The 2026 WNBA season is set to begin with finalized rosters and significant contracts. Key storylines will shape the league's 30th season, promising an exciting summer ahead.
Getty Images
The collective bargaining agreement is set. Million-dollar contracts have been signed. The most chaotic WNBA free agency period in history is in the rearview mirror. The rosters are being finalized. And finally, it is time for the 2026 WNBA season to tip off.
This is the 30th season of the trailblazing league, and the stage is set for it to be one of the best yet. But after all of the offseason chaos, it can be hard to know what to expect on the court this summer. So, without further ado, here are 10 storylines to follow this season.
The Las Vegas Aces' 2025 championship officially cemented them as a WNBA dynasty. Now, the only question is: Will they go down as the greatest dynasty in WNBA history? They have already won three out of the last four and repeated in 2022 and 2023. Another repeat would certainly vault them up the list.
So far, they are off to a good start. The Aces were able to retain eight of the nine players who scored points in their playoff run last season, losing only backup center Megan Gustafson in free agency. They brought back Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd and, most importantly, A'ja Wilson, who is coming off her fourth MVP season and still very much in her prime.
[2026 WNBA Player Rankings: How A'ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, more stack up entering league's 30th season
Jack Maloney
The Aces made some improvements around the margins of their team, too, particularly by adding the electric but enigmatic Chennedy Carter to the guard rotation. Considering backup guard Dana Evans is still recovering from injury, Carter will provide crucial depth early this season. They also added two smart, veteran role players, Stephanie Talbot and Brianna Turner. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, who was an All-Star in 2023, is fully back after missing most of last season because of maternity leave. NaLyssa Smith -- who played a huge part in the Aces' midseason turnaround after being acquired via trade -- has now had a full offseason in the Aces' system.
Winning one championship is excruciatingly hard. Winning back-to-back championships, let alone four in five years, is almost impossible. But Becky Hammon's team looks to be up for the challenge.
The biggest challengers for the Aces will, once again, be the New York Liberty. The Liberty won the 2024 championship behind their Big Three of Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu, but struggled in 2025 due to injuries and fell in the first round. The offseason was full of changes -- most notably parting with coach Sandy Brondello (who is now the coach of the Toronto Tempo), hiring Golden State Warriors assistant coach Chris DeMarco in her stead and adding three-time All-Star Satou Sabally.
While last year's first-round playoff loss was a disappointment, the Liberty have still been extremely good with Stewart, Jones and Ionescu on the court. When announcing the re-signing of Ionescu last month, the Liberty touted that in 1,733 regular season minutes with Ionescu, Jones and Stewart on the court together since 2023, the team recorded a plus-16.8 net rating, and New York posted a 70-16 record (81.4 percent) in games with all three stars in the starting lineup, the best winning percentage by any trio with at least 50 starts together since at least 2002.
Adding Sabally -- who averaged 19 points, seven rebounds and 2.5 assists for the Phoenix Mercury in the playoffs last year -- simply gives the Liberty an embarrassment of riches, as well as a safety net to keep the team afloat when dealing with an injury to a star, something they're already facing with Ionescu out the first two weeks of the season with a left foot injury.
Caitlin Clark's superstar status has helped vault the WNBA into a new stratosphere of popularity and financial stability, and her rookie season was a phenomenal showcase of her on-court heroics.
But last year, Clark only played in 13 games due to a right groin strain and a left ankle bone bruise. Without her, the Indiana Fever still found success. The team had its first winning season since 2015, made the playoffs as the No. 6 seed, hosted its first playoff game since 2016 and won its first playoff game and playoff series since 2015. Then, the Fever pushed the eventual champion Aces to overtime of Game 5 in the semis, despite missing not only Clark but also Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald.
[WNBA Power Rankings: Aces open 2026 season at No. 1, with Liberty, Fever and more threatening
Jack Maloney
In the offseason, the Fever achieved their main objective: re-signing Kelsey Mitchell. They also brought back Cunningham, Lexie Hull and Damiris Dantas. While they lost Natasha Howard to free agency, they brought in two versatile post pieces, Monique Billings and Myisha Hines-Allen, and have key guard depth thanks to veteran Tyasha Harris and rookie Raven Johnson, who might end up being one of the steals of the draft at No. 10 overall. On paper, there's every reason to believe that the Fever should be right back contending for a title this season.
But let's face it, despite last year's heroics, the Fever need a healthy Clark to get to where they want to be, and WNBA fans and broadcast partners want to see her on the court, too. She already survived an injury scare in the preseason; hopefully, that luck continues throughout the season.
One of the most exciting and surprising moves this offseason came when the Chicago Sky traded Angel Reese to the Atlanta Dream in exchange for two first-round picks. While our Jack Maloney gave the Sky an "F" for the trade, he gave an "A" to the Dream.
In 2025, under first-year coach Karl Smesko, the Dream won a franchise-record 30 games and finished second in the league in offensive rating (108.2), defensive rating (98.9) and net rating (plus-9.3) and third in the standings. While they were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the Fever, the Dream were expected to still be a contender this season even before Reese joined, especially after re-signing their core of Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard and Brionna Jones.
But Reese, who averaged 14.7 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals last season, instantly lifts their ceiling, especially with Jones recovering from an offseason injury and her return timetable is unknown. Reese had a very impressive first two seasons and is already one of the best rebounders the WNBA has ever seen. But it has been frustrating to see such a bright star dimmed by organizational dysfunction in Chicago. Now, she's surrounded by the speed, spacing and two-way talent needed to both maximize and grow her skillset.
It is going to be a treat to see whether Reese and the Dream truly bring out the best in one another. If they do? Watch out.
[Why Angel Reese trade is great for her, the Dream, the WNBA... and her rivalry with Caitlin Clark
Lindsay Gibbs
Last month, the Dallas Wings drafted Azzi Fudd with the No. 1 pick just one year after they drafted her former UConn teammate, Paige Bueckers, first overall. A lot of the talk about the two in the past few weeks has been about their off-court relationship, given that Bueckers confirmed Fudd was her girlfriend in a TikTok video last year. The noise around the duo intensified after the Wings shut down a question about their relationship in Fudd's welcome press conference.
But a week later, Bueckers addressed the topic head-on.
"Me and Azzi are not new to this," Bueckers said. "We've been doing this for a long time. We have countless reps at it. We have a lot of experience with it, so we will continue to use that experience to show up and be professionals, great teammates, great leaders, the hardest workers and continue to show up and do our job and help the Dallas Wings win basketball games."
While the intrigue about their personal relationship is understandable, there should be even more fascination about whether their on-court chemistry will translate to the WNBA. Injuries kept Bueckers and Fudd from playing together for the majority of their college careers, but in the lone season they were both healthy, they led UConn to a national championship in 2025.
Wings general manager Curt Miller has done a great job of surrounding Bueckers and Fudd with talent -- he re-signed dynamic veteran Arike Ogunbowale as their backcourt mate and added key pieces like Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard to the frontcourt. This is far from a championship-or-bust season for the Wings. But if Bueckers and Fudd can immediately re-establish the on-court connection they had in college, the Wings could be right there in the mix for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Last year, the Minnesota Lynx went 34-10 in the regular season to grab the No. 1 seed in the WNBA playoffs. In August, it seemed almost inevitable that they would win the championship and that Napheesa Collier would be MVP. But Collier missed three weeks in August after spraining her right ankle and then tore three ligaments in her left ankle and a muscle in her left shin in Game 3 of the WNBA semifinals against the Mercury. The Lynx went on to lose that series.
Collier, a five-time WNBA All-Star who finished second in MVP voting behind Wilson in 2024 and 2025, had two ankle surgeries in the offseason, with the most recent being on March 24. At the beginning of training camp, the Lynx said Collier was not expected to return to on-court activities until early June -- meaning it could be mid-June or later before her season begins.
[2026 WNBA standings predictions: Expert picks for full season, Finals matchup
Jack Maloney
It's a big loss that one of the best players in the league won't play a full season. Will the Lynx be able to stay in the mix while she's out? Minnesota brought back its core of Collier, Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams and drafted point guard Olivia Miles with the No. 3 overall pick. But they also lost key pieces like Natisha Hiedeman, Jessica Shepard and Alanna Smith to free agency and Bridget Carleton in the expansion draft. If anyone can keep a team together through adversity, it's coach Cheryl Reeve, but winning without Collier is quite the challenge.
It has been a rough few years for the Los Angeles Sparks. The three-time WNBA champions have not made it to the playoffs since 2020, and haven't won a multi-game playoff series since 2017. But things started to turn around a bit in 2025 when they signed Kelsey Plum in free agency. Though the Sparks didn't make the postseason, they did improve from 8-32 in 2024 to 21-23 in 2025, and Plum and Dearica Hamby established themselves as a core to build around.
Then, this offseason, the Sparks got a big boost in both reputation and production when franchise legend Nneka Ogwumike returned to Los Angeles. Ogwumike was drafted by the Sparks with the No. 1 overall pick in 2012 and led them to a WNBA championship in 2016, the same year she was named MVP. But after the 2023 season, when the Sparks went 17-23, she left for the Seattle Storm in free agency.
But Ogwumike, a 10-time All-Star (including the last four years), returned to the Sparks last month, putting her faith in second-year coach Lynn Roberts and the positive trajectory of the Sparks' organization as a whole. The Sparks also traded for two-time All-Star Ariel Atkins and finally have a healthy Cameron Brink. The team's depth is a bit iffy, so they will need some luck in the injury department, but this could be the year one of the WNBA's founding franchises returns to respectability.
In 2025, the Golden State Valkyries became the first WNBA expansion team since the Atlanta Dream in 2008. The Valkyries far exceeded expectations, going 23-21 and becoming the first expansion team to make the playoffs in its inaugural season. They also led the league in attendance, with a staggering 18,064 fans per game -- a full-season sellout.
This year, two more teams are joining the WNBA family -- the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire -- to bring the league's total to 15.
The two teams are taking very different approaches to their first season. The Tempo are in win-now mode with WNBA veterans Marina Mabrey, Julie Allemand and Brittney Sykes in the backcourt and Temi Fagbenle and Nyara Sabally in the post, as well as No. 6 overall draft pick Kiki Rice fresh off of winning a national title at UCLA. With two-time WNBA champion coach Sandy Brondello leading the way, the WNBA's first Canadian team will try to follow Golden State's footsteps and make a playoff push in Year 1.
The Fire, meanwhile, look to be focused more on development in their first year. Coach Alex Sarama is new to the WNBA and spearheads a methodology called the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA), which prioritizes player autonomy and decision-making over more traditional, rigid play-calling. The Fire's first-round draft pick this year, Iyana Martín Carrión of Spain, is staying in Europe this summer, another indication that the Fire are more focused on the future than on immediate success. Still, with players such as Bridget Carleton and Haley Jones leading the way, it will be fun to follow the Fire's progress.
[Who is Portland Fire coach Alex Sarama? Isaac Okoro on the 'basketball junkie' leading the WNBA expansion team
Jack Maloney
The past few years, the Rookie of the Year vote has felt like a foregone conclusion before the season even began, with Aliyah Boston, Clark and Bueckers all taking the prize. This year, the race feels far more wide open. Fudd is, of course, a contender, but with Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale both being such prolific scorers, she might not get the usage necessary to sway voters. Miles in Minnesota is the preseason favorite for the award according to the WNBA GM survey, but Flau'jae Johnson in Seattle got some votes in that poll, too.
There are also some dark-horse contenders. No. 2 overall pick Awa Fam is seen as more of a long-term prospect for the Storm, but she certainly has the talent to win it. Lauren Betts in Washington will be coming off the bench behind Shakira Austin to start the season, so she might not get enough minutes to be in contention. But what about Mystics point guard Georgia Amoore, a 2025 first-round draft pick who missed last year because of a torn ACL? This is her rookie year, and she'll be a starter. Also keep an eye on a couple of players in Toronto -- Rice, as well as Maria Conde, a 29-year-old rookie out of Spain who has been called "the best European talent to have never played in the WNBA before." It's going to be a fun race to follow.
OK, I admit that this is a bit of a cop-out here for the last storyline, but every season preview needs a catch-all category. The truth is, an endless amount of possibilities await us heading into the WNBA's 30th season, and one of the most enjoyable parts of following the league is seeing storylines emerge that you didn't even think were possible.
The Mercury look poised to have a down year after losing Sabally in free agency and suffering some key injuries in the offseason. But what if Alyssa Thomas puts the team on her back and powers them back into the Finals anyway? It is the final season for the Connecticut Sun, as the franchise will move to Houston next year and be reincarnated as the Houston Comets. On-court expectations are low. But what if Brittney Griner, Aaliyah Edwards, Saniya Rivers and company give the fans one last playoff run for the ages? What if Dominique Malonga's second-year leap in Seattle is enough to keep the Storm in the mix? What if the youth movement in Washington matures quickly enough to put the Mystics back on the map? And could the Sky have possibly assembled a dangerous team despite the offseason chaos?
This league is so loaded with talent that there's potential at every corner.
The major storylines include the impact of new contracts, team dynamics after a chaotic free agency, and the overall expectations for the league's 30th season.
The collective bargaining agreement has led to million-dollar contracts, significantly changing the financial landscape for players and teams in the WNBA.
While specific predictions vary, teams with strong offseason acquisitions and solid rosters are anticipated to be competitive in the upcoming season.
The 2026 WNBA season is set to tip off soon, marking the beginning of the league's 30th anniversary celebrations.
Crystal Palace secured their first-ever European final with a 2-1 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, winning 5-2 on aggregate in the Conference League semi-finals. They will face Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig.
Bayern Munich has started discussions with Newcastle about signing Anthony Gordon this summer.
ESPN highlights the Panthers' biggest roster need for the 2026 NFL season.
Aston Villa and Freiburg secure spots in the Europa League final!
See every story in Sports — including breaking news and analysis.
