Good, Bad and Ugly: WNBA Teams That Have Changed Their Stocks This Season

Taking a look at teams that have exceeded expectations—and those that haven’t lived up to preseason hype.

With Olivia Miles (center) taking the reins of Minnesota’s 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 they’ll take on the Liberty, another squad that always has lofty expectations in recent years.

But what about the teams that aren’t 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. 

Which team’s stock has changed the most this season? 

Clare Brennan: The Lynx. Preseason expectations for Minnesota were low. Napheesa Collier has been yet to play, the team’s 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 year’s 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 (if the No. 2 pick counts as a steal?), with the rookie putting on one of the best first-year performances in league history. Averaging 18.5 points, 5.6 assists and 4.9 rebounds, Miles has emerged as one of the league’s best guards, taking the reins of Minnesota’s 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. 

Silencing a lot of preseason skeptics, the Lynx lead the league as the team to beat.

Blake Silverman: The Fire. Portland is getting its flowers at the wrong time, just 3–7 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. There’s plenty of season left for the Fire’s slide to continue, but coach Alex Sarama has done a great job in the franchise’s 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. That’s 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 she’s been just as good with a real case to earn her first All-Star nod this year. Megan Gustafson was a nice free-agent signing and Emily Engstler has been impactful in her minutes as a mainstay in Sarama’s starting lineup. Plus, Sarah Ashlee Barker’s game-winner to give the Fire their first win is the best feel-good moment of the season thus far.

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.

Dan Falkenheim: The Mercury. The franchise is still healthy—Phoenix has two stars (Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper), a good head coach (Nate Tibbetts) and an invested ownership group—but the team’s on-court results have not lived up to the standard set by last season’s run to the finals. 

What’s 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, Noémie Brochant and Jovana Nogić have stepped into the starting lineup. At the same time, the Mercury’s defensive rating has slipped from 100.4 (fifth-best) to 109.2 (11th-best). That’s a 9% dropoff.

Phoenix’s 6–13 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. After Wednesday night’s win against the Fever, the 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? That’s an open question.

Emma Baccellieri: The Sky. That’s 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 5–12 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. They’ve repeatedly struggled to close out games even when they have a late lead. There are certainly a few big structural problems with this franchise. (As we’ve covered in these roundtables before!) But when it comes to fixing the product on the floor right now, there are so many issues that it’s 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? 

I’d ordinarily say the best-case scenario here is pivoting and hoping to land a high draft pick. But, of course, that doesn’t apply, because the Sky traded away their 2027 pick last year… in order to acquire Ariel Atkins… who has already been traded away herself. There’s no pathway to tanking here. Yet there’s little pathway to anything else, either. 

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