W Deep Dive: Early Season Standout Stats

New York is a tank and Washington has something brewing

Jun 05, 2025

We’re almost a month into the WNBA season and I’m having a splendid time. Unfortunately, all 13 teams in the league will quickly become afterthoughts when the Currently Unnamed Portland WNBA Franchise starts playing next year and immediately wins 10 straight championships, but for the time being, this is still pretty good.

With Liberty And Blowouts For All

I despise the idea of “liberty” in the constitutional sense. I don’t despise the Liberty, though, despite my penchant for hating the best teams in most sports. Through seven games, the Liberty are clearly the best team in the W, but I can’t hate them. Any time I try, my hatred quickly turns to awe because they have solved basketball.

New York currently has a net rating of +25.1, the best offense in the W by over five points per 100 possessions, the best defense by nearly seven points per 100 possessions, averages the most blocks per game, makes the most threes and shoots the best field goal percentage. Basketball: solved.

Six of their seven wins have been by double-digits and three of them have been by 20-plus. I don’t think the Liberty will go undefeated (if they lose to the Mystics tonight, that is not my burden to bear) but they will almost certainly challenge Las Vegas’ all-time win record of 34.

Semi-related; who let the Liberty get Natasha Cloud? Why didn’t anyone step in to stop this? I love Cloud. She’s my favorite person to ever graduate from St. Joe’s University. That’s not a high bar, to be fair — I used to serve tables at a restaurant right next to SJU’s campus and those kids tip like garbage, but I really do adore Cloud’s game. She is a delight to watch, and even though this team doesn’t need her at all, she’s a perfect gap-filler for the team’s stars. Exhibit A:

The passing is stellar, the defense is first-team worthy, and she’ll put anyone in hell. ANYONE;

Washington Has an Elite Foundation

Washington, DC is such a good basketball city, so it’s sad that both the Mystics and Wizards have been rough watches most of the past few years. The Wizards have at least a semblance of a young core developing (my Bilal Coulibaly stock will never, ever be sold) and the Mystics have two certified young stars, with another recovering from injury.

Kiki Iriafen won me over when, in her fourth WNBA game, she went blow for blow with A’Ja Wilson, posting 17 & 13 in a game the Mystics were in until the final minute.

She hasn’t posted a truly bad game yet (double-digit scoring every game and four double-doubles already) but even on her tough shooting nights, she’s contributing. If she ever blocks like, one shot, things will get scary.

And then there’s Sonia Citron, who has also scored in double figures every game. Two rookies finding this type of consistency off the bat is pretty unprecedented. Color me impressed.

And Washington’s third first-round pick this year, Georgia Amoore, is sidelined with an injury, so we haven’t even seen the Mystics’ rookie trio take the court yet. This team is going to get really good really quickly.

Dallas Has No Idea How to Win

But they’re getting close a lot! The Wings are 1-7, and five of those losses had “clutch time” minutes, meaning it was a five point game or less with under five minutes remaining. They’re 0-5 in those games with a net rating of -41.1. About as bad as possible (it’s actually only second-worst in the league to Connecticut, but I’ll let the Sun be bad in peace.)

Not being able to close out games is pretty typical of young teams, the only problem is… Dallas isn’t super young. Paige Bueckers is a rookie, but the roster around her, for the most part, is pretty experienced.

I’m not panicking about Dallas but I am wondering if this iteration of the roster — which features three mildly efficient scoring guards in Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale and DiJonai Carrington — can excel.

Again, not panicking. Paige has played seven WNBA games in her life. Things will balance out and her efficiency will tick up. I’m just pondering, at what point does Dallas look to shake things up? The trade deadline? Next offseason? Tomorrow?

Napheesa Collier is Better…

…than she was last year, and better than pretty much everyone else in the league. Collier finished second in MVP voting last year to A’Ja Wilson and might be hellbent on taking home the award this season. She’s averaging 25.1 points per game and is shooting well from… everywhere.

There’s a subtle change in Collier’s game in the early going — she’s taking far more shots in the paint (non-rim) than last year, meaning she’s backing up a bit and using her elite touch, a change that’s somehow made her more efficient (career-high 62.4 percent true shooting so far.) It’s been a lot of this:

Does Collier have the most aesthetically pleasing game in the league? If not, then who does? ANSWER ME.

On Tuesday, Collier had her worst game of the season. 18 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists on 61 percent shooting. Yes — her worst game of the season.

Minnesota is undefeated for a lot of reasons — Courtney Williams is awesome as usual, there’s depth at every position and coach Cheryl Reeve has been at this for nearly two decades. But Collier is the basis of everything for the Lynx and she’ll give them at least a fighting chance against New York if the two meet again in the Finals.

Golden State is Not The Worst Team Ever

And that’s a pretty big accomplishment for year one. There’s no clear star on this team (and I wasn’t a big fan of drating a player in the first round who won’t be on the team this year) but the Valkyries have been mostly competitive in their 2-4 start, and that’s a testament to rookie head coach Natalie Nakase, who fans seemed to be turning on… before the first game, for some reason.

Janelle Salaün is certainly not going to win any awards for the most efficient scorer (she’s scored 60 points on 63 shot attempts) but she’s an undrafted rookie on an expansion team; any production from her is a win. Salaün is one of the very few players on Golden State who can create her own shot, and the lack of elite passing around her causes her to take mostly difficult attempts. There’s obviously something to work with here.

One more thing: Please Protect Planned Parenthood

If you’re finding it tough to keep up with what organizations and institutions the Trump administration is targeting on a daily and weekly basis, I get it. But Planned Parenthood is getting slammed right now (unsurprising, but no less maddening.) They’re being forced to shutter clinics all over the country, including VERMONT and NEW YORK. If you think you’re safe from anything because you live in a liberal area or somewhere abortion is still legal, that’s extremely not true. If you have any extra money and don’t know what to do with it, Planned Parenthood is a good bet. They need money.

One more (more) Thing: Fine, I’ll Be Scared of AI

Fine, I give in. I’ve seen enough AI-generated videos that are nearly indiscernible from real humans to finally be scared of the future of creative jobs.

Granted, I was already incredibly scared of AI at large, as Israel has been using it to murder civilians in Gaza for a while now and our police departments continue to use AI facial recognition tools to arrest anyone they deem a threat, or whatever the fuck they’re doing now. It’s hard to keep up.

Anyway, The Broken Press will never, ever use AI for any creative purposes. What do you mean, “we can tell?”

UPDATE: I just searched “Portland WNBA team name” and G**gle told me they’ll be called the Valkyries, so maybe we still have some time before human writing is obsolete.

What I’m Listening to: Turnstile

God damn, they’re on a roll.

CREDITS: Statistics via WNBA.com, Shotcreator, and Basketball Reference. Film via Shotcreator. Preview picture via Yahoo Sports.

The Broken Press