<\/p>\n
The Valkyries\u2019s Kiah Stokes (41), Veronica Burton (22), Kayla Thornton (5), Tiffany Hayes (15) and Ashlon Jackson (9) confer during their\u00a0lone\u00a0preseason game against the Seattle Storm at Chase Center on April 25.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Is Caitlin Clark one of the 10 best players in the WNBA? The folks at ESPN think so, just barely. She is 10th on their list of the top 50 heading into the season. There are seven players ranked ahead of Paige Bueckers, too. Up top is MVP A\u2019ja Wilson.<\/p>\n
What a blessing for the league. As the season begins on Friday, the level of talent is skyrocketing like the cash flow. Players are finally earning closer to what they\u2019re worth, in many cases tripling their 2025 paychecks. I don\u2019t believe any of the 15 teams will be unwatchable. They all have something to offer, including the expansion clubs in Toronto and Portland.<\/p>\n
Following the 3-Dot\u2019s long-standing motto, Dead Wrong in Public, here\u2019s a stab as how those teams rank, and where the Golden State Valkyries<\/a> fit:<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 1. New York Liberty: It\u2019s shocking to think of this team without coach Sandy Brondello, who masterminded the 2024 championship, but things move awfully fast in this league. (She\u2019s now coaching the Toronto Tempo.) Expect a convincing rebound from last year\u2019s hit-and-miss affair with Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, 6-foot-4 forward\u00a0Leonie Fiebich (a name to know) and new acquisition Satou Sabally, a first-team all-league selection in 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This team is so loaded, Rebecca Allen and Betnijah\u00a0Laney-Hamilton (returning from knee surgery) come off the bench with Marine Johannes, the French guard known to stop the show with her long-range shooting and creative passing. But Natasha Cloud was not signed for this season, and there\u2019s something very wrong about that.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Cloud represents the WNBA at its finest: class, talent, leadership and a strong sense of social justice. She\u2019s not a perfect fit in New York, as an aging and costly player who has never been a reliable 3-point shooter, but some claim she\u2019s being blackballed by the league because of her political views\u00a0\u2014 notably advocating for a free Palestine.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t sound much like the WNBA. If Cloud winds up without a team, there will be no clarity until she breaks her silence on the matter.<\/p>\n 2. Las Vegas Aces: They\u2019ve got more than enough to win it all with Wilson, show-stopper Chelsea Gray, six-time All-Star Jewell Loyd, rugged NaLyssa Smith and Olympian Jackie Young just entering her prime. Janiah Barker plowed through three schools in college without much satisfaction, but seems a worthy second-round draft pick. If a bigger gamble pays off \u2014 on the troubled but all-world guard Chennedy Carter\u00a0\u2014 they will win it all.<\/p>\n Las Vegas Aces center A\u2019ja Wilson, ranked the\u00a0WNBA\u2019s top player by ESPN, has won four regular-season MVP awards.<\/p>\n Smiley N. Pool\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n 3. Indiana Fever: Aliyah Boston has been out with a lower-leg injury and Clark got banged up (nothing serious) Thursday night in her first home appearance since July, and that\u2019s a trend that cannot continue. Healthy, in tandem with prolific scorer Kelsey Mitchell, this is a pure-excitement team that is superbly coached (by Stephanie White) and returns the crowd-pleasing\u00a0Lexie Hull and Sophie Cunningham. Ex-Valkyries forward Monique Billings<\/a> joins the fun, hoping to build upon her recent Team USA status, and defense-minded Raven Johnson will prove to be an invaluable draft pick.<\/p>\n 4. Atlanta Dream: Angel Reese can only marvel at her good fortune. Miserable in Chicago, and making that clear, she says \u201cI can\u2019t believe this is my life\u201d in joining Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard, Jordin Canada, Brionna Jones and Naz Hillmon, all of whom made a point of staying in Atlanta. Reese is being pushed hard by new coach Karl Smesko to improve her shot, and \u201cthe paint is wide open with so many shooters around me,\u201d she said. Gray calls Reese \u201cthe missing piece we need to take us over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 5. Dallas Wings: Is there a downside to bypassing Olivia Miles and Awa Fam to draft what might be the best pure outside shooter in WNBA history? Bueckers doesn\u2019t think so, remembering Azzi Fudd\u2019s magic touch from their UConn days. And there\u2019s plenty more talent with Arike Ogunbowale, hoping to resurrect her reputation as a deadly clutch shooter, and two excellent additions\u00a0\u2014 Jessica Shepard and Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith\u00a0\u2014 in the frontcourt. As Bueckers begins her second season, she already runs the show \u201cat a doctorate level,\u201d said Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon. \u201cPlays the right way, every time. Gets 35 and still passing the ball like crazy. Like she\u2019s been playing this game forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, guarded by Dallas Wings guard Paige\u00a0Bueckers, returns after a season where she was plagued by groin strains and a quad injury.<\/p>\n Brian Spurlock\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n 6. Valkyries: Perhaps ranked a bit too high, but I won\u2019t doubt anything about coach Natalie Nakase<\/a> or this team until further notice. The Valks are far too sound, too intelligent, too stifling on defense (tops in the league last year) to be discounted. That defense will only improve, dramatically, with Gabby Williams and Kiah Stokes on board. And watch for some huge leaps in scoring potential from the European core of Janelle Sala\u00fcn<\/a>, Cecilia Zandalasini<\/a>, Iliana Rupert<\/a> and Just\u0117 Jocyt\u0117<\/a>. They\u2019re used to putting up big numbers.<\/p>\n 7. Phoenix Mercury: Two of the top 10 players on anyone\u2019s list, Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas, reside here, along with forceful veteran and Thomas\u2019 longtime partner, DeWanna Bonner. The team gets a lot younger from there, but will be a significant contender if guard Monique Akoa Makani, impressive in her first season, takes the next step.<\/p>\n 8. Minnesota Lynx: The great Napheesa Collier will be out until at least June in the wake of ankle surgery, and that leaves much in doubt. But if Miles arrives as advertised to run the offense, this will be an entertaining team featuring the league\u2019s best midrange shooter (Courtney Williams), one of its best 3-point shooters (Kayla McBride), and 12-year veteran Natasha Howard. Perhaps Jaylyn Sherrod, long a favorite of this column and still just 24, will find a home here.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 9. Seattle Storm: What a thoroughly new look. All of last season\u2019s top five scorers are gone, along with the coach, and Sonia Raman is the first person of Indian descent to earn a WNBA head coach job. Are there three more interesting players in the league than Dominique Malonga (more dunks coming), Flau\u2019jae Johnson (moved by the Valkyries on draft day) or Spanish phenom Awa Fam, who went No. 3 overall? Johnson is a no-doubt starter and already looking the part. The frontcourt will be even more fascinating when injury-sidelined Ezi Magbegor returns around midseason.<\/p>\n 10.\u00a0 Washington Mystics: They have exactly zero games scheduled for ESPN\/ABC national television, and that\u2019s a dreadful oversight. You\u2019ll have a fine evening in store if you\u2019re watching Sonia Citron, Georgia Amoore, Kiki Iriafen, Lauren Betts (starting center from UCLA\u2019s national champs) and Shakira Austin. The draft also yielded UCLA\u2019s Angela Dugali\u0107, guard Cotie McMahon (Ole Miss) and Texas point guard Rori Harmon, just 5-foot-6 and undrafted but one of the most influential collegiate players we\u2019ve seen in years.\u00a0<\/p>\n 11. Los Angeles Sparks: Lots of questions after trading away the No. 2 overall pick and (and later Rickea Jackson), but it\u2019s a pretty good team if Cameron Brink doesn\u2019t start. Kelsey Plum is magnificent, Rae Burrell thrives on her athleticism and experience rules the frontcourt with Nneka Ogwumike, Dearica Hamby and Ariel Atkins.<\/p>\n 12. Connecticut Sun: It\u2019s a sad story with the team bound for Houston next season after being so properly run by the first Native American tribe (Mohegan) to operate a pro sports team in this country. But the league outgrew the franchise, a promising shift to Boston fell through, and it\u2019s up to four exceptional youngsters\u00a0\u2014 Saniya Rivers, Aneesah Morrow, Aaliyah Edwards and Leila Lacan\u00a0\u2014 to support a not-so-bummed Brittney Griner, who grew up in Houston.<\/p>\n 13. Chicago Sky: Angel Reese left a wasteland in her wake, but credit this long-inept franchise for a stunning recovery, bringing in Jackson, Skylar Diggins, DiJonai Carrington, Azura Stevens, Jacy Sheldon and that terrific guard off the UCLA roster, Gabriela Jaquez. Too bad center Kamilla Cardoso, who wasn\u2019t much help for Reese, is a bit too clunky with the ball.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 14. Toronto Tempo: Thunderous applause. Working from scratch, this team brought in two of the league\u2019s most ferocious competitors (Brittney Sykes and Marina Mabrey), a gem of a rookie (UCLA\u2019s Kiki Rice), a native Canadian (Kia Nurse), a Sabally sister (Nyara), a starting point guard (Julie Allemand), two hot-shooting guards who didn\u2019t get nearly enough time in Phoenix (Lexi Held and Kitija Laksa) and two players from the Valkyries (Temi Fagbenle<\/a> and Maria Conde). These people are paying attention.<\/p>\n<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n