Six days felt like six years. At the same time, it felt like six hours.
Since the end of Game 7 of the WNBA Finals, the championship-winning Golden State Valkyries have been on a media tour, held a parade and have rightfully basked in the glory of being the quickest franchise to secure a championship in any major sport in North America.
For the Atlanta Dream, though, the loss still stings.
Six days after their season ended, head coach Karl Smesko and general manager Dan Padover sat with local media members for their exit interviews.
The wounds were fresh, and perhaps it was just coincidental, but the usually close-shaven Smesko entered the Dream’s downtown Atlanta headquarters with a noticeable shadow on his face.
“What you do in the offseason is you rewatch the whole season, not just Game 7,” Smesko told reporters. “Now, Game 7 is the only game I haven’t watched back yet, but that time will come.”
Prior to the final game, Smesko said that the team would either be feeling celebratory or devastated. It was the devastation that was there, but both Padover and Smesko definitely didn’t want to look back at the season as a disappointment as a whole.
“It was a painful ending to just an amazing season, and I’d like to thank all the fans in Atlanta for supporting the team the way they did, all of our players for all the work, the effort they put into having a tremendous season. It’s a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of coming together as a group, and it was much appreciated,” Smesko said. “The next step is to finish what was there this year. And I definitely think that we’re capable of taking a big step forward next year, and I’m looking forward to it already.”
Padover was quick to praise the job of the team this year, but also the job that Smesko has done in his first two seasons — posting the best records in franchise history.
“For two years in a row to have the most franchise wins in a season history is pretty impressive, along with getting to Game 7 of the WNBA Finals,” Padover said. “We couldn’t be more proud of the work that Karl’s done, and not just Karl, but his entire coaching staff. The dedication, just a group of the hardest working people we know. I would put their preparation up against any staff in our league, maybe in any professional basketball league.”
The session wasn’t just a reflection on the season that was, though, but on what is to come.
The IX Sports was one of the handful of outlets in attendance for the exit interviews, and these were the main takeaways from the session.
The EPIC Angel Reese question
By making the All-WNBA second team, Angel Reese became eligible for a raise.
An epic raise, in fact.
Reese, still on her rookie deal, is eligible for the Exceptional Performance on Initial Contract (EPIC) extension this season. Her contract is expected to be $396,282, per Her Hoop Stats, but if she opts to negotiate an extension, that could increase to the league’s standard maximum salary.
Though the 2027 salary cap is not yet known, it could rise as high as around $7.91 million, which would bring the supermax (which is set at 17% of the cap) around $1.35 million. This puts the Dream in an interesting position, where they would have three roster spots to fill and not enough space to do it, at around $780,000.
To make the salary cap work at those numbers, the Dream would need to make additional moves to free up space to fill the roster with league minimum contracts, let alone impact free agents. Or, if they go down the path of an EPIC extension, Reese could take below the maximum allowed salary to make it easier for the team to maneuver in free agency.
The Dream have a sharp front office, led by Padover and assistant general manager Brooklyn Cartwright, so they are very aware of the situation at hand. They know they have some decisions to make this offseason, but until the salary cap number is known, they are remaining in planning mode — not panic mode.
“Fortunately, we had some long-term planning and what our future cap would look like,” Padover told The IX Sports. “We feel really good about where we’re at, just from a strategy standpoint. Obviously, it’s fortunate to be in a situation where Angel is eligible for that extension because it means what a great year she had, and we couldn’t be more pleased with Angel and just really looking forward to next year.”
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If Reese takes the full amount of the extension in the above scenario, it would tie-up $6,240,000 between Reese, Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray, Brionna Jones, Naz Hillmon and Jordin Canada. In other words, that’s 78.89 percent of their salary cap being allocated to six players.
“I can’t speak enough about what a great team player Angel is, and she makes it easy because her number one thing is she wants the people around her to feel comfortable, and she wants a team that can win,” Padover said to a reporter asking about Reese and continuing building with and around her while making the right moves at the same time. “It’s never about her — it’s about how far the dream can go. And when you have a player like that, and other players like that, it makes my job easy.”
It remains in question if Reese will take the full amount or if she takes a lesser amount for her extension, which would make Padover’s job not easy, but easier.
The need for depth
During Smesko’s portion of the exit interviews, he discussed doing an evaluation of what other teams are doing as part of his offseason approach.
“You want to look at other teams, other organizations at all levels,” Smesko said. “What are they doing? Is it anything that can be incorporated with the dream?”
Perhaps no team can be looked at as a model more than the Valkyries. Now, it’s a different situation with them than others, but regardless of the sport, we’ll always see a copycat approach by teams to try to match what the most successful franchises are able to do.
While the Dream won’t be able to be a team that has an 11-person rotation like the Valkyries used throughout the season, they need to be able to play more than seven players at a time.
“Overall, I think every year you look to see how you can get better in different ways,” Smesko said. “One of them is around the edges. We’ll obviously evaluate our bench and our depth and ways that can get better in multiple ways. It can be individuals stepping up, and it can obviously always be bringing new people in. We’ll look at all avenues.”
There are the obvious players who need to step up next year, Te-Hina Paopao and Madina Okot (more on both later), but what Smesko has been able to do in his two years at the helm is to get major contributions from unlikely players — at least, unlikely on the surface.
In 2025, it was Maya Caldwell who earned Smesko’s trust as a key bench player. In 2026, it was Isobel Borlase.
Could 2027 be the year that Indya Nivar fills that role on a rookie contract after serving as a developmental player for most of the season?
“I think she’s capable of it,” Smesko told The IX Sports. “She’s an exceptional defensive player already while still learning our system. I think she has gotten a lot better in the course of one year. I think she would tell you how much better she got as a perimeter shooter in one year of work.
“Her ability to defend, rebound, and as her shot gets more consistent, which, as I said, improved a great deal this year, I could see her having a significant role for us. But it’s very competitive, and this offseason will be very important for her.”
What hasn’t been in the discussion enough around the league is that the schedule is expanding to 50 games next season. While the footprint for what that looks like still isn’t known, it puts an emphasis on depth even more, as the Dream had four players in the top 17 in minutes per game last season.
“During the regular season in particular, you’d like to have more depth, where you could play more people, save some minutes throughout the course of the regular season on players under wear and tear that can build up,” Smesko told The IX Sports. “I feel like we had a young, talented bench, and a year within the system and growing, I think could really help. At the same time, we had a historically good starting unit when they played together, and you want to leverage what you’re best at. So there’s always some trade-offs here, trade-offs there.”
It’s like Smesko read Padover’s mind, because when Padover also wants to have more depth players, he also pointed to the success that the Dream’s starters had.
“One of the things that probably isn’t talked about enough is just how good our starting group was together in comparison to other starting groups throughout the league,” Padover said. “When you have that, you really need to use that to your advantage. So I thought the coaching staff did a really good job of getting everything they could about out of one of the best starting groups, not just this year, but in WNBA history.”
The downplayed injuries
On one hand, the acquisition of DeWanna Bonner may not have happened if it wasn’t for the injury to Jones. But when Jones’ name is mentioned around the Dream brass, a smile always comes. They love Jones in Atlanta.
“Coming out of 2025, Bri was a top 15 player in this league,” Padover said. “We knew going in it that it was going to be a challenge without her. I credit our coaching staff. They found different lineups throughout the year, and to go into year two without Bri and to figure it out that quickly was impressive.”
Bri’s absence was the most notable injury, yes, but it wasn’t the only one that was sustained, though it did have arguably the biggest impact by forcing Reese to play out of position all season as the team’s center.
The other injury that was noticeable came ealry in the first game of the WNBA semifinals again the New York Liberty, as Gray suffered an injury to her shooting hand.
“She just went out there and wanted to try to help us win any way that she could,” Smesko said of Gray. “We’re all really proud of Lish and the kind of year that she had, and the fact that she was one to get out there and give it a go, even though she, as she said, wasn’t 100 percent.”
Hillmon also had well-documented injuries this season with her shoulders and hamstrings. But it was an injury to Howard’s elbow suffered in FIBA that wasn’t discussed.
“Rhyne doesn’t make a lot of excuses for things, even when she has a good excuse,” Smesko said. “She was probably playing at a first-team all-WNBA level, then she rolled her ankle, and you know she could play on it, but she wasn’t quite the same, and she went through a shooting slump at the same time. A lot of shooting is being able to shoot balanced and be able to push off each leg evenly. She couldn’t, and she just never used it as an excuse. She just said, you know, ‘I’m in a shooting slump.’
“And then at the end of the year, everybody saw her with her elbow wrapped when she came back from the World Cup. She kind of tweaked her elbow out there, and it kind of affected her shooting. But she never, not once, made an excuse about it. She just went out there and played.”
Oi, oi, oi
While the depth issues were widely discussed, one player who exceeded expectations for the Dream was Borlase. The rookie and reigning WNBL MVP left her mark — especially as the season went on.
“I don’t think we’d get by New York if it wasn’t for Izzy [Borlase] and Bonner,” Smesko said. “The way they stepped up — obviously JC was crazy good and all of that — but we needed players that could come off the bench and really step up in that moment, and both Izzy and DB just were remarkable stepping up.”
Earlier in the season, Smesko got a big smile on his face when discussing the future of the Dream. A lot of that had to do with knowing that Okot and Borlase, both aged 22, will be a part of the franchise for years to come.
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With both, though, patience was needed.
“I put a lot of stock in Izzy’s development, and I thought you could see her talent, how good she was going to be, but I think when she first got here, she was a little unsure of herself in terms of being in the W,” Smesko said. “This is the first time she’s really been away from home for this amount of time. There were just a lot of transitions going on at the same time, and I think after the World Cup break, she really started to believe that she belonged and she was capable of doing all the things that we all have seen her do.”
Two offseasons under the microscope
Speaking of Okot, she’s going to be one of the players whose progress and offseason work is going to be watched and anticipated the most.
While Smesko turned to her early in the season as part of the regular rotation, teams started to scheme for her more — especially defensively.
When she’d enter the game, teams would put her in the pick-and-roll off of ball screens, and she’d struggle to make the right read and recover.
“Medina I think is just a tremendous talent who’s still growing. I like that she’s going to get some actual playing experience over in Australia and just get to probably get some consistent minutes over there to grow,” Smesko told The IX Sports. “For her, it’s just getting more comfortable with her footwork, getting more comfortable doing things other than just post ups with the ball in her hand. I thought she improved defensively this year to be able to guard without fouling.
“She knows exactly what she needs to work on, and she’s really bright, and she’s willing to work at it. She just needs more experience. This offseason, she gets to go get some consistent minutes, then she’ll get to come back and have a training camp where she can really probably feel more comfortable with everything; the system, how she needs to play. But I’m expecting her to be one of the most improved players in the league next year because she has that type of ability.”
Despite playing a different position as a guard, Paopao was also a player who saw her time cut as the season went on due to her ball-screen defense.
The hope from the Dream was that Paopao was going to take a big leap in year two, but instead, she didn’t improve defensively or as a facilitator.
After the FIBA break, Paopao told reporters that she took the break to unplug and relax during the week off that everyone had. She needed to step away to get her mind right, which is something that the team supported at the time and supports in the offseason, as well.
“Every player is different. I think most need at least some time, and then others know when they need to get going again, whether that’s starting with individual work, whether that’s getting right into five on five, whether that’s you know I need to play in X-league competitively versus I just need minutes,” Padover told The IX Sports. “I think every player has their own process. I do think that initial check-in with yourself to see where you’re at is very important for all of them, and I also think as players go on with their career, they know what they need. But I think this time is really important to set yourself up for the next season.”
For Paopao, she played in Athletes Unlimited last season. A source close to Paopao told The IX Sports that she wasn’t planning on returning to the league this offseason, even if it didn’t cease operations, as it wasn’t an enjoyable experience for her.
While she hasn’t announced her offseason plans, Smesko told The IX Sports that she will be playing ball this offseason.
“I don’t know that she’s announced it but she plans to go overseas at some point and get some consistent minutes, as well,” Smesko told The IX Sports.
A source familiar with the situation told The IX Sports that Paopao is still in talks as to which league and team she will be playing for. The Dream front office does want to see her progress defensively and get ready for a bigger role next year.
“She’s a great offensive talent, and it’s just getting herself in the best shape possible, getting herself feeling good about her offensive game, and then taking her defense to another level,” Smesko told The IX Sports. “She’s somebody that we are aware of how good she can be, and we’re looking forward to her coming back with that mentality to you know kind of bounce back from a year where she didn’t play as much as she would like, but we know she’s talented and we know she’s motivated, and our hope is that she shows everybody what she’s capable of next year.”
