The WNBA 2025 All Star Roster has been set, formatted by team (starters, reserves*):
(DAL) – ^Paige Bueckers
(IND) – *Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell
(MIN) – *Napheesa Collier, Courtney Williams
(ATL) – Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard
(NYL) – Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart
(SEA) – Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins, ^Gabby Williams
(LVA) – A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young
(WSH) – ^Sonia Citron, ^Kiki Iriafen
(PHX) – Satou Sabally, Alyssa Thomas
(CHI) – Angel Reese
(LA) – Kelsey Plum
(GSV) – ^Kayla Thornton
We have 5 new All Stars (marked with ^), with the most controversial being the rookie Mystic duo in Citron and Iriafen. This is mostly due to the snubbing of Brittney Sykes, whose career high of 17.9 PPG along with 4.6 APG (team high) and a steal failed to garner her first ever All Star appearance. Almost all of her tweets in June were voting reminders, so this stings. She joins a “snub list” of Hamby, Brionna Jones, Azura Stevens and Arike Ogunbowale.
As a sidenote, this was also the backbone for Sykes’ Most Improved Player campaign, yet Thornton is now a clear frontrunner (+25).
The first game today is Atlanta hosting Golden State, a battle of two winning teams. The Valkyries are the league’s best Paint defense in their L10 games, surrendering just 27 Pts in The Paint per game. They are tied with their most recent opponent, Minnesota, in being league-best in DRTG in that span. Just 28 of The Lynx’s 82 Pts in the last contest came in the paint.
This Valkyries team is not afraid to throw doubles at anything or anyone, as their lateral movement allows for constant switching. The most common of these is high screen on Ball Handlers off PnR, or collapsing inside on the Roller. Best way to beat this team is through quality downhill drive-and-kick action, quick PnR or offball action.
The biproduct of this is that GSV surrenders by far the most OPP Corner 3s in the league. The true ATL starting rotation can stick a lot of players here (Howard, Canada, Gray), yet the bench unit of Coffey and Caldwell lead the team in actual volume. High kickout frequency from bigs has left to a number of good assist numbers:
– Alanna Smith 6 Ast (19min)
– Hamby 5 Ast / Azura 4 Ast
– Shepard 5 Ast
– Satou 5 Ast
These 5 players were each in the top 10 assist numbers against Valkyries in their L10 games.
The Dream defense is borderline the opposite of Golden State’s, as they have allowed the fewest OPP 3PA in their L10 games, which includes the fewest Corner 3PA. As a result, ATL has struggled mightly against the Pick-and-Roll system. They currently rank 10th or worse at limiting points from PnR Handlers, Rollers, Post Up, Handoff and Off Screen.
This seems best for Tiffany Hayes, who will also be the squad she played her first decade in the league for. She dropped 20 Points in her last full game vs Atlanta. It’s likely we see a lot of Pick-and-Roll with Hayes and Thornton, so both sides are scoring threats. Recent duos have been succeeding:
– Sabrina / Stewart 15 & 18 FGA
– Wheeler / Ogwumike 17 & 14 FGA
– Court / Phee 16 & 18 FGA
– Paige / Yueru 15 & 9 FGA
– Atkins / Reese 22 & 11 FGA
Arike Ogunbowale failed to make the All-Star team for the first time since her rookie year, yet won’t be able to get revenge due to a thumb injury keeping her out against Phoenix. She missed the last meeting between these two just 4 days ago, but that didn’t stop Dallas from notching a shocking 9 Point victory (they were up 18 at halftime!).
The top two performers of this game? Kahleah Copper and Aziaha James, who dropped 33 and 28 Points – yet Satou and Paige also broke the 20 point mark as well. Aziaha is a bucket, and had 20 of her points in the first half off a perfect 7/7 shooting. Get a lot of shades of Allisha Gray, as another lefty with a silky smooth jumper and slashing ability. Issue for PHX is that both Copper and Satou will be out today.
With this PHX duo off the court this season, Natasha Mack and Alyssa Thomas leads the team in usage rate at 27.5% each. Thomas is responsible for 48.8% of the team’s assists in this sample, yet that is just 7.5 per 30min.
The Wings started a true double big lineup of Li Yueru and Geiselsoder, which left them with a +12 rebounding record. PHX needs to be effective from pull up shooters in Akoa-Makani and Whitcomb in order to find success here. Whitcomb gets up 12 shots per 30min.