Tulin's Treasures: WNBA Midseason Report Card
With the All-Star break upon us, it’s time to take stock of what’s happened so far this WNBA season
Thanks for your support of Her Hoop Stats. You can find me on Bluesky and HHS on Bluesky, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Grading the Western Conference halfway through the 2025 WNBA season
With half a season behind us and a day off before the All-Star festivities begin, what better time to check in on how the season has gone for the WNBA’s 13 teams so far? These grades are entirely subjective — there’s no metric other than how I think the season is going based on both the results on the floor and realistic expectations entering the season. In other words: the Valkyries (an expansion team) are being held to a different standard than the Liberty (the reigning WNBA champions).
Dallas Wings (6-17) — D
It’s probably not a great sign that my worry with this grade is that Dallas fans will come at me for making it too high as opposed to too low, but I can’t call the first half-season of the Paige Bueckers era a complete failure when a) Bueckers is already playing like one of the best players in the league and b) fellow rookies Aziaha James and JJ Quinerly also look like they’re going to stick around in the WNBA for a long time. The No. 1 overall pick is averaging 18.4 points and 5.5 assists per game, the only player in WNBA history to put up 18/5 through their first 18 career outings and on pace to join Caitlin Clark as the only rookies in league history to do it over a full season. Quinerly averaged 16 ppg and 4.8 apg over the last six games of the first half, and James scored double-digits in eight of the final 10 games heading into the break. There’s not much to build on, but there’s something.
Golden State Valkyries (10-12) — A
The Valkyries have dropped five of six after starting their existence 9-7, but the very fact that they’re an expansion team in the thick of a playoff race at midseason makes their first half-season an unqualified success. They’ve also sold out all of their home games, sent a player to the All-Star Game (who I still think deserved to be a starter), and are at the very worst competing for the league lead in vibes. I don’t ever remember seeing a franchise have a celebrity superfan as quickly as Warriors star Brandin Podziemski became the Spike Lee of Ballhalla — a nickname every WNBA fan already knows and reveres. My only complaint is that their final game of the first half ruined the perfect stack of wins and losses that was once created by sorting their game logs by defensive rating, but I’m unwell.
Las Vegas Aces (11-11) — D+
The Aces pulled ahead of the Valkyries in the standings on the last night of the first half and would sneak into the playoffs if they were starting this weekend, but the difference is that the Valkyries started from scratch and the Aces came into the season as a presumptive contender to win a third title in four years. Wins over the Valkyries and Wings in the final two games of the first half kept Las Vegas from getting an even lower grade, but the vibes here have been every bit as bad as Golden State’s have been good. I doubt anyone was offering odds, but I’m certain you could’ve made a lot of money taking bets on the Aces getting to the All-Star break without winning three straight games. I still think the Aces’ four stars make them a threat to win any playoff series they’re in, but it’s getting harder and harder to justify that belief.
Los Angeles Sparks (8-14) — D-
The Sparks would’ve gotten the only failing grade in the Western Conference if not for a win over Washington in the final game of the first half to give them back-to-back wins for the first time this season as well as wins in three of their final four games heading into the All-Star break. That win put the Sparks within shouting distance of the playoff race, three games back of the No. 8 seed. Rickea Jackson is having another solid season that’s very similar to her rookie campaign in 2024. The wins aren’t coming, though, and there hasn’t been much positive news on the player development front as Cameron Brink remains sidelined and Rae Burrell missed 70% of the first half,
Minnesota Lynx (20-4) — A
The easiest grade of them all goes to the league-leading Lynx, who put any notion of knocking them down a peg to rest with consecutive 13-point wins to close out the first half. The second of them, yesterday afternoon against the then-second place Mercury, was their third offensive rating under 100 in the last five games (the same number as in the previous 15 regular-season games), but their relative struggles over the last couple weeks also came amidst a brutal stretch of the schedule. The top spot is Minnesota’s to lose and MVP still seems to be Napheesa Collier’s to lose as well heading into the second half, although A’ja Wilson has at least re-entered the chat of late. The closest I can get to being negative, and perhaps it’s Liberty fan wishful thinking, is that there’s nowhere left to go but down.
Phoenix Mercury (15-7) — A
There seems to be a persistent narrative out there that the Mercury were written off coming into the season, and while I don’t remember that being the case, no one could deny they’ve exceeded expectations. That they’ve done it while playing through injuries to every member of their “big three,” not to mention key reserves like Lexi Held and Monique Akoa Makani, only makes it that much more impressive. It’s a shame that Satou Sabally’s ankle injury will make her miss the All-Star Game (something she announced late last night). There’s also been no word on Kahleah Copper’s return. So the road may not get easier for Phoenix for a while yet, but the first-half results speak for themselves.
Seattle Storm (14-9) — B+
Seattle was closer to being written off than Phoenix, although my Storm season preview said they “should be a playoff team” among other similar statements. The only thing keeping the Storm back from getting a higher grade is that they’ve gone just 5-4 dating back to the last week in June — including a loss to league-worst Connecticut — and were held to offensive ratings under 100 points per 100 possessions five times in the last seven games. The Storm have gotten to this point while avoiding significant injuries to what is probably the league’s thinnest rotation. All five starters play 27+ minutes per game and the player with the next-highest average, Tiffany Mitchell at 19.4, signed with Seattle last week. It’s fair to wonder if the stumbles of late are related to the heavily taxed rotation, and also whether Seattle can keep winning this way for another two months before the playoffs even start. But so far, so good.
