Practice was nearly over for the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday at a facility outside of the city. The team was running a drill that was designed to push the ball off of a defensive miss into transition offense, a staple of head coach Karl Smesko.
Off of the miss, second-year guard Te-Hina Paopao brought the ball up the floor, picking up her dribble on the wing in an attempt to get the ball inside to first-round pick Madina Okot.
It wasn’t open.
Isobel Borlase was in the corner, and Taylor Thierry was on the opposite wing.
Neither player was open, either.
Paopao, with her signature smile, looked again to Okot before reverse-pivoting and finding her trailer.
Enter Angel Reese to the play.
Reese dribbled twice, throwing in a hesitation dribble, and then took her defender to the hole for a lay-up.
Two points, Reese.
Priceless, for the Dream.
When the Dream acquired Reese on April 6, Smesko highlighted not just her ability to rebound, but her ability to do the other elements well that he looks for in all of his players.
“Everybody’s aware that she’s the best rebounder and the 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,” Smesko said. “She’s somebody that can grab and go. She can be on either side of a pick and roll. I think that versatility just makes her kind of a unique talent.”
That’s exactly what was captured by Reese in that practice drill.
Yes, it’s a practice drill. Yes, it was against the practice players.
But yes, it also highlights what many have known for some time now – Reese is more than just a rebounder, she’s a hooper.
“I haven’t got a lot of post ups because I’ve been able to take people off the dribble, just something that Karl wants me to do,” Reese said to reporters. “It’s getting the ball off the rim and pushing up in transition, kicking it up to the shooters, and just continuing to go and get into a flow.”
It’s a different situation for Reese than she’s had in the past two years in Chicago. With the Sky, she was paired with Kamilla Cardoso, another traditional big, which resulted in the paint being clogged up more than teams would like to see in the WNBA in 2026.
But with the Dream, Reese is able to have four shooters and playmakers around her at all times on the court.
“It makes things pretty easy,” Reese said of the spacing of Smesko’s system. “I mean, the paint is not always going to be so packed up.”
While Bri Jones, the All-Star center for the Dream last year, recovers from her offseason meniscus surgery, the Dream will run with a unit of Reese, Naz Hillmon, Jordin Canada, Rhyne Howard, and Allisha Gray as the starting unit night in and night out.
With Reese’s ability to snag rebounds and keep possessions alive, she’s able to kick it out to Gray (38.4 percent), Howard (32.3 percent), or Hillmon (32.1 percent) for a three, or out to Canada to reset the offense.
It’s not just a change that Reese is open to, but one that she’s excited about.
“I mean, can’t believe this is my life,” Reese said. “The paint is wide open, and I can drive. I had a lot of success last year with ISOs, so just being able to come down until somebody stops me. Everybody’s on Lish and on Rhyne, staying with JC, so it opens up the floor, but also it makes the job easier for me, where I don’t have to always take the shot.
“I can come and do integrated screens when they screen for me and they pop and I can kick it to them, too. Just being able to have great players makes everybody’s life easier.”
Reese said that her teammates have already brought the best out in her and it’s only Day 2.
We saw that camaraderie during the introductory press conference when Howard and Gray were both asked what it was like to play against Reese over the last two years.
“I text Angel, and I was like, ‘I ain’t gonna lie, last year, I loved playing against Chicago because I had my best games,’” Gray said, jokingly.
“Anytime Angel was on the other side of the court, I think I’ve had about 30,” Howard added, with a laugh.
It’s been all good vibes for the Dream. And for Reese, that starts with Smesko.
During the introductory press conference for the Dream, where they welcomed Reese to Atlanta as well as the returning starters from last year – Howard, Gray, Jones, Hillmon, and Canada – she mentioned that it was a mutual decision from both parties (referring to her departure from the Chicago Sky) and that she was able to choose a destination.
Her initial conversations with Smesko took her back to when she was playing at the University of Maryland and Smesko was the head coach at Florida Gulf Coast University.
“He’s very big with analytics, so he’s been helping me a lot, and I can see the improvement already from yesterday to today, but it’s been great, seamless,” Reese said, adding that she likes to see things visually and see the numbers to understand. “He likes to run wide open layups and an open court. You have to be so passive, and I’m getting used to that, too.”
Smesko has gone out of his way multiple times to say that everyone knows what an elite rebounder Reese is, but her talent goes beyond that. He’s called her a “special talent,” a “talented player,” and a “great player.”
After the Dream’s practice Tuesday, he reinforced his thoughts.
“Angel’s going to help us a lot more than I’m going to help Angel. She just can do so many things. I think for us, just being able to utilize her to what she does best, and then just keep expanding her game where she feels more comfortable shooting it, catching it, shot-making and taking it to the rim, things of that nature,” Smesko said. “We’ll work on a couple things, and then once we get good at that, we’ll find a couple more things. And I do think that you’ll see a lot of growth over the season just by her attitude and willingness to work to get better.”
One of the ways that Reese is helping is by being vocal on the court and helping her teammates. We saw during a defensive drill toward the end of a Dream practice that she yelled out to her teammates “no easy looks.”
Despite being in her third year, Reese said she “kind of feels like a vet, but I’m not a vet, but it is cool to be able to be in a different role now.” And that has made an impact on at least one rookie.
“Reese is around me trying to ask me if I need anything,” Okot said. “If I understand everything the coaches are saying, and she is willing to explain it to me.”
But all of that comes back to basketball for Reese, who has said time and again that she was grateful and thankful for her first two seasons in Chicago, and she’s ready to just focus on just that: basketball.
With her conversations with Howard and Gray, they assured her that she can do just that with the Dream.
“I haven’t had to think about anything other than basketball, and I think that’s what you want as a professional,” Reese said. “Everybody behind the scenes does an amazing job, from our communications team to Brooklyn (Cartwright) to our GM (Dan Padover), they all do a great job just making sure that we’re good and we don’t have to worry about anything. That was something that Allisha and Rhyne told me, like, you don’t have to worry about anything other than basketball, and that’s something I really enjoy.”
During her first two seasons with the Sky, they went 23-61. It didn’t fall on Reese, who was a walking double-double and had the highest PER on the team last year (tied with Cardoso). But now, she’s on a team that surpassed that two-year win total last year, as the Dream went 30-14.
Her eyes are on a few things: wanting to be coached, focusing on basketball, and winning.
With this team, she likes her chances.
“I think there’s no ceiling,” Reese said about the Dream this year. “I watched them from afar last year, and being able to see success, that’s the reason why I wanted to come here, because I thought I can help them in ways, and they can help me in ways. Everybody’s really hungry.”