Here for more after my perfect postseason predictions? Well I am back with more predictions, thoughts and comments following the 2024 WNBA season as well as looking at what is to come for women’s basketball.
The WNBA season only ended four weeks ago, yet there are seven of the 13 WNBA teams searching for new head coaches ahead of the 2025 season. The Indiana Fever parted ways with Christie Sides, who coached the team for two seasons, with an overall record of 33-47, but picked up former Connecticut Sun Head Coach Stephanie White on Nov. 1. The Chicago Sky also filled its head coach position by hiring former Las Vegas Aces Assistant Coach Tyler Marsh. While these two teams may be looking at the upcoming rebuilds now that there are hired coaches, the Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics, Los Angeles Sparks, Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings are all still looking to fill that gap.
White has previously coached and played with the Indiana Fever, so as a huge fan of the franchise, I look forward to welcoming her back. Additionally, White won the 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year award and led the Connecticut Sun to eight consecutive postseason appearances, the longest active streak in the WNBA. As an Aces fan, I am curious how Becky Hammon and the Las Vegas management will rebuild the roster of assistant coaches considering they not only lost Marsh to the Sky but Former Aces Assistant Coach Natalie Nakase was announced as the first head coach for the Golden State Valkyries. The Valkyries will begin playing in the 2025 season.
Expansion in the WNBA is an incredibly exciting thing to look forward to not just for the 2025 season but also in the future, as Toronto, Ontario in Canada and Portland, Oregon both announced the teams will enter the league by 2026. This expansion will mean additional games to watch for basketball fans as well as a large number of open roster spots across the league for players that may have previously been cut from one of the current 12 teams’ 12-player rosters. I am devastated every season as I see some of my favorite athletes waived from their teams simply because the league is not big enough for the amount of talent there is.
An important question to look ahead to, however, is who will make up these expansion teams? For the Valkyries, it will get the fifth pick of each round, according to the WNBA, but obviously it will need more than three players. The Valkyries will have its own draft of current WNBA players on Dec. 6, and each of the 12 teams can protect a maximum of six players, meaning they could not be drafted to Golden State, according to ESPN. This should lead to several interesting moves, both to the Valkyries and the other 12 teams as the teams look for other ways to rebuild rosters, depending on which players get traded. Expansion is something both players and fans have been begging for for years, because it gives so many more athletes the opportunity to compete at the highest level.
Until the 2025 WNBA season kicks off, there is still so much to look forward to for women’s basketball. The NCAA season has already begun and is set to be filled with just as much excitement as last year with players like Paige Bueckers and Juju Watkins making their returns. This NCAA season will also be important to watch for those interested in who their favorite WNBA teams could be looking to draft. Bueckers is projected to be the first overall pick, and there are many other draft-eligible players behind her who will be showcasing all they have in hopes of going to the league. Additionally, a new women’s basketball league will begin playing in January 2025: Unrivaled. Started by New York Liberty Forward Breanna Stewart and Minnesota Lynx Forward Napheesa Collier, Unrivaled is a three-versus-three format with six teams, each with six roster positions. Many Fever fans are anxiously awaiting Caitlin Clark’s decision on whether she will join Unrivaled this offseason, but even if she does not, it looks like it will be an all-star level of competition for fans to enjoy.
Overall, there is much of the 2025 WNBA season that still remains a mystery, but every part of that mystery is an opportunity for growth that has been a long time coming for the league. I am excited to see what expansion and coaching changes will mean not only for individual teams but for women’s sports and women as a whole in this upcoming year.
