{"id":4945,"date":"2025-07-12T19:19:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T19:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/4945\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T19:19:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T19:19:04","slug":"locked-on-womens-basketball-wnba-breakout-players-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/4945\/","title":{"rendered":"Locked On Women’s Basketball: WNBA breakout players in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 6\u20196 Stevens is averaging 14.4 points<\/a>, 8.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks in 29.2 minutes per game. All of those are career highs under first-year Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts. Adler explains how Stevens has thrived in Roberts\u2019 system:<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s in a very pick-and-roll-heavy scheme that involves a lot of sort of cutting and just threes and rim shots off the ball. And \u2026 part of it is her sort of best position has been an open question for a while. She played the five and the four and the three, really, in Chicago, and it all really varied based on the teammate she was with. There was a lot of playing with Candace [Parker]<\/a>. There was a lot of playing with Stef Dolson<\/a>. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, playing with Dearica Hamby<\/a>, things look really different because Dearica Hamby is an offensive five, a defensive four. So it\u2019s a sort of a weird mix. I think it\u2019s exciting to think about what that looks like once Cam Brink<\/a> comes back. But until then, I think it\u2019s really accentuating how good she is as a cutter, how quickly she thinks off the move, and how decisive she is, and just how much skill she has playing in space without having to worry about really anything getting cluttered up along the way, and I think it\u2019s really brought out what her game is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Next, a 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball newsroom
The Next<\/a>: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX<\/a>. 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.<\/p>\n

Williams was named an All-Star this season for the first time in her seven seasons. She is averaging 14.0 points<\/a>, 4.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.6 steals and 0.5 blocks in 33.9 minutes per game. Those are career highs in every category except rebounds. Cruse explains what\u2019s different about how Williams is playing this season:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s been more aggressive off the catch. I think we\u2019ve seen her have a more aggressive scoring mentality this season. I was looking at the finishing numbers, and the finishing numbers still aren\u2019t great in half court, but \u2026 it seems better when I watch her play. Obviously in transition, she\u2019s insane. That game against New York, the way she was making plays in passing lanes doesn\u2019t make sense. Like, you shouldn\u2019t be this athletic on a basketball court. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s made more pull-up twos this year. I think she\u2019s been more effective in that way [than] she has been in previous seasons. And then defensively, she\u2019s ridiculous on that end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Locked<\/a><\/p>\n

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Here at The Next, in addition to the 24\/7\/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women\u2019s Basketball<\/a> podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 6\u20196 Stevens is averaging 14.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks in 29.2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[4130,3691,3444,5479,5480,4389,5481,5482,3029,5483,5484,2294,4676,99,434],"class_list":["post-4945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-allisha-gray","tag-angel-reese","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-azura-stevens","tag-breakout-players","tag-gabby-williams","tag-jacy-sheldon","tag-locked-on-womens-basketball","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-lynne-roberts","tag-naz-hillmon","tag-podcasts","tag-seattle-storm","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}