Your 2025 Las Vegas Aces Season Preview!

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WNBA season is upon us! A lot has happened this offseason, so I’ve put together some quick and handy guides for every team to help you start the season off right! Planning to go to a game? My sponsor, Turn The Paige Travel, has got all of your travel needs covered! Let’s talk hoops!

What’s New

If you are reading these in alphabetical order, this is the first organization to not have a head coaching change. Shout out to Becky Hammon! How’s that for consistency? Now, they did lose assistants Natalie Nakase and Tyler Marsh. Oh, and they still haven’t hired a new GM either. But they still made player personnel moves, so it’s all good.

Kelsey Plum left in the trade that brought them Jewell Loyd. Kate Martin left via the expansion draft. Tiffany Hayes must have missed her, because she signed with Golden State shortly after. They also lost Alysha Clark and Sydney Colson to free agency. To retool, they traded for backup PG Dana Evans, plus signed G Tiffany Mitchell and PF Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, although she will miss time due to pregnancy (congratulations!). They also drafted sharpshooter Aaliyah Nye out of Alabama. With limited cap space, they needed to find a diamond in the rough in the form of a training camp contract. It would appear they did so with F Crystal Bradford.

What’s Good

Where do we start? They have the best player on the planet in A’ja Wilson. They also have PG Chelsea Gray, who looked every bit recovered from the foot injury that plagued her last season as she dominated Unrivaled. They will be joined in the starting lineup by all-stars Jackie Young and Jewell Loyd, who each have chips on their shoulders coming off of uncharacteristically inefficient seasons.

You pretty much know what you’re going to get out of this team by now. Becky Hammon is arguably the best coach in the WNBA, and has figured out how to make top-heavy rosters work before to the tune of 2 rings. Things will look slightly different with Loyd in for Plum and a revamped bench. However, they were due for a change and managed to come out alright despite having very little salary cap wiggle room and that whole no GM thing.

What Could Go Wrong

Well, the margin for error is razor thin. It’s unrealistic to expect A’ja Wilson to have unprecedented season after unprecedented season with no real low-post help. Starting C Kiah Stokes’ offense is either bad or nonexistent. Megan Gustafson is out indefinitely with an injury and has been used as more of a perimeter threat here. Liz Kitley operated at her best out of the high post in college and is coming off an ACL tear. So they’re really relying on Parker-Tyus to come into a new system after giving birth and provide some post-scoring relief.

While I understand moving on from Plum, I’m not sure if replacing her with Loyd really counts as a change. They are both players who need a large volume of shots and whose efficiency comes and goes. If Loyd shoots anywhere near as badly as she did last season, the move will be a massive downgrade, even considering Loyd is almost guaranteed to be a better defender.

Speaking of that, who takes over the Alysha Clark role of guarding opposing 3s and 4s? If I could frame her defense of Stewie from the final possession of the 2023 Finals and hang it on my wall, I would. The easy answer is Jackie Young, but that’s a grind that could affect both her health and her offense. After all she went through last season, is that worth the risk?

What To Expect

Outside of A’ja, this team never got on track last season, but still managed to win 27 games and make it to the semifinals. Add in a healthier Point Gawd and Jackie Young, a more efficient Jewell Loyd, and a giant chip on everyone’s shoulders, and you have a recipe for a title contender. It won’t look as dominant as it did in 2023, but that’s fine. There will be bumps along the way as the new pieces figure out their roles, but this will be a top-4 seed when it’s all said and done.

Thank you for checking this guide out! Don’t forget to read up on all the other teams as well. Also, do you need to know which sporting events to watch each week? Subscribe to get my weekly sports watch guide! I hit you with what you need to watch, why you need to watch it, and some interesting stories from the sports world that you may have missed!