During the Atlanta Dream’s first preseason game in 2025, the Dream ran the Q&A promo videos on the big screen inside Gateway Center Arena.
The question was: What are you excited about for the 2025 WNBA season?
Many players said how excited they were to play out the season with the roster that they had in place.
But they noticed how pundits picked them to finish seventh in the standings. They were determined to surpass that. And they did.
The Dream finished the 2025 season as the No. 3 seed in the standings. Allisha Gray finished No. 4 in MVP voting and was First Team All-WNBA. Naz Hillmon broke out, becoming a steady three-point shooter in first-year head coach Karl Smesko’s offense, moving from the bench to the starting lineup and taking home the Sixth Player of the Year Award.
Rhyne Howard. Brionna Jones. Maya Caldwell. Jordin Canada. Te-Hina Paopao. It was a season that exceeded expectations, but ended in a way that the Dream didn’t expect: losing in the first round of the WNBA playoffs to the injury-riddled Indiana Fever.
After the Dream were eliminated, in the postgame press conference, Canada promised a return to the postseason.
The sentiment was nice, but looking at the reality, the Dream had a challenge on their hands. Canada, Howard, Gray, Hillmon and Jones – the starting lineup to end the season – were all slated to be free agents as the WNBPA and WNBA worked on a new collective bargaining agreement.
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However, the players – like Smesko – had one goal in mind: to run it back.
“I was going to (general manager) Dan (Padover), saying, ‘We want everybody back. We want to run this back,’” Smesko said at a press conference on Sunday. “And it was going to be a great challenge for Dan because all of our players had tremendous years and they’re all free agents, so bringing them back was going to be a challenge.”
After free agency opened up, Padover got to work, retaining all five starting players, starting with Gray, who received a core qualifying offer and signed a three-year max-plus offer. Atlanta followed it up by signing Jones, Hillmon, and Howard to three-year deals.
The next step was retaining Canada, a move the Dream were hopeful to complete, sources told The IX Basketball. That came to fruition with her inking a two-year deal to remain in Atlanta.
“We think that unit is really special,” Padover said Sunday. “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.”
The Dream’s front office accomplished its goal of returning the bulk of its production, but it wasn’t easy. The WNBA free-agency period, which was even more compressed than it usually is, came with a host of changes due to the new CBA.
“I think the biggest challenge was the timeframe from when the CBA got done until free agency started,” Padover said. “So we had a really compressed schedule to learn the cap, learn any nuances to the CBA. I think that quick turnaround made it more challenging. Obviously, the expedited free agency made it a little more challenging, but the overall process was similar. Everything was just extremely compressed, and there were some new rules.”
Returning so many key players helps with continuity, sure, but it’s also big for the Dream because one thing about Smesko’s system is that it’s complicated.
“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.”
The hope now for the Dream is that the returning players won’t have the learning curve that they had last year with Smesko’s ATL (above the line) system, and won’t just be ready to go, but will be able to teach those who are new to the team about the intricacies of it.
“Whenever you’re putting in an entirely new system and new terminology and a new way of playing, it takes some time to get used to and adjust it, and I think at this point, you know our players believe in it and know that it can be successful,” Smesko said. “Now they’re able to help the younger players, or whoever we signed, to come in. They can help them learn the system as well. It’s not just on the coaches. So, it’ll be a smoother transition this year, just because of the knowledge that our players already have.”
One of those players is, of course, Angel Reese, whom the Dream acquired in a deal with the Chicago Sky in exchange for a first-round pick in 2027 and 2028.
“Angel’s a special talent,” Smesko said. “Everybody’s aware that she’s the best rebounder and most relentless rebounder in the league, but I also appreciate the other skills that she brings to the team, from competitiveness to being able to handle the ball. She already meshes well with the players that we have on our team. They already get along, and I think they’ll work really well together.”
As expected, a lot of the introductory press conference revolved around Reese’s arrival to the Dream, including how they’ll handle the added attention that comes from acquiring a name like hers.
But when asked about where Reese is at offensively in her current state and where the coaching staff hopes to get her, Smesko gave the most insight.
“With her current skill set, she’s going to fit in great. You know, she makes us more versatile on offense and will get us extra possessions,” Smesko said. “Part of the coaching staff’s responsibility is developing players. When Angel comes in, we’ll sit down and talk and come up with a plan together.
“We want something that the players are involved in so that they understand what we’re trying to get accomplished. It’s big for us to develop all of our players, to make them better. It takes time, and it takes work, but we’re willing to do that, and hopefully that’ll be a separator for us.”
While the core of the Dream is back – a starting lineup that played 96 minutes together for a net rating of 33.1 – the Dream lost two key players: Brittney Griner and Maya Caldwell.
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The former signed a one-year deal worth seven figures to go to Connecticut, while the latter was selected in the expansion draft.
Caldwell was a favorite of Smesko’s, and he’ll be looking to replace her contributions. One player who could fill those minutes is Izzy Borlase, who is coming over to Atlanta from Australia this year.
“She’ll be coming in, so we’re still evaluating depth, but we feel really good about where we’re at,” Padover said.
The initial plan, as Jones recovers from a meniscus injury that ended her overseas season early, is to have a starting lineup of Canada, Gray, Howard, Hillmon, and Reese, with Hillmon shifting to the bench once Jones is healthy.
It won’t matter if it’s Hillmon who goes to the bench or if it’s Jones who goes to the bench. It could be Howard. Or Gray. Or Canada.
It won’t matter because the players showed last year that they care about winning. They care about Atlanta. They care about running it back.
“Our players recognized that they wanted another chance at this, and they love Atlanta; the city, the organization, and they realize that they are building something special here,” Smesko said. “Dan and the agents did an amazing job getting everybody together, and we are really eager to get started.”