Naz Hillmon is redefining her game — and the Atlanta Dream’s identity

“[Hillmon] competes, she sprints, she’s willing to take on people defensively who are four or five inches taller than her and hold her on,” said Dream head coach Karl Smesko. “It’s not very many people who can do that.”

When Hillmon brings her infectious energy off the bench, it often leads to highly synergized moments with her teammates, resulting in efficient plays on the court. But when Atlanta selected her at No. 15 in the second round of 2022 WNBA Draft, Michigan’s all-time leader in rebounds and double-doubles didn’t visualize this role in the Dream’s story of returning to prominence within the WNBA’s ever-changing landscape.

In three seasons, she’s gleaned insights from former Dream bigs like Monique Billings, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus and future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Tina Charles. She’s become a vocal leader and voice of reason for two-time All-Stars Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray, along with her other teammates.

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However, before the start of the season, the 6’2” forward felt that it might be difficult to continue her evolution as a leader and player with the arrival of 10-time All-Star Brittney Griner and three-time All-Star Brionna Jones — two of the league’s most efficient bigs — during the offseason for the Dream. Still, like previous seasons, Hillmon is growing and thriving in greater ways than before. 

Hillmon is one of the reasons why the Dream (6-3) sit among the top three teams in the WNBA standings entering their third Commissioner’s Cup contest on Friday against the Chicago Sky (2-6) at Gateway Center Arena. The last time Atlanta registered victories in six of its first nine games of a season was 2022, Hillmon’s rookie campaign. 

Even more, in the Dream winning five of their last six contests, Hillmon has notched a plus-14.7 rating off the bench, the seventh highest among players in the league. Despite Hillmon’s worries, her leadership and production remain in demand.

“I definitely feel like I found my voice in terms of leadership [with this team],” Hillmon told The Next. “It helps knowing that players like Rhyne [Howard] and a lot of the returners still want to hear from me as a leader. [Brittney Griner] is very vocal and I feel like we work well off each other. … I feel like we are in a system of great players where everybody eats. It’s hard but it’s a testament to our coaching and to who we are as people and players. We want to share the wealth.”

Smesko, in his first season with the Dream after more than two decades at Florida Gulf Coast University, prioritizes sharing the basketball with elite ball movement, floor spacing as well as offensive efficiency, pushing the pace and 3-point shooting. While things have been different from Hillmon’s first three seasons under ex-Dream coach Tanisha Wright, she appreciates Smesko’s knowledge of the game and his ability to help players play to their strengths.

“He really pays attention to details and he’s honest with every single player across the board,” Hillmon said of Smesko. “I always want to grow and be better. I’ve had a level of growth every single year. I don’t want my fourth year [in the league] to be any different.”

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Currently, Hillmon is averaging career-highs in points (6.0), field goal percentage (60.6%), free throw percentage (88.9%), assists (1.8), blocks (0.6) and 2-point field goal percentage (77.8%), which currently leads the league. The 25-year-old has also extended her range on the court, nailing 40% from three on 6-for-15 shooting beyond the arc this season compared to 1-for-3 shooting from deep during the 2024 campaign.

While adding the trey ball has been a “transition” for Hillmon, it’s one her teammates believe she’s more than capable of doing.

“We’ve been telling [Naz] to shoot threes for two years now,” Howard said laughing about Hillmon after the Dream’s 88-82 road victory on May 27 against the Los Angeles Sparks. “She keeps telling me she doesn’t like how hard we cheer when she [takes threes]. I said, ‘Well, maybe if you shoot them more, we’ll stop cheering.’”

Still, Hillmon’s focus remains on the team’s growth and her role within the team’s established continuity on the court through each game. As the hype continues to build behind the Dream’s early-season success, Smesko doesn’t shy away from saying the franchise is still in a “learning” phase. 

During the Dream’s training camp, Hillmon and her teammates spoke extensively about learning Smesko’s terminology in his breakdowns of the game. Nearing a month into the season, the team’s focus has shifted from the basics of terminology to finding more ways to perfect what they learned and applying it through each remaining contest of the season.

“We can’t work on transition defense one day and then forget about it because we rebounded [the basketball] well the next game,” Hillmon told The Next. “ … You still have to focus on transition defense and stack the days. [Smesko is] big on wanting to be a better team after every single game and not hitting a plateau. … It’s the small details that’s going to help us to win games.”

Atlanta’s 17-point comeback (94-87) on May 30 against the Seattle Storm provided one of the clearest examples of the Dream executing mid-game adjustments. Smesko integrated the Dream’s small-ball lineup to better defend the Storm’s ball-screen action with Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike. Offensively, instead of settling for jump shots in the first half of that contest, the Dream made a concerted effort to attack the rim in the second half behind strong performances from Gray and Howard, who combined for 61 of the team’s 94 points.

However, part of Gray and Howard’s massive performances came from the energy that Hillmon brought to the court in the second half, generating seven of her 11 total points to go along with five of her six offensive rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot in the final 20 minutes of the contest. Hillmon finished the game with a team-high plus-24 rating, one that was then tabbed as her second highest plus-minus of the season.

“I loved our resilience in the Seattle game,” Hillmon told The Next. “We easily could have just folded. But everybody locked in. I feel like in past years, that may not have been the case. I think that’s just a testament of how much we wanted to win that game. Sometimes, it’s hard coming into a game being really rusty and then turning around and coming up with a convincing win.”

Although the Dream’s box score will likely find Gray, Howard, Jones or Griner as the team’s leading scorers on any given night, Hillmon’s impact — her on-floor production as well as her leadership — is unparalleled. When Hillmon is on the court for Atlanta, the Dream’s net rating is 31.06 and their offensive rating is 123.84 compared to net rating of -9.48 and a 96.67 offensive rating when she is not on the court, according to PBP Stats.

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For Atlanta to keep rising and reaching new heights this season, Hillmon must continue to leave her imprint on games by getting her teammates involved, leading by example on both sides of the ball, and remaining efficient in her scoring opportunities.

“Naz does it for us every night,” Brittney Griner said. “ … She comes in with energy. She’s going to do all the little things we need her to do. What y’all don’t get to see is her talking to us on the bench in timeouts [during games], always saying the right things … and seeing the things that we need to see [on the court].”