The 2025 WNBA season is approaching, and several teams will enter it looking much different than they did last season. This offseason saw a lot of player movement, and several stars were involved in blockbuster trades. Alyssa Thomas, Satou Sabally, Kelsey Plum, and Jewell Loyd all changed teams via trades.
While there is still plenty of time left until the start of the season, WNBA fans are already able to get a sense of what the league will look like this year. Most team’s goals are already rather obvious.
Given how much player movement there was this offseason, the standings might look very different this year, and several teams are well set up to improve their win total compared to the 2024 season.
3. Indiana Fever
The Indiana Fever wasted no time building a competitive team around Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston. Most notably, they re-signed Kelsey Mitchell, signed veterans DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard, and essentially traded NaLyssa Smith for Sophie Cunningham.
This is a much different team than the Fever squad that finished the 2024 season in sixth place with a 20-20 record. The Fever focused on improving defensively and adding playoff experience to the roster. Last season, the Fever were bad defensively, and none of their top players had any substantial playoff experience. Both limited them in the regular season as well as the playoffs, but should not be as big of a problem this year.
The Fever certainly look well set up to finish the regular season above 0.500.
2. Atlanta Dream
Plagued by injuries, the Atlanta Dream did not have a particularly good season in 2024. Rhyne Howard, Jordin Canada, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, and Aerial Powers all missed significant time. Especially missing Howard and Canada for 10 and 20 games, respectively, hurt the Dream’s offense. They had the worst offensive rating in the league and finished the regular season with a 15-25 record.
That is not where the Dream want to be. They have not gotten past the first round of the playoffs since 2018 and just barely made it last season. The Dream only had one more win than the Washington Mystics.
The 2025 season promises to look much better. The Dream still have Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray, and Jordin Canada. All three are currently playing in Unrivaled and will enter the 2025 season in great shape. Plus, the Dream signed two All-Star-level bigs this offseason, adding Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones to the roster.
If they can stay healthy, the Dream should be able to finish the season with a much better record than last season.
1. Los Angeles Sparks
The Sparks also had to deal with plenty of injuries last season. Cameron Brink only played 15 games, Azura Stevens missed hard the season, and Lexie Brown was only available for 16 games. That was not the only reason the Sparks finished with the worst record in the league, though. Especially after Cameron Brink’s injury, this was not a very competitive team, and the Sparks ended up only winning eight games.
They should be able to significantly improve that win total in the 2025 season. Not only will Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson enter the season with more experience, but the Sparks also added another All-Star to the mix.
They traded the second overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft for Kelsey Plum, adding one of the top guards in the league to their top group of Brink, Jackson, and Dearica Hamby. Teams do not make that kind of move if they do not think they are ready to improve and win more games.
While the Sparks may not be one of the top teams in the league, they should be able to win more than eight games.