Silencing a lot of preseason skeptics, the Lynx lead the league as the team to beat.<\/p>\n
Blake Silverman: The Fire. Portland is getting its flowers at the wrong time, just 3\u20137 over its last 10 games. However, the expectation heading into the season was to be closer to the Sun and the Storm at the bottom of the standings, not in striking distance of the last playoff spot. There\u2019s plenty of season left for the Fire\u2019s slide to continue, but coach Alex Sarama has done a great job in the franchise\u2019s first season.<\/p>\n
After the expansion draft, the presumption was that the Tempo set their roster to compete more immediately, while Portland took a more future-focused approach. That\u2019s still true, but Portland is surprisingly more competitive than expected. The roster has meshed together well with lead guard Carla Leite taking a serious leap in her second WNBA season. Bridget Carleton was the splashiest addition and she\u2019s been just as good with a real case to earn her first All-Star nod<\/a> this year. Megan Gustafson was a nice free-agent signing and Emily Engstler has been impactful in her minutes as a mainstay in Sarama\u2019s starting lineup. Plus, Sarah Ashlee Barker\u2019s game-winner <\/a>to give the Fire their first win is the best feel-good moment of the season thus far.<\/p>\n The group will need to improve defensively to put an end to the slide, currently ahead of only the Sparks in defensive rating. However, Portland just went through a tough stretch of its schedule that gets a bit lighter in the weeks ahead. In a cluster of teams that will fight for the final playoff spot, the Fire have a chance if the group can shake off the recent woes.<\/p>\n Dan Falkenheim: The Mercury. The franchise is still healthy\u2014Phoenix has two stars (Alyssa Thomas<\/a> and Kahleah Copper), a good head coach (Nate Tibbetts) and an invested ownership group\u2014but the team\u2019s on-court results have not lived up to the standard set by last season\u2019s run to the finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s gone wrong? Depth and defense. The Mercury have been without Sami Whitcomb for the entire season. They have also had to ward off absences from Monique Akoa-Makani and, now, Natasha Mack. All told, Phoenix has gone from first in bench scoring in 2025 to 13th this season as players like DeWanna Bonner, No\u00e9mie Brochant and Jovana Nogi\u0107 have stepped into the starting lineup. At the same time, the Mercury\u2019s defensive rating has slipped from 100.4 (fifth-best) to 109.2 (11th-best). That\u2019s a 9% dropoff.<\/p>\n Phoenix\u2019s 6\u201313 record can be both a product of attrition and a marker of a squad that has been leapfrogged by teams like the Valkyries and the Wings. After Wednesday night\u2019s win against the Fever,<\/a> the Mercury are 3.5 games out of a playoff spot. Are they capable of clawing their way back? Yes. Will they shore up their defensive struggles and convalesce in time to become contenders again? That\u2019s an open question.<\/p>\n Emma Baccellieri: The Sky. That\u2019s partially out of their hands: How different might this roster look with a healthy Rickea Jackson? But the problems here go beyond her injury. Chicago retooled its roster this offseason with an eye on making a leap. The front office added Skylar Diggins, Natasha Cloud and Azura Stevens, along with Jackson, in a series of big moves designed to make the Sky competitive. There were some valid questions about fit and strategy. But it was clear that Chicago was hoping to contend for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n Instead\u2026 well, there is no hope of contention here, to put it politely. The 5\u201312 Sky are the worst shooting team in the WNBA: Their 46.6% effective shooting percentage ranks dead last. They have the worst rebounding margin in the league. They\u2019ve repeatedly struggled to close out games even when they have a late lead. There are certainly a few big structural problems with this franchise. (As we\u2019ve covered in these roundtables before<\/a>!) But when it comes to fixing the product on the floor right now, there are so many issues that it\u2019s hard to know where to begin. Even the upcoming return of Courtney Vandersloot feels like it comes with more questions than answers: How many point guards can one roster have?\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019d ordinarily say the best-case scenario here is pivoting and hoping to land a high draft pick. But, of course, that doesn\u2019t apply, because the Sky traded away their 2027 pick last year\u2026 in order to acquire Ariel Atkins\u2026 who has already been traded away herself. There\u2019s no pathway to tanking here. Yet there\u2019s little pathway to anything else, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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