouls and more reviews (yes, reviews are also slightly up this year). Both have led to choppier, longer games. Here’s hoping the right balance is struck, soon.

Source: pbpstats

Blake Silverman: The international wave’s growth in this expansion era. Before the Valkyries, Tempo and Fire joined the party, the WNBA had just 144 total roster spots. It’s the hardest professional sports league to crack a roster and the total roster pool has increased 25% in just two years before you include the new addition of developmental spots. That’s provided more runway for international players to make the jump to the WNBA while increased salaries under the new CBA makes the move more attractive from overseas. Phoenix’s Jovana Nogić and Toronto’s Laura Juškaitė have made an immediate impact in their first WNBA seasons, both at 28 years old. Pauline Astier went undrafted and quickly helped fill the Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu gap. Nyadiew Puoch landed with Portland after she was Atlanta’s first-round pick in last year’s draft before she stayed overseas. As part of the offseason expansion draft, she’s already shown flashes through her first WNBA action that showcased why she was a coveted draft prospect. International development has always been a swing factor for bolstering a roster, but it’s increasingly critical as expansion franchises join the fold each offseason.

Which player is fitting in best with their new team?

Baccellieri: Natasha Howard. (O.K., so it’s an old new team for her, but it’s been almost a decade since Howard was last with the Lynx.) The 34-year-old forward has been a huge part of the surprisingly successful start in Minnesota. Howard is shooting more efficiently than she ever has (67.1% from the field!) and is on track for a career high in rebounds. No one has benefitted from more of Olivia Miles’s assists than Howard: Their pick-and-roll chemistry is among the smoothest in the league. It’s feeling like a true career renaissance for Howard.  

Brennan: Olivia Miles. The rookie isn’t fitting in with the Lynx so much as she’s taking over the Lynx. As Emma said, Miles’s connection with Howard has been seamless, and the young point guard has found ways to get Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride involved in Minnesota’s offense, too. Many thought the Lynx would struggle without Napheesa Collier, who is out due to injury, but instead they have charged to a 5–2 start, thanks in large part to Miles. It’s rare for a first-year player to be handed the keys to a team’s offense, but Cheryl Reeve has done just that, bestowing Miles with the lofty responsibility. And Miles has risen to the challenge, looking poised beyond her years, averaging 15.1 points and 5.9 assists per game. 

Falkenheim: Emily Engstler. Before the season, Portland Fire coach Alex Sarama talked about how he wanted his team to create havoc on defense and hunt for efficient shots on offense. Consider Engstler the epitome of what Sarama had hoped to achieve: She is averaging career highs in steals and blocks per 100 possessions while also doing more damage near the rim and shooting 39.1% beyond the arc. A true starter for the first time in her career, Engstler has played like the best version of herself after spending her first four seasons with the Fever, Lynx and Mystics.

Silverman: Carla Leite. The 22-year-old guard was selected in the expansion draft two years in a row after the Fire took her from the Valkyries over the offseason. She was the ninth pick in the 2024 draft and remained overseas that year before she made her WNBA debut for Golden State last season. Leite had a strong rookie season mostly off the bench, but she’s really thrived to start the year with Portland. As Sarama’s lead guard, she’s scoring just as much as Bridget Carleton who was presumed to be Portland's primary source of offense once the roster was set. Leite’s best performance so far was a 21-point night in the thrilling win over the Liberty where Sarah Ashlee Barker beat the buzzer to bring the franchise its first win. Then, she followed that up with 18 points in another win over New York on Monday where she hit a dagger three-pointer over Breanna Stewart with 13.7 seconds left after a clutch layup on the previous possession.

CARLA LEITE. DAGGER.pic.twitter.com/JBlBX9KYEU

— Underdog WNBA (@UnderdogWNBA) May 26, 2026

In what’s already a surprising season for the expansion Fire, Leite’s further development has been the most pleasant surprise. 

Which contender are you most worried about?

Baccellieri: The Sparks. (No, they weren’t included on most preseason lists of likely contenders… but I’d counter that L.A.’s front-office moves seemed to make it clear it believed this team should be contending.) They have the best offensive rating in the league and the worst defensive rating. That combination works in some games and sputters massively in others. And with leading scorer Kelsey Plum now sidelined for at least a week on a sprained ankle, it’s much, much harder to see it working.  

Brennan: The Liberty. Injuries plagued New York last season, and they’ve been a problem again early this year. Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally are still working their way back from injury, while Leonie Fiebich only recently returned from international duty and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton missed three games due to personal reasons. New York is also working to adapt to new coach Chris DeMarco’s offensive scheme, which emphasizes simplicity and structure and prioritizes more ball movement. Once the Liberty get all their pieces back and up to speed, perhaps they can turn a corner, bouncing back after failing to score more than 76 points during a three-game home stretch against the Valkyries, Wings and Fire. A silver lining? Marine Johannes is off to a blistering start, draining seven of her nine attempted threes during New York’s 84–74 win over the Mercury.  

Falkenheim: The Mercury. Alyssa Thomas’s quote after Phoenix’s loss to the Dream on Monday should ring alarm bells. “It starts on the defensive end, and that's the biggest thing. We keep harping on it, and we're just going to keep trying to find people that can play defense,” she said. “We took a step in the right direction, and we just got to continue to grow, continue to pick people up.” She isn’t wrong. Through six games, Phoenix has allowed the fourth-worst defensive rating. Even with Monique Akoa Makani back in the lineup on Wednesday night, the Mercury’s defense wilted and surrendered 23 unanswered points to the Liberty. On offense, they had trouble even advancing the ball past half court during that stretch. Phoenix may settle in at some point, but it is simply not playing like the team that made the WNBA finals last year.

Silverman: The Liberty. And not just because our entire Sports Illustrated staff picked New York as the preseason champion. New York snapped a three-game losing streak Wednesday with a win over the Mercury, who are off to a dreadful start of their own. Ionescu has been on the floor for just one game thus far with 11 points in 31 minutes in a loss Sunday to the Wings. She was held out of New York’s game Monday on the second leg of a back-to-back after her season debut. Then, she missed Wednesday’s win over Phoenix due to a back injury and general soreness. 

Astier has been a good Ionescu replacement, but New York needs the four-time All-Star available to take pressure off Stewart and Jonquel Jones. On the bright side, Laney-Hamilton returned after a three-game absence, scoring seven points in 13 minutes off the bench against Phoenix. After a 4–4 start, however, health is a big question for the Liberty with both Ionescu and star acquisition Sabally’s availability moving forward. In the midst of a massive coaching change away from Sandy Brondello, the start of the season has been anything but smooth for the preseason favorite.

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