The contentious CBA negotiations are well and truly in the rear view mirror for the WNBA, and the offseason is now in full swing.
Already, the Las Vegas Aces have made their preparations to defend their third championship in four years. Losing Aaliyah Nye to the Toronto Tempo in the expansion draft was an early blow, but it is one the Aces can absorb.
The real test was going to be through free agency, where the Aces and the rest of the WNBA saw much of the league hit the open market due to the uncertainty surrounding the CBA.
It did not take long for the opening salvo of a wild offseason to be fired, when the Chicago Sky dealt star forward Angel Reese to the Atlanta Dream in exchange for two first-round picks, signifying Atlanta’s desire to pursue a championship. Notable players like Satou Sabally, Brittney Sykes, and Brittney Griner have all changed addresses over the past few days. By now, the league is starting to come together on who is going to emerge as a contender in this brave new WNBA.
How did this happen?
For the Aces, one had to wonder whether an offseason similar to last year’s was in the cards.
Like the Sky and Dream, the Aces were a team that found themselves involved in an offseason blockbuster last year, dealing two-time champion shooting guard Kelsey Plum to the Los Angeles Sparks while adding another then two-time champion in Jewell Loyd from the Seattle Storm. Another smaller trade with the Sky brought in Dana Evans as Chelsea Gray’s backup, while the likes of Cheyenne Parker-Tyus came in through free agency.
The story of last season was equally as tumultuous, with inconsistency being an early theme and questions beginning to arise on if the championship window in Las Vegas was starting to creep shut.
However, Aces fans remember this story much more fondly than when it unfolded in real time. A 53-point home loss to the Minnesota Lynx, the largest margin of victory by a road team in WNBA history, on Aug. 2 prompted superstar A’ja Wilson to send a simple but blunt text message to her teammates.
“If you weren't embarrassed from yesterday, then don't come into this gym," Wilson texted the rest of the Aces after the game, per ESPN's Michael Voepel. "You're not needed or wanted here. We need the mindset to shift, because that was embarrassing."
Three sentences, with hardly a minced word in between, was all it took for the sleeping giant in Las Vegas to be roused from its slumber.
What followed was a franchise-record 16-game win streak that vaulted the Aces from barely inside the playoff picture to the second overall seed, culminating in a sweep of the Phoenix Mercury to secure arguably their most meaningful championship to date. Wilson continued to establish her case as the greatest women’s basketball player of all time with her WNBA-record fourth MVP award, and the team soon had the term ‘dynasty’ being thrown about more freely in terms of discussion.
With all that said, the spring brought difficult questions to their doorstep once again with so many players not under contract.
Would Jackie Young have more interest trying her luck at being the undisputed alpha? Would Loyd’s improved play in the second half of the season price her out of Las Vegas? Even in the likely event that Wilson and Gray stuck around, what would the roster around them look like?
It did not take long in the signing period for the Aces to answer those questions.
The message from the Aces is clear: continuity matters.
Wilson is expected to sign a supermax contract worth $1.4 million per year with the Aces, but that is far from the only move they made in the hopes of defending their title.
Young became the first million-dollar player in WNBA history at the regular max of $1.19 million on a one-year deal, signing the deal on April 9. The news of Young’s signing came off the heels of the Aces re-signing Kierstan Bell, who started at shooting guard during the second half of the season. The following day, the Aces reportedly re-signed both Gray and Loyd to three-year deals to keep both in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future, and Parker-Tyus would sign a deal on Saturday to rejoin the team.
Assuming the Aces re-sign midseason trade acquisition NaLyssa Smith, that would be all six of the players on the championship-winning team back in the fold.
Even scarier is that the Aces may not simply be interested in keeping the core intact, but adding pieces to bolster it. According to ESPN’s Andraya Carter, the Aces are one of the finalists to secure the signing of Storm forward Gabby Williams, along with the Lynx and the Golden State Valkyries. A Reno native, Williams signing with the Aces would serve as a homecoming, as well as reunite the 2025 All-Star and French national team star with Loyd, who was her teammate on Seattle for three seasons (2022-24).
The Aces have established a winning culture and have been rewarded for it with loyalty from players already on their roster and interest from those outside of it. Should it all culminate in a fourth banner hanging from the rafters of Michelob ULTRA arena this time next year, the talks of a dynasty will go from hushed tones to megaphones.