{"id":164486,"date":"2025-09-23T19:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T19:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164486\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T19:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T19:14:07","slug":"atlanta-dream-gm-dan-padover-named-wnba-executive-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164486\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Dream GM Dan Padover named WNBA Executive of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the most successful regular season in Atlanta Dream history, general manager Dan Padover was named WNBA Executive of the Year on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

This is the third time Padover has won the honor, the previous two coming in 2020 and 2021 when he was general manager of the Las Vegas Aces. He is the first three-time winner since the award was instituted in 2017.<\/p>\n

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Unlike most of the other postseason awards, Executive of the Year is voted upon by the general managers of each WNBA team. There were 14 voters this season, as every active team got a vote plus the general manager of the Toronto Tempo, Monica Wright Rogers, who was hired before the start of the 2025 season. Each voter ranks three executives, with three points for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote and one point for a third-place vote. They can\u2019t vote for themselves.<\/p>\n

Padover received eight first-place votes and appeared on 12 total ballots. Golden State general manager Ohemaa Nyanin finished in second place, followed by Phoenix\u2019s Nick U\u2019Ren.<\/p>\n

Padover\u2019s biggest move in reshaping the Dream, who doubled their win total from 2024 to 2025, was hiring Karl Smesko as the franchise\u2019s head coach<\/a> and settling on a head coach of the future, as much of the rest of the league rides the coaching carousel. Smesko helped improve the team\u2019s offensive efficiency from dead last in 2024 to second in 2025 as Atlanta finished tied for second with Las Vegas in the WNBA standings. They did so despite significant missed time for both backcourt starters Jordin Canada (16 games) and Rhyne Howard (11 games).<\/p>\n

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During free agency, Padover also signed Brionna Jones, who put forth another All-Star season, and Brittney Griner, who was arguably the highest-profile signing in the franchise\u2019s history. Additionally, Padover drafted Te-Hina Paopao with the 18th overall pick, and Paopao finished fifth among rookies in total win shares.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bThis award is really a reflection of the people around me,\u201d Padover said. \u201cFrom our ownership group to (assistant GM) Brooklyn (Cartwright) to Karl and the coaching staff to the players who\u2019ve bought into what we\u2019re building, everyone has played a role in pushing the Dream forward. Collectively, we have tried to be intentional about every move \u2014 not just chasing short-term wins, but building something sustainable in Atlanta. To be recognized by my peers means a lot, but the real reward is seeing this organization grow into what we all believe it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dream\u2019s postseason ended sooner than expected as they were upset by the Indiana Fever<\/a> in the first round, though the series featured the franchise\u2019s first playoff win in seven seasons. Incidentally, no executive of the year has ever won a title in the same season, though the last two did advance to the WNBA Finals.<\/p>\n

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Atlanta has team control of two starters (Howard and Naz Hillmon) as restricted free agents heading into the 2026 offseason. The Dream will also have the opportunity to core MVP finalist Allisha Gray, plus Paopao remains on a rookie contract. The next step from playoff participant to title contention will truly test the mettle of Padover and the organization.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Atlanta Dream, WNBA<\/p>\n

2025 The Athletic Media Company<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the most successful regular season in Atlanta Dream history, general manager Dan Padover was named WNBA Executive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[4643,732,6739,23311,49,48,85106,2803,24809,43808,1483,3460,85108,39661,85107,6740,82,43807,630,32563],"class_list":["post-164486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-allisha-gray","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-brionna-jones","tag-brittney-griner","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dan-padover","tag-indiana-fever","tag-jordin-canada","tag-karl-smesko","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-monica-wright-rogers","tag-naz-hillmon","tag-padover","tag-rhyne-howard","tag-sports","tag-the-dream","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-standings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}