The Next’s 2025 WNBA preseason awards and predictions

Fever guard Caitlin Clark, the second-biggest rookie in league history (recall that the 2008 MVP was a rookie), finished with All-WNBA first team honors in 2024 while taking the league by storm. Paige Bueckers is a Dallas Wing now. And a clear trio of teams is vying to … miss for Miles? Bomb for Betts? Fail for Fam?

Here at The Next, we have season previews for all 13 WNBA teams. But we also enjoy making some predictions. Is there turnover among the candidates for best player in the WNBA? Who are the 2025 Phoenix Mercury? (I feel like I ask a version of that question every year.)

So we continued our annual tradition of convening over a dozen staff to answer these questions, pick award favorites and more!

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Who are the 2025 WNBA championship favorites?

There are two ways we like to pick the favorites. The first is to highlight the one team each writer and analyst thinks will win it all:

No surprises here: The Liberty and Lynx are coming off a season in which they were the clear top two, meeting in both the Commissioner’s Cup championship game and the Finals. New York brings back most of last year’s core, but it swaps Courtney Vandersloot out for Natasha Cloud, swaps Kayla Thornton for Rebekah Gardner, and has to make do without the injured Betnijah Laney-Hamilton for the year.

Minnesota may have only gotten better, taking the entire top six from 2024, swapping Cecilia Zandalasini out for Karlie Samuelson, swapping Myisha Hines-Allen out for Jessica Shepard, and upgrading the end of the bench.

The Aces, who retooled in the Kelsey Plum–Jewell Loyd trade, also got one championship vote.

The other way we like to pick our top contenders is by having each writer pick their top two teams in the league and then looking at the share of votes each team got. Here, 100% means a unanimous title favorite and 50% means a unanimous No. 2 pick:

New York and Minnesota are even more neck-and-neck than just first-place votes would have you believe. Las Vegas and the Seattle Storm are also down there somewhere, if you squint.

Who are the lottery favorites?

Of course, for a team to finish first, another has to finish last. We think that team is going to be …

… probably the Golden State Valkyries? But really it could be any of the Valkyries, Connecticut Sun and Washington Mystics. They all, to varying degrees of intentionality, are full of role players, are young-ish, and have no stars to drag them to the playoffs. That’s a surefire recipe for lottery contention.

In terms of votes for the two worst teams in the league, things look much the same:

Oh, hello, Chicago Sky. There is definitely some downside risk with their strategy of having non-spacing bigs and limited shooters to complement them.

Which matchups are we most looking forward to?

Matchup	Votes
New York-Minnesota	11
Indiana-Dallas	7
New York-Las Vegas	5
Indiana-Chicago	2
Las Vegas-Los Angeles	2
Los Angeles-Golden State (Valkyries opener)	2

Those are: a Finals rematch, the league’s biggest current rivalry, Clark-Bueckers and Clark-Angel Reese matchups, The Kelsey Plum Revenge Game, and the first franchise opener since 2008 (a home opener, too, and an intrastate rivalry)!

We’ll get back to team breakdowns in a minute. But now on to individual awards:

Who’s going to be MVP?

Player	Votes
Napheesa Collier, big wing, Minnesota	7
A’ja Wilson, big, Las Vegas	5
Breanna Stewart, big wing, New York	2
Caitlin Clark, point guard, Indiana	1

That is certainly different than years past! The top three is the same as last year, with the top two swapped. But in the four years we’ve been doing this exercise, this is the first time the top two aren’t Wilson and Stewart. Given Collier’s excellent 2024 season, and perhaps some voter fatigue, that could translate to the first MVP award going to someone other than Wilson or Stewart since Jonquel Jones in 2021.

Who’s going to be Defensive Player of the Year?

Player	Votes
A’ja Wilson, big, Las Vegas	7
Napheesa Collier, big wing, Minnesota	4
Alyssa Thomas, big wing, Phoenix	3
Ezi Magbegor, center, Seattle	1

Wilson has finished in the top three in DPOY voting for three straight years, but Collier is the reigning winner. Or could this be the year Thomas finally breaks through? We shall see.

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Who will win Sixth Player of the Year?

Player	Votes
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, off-ball guard, Atlanta	3
Maddy Siegrist, combo forward, Dallas	2
Marine Johannès, wing, New York	2
Sophie Cunningham, combo forward, Indiana	2
Also receiving votes:	Jessica Shepard, Karlie Samuelson, Lexie Hull, Naz Hillmon, Nyara Sabally, Tyasha Harris

I cannot remember a year when the sixth player field was so unclear. This chart hasn’t looked so varied since Brionna Jones permanently moved into a starting role. Remember when we could just chalk it up to her or Dearica Hamby every year? Things were so much simpler back then.

Who will be the best players in the W? (All-WNBA)

My favorite player-centric question is always the All-WNBA team; nothing paints a better picture of the true top tier of players in the league.

Player	Votes
Napheesa Collier, big wing, Minnesota	15
A’ja Wilson, big, Las Vegas	15
Caitlin Clark, point guard, Indiana	12
Breanna Stewart, big wing, New York	11
Alyssa Thomas, big wing, Phoenix	8
Also receiving multiple votes:	Sabrina Ionescu (7), Kahleah Copper (2)

These are the same five names from last year’s first team All-WNBA, but a curious trend in voting, mirroring the MVP votes: Stewart dropping down the list. But she, Wilson and Thomas have been preseason selections in our voting for three years straight.

If All-WNBA isn’t my favorite question, then this next pair is for sure …

Which team is going to have the best offense in 2025? Which is going to have the worst?

The top four teams in offensive rating in 2024 are the four getting votes here for best offense, though each has had some notable retooling. The Fever in particular added DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard and Sophie Cunningham to an already strong core.

On the other end of the spectrum are the three teams who are expected to compete for the No. 1 lottery odds, joined by a Phoenix team that may spend most of the season trying to score three-on-five.

Which team is going to have the best defense? Which is going to have the worst?

Minnesota and New York each had the top two defenses in the league in 2024 among teams who were not dismantled and put up for sale in the offseason. The Mercury have Thomas as their anchor, and the Aces have Wilson.

As for the worst defenses, Golden State has no starting center and looks poised to start small guards with few defensive bona fides. Dallas has consistently been a bad defensive team and probably needs more than DiJonai Carrington and Hines-Allen to turn that around. Connecticut features some youngsters guarding the ball.

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All of these awards are what really go into determining …

Who’s going to win Executive of the Year?

Executive	Votes
Nick U’Ren, Phoenix	5
Dan Padover, Atlanta	3
Curt Miller, Dallas	2
Kelly Krauskopf, Indiana	2
Also receiving votes:	Jonathan Kolb (NY), Raegan Pebley (LA)

Nick U’Ren has taken a lottery team and turned its few assets into Thomas, Satou Sabally and … a lot of possibly interesting role players? Could be a surprising contender, could crash and burn! Dan Padover added a lot to the Atlanta Dream, and much like with Phoenix, it might work, or playing two centers all the time might not! It’ll be fun to see.

Elsewhere, Curt Miller retooled the Wings by adding Carrington, Hines-Allen, Tyasha Harris and NaLyssa Smith in free agency (Bueckers is also there, but come on, you shouldn’t get personal credit for the luck of winning the lottery). And Krauskopf has Indiana poised for a possible breakthrough.

Speaking of free agency:

Which free agent move is going to make the biggest impact?

Player	Votes
Alyssa Thomas, big wing, Phoenix	3
Brittney Griner, center, Atlanta	2
DiJonai Carrington, off-ball guard, Dallas	2
Natasha Cloud, point guard, New York (via trade)	2
Satou Sabally, big wing, Phoenix	2

How are we feeling about a season without Diana Taurasi?

SAD (I was born in Connecticut; there’s no other answer). Who will break doors down now?

A handful of people said they’re sad. A few said it feels weird without her.

It won’t be the same. However, maybe there will be fewer techs called throughout the season.

Good! I don’t think the greats should always have to go out on top, but I also think it’s sometimes a bit sad watching them when they’re clearly well off their best. So I’m glad Taurasi didn’t drag things out for another season.

The vibes have never been better.

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