The vibe around Atlanta is different this year than it was last year. The Dream made a splash a season ago by bringing in first-year head coach Karl Smesko to go along with big-name free agents like Brionna Jones and Brittney Griner.
It was a move in the right direction, but the wide-lens view was still that of being an underdog and on the outside looking in.
Yeah, the feeling is different this year around Atlanta. And while you can use a number of words to sum it up, the one catch-all that you can use is this: expectations.
Last year, the Dream were projected to finish around seventh in the standings, but ultimately ended the year holding the No. 1 seed in the east and third overall.
This year, the feel-good story is over.
The Dream want to show that they are here to stay.
“The biggest thing is to start from the very beginning, and even though we had really good success last year, it doesn’t really mean anything,” Smesko said. “We have to start over in terms of building the type of championship-level program that we expect to have. We have talent, but now we have to work together.”
The goal was easy for the Dream and Smesko: bring back the squad that recorded the best season in franchise history to run it back again.
It wasn’t easy, as the Dream’s starting five – Jones, Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray, Jordin Canada, and Naz Hillmon – were all free agents.
But when the Dream fell to the Indiana Fever in the first round of the 2025 playoffs, Smesko and general manager Dan Padover got together to go over the vision for 2026.
“Dan [Padover] asked me ‘what do you want to do?’ I said ‘I want to run it back,’” Smesko said. “I wanted the same group. I believe in them. I know one more year together, we can accomplish what we set out to do at the beginning.”
It’s a credit to Padover and assistant general manager Brooklyn Cartwright, yes, for being able to sign all five starters from a season ago, but it’s also a credit to the players who wanted to come back to Atlanta to finish what they started – even if they took slightly less money to make it happen.
“The unselfishness of our players, they made it happen,” Smesko said. “I think that’s going to make for a special year. I know the whole city is behind us.”
Padover, of course, had the final say, but took what his head coach said to heart.
“We think that unit is really special,” Padover said. “We now have some continuity going in this year, a lot of talent, a lot of great teammates. So to be able to bring back that whole group, we think the continuity piece is going to be a real big advantage for us, and we’re just thrilled for us and the city that these players want to continue to compete here and try to bring this city home a championship.”
It’s a group that featured three WNBA All-Stars last year, the WNBA Sixth Player of the Year, a WNBA All-First team member, and a member of the All-Defensive team.
Things didn’t always look this way in Atlanta.
In fact, before we look at the current situation, we have to go back in time.
Before 2025, the last winning season that the Dream had was in 2018. But the environment and culture started to change in 2022 when the Dream landed Rhyne Howard with the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft.
Howard slid into the starting lineup beside the likes of Erica Wheeler, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, Kristy Wallace, and Nia Coffey.
It’s a far cry from the talent that she has around her now.
“Me and Rhy talk about this often. We really got here when it was gutted. We brought in the drywall around here,” said Hillmon, who was drafted in the second round of the 2022 draft. “It feels great to see how much work we put in and how people want to come to Atlanta to be a part of the culture. For us to be here from the start, it feels great to be a part of it and it really feels like we built it.”
Howard reiterated what Hillmon said, adding that she asked for her front office to get her help and they listened.
“Being here and being a part of the group that set the foundation, we didn’t want to continue to feel like the franchise was nothing,” Howard said. “We didn’t want it to feel like what we came into. Basketball is what we do to make our money and business, but you still need the support around you to feel supported and have fun and what we are doing.”
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The joy was apparent in 2024, but it took a step up last year.
That’s what winning does.
And it was noticed from the outside, too.
Enter third-year big Angel Reese, who was acquired from the Dream from the Chicago Sky this offseason in exchange for a first-round pick in 2027 and 2028.
“Dan [Padover] said ‘what do you think about Angel,’ and I said ‘don’t ask unless we can get her,’” Smesko said.
And get her they did.
Reese was one of the players who noticed what was happening in Atlanta last season. And while it was a trade that brought the two-time All-Star to the Dream, she was in a position where she and the Sky worked on getting her to a place she wanted to go.
“Luckily, I was in a situation where it was mutual on both sides. I was able to choose a destination,” Reese said. “I felt like they loved each other. I could feel the sisterhood just on and off the court and looking at them. So it felt like the right situation for me.”
The Dream were first in the WNBA in rebounding last year, and third in the league in offensive rebounds per game.
While it feels duplicative, it isn’t.
Jones is going to miss a stretch of time due to offseason surgery on her torn meniscus, and the Dream will need to replace Brittney Griner’s 5.2 rebounds per game.
When Jones is healthy, though, expect her and ATL Barbie to gobble up all of the rebounds.
“Anytime we can secure all of the rebounds for extra possessions on both ends of the court, it’s going to be hard for other teams to stop that,” Jones said. “Who are they going to box out?”
It’s a question that teams will have to ask once Jones gets healthy. But until then, the Dream will have to answer another question, too: how will they address their interior defense with Jones out?
Last year, the Dream topped the league in just about every interior defensive metric. While Griner led the Dream with 2.3 blocks per game, Jones averaged 1.2 blocks per game in her own right, and she had a team-high 2.1 defensive wins shares last year.
While Jones is out, more emphasis will be put on players like Reese and Hillmon on the defensive end to carry over those numbers.
“Defense is a team thing. You have to make sure that everyone is locked in,” Hillmon said. “That probably means that we have to be better on the perimeter so that teams aren’t getting to the inside. We have some shot blockers on our team who can get down there and protect the paint.”
Those shot blockers that Hillmon is referring to are Madina Okot and Sika Konê – both of whom are in line to play significant roles for the Dream off the bench to start the season.
Smesko talked up Koné and her energy throughout camp, but we can’t glance over the point that Hillmon made about the perimeter defense, either.
The Dream locked down the opposition from beyond the three-point line last year, but they struggled in the mid-range zone, allowing opponents to shoot 39.2 percent from the area.
Howard brings her elite defense back this year, but they’ll be missing Maya Caldwell, who was selected by the Portland Fire in the expansion draft.
Caldwell was a favorite of Smesko’s last year to bring into the game for key defensive stops. While Caldwell is gone, Smesko has two players he’s eyeing to take on that role: Isobel “Izzy” Borlase and rookie Indya Invar out of North Carolina.
“I think that any new person coming into a team is just trying to do what the team needs,” Borlase, the 2026 WNBL MVP, said. “There’s a bunch of stars on this team, and whatever I can do to help the team.”
As for Nivar, it was the defensive metrics that stood out to the Dream when they drafted her in the second round of the draft.
Over her last two years in college, Nivar had a 77.1 defensive rating, a 0.09 defensive win shares over 40 minutes, and ranked in the 98th percentile in college in total defensive wins.
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To simplify it – she’s a menace on the perimeter defensively at interrupting the passing lanes. In her final year at Chapel Hill, she had 94 – yes, 94 – steals.
“That’s something that we like about her is her ability to make plays. She has a knack for the ball,” Smesko said. “She’s shown tremendous improvement over the last two years. I think she can help win possession battles.”
Players like Nivar, Borlase, and Okot have the tall task of learning the terminology that Smesko uses, which he said he “made up.” It’s not uncommon for coaches to do that, but it can be confusing to even veterans.
“He’s definitely a different coach than I’ve ever played for,” Jones told reporters last season when she first arrived in Atlanta. “… The hardest part is the terminology is a little different from what I’ve been used to.”
But now that the five starters are back, Smesko is hoping that they’ll take it upon themselves to teach the younger players his complex, nuanced system.
“I expect that our returning players are going to help our new players learn some of this and spend extra time with them,” Smesko said. “We do have an advantage with a lot of these players returning. We have a lot of terminology and style, and I think the returners are a lot more comfortable with that. But we also have some young, talented players that we are bringing into this organization. We realize that they’ll have to play very well if we are going to reach our goals.”
Hillmon is one of those players who has been helping younger players as she enters her fifth year. Training Camp invitees like Sacha Washington, of Vanderbilt, and Bella Fontleroy, of Baylor, said that Hillmon was one of those veterans that they’ve turned to.
It’s a sign of how quickly time goes by with Hillmon leaning on players like Parker-Tyus and Tina Charles for advice just a few years ago.
“There’s a lot being thrown at the young ones in their first year, so I’m trying to help them the best that I can,” said Hillmon. “Credit to the people that I was able to learn from and see the best way to be a leader and how I can help them get to that next level.”
It’s not just the current returning veterans who are helping the younger players, either.
Okot has said that Reese has been asking if there is anything that she needs throughout camp. While at their practice facility, Okot and Reese have been battling down low. It’s a battle that media only get a glimpse of, but it’s an isolated livestream that would do numbers if the Dream ever brought fans from the outside in.
“I think the more competitive the environment, the more game-like it is, the easier it is to grow,” Smesko said. “We all know how competitive Angel [Reese] is. Madina [Okot] doesn’t back down. She’s not afraid of these situations. She’s come in and she knows she belongs, and she knows she still has stuff to learn, but she knows she can do things at this level already.”
During the Dream’s first preseason game against the Chicago Sky, we saw this in action.
With a minute left, Okot was in the game and caught the ball on the low block. Reese immediately stood up on the bench and started coaching her from there.
While she’s only in her third year, Reese said she sometimes feels like a veteran.
“Nobody cares, and I want you to understand you have to play hard on every possession,” Reese said to Okot. “I want to continue to be on her because I know she is special.”
Playing hard is what Smesko has loved to see out of Reese so far. Before the preseason game, she was knocking down threes in warmups before opening up the game with a straight-on 3-point attempt.
She didn’t make it, but that doesn’t matter. Smesko has wanted Reese to get the shots up while she still feels uncomfortable with them in the same fashion that Hillmon was last year.
After practices are over, Reese has been working with assistant coach Chelsea Lyles, the coach who turned Hillmon from a traditional big into a stretch four who can knock down the three.
It’s all part of the vision that Reese had when she decided to come to Atlanta.
“It felt like the right situation for me to help the team however I could,” Reese said. “A coach and a GM that believed in me is something that I really, really wanted after my first two years, and I’m really excited to be here.”
The players know that they are in a different position than they were last year, at least from the outside perspective. But they watched the film and know what they need to do.
“We’ve been focusing on ourselves. We’ve watched plenty of film from last year in ways that we could have been better,” said Naz Hillmon. “We have most of our team back, so it’s nice being able to see ourselves on that film and how we can get better play-by-play, game-by-game. Focusing on those little things that feel like big things in the moment but can contribute to winning and losing games.”
The Dream feel like they are a title contender, but they know it’s not always how you start the game, but how you finish them that can make the difference.
“I think we all have a huge sense of pride – especially with what we did last year,” Howard said. “Everyone wants to build and wants to be better defensively. In the first 38 minutes, we were the top team in the league offensively and defensively. In the last two minutes, we were last. Being able to make those defensive plays when it matters the most, I think we all know that we can’t do that.”
That was the difference in how the Dream lost to the Fever in the first round of the playoffs last year.
The Dream were up 85-82 with 2:05 left. They went on to be held scoreless the rest of the way, giving up three layups to three different players and a free-throw shot to end their season, 87-85.
“It’s one of those feelings that you don’t want to experience again,” Gray said. “This season, with this team, we don’t want to feel the feeling of losing last year in the playoffs. This year, the whole team is coming in with a different mindset. Now is the time to finally take it over that hump to compete for a championship.”
That’s the vision that the Dream have in mind. They don’t care about the outside noise. They don’t care about the name on the back of the jersey. They don’t care about individual statistics.
They want to win.
“The goal has always been championship expectations,” Canada said. “Now we have the pieces to get it done.”
They want to win for themselves. For their coach. For the city of Atlanta.
“Everyone here is going to do their part to make sure that we are on the same page,” Howard said. “We want to win, we want to win championships, and we want to do it for a long time. They believe in us.”
Expectations. They are heavy, but the Dream are ready.