As WNBA free agency rolls on, let’s look at some 2025 depth charts

WNBA free agency is not over yet. But if I wait until next week’s column to assess the fallout of all the moves and analyze teams’ depth charts, someone else is going to write this first. So here we are.

A few notable free agents are still unsigned: Breanna Stewart (more on her later), Diana Taurasi, Temi Fagbenle, Aari McDonald. Other veterans, like Erica Wheeler and Chennedy Carter, would likely take up decent minutes depending on if and where they sign. And Marina Mabrey still needs to be traded. So there are a few spots where teams’ depth charts could change in ways that matter.

Below, a pair of slash lines indicates a clear difference in players’ places on the depth chart. One slash line indicates the spot is either split or uncertain.

Atlanta

Jordin Canada // Holly Winterburn?
Allisha Gray // Shatori Walker-Kimbrough
Rhyne Howard // Haley Jones
Brionna Jones // Nia Coffey // Naz Hillmon
Brittney Griner // Brionna Jones

Winterburn is listed here, despite her entire body of work since matriculating to Oregon looking sub-WNBA-caliber, because she is the only player on the cap sheet besides Canada with any lead playmaking ability. And beyond Winterburn, who might not even make the roster, just four players in this rotation are projected to play at their natural positions: Canada, Griner, Coffey and Hillmon. The other five are all playing up a position.

In a vacuum, the Dream signed some talented players to fill out a promising but still underachieving core of in-their-prime stars. In reality, the Dream doubled down on their strategy of playing big, which has been a losing strategy thus far.

If this is just what general manager Dan Padover decided to do for 2025 because this is who he could sign, that’s one thing. But if this is indicative of a long-term approach, then I have a lot of concerns, such as why he hired a small-ball, spread-motion-offense coach in Karl Smesko.

Chicago

Courtney Vandersloot // Moriah Jefferson
Kia Nurse // Rachel Banham
Rebecca Allen // Michaela Onyenwere
Angel Reese
Elizabeth Williams // Kamilla Cardoso

Please note that I’m not forgetting anyone. The Sky are one of two teams that don’t have enough players signed to fill out a full depth chart — can you guess the other one?

This depth chart might also be wrong if first-year head coach Tyler Marsh chooses to start Onyenwere over Allen. That would be a really bad idea for Chicago’s spacing, but as we saw last year, this front office might not really care about that.

The roster looks better this year than last, if only because Reese and Cardoso are likely to continue developing and the lineup changes are certainly better suited to put those two in position to succeed. But the Sky are going to miss Carter’s shot creation in ways that they probably can’t replace, and that’s going to cost them, even if the improvement in vibes is more important to what they’re building.

At least Chicago still has its own draft pick next yea— oh. Oh no.

Connecticut

Natasha Cloud // Lindsay Allen
Yvonne Anderson // Jacy Sheldon
Diamond DeShields // Leïla Lacan
Tina Charles // Robyn Parks?
Olivia Nelson-Ododa

Hopefully Nikolina Milić signs her reserved qualifying offer, because otherwise this team is slotting Caitlin Bickle or Mya Hollingshed in at the backup five.

This team should first and foremost be starting Lacan by May, and having Anderson, Sheldon and Lacan all sharing the court at some point this season would be fun. There’s possibly a rotation player or two currently on another team’s roster who could come over in a Mabrey trade — Kalani Brown? Kayla Thornton?

Those are the only positives I’ve got. This is going to be bad, and probably not the fun kind. At least Connecticut still has its own draft pick next yea— oh. Oh no.

Dallas

Paige Bueckers/Olivia Miles/Tyasha Harris [if Bueckers or Miles declares for the draft] // Tyasha Harris/ ¯_(ツ)_/¯ [if neither declares]
Arike Ogunbowale
DiJonai Carrington // Maddy Siegrist
Myisha Hines-Allen // NaLyssa Smith // Joyner Holmes
Teaira McCowan // Luisa Geiselsöder

Imagine the scene in “Shawshank Redemption” where Tim Robbins finally gets out of Shawshank State Penitentiary and stands with his arms out in the rain, but after about five minutes of freedom he’s suddenly surrounded by correctional officers and taken back to the prison. That’s what I figure Harris’ last two years have been like.

I can talk myself into really enjoying what this roster would look like if Bueckers or Miles came on board and got primary reps instead of Ogunbowale. I don’t have faith that’s going to happen, but a girl can dream. The best lineup here also probably has Siegrist at the four, with one of Hines-Allen and McCowan on the bench, so that’ll be fun.

This feels, at the very least, like a much more entertaining Dallas team than any of the Ogunbowale era, though there are some sneaky 2026 lottery chances here.

Golden State

Julie Vanloo // Veronica Burton
Tiffany Hayes // Kate Martin
Kayla Thornton // Chloe Bibby?
Stephanie Talbot // Janelle Salaün
Monique Billings // Laeticia Amihere

Unlike Chicago and Seattle, Golden State has enough players under contract for me to write up a proper rotation. But some them are not WNBA-caliber players, while a few players who’d easily slot in here have outstanding offers unsigned.

Fagbenle signing her restricted qualifying offer (or some higher-salaried contract) would presumably slot her in as the starting four and push Talbot to the backup three, while having Fagbenle as a flex backup five. Iliana Rupert coming stateside would put her in as the backup five, and Cecilia Zandalasini signing would put her in at the three as well.

There’s a lot of little directions the team could go depending on who signs their outstanding qualifying offers. No matter what, though, this team is going to struggle to get past a handful of wins. But maybe in a fun way? Probably not. Here’s hoping Carla Leite signs.

Indiana

Caitlin Clark // Sydney Colson
Kelsey Mitchell // Kristy Wallace
DeWanna Bonner // Lexie Hull/Sophie Cunningham // Katie Lou Samuelson
Natasha Howard // DeWanna Bonner/Sophie Cunningham
Aliyah Boston // Damiris Dantas

None of the Fever’s best lineups are going to feature Howard, but they just handed her a max contract, so here we are.

This is going to be a very good team. The Fever made offensive upgrades at the three — either Hull keeps shooting well and gives them spacing there or she doesn’t and gets moved out of the rotation for more Cunningham minutes — and at the four when Howard sits. They also got more or less a defensive upgrade at the four (more when Bonner plays), taking some pressure off of what was one of the most difficult assignments in the league last year for Boston.

As with Atlanta, I’m hoping this winter’s approach is more about who was available this offseason — in this case, two power forwards who aren’t well-respected spot-up shooters and therefore aren’t optimized to play off of Clark — than about a long-term approach. I’m sitting on a take about Kelly Krauskopf, the Fever’s president of basketball and business, being the WNBA’s Bryan Colangelo. We’ll see.

---

---

Las Vegas

Chelsea Gray // Dana Evans
Jewell Loyd // Dana Evans // Tiffany Mitchell
Jackie Young // Kierstan Bell
A’ja Wilson // Cheyenne Parker-Tyus
Kiah Stokes/Megan Gustafson // Megan Gustafson/Kiah Stokes // Elizabeth Kitley

The good news: Loyd is the Aces’ first standout point-of-attack defender since the team moved from San Antonio after the 2017 season.

The bad news: That’s assuming Loyd’s on-ball defense isn’t getting worse with age, since Seattle hadn’t asked her to be its primary guard defender in three years before trading her this offseason. And Vegas is otherwise considerably worse off than last year.

The offensive dropoff between Kelsey Plum and Loyd is enormous. Even if Loyd agrees to a lesser offensive role like she had in Seattle in 2021-22, her scoring ability was appreciably slowing at that point. Stokes and Gustafson still do not present a startable center between them. Between whichever of those two sits, Evans, and Parker-Tyus, the bench goes three deep at best, and Mitchell and Bell aren’t plug-and-play minutes-eaters the way Colson and Martin were.

There’s ways a Gray-Loyd-Young-Wilson-Gustafson lineup can be exciting in a 35-win kind of way, but all signs point to us being two or three years past a few of those players being able to do so.

Los Angeles

Kelsey Plum // Julie Allemand
Lexie Brown // Shaneice Swain
Rickea Jackson // Rae Burrell
Cameron Brink // Azurá Stevens
Dearica Hamby // Cameron Brink

There’s enough lineup flexibility with Brink, Stevens and Plum that the Sparks can go in whatever direction they want with their last few roster spots. You probably want McDonald to sign so you can put Plum into her more natural position at the two, which would also leave you less reliant on Brown’s health.

Speaking of which, assuming Brown, Brink and Allemand make good recoveries from their ailments, this offense looks full as hell. If Brown remains out and Brink’s reacclimation from a torn ACL tends toward the longer end of the spectrum, this may feel a lot like 2024 but with a better scoring guard.

Either way, handing Plum 35% usage isn’t the most reliable path to success, but it’s hard to ask for a more enticing lineup from a team that had such a star-crossed last two years.

Minnesota

Courtney Williams // Natisha Hiedeman // Grace Berger
Kayla McBride // Natisha Hiedeman
Bridget Carleton // Diamond Miller
Napheesa Collier // Alissa Pili
Alanna Smith // Dorka Juhász

This is basically the same team as last year, minus Hines-Allen and Zandalasini. The Lynx will miss Hines-Allen badly if neither Pili nor Juhász can take a considerable step forward. They’ll only really miss Zandalasini if neither Miller nor Berger can eat a dozen minutes a night without tanking the game.

Aside from the backup big spot, the concern here is really just that there is way more downside than upside to Minnesota. Every member of the starting lineup had the best year of their career last year — though you could argue it was only McBride’s second-best — and while three of them will only be 28 years old, that sort of thing tends not to repeat itself. There probably won’t be that much regression, but for a team that came one whistle/free throw/atrocious overtime performance away from a title, those things matter greatly.

New York

Sabrina Ionescu // Jaylyn Sherrod?
Leonie Fiebich // Marquesha Davis
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton // Rebekah Gardner
[silhouette that strongly resembles Breanna Stewart but maintains plausible deniability of not being Breanna Stewart] // Kennedy Burke/Nyara Sabally
Jonquel Jones // Nyara Sabally

Let’s redo the Minnesota blurb: This is basically the same team as last year, minus Vandersloot (who the Liberty played exceptionally well without) and swapping Gardner in for Thornton. Losing Vandersloot is definitely going to sting, if only because the Liberty are left with only one definitively WNBA-caliber playmaker. But if Gardner makes even a decent recovery, plugging her in for Thornton is at least an even swap.

Notably, the above depth chart includes 10 players, nine of whom are under contract. If Marine Johannès comes over at some point on her qualifying offer, New York has the ability to add Stewie and a 12th player for a little less than a max contract each. We know Jonathan Kolb wanted that player to be Natasha Cloud. This is pure speculation, but that’s enough money to fit in a Mabrey trade or sign Elena Delle Donne or Emma Meesseman. I would be surprised if either of those former Mystics signed, but much stranger things have happened.

Knowing how these negotiations tend to work, that 12th roster spot is almost certainly the reason Stewart hasn’t signed for a specific salary yet. At the very least, if Bueckers and Miles both declare, there’s a good chance of a championship-caliber bench piece being available at No. 7 for the Liberty.¹ Excellent team, still going to be excellent.

Phoenix

Sevgi Uzun
Sami Whitcomb // Kahleah Copper/Celeste Taylor
Kahleah Copper // Satou Sabally // Amy Atwell
Satou Sabally // Alyssa Thomas
Alyssa Thomas // Kalani Brown // Natasha Mack

I have to imagine a team whose only true point guard is Uzun is not going to be good. But I find it hard to imagine that a team starting Copper, Sabally and Thomas could possibly be bad? But this is also a rotation with barely more than four above-replacement-level players?

My head hurts.

Seattle

Skylar Diggins-Smith // Olivia Miles?
Probably Gabby Williams?
Alysha Clark // Jordan Horston
Nneka Ogwumike // Jordan Horston
Ezi Magbegor // Li Yueru/Nneka Ogwumike

If you guessed that the Storm are the other team without enough players to fill out a full depth chart, good job!

The tricky thing for Seattle is that, aside from Wheeler, the best free agents remaining are either restricted free agents or 2024 Storm backups, and the 2024 Storm bench was abominable except for Horston. They would have had a huge problem without adding Alysha Clark, but even with her, there’s almost no offensive creation.

Olivia Miles could completely transform this team if she’s available at No. 2 in the draft, but there’s a reason Los Angeles was willing to move the pick for only one certain year of Plum. Without Miles, the starters are far too good to end up in the lottery, but it’s hard to see either upside or entertainment from whatever this rotation turns out to be.

---

Order ‘Rare Gems’ and save 30%

Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The IX Basketball and The IX Sports, wrote this deeply reported book. “Rare Gems” follows four connected generations of women’s basketball pioneers, from Elvera “Peps” Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.

If you enjoy Megdal’s coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX Sports, you will love “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.” Click the link below to order and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout to save 30%!

---

Washington

Brittney Sykes // Jade Melbourne
Ariel Atkins // Sug Sutton
Karlie Samuelson
Aaliyah Edwards // Emily Engstler
Shakira Austin // Stefanie Dolson // Sika Koné

This is the same team as last year minus Vanloo and Walker-Kimbrough, plus whoever Washington gets with the fourth and sixth picks. If Bueckers and Miles both declare, the No. 4 pick probably/hopefully ends up being Dominique Malonga. Draft and stash her for a year until Dolson’s a free agent and the roster crunch sorts itself out.

Having Austin and Edwards both starting is a bit of wishcasting, both because plenty of coaches would start Dolson over Edwards and because Austin has played just 31 games over the past two seasons. On the bright side, a ton of minutes from Melbourne, Edwards, Engstler and possibly Koné should be plenty entertaining, if you can manage to ignore the score.

---

1. I’m specifically imagining one of Ajsa Sivka, Te-Hina Paopao and Sonia Citron would be available there.