We’re one week into the 2025 WNBA season and 16 total games have been played.
That’s an extremely small sample size that, inevitably, amplifies the good, bad and ugly for every team or player. Champions are crowned after a win or two. Panic buttons are pressed after losses. Coaches are placed on the hot seat before being proclaimed as geniuses. New additions are saviors or they’re already being sent packing.
Nevertheless, let’s try to discern some sensible, sustainable signals from this cacophony of noise. Here are three concerning early-season trends worth keeping an eye on:
1. Paige is playing a lot of minutes
Although her traditional stats might not pop, Paige Bueckers already looks like the Dallas Wings’ most impactful player. That’s a good thing! Except, new head coach Chris Koclanes, clearly recognizing that having Bueckers on the court gives the now 0-3 Wings the best chance at victory, is playing the rookie a lot of minutes.
Bueckers’ 34.6 minutes per game ranks fifth in the WNBA, while she’s played the fourth-most total minutes at 104. Bueckers’ collegiate injury history, combined with her frail frame, makes her heavy minutes more than a bit alarming.
Yes, Paige is tougher than she looks, battle tested due to her time in the Connecticut crucible. Yet, the Wings’ schedule, unlike that of the Huskies, doesn’t feature of platter of Big East cupcakes. She’s playing nearly 35 hard minutes per night, in contrast to just over 30 per game in her final season at UConn.
We want to see Bueckers take the court for all 44 games of her rookie season. So, it might be wise for Koclanes and the Wings the manage her load with more caution.
2. Has the sun set on DB?
DeWanna Bonner headlined the Indiana Fever’s heralded offseason additions. Now the WNBA’s third all-time points scorer, she was brought in to inject her winning, championship experience into the youthful, untested Fever.
Overlooked in the acquisition, however, was how challenging going from the Connecticut Sun to the Fever might be for Bonner. For the past five seasons, she had been operating within a familiar ecosystem in Uncasville, finding her favored offensive spots off the playmaking of Alyssa Thomas while working within a disciplined, aggressive and connected Sun defense.
The environment in Indy is foreign. Caitlin Clark’s playmaking is different from that of Thomas. The Fever’s defense lacks the cohesion and connectedness of the Sun’s. For the 37-year-old Bonner, that’s a lot of change at this late stage in her career.
So, it’s understandable that she’s struggled in the early going, After a seven-point effort in Indiana’s authoritative opener, she went scoreless in the loss to the Dream on Tuesday before registering just one point in the victory in Atlanta on Thursday. She’s shooting less than 17 percent from the field and has yet to make a 3-pointer. She did grab eight rebounds in the Fever’s win over the Dream, although Indy was still outscored by 12 points during her 19 minutes.
Things will not stay this bad for Bonner. She’s always been a streaky shooter. That said, a paucity of shots, as she took just three field goal attempts across the two games against Atlanta, will make it hard for Bonner to find such a hot streak—and, in turn, make the impact imagined for her in Indiana.
3. A dearth of depth in LV and the PNW
A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Jewell Loyd. What a top four! Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins, Gabby Williams, Ezi Magbegor, Alysha Clark. That’s a nice starting five!
After that? The benches are bleak in Sin City and the Pacific Northwest. The Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm have championship-caliber cores that could be undercut by a lack of viable depth.
This issue extinguished the Aces’ three-peat dreams in 2024. Through two games, the offseason efforts to alleviate this problem appear unsuccessful. In the team’s season-opening loss to the New York Liberty, only Tiffany Mitchell and Dana Evans saw significant minutes. While Evans hit both of her 3s, Mitchell did not scratch the scoreboard. Head coach Becky Hammon extended her rotation in the laugher over the Sun. Yet even against an overmatched opponent, the Aces’ six reserves combined for just 16 points.
In Seattle, the loss of Katie Lou Samuelson to a season-ending injury sapped the Storm of their most reliable reserve. It also appears that, for all her promise, Dominque Malonga is not ready prime time. That leaves Li Yueru, an offensively skilled but defensively limited big, and Erica Wheeler, a boom-or-bust back-up ball handler, as the only bench players that head coach Noelle Quinn trusts, as neither Lexie Brown nor Zia Cooke received minutes in the Storm’s win over the Wings.
It looks like it’s going to take a lot from A’ja, Nneka and the other core pieces in Vegas and Seattle for these squads to achieve their ambitions.
