“Do you prefer Isobel or Izzy?”
“Izzy. Thank you.”
It’s how the Atlanta media and fans were introduced to Isobel Izzy Borlase during the Atlanta Dream’s training camp.
A new player to the team. A new person to the country. A new face in an established place.
It wasn’t just the media getting acclimated with Borlase, but it was Borlase getting acclimated with not just the media, but the city, her teammates, the league and, well, an entire continent.
See, the journey of Borlase hasn’t been the typical one that you may see from someone like her teammate Indya Nivar.
Nivar graduated from North Carolina, was selected by the Dream in the second round of the 2026 WNBA Draft, reported to camp, and made the team.
For Borlase, she won top-level hardware as the MVP of the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) in Australia before making her debut in the WNBA.
“Every day, every week, I’ve become more comfortable, even in just the city of Atlanta,” the Australian native said to The IX Basketball. “I think there’s been lots of change in the past couple months for me, so I definitely know more terminology now, and I feel a lot more comfortable under his system, but it’s a very fast-moving season, and you’re learning things all the time.”
The season isn’t the only thing that is fast, but the speed of the game compared to that of the WNBL is also quicker due to the systems, the style of play in the WNBA and, frankly, the difference in talent between the two leagues.
“Oh, the difference is big,” Borlase told The IX Basketball. “I think maybe at home (WNBL) I can kind of chill off the ball a little bit, but here, everyone’s good, you can’t fall asleep anywhere, and people are more athletic, but that’s the only way to get better. You have to put yourself in uncomfortable positions to get better, and this is the place to do it.”
She wasn’t thrown into the fire right away for the Dream this season. Early games saw the Dream’s starters playing in the high-30s when it came to minutes in each game, with Te-Hina Paopao, Madina Okot, Sika Koné, and Nivar playing bigger roles off the bench.
It wasn’t until the Dream’s fifth game of the season that Borlase played in double digits off of the bench, as she was the game with starters Jordin Canada, Rhyne Howard, Angel Reese, and Allisha Gray for the team’s come-from-behind victory over the Mercury.
Since then, it’s been full speed ahead for Borlase.
“I think she’s feeling more comfortable out there. I think getting extended minutes helps, so this was a good step,” head coach Karl Smesko told The IX Basketball after that game. “You know, she’s been playing a little bit more each time, and I think this is probably the most minutes she’s played in a game. And I thought she did really well with it.”
Since that game, Borlase has led the Dream’s secondary unit in not just minutes per game, but scoring.
There’s been much conversation around the Dream’s bench unit this year due to the high number of minutes that their starters play each game and the lack of production at times from the group, including when it went scoreless against the Connecticut Sun at home this season.
Growth isn’t linear, and production isn’t, either.
Especially when you’re making the adjustments that Borlase has had to make.
“There’s been lots of ‘news’ for me, and I think with anything, it takes time, and you’ve gotta be, I guess, kind to yourself in the process,” Borlase said to The IX Basketball. “You can’t just expect yourself to come in and be like I was back in the WNBL. My role is different, it’s a new environment, all of that sort of thing. I feel like I’ve progressed nicely over the past couple games, but every game’s a new game, and hopefully I can just keep contributing to the team.”
Her role has grown with the Dream, and the results have been there offensively, especially.
“She’s gotten better and she’s more comfortable on the offensive end,” Smesko told The IX Basketball. “You can see her decision-making has been better as the weeks have gone on. I have just been really impressed with her attitude, like from the very beginning, even when she was struggling a little bit, she had the right attitude about it’s a process. She was saying, ‘I want to learn, show me what I can do better.’ And I think you know it’s been paying off. She is a tremendous talent who just keeps getting better.”
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Smesko highlighted the offense, and the numbers back that up when you look beyond the surface stats.
But she hasn’t shied away on the defensive side, either.
Remember what she said above, about not being able to fall asleep anywhere? She found that out first hand in mid-June when the Dream played the Indiana Fever in Indianapolis.
Her assignments while on the floor? Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark.
“I think over the course of the season so far, she’s improved tremendously on the defensive end. She’s really taken it seriously,” Smesko said to The IX Basketball. “She was caught on Caitlin a couple times and Mitchell, and that is asking a lot of anyone, but she’s really worked on it.”
The main thing that has helped Borlase on both ends of the ball is the work that she’s done in practice with the coaches and her teammates.
“I’ve had to try and work it out myself on the on the fly, but I also have been in situations like I’ve played for the national team before, and I’ve been coming off the bench with them,” Borlase said. “We’ve played in some pretty high-stakes games before when I’m just thrown in there where I hope to keep the momentum rolling, so it’s not completely foreign, but it’s just working it out on the fly.”
What’s unique about Smesko is that he has unique terminology that he uses within his system that he says he “made up.”
“All of my teammates has helped me learn the terminology. They gave me a sheet just so that I can learn all of the terms,” Aaliyah Nye told The IX Basketball a week after she was picked up off of waivers by the Dream.
The terms are important not just to recognize, but to learn, too, as during practice sessions, Smesko will quiz his players on what he says, what he sees.
“I think that he’s a great teacher, and I think that’s probably what separates him as a coach,” Borlase said. “You cannot be falling asleep in the film sessions at practice, because he’ll be calling on you. You’ve got to be switched on, and if you’re uncomfortable, you have to be learning all the time. That’s what he forces you to do, and that’s the only way to get better.”
The practices, the film sessions, the learning are the differences for Borlase for one on the court.
But off the court? Well, she’s finding help in different ways.
For instance, the Dream played two games at State Farm Arena in June on a Saturday and a Monday. On the off-day in between, Borlase joined the majority of her teammates to take in the World Cup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“They say I’m the leader of the second unit, I feel like I am, and I’m also kind of leading my own way as well,” Paopao told The IX Basketball. “I just tell them (the rookies) to be great, be great at what you’re good at, and with the time that you get, just be impactful, even if it’s a minute, or if it’s 15 minutes. Those minutes count for us.”
Borlase has been building a closer relationship with her teammates with outings such as those with the World Cup.
But she’s able to find another connection when she visits other arenas or when certain teams come to Atlanta to play.
Rewind to early June, for example.
The New York Liberty arrived in Atlanta to play the Dream in a key Commissioner’s Cup game. The night before the game, Borlase met up with her fellow Aussies Anneli Maley, Rebecca Allen, and a coach on their staff for dinner.
She did the same when the Dream went out west, linking up with Jade Melbourne for a photo at center court.
“I think anytime us opals get to connect, like it’s genuinely super special, because I guess we’re going through the same things as what you said about before,” Borlase told The IX Basketball about the adjustment to life in a new country. “Everything’s new, it’s different, and just to have that little touch point means a lot. Anytime we get to see an Australian, we try to catch up.”
You could argue that the off-court work has mattered just as much as the on-court work for Borlase.
Part of that off-court work is getting more and more comfortable with the media.
Long-time Dream beat reporter Emmanuel Glaze asked Borlase if she had a chance to explore Atlanta’s food scene when she arrived. She hadn’t, but asked for recommendations.
Fast-forward to May, and Glaze asked Borlase if she’d had a chance to try any wing spots yet. She said that Paopao took her and the girls to try some spots on The Beltline in Atlanta, but she hasn’t tried any wing spots yet.
Then in June, as Borlase was walking pregame from the locker room to the court, Glaze just said “Izzy, have you had a chance yet?”
She turned, laughed, saw it was Glaze and said, “I haven’t had a chance to try the wing spots yet. I need suggestions!”
She’s coming out of her shell, and she’s doing just fine.
“I think her confidence has really shown. Obviously, we all knew what she could do offensively, and it took her a little bit to get there, but I think she was deferring a little bit,” Naz Hillmon told The IX Basketball about Borlase. “She’s used to being the very best player on her team, and she talked a little bit about how she’s got so many great people around her, she’s able to learn, and I think now she’s like, ‘OK, I’m finding my spots, I’m confident in these spots’, and she’s just continued to get better.”
She brings a unique element to the Dream, too. The Above The Line (ATL) offense that Smesko runs with the Dream focuses a lot on a high volume of three-point shots, sharp-angled screens, and spacing, but it also requires players to get to the rim for layups.
That’s the element that Borlase brings.
She can hit the three, sure, but she brings a Euro flair to her game that makes it stand out compared to her other teammates.
“I like to play out in transition, so anytime there’s a rebound that I’m out there running, hoping to get easy buckets,” Borlase told reporters in training camp. “So, yeah, getting my feet in the paint, and then finding my teammates when I can.”
One of those teammates, Hillmon, pointed out how Borlase’s ability to make the right read and her shiftiness help the Dream – especially with the knockdown shooters that they have on offense.
“It does definitely give us a different look, and the spacing is a little bit different. Instead of just running to the corner, now maybe she’s running to the paint and making good decisions when she gets in there,” Hillmon said. “It is nice to have everybody kind of have a little bit something different, because now you have to figure out how you’re going to like what type of defender you’re going to put on her, or what are you going to choose to guard coming out, because she can also shoot the three, so it gives her a lot of flexibility in terms of what she wants to do on the floor.”
When I asked Smesko to describe Borlase and her game, he used a different word.
Crafty.
“You can see the skill that she possesses,” he said. “She has the ability to get by people, can shoot the three, but she’s really crafty, and I just think each week that goes by, she gets a little more comfortable. I think we’re going to see just how good she really is.”
Smesko said that to The IX Basketball on May 24. Just three weeks later, we had a chance to see just how good Borlase was when she dropped a career high 17 points on the Toronto Tempo in Toronto.
“She’s reading the game very well, and she’s just finding valuable time,” Hillmon said. “She’s always in the right spot at the right time, and I think that’s purposeful. I think that she’s been watching film with the coaches and making sure that when she steps on the floor, she’s doing exactly what we need her to do.”
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All of the thoughts and comments on Borlase are relevant, but there’s something about Hillmon’s that really drives it home.
Observers have always seen the potential that Hillmon had, and while it started to really show in 2024, 2025 was the season that Hillmon broke out, winning the Sixth Player of the Year Award.
Growth isn’t linear, and Borlase can look to Hillmon to see that. Because now, Hillmon is the glue of the Dream.
She joins Rhyne Howard (The Permission), Allisha Gray (The Podium), Angel Reese (Barbie), and Jordin Canada (The Engine) with key nicknames to describe their role on the team.
But what about Borlase? She needs to have a nickname, right?
“It needs to be something along the lines of like Silky Smooth or Smooth Criminal, because she always moves at her own pace,” Reese told The IX Basketball. “She always finishes through, especially when she’s going to the basket, but also when she’s back from the three-point line. So I want to figure something out, and I want to tie a little Aussie in there, too. So yeah, we’ll figure it out.”
I asked Borlase in May if she had any nickname, especially since Atlanta is home to fellow Aussie Dyson Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks, who has the nickname “The Great Barrier Thief.”
“No, none yet,” Borlase told The IX Basketball with a laugh. “Hopefully my teammates can come up with a good nickname, but I think the one that he’s been given is very creative, so he’s earned that.”
While Reese was thinking about it, I went to work on press row.
Meghan Hall, of USA Today, who sits beside me on press row, remarked that Borlase is like Chef Boyardee out there. So I said “Chef Boy-r-lase” before just shortening it to “The Chef” for how she cooks players up offensively.
When I reconnected with Borlase a month after the initial question, I wanted her thoughts on it.
“There’s been a couple thrown around, but I haven’t been set on one just yet,” Borlase said with a laugh.
OK, so she’s not The Chef.
But it’ll come along. She’ll find the nickname, just like she’s found her groove with the Dream.
It may take a while, but if her play over the last month has been any indication, the nickname, too, will be worth the wait.
And whatever it ends up being, it could be used for the long haul in Atlanta.
“She’s really young. She’s only 21, and with Madina Okot being really young, you can see the makings of a really special group,” Smesko said. “We got some really good, young, talented players here in Atlanta.”
