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[ad_1] No Offseason E-newsletter 🏀 | That is The Athletic’s girls’s basketball publication. Enroll right here to obtain No Offseason instantly in your inbox.

Welcome to the primary version of No Offseason, your new weekly information by the world of girls’s basketball. Let’s go!

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Why We’re Right here: Your girls’s hoops cheat sheet After we named The Athletic’s girls’s basketball podcast “No Offseason,” we understood the implication: Between the WNBA, faculty basketball, Unequalled and Olympics, there are not any breaks within the girls’s basketball calendar. However now, we’re forgetting the whole lot we thought we knew, as a result of the information cycle has risen to an unprecedented degree.

Simply for the reason that begin of March, we’ve seen:

A large, transformational collective bargaining settlement signed within the WNBA

A primary-time champion topped within the NCAA Event, adopted by a record-breaking WNBA Draft exhibiting for UCLA

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Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers’ debuts for USA Basketball

A street tour in Unequalled’s second postseason

Presumably the quickest offseason/free company in professional sports activities historical past

Oh, and the WNBA season begins Friday.

It’s exhausting to consider that not too way back, the mere existence of a 2026 WNBA season was in query. There was a protracted impasse between the gamers’ union and the league about easy methods to share the rising pie of cash coming into the WNBA, and the method felt more and more contentious as the times, weeks and months dragged … and dragged … and dragged.

However the deal is completed, and the thirtieth WNBA season is upon us. Now, it’s as much as the gamers to show they'll deal with the elevated expectations and justify what they fought so exhausting for. The lights have by no means been brighter on the WNBA.

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That’s why we’re right here — that can assist you comply with the largest gamers, video games and storylines within the sport. Each Tuesday in your inbox, you’ll get additional insights into what I (Sabreena) am watching, what scoops our Annie Costabile is chasing, the big-picture tales Chantel Jennings and our different function writers are tackling and a lot extra.

And preserve listening to the “No Offseason” podcast for much more professional evaluation from Zena Keita, Layshia Clarendon and the remainder of the crew. Additionally: You may attain us at nooffseason@theathletic.com with any questions or feedback — or simply to say hello.

Now, let’s play (write, learn, chat) ball!

Quick Breaks 🏆 Our preseason energy rankings are right here, led by the (shocker) Las Vegas Aces.

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👟 Sabrina Ionescu will likely be out for no less than two weeks after injuring her foot in preseason.

🏀 Paige Bueckers was succinct in explaining her private relationship with new Wings, and outdated UConn, teammate Azzi Fudd: It’s “no person’s enterprise however our personal.”

💭 Angel Reese match proper in together with her new squad, the Dream, en path to beating that of her outdated, the Sky.

🎽 For his or her season opener in opposition to the Solar, the Liberty are suiting up in retro threads. Discover the look, and the 2 different groups who adopted go well with with throwback uniforms, right here.

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➕ The NCAA Event is increasing to 76 groups in 2027. Has there been sufficient parity within the faculty sport to assist including extra groups to the sector? I don’t suppose so. No person needs or wants that.

➡️ Chantel ranked faculty hoops’ 20 finest switch suits, and since that piece went dwell, UCLA picked up yet another veteran for its title protection: KK Bransford from Notre Dame.

🎙️ The No Offseason podcast crew dives into some huge questions for the WNBA groups with the most effective probability at making a critical title run. We’re curious concerning the Fever, Aces, Liberty … and whether or not or not the Wings and Dream even belong on this dialog. Hear wherever you get pleasure from your podcasts.

Burning Questions: One Q for every WNBA workforce Let’s test in with every workforce forward of Friday’s season opener, from the contenders to the center of the pack and the groups which are rebuilding:

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👑 WNBA championship contenders

New York: The Liberty have roster continuity on their facet, however the place there’s uncertainty is within the teaching employees. Will first-year coach Chris DeMarco be capable of maximize this cheat code of a lineup?

Indiana: Clark is at one hundred pc after nagging accidents restricted her to only 13 video games in her sophomore marketing campaign. With out Clark, the Fever have been on the doorstep of a finals look. Along with her again, do they break by?

Las Vegas: The Aces ended the 2025 season with a championship, due to one of the dominant stretches in league historical past. With the total core again, can they put it collectively for a full season and threaten the Houston Comets’ regular-season wins file? The Comets gained 90 p.c of their video games (27-3) in 1998 en path to their second of 4 straight titles.

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Atlanta: Is Reese the lacking piece to the Dream’s hopes of being a contender? Atlanta hasn’t even made it previous the primary spherical of the playoffs since 2018.

🐺 Center of the pack

Phoenix: Will the Mercury stay a title contender after dropping ahead Satou Sabally in free company?

Minnesota: The Lynx misplaced their fourth- by eighth-best gamers from the 2025 workforce that had the league’s finest regular-season file, however they retained MVP candidate Napheesa Collier (although she’s out with ankle accidents), Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams. Do they nonetheless have sufficient to be in title talks? Or are they dealing with an imminent rebuild?

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Los Angeles: The Sparks haven’t made the playoffs since 2020, the longest drought of any workforce within the league. Franchise icon Nneka Ogwumike is again in Los Angeles to hitch the core of Kelsey Plum, Dearica Hamby and Cameron Brink. Is that this the yr the Sparks break the streak?

Dallas: Bueckers may need been the second-best rookie of all time in 2025, however the Wings didn’t win many video games. Did Dallas add sufficient within the offseason with Fudd, Alanna Smith and Jess Shepard to permit Bueckers to play significant basketball in August and past?

Golden State: What occurs when opposing groups are prepared for Golden State’s explicit model of basketball? The Valkyries have been a pleasing shock in 2025, however now the remainder of the league is aware of what to anticipate.

Chicago: Will this be the yr the Sky development again towards title rivalry? Since 2023, the franchise has been in a downward spiral, however basic supervisor Jeff Pagliocca asserts the 2026 roster is the one able to turning the web page.

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🏗️ Rebuilding … and for 2, simply constructing

Toronto: Led by WNBA championship-winning coach Sandy Brondello, are the Tempo — the WNBA’s first worldwide workforce — able to mirroring the success the Valkyries had final yr?

Washington: The Mystics are enjoying the lengthy sport with a complete of 14 picks within the subsequent three drafts, six of them first-rounders. However what steps are practical for the franchise within the fast future with younger stars like Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen and rookie Lauren Betts?

Connecticut: Will the franchise’s “sundown season” be the sendoff followers are hoping for earlier than it relocates to Houston in 2027?

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Seattle: The Storm have one of the thrilling futures within the WNBA with worldwide frontcourt stars Dominique Malonga and Awa Fam, regardless of an enormous offseason expertise exodus (4 2025 All-Stars left in free company). How shortly can Malonga, Fam and the remainder of Seattle’s younger core turn out to be aggressive?

Portland: Which faculty megastar within the 2027 (or 2028) draft will match finest in Portland? The enlargement Fireplace have loads of fascinating younger fliers however little confirmed expertise of their debut marketing campaign.

We’ll get our solutions quickly sufficient. To this query, too: Can the contenders, or anybody, dethrone the Aces?

Watch Information: Opening week’s greatest video games Like most leagues these days, easy methods to watch the WNBA this yr appears to be like totally different from even final yr.

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This season, the WNBA offered free streaming of all preseason video games on League Go. The league is following that up with a bolstered regular-season broadcast schedule: a file 216 nationally broadcast video games throughout tv and streaming platforms.

NBC, Peacock, NBCSN and USA Community are the league’s new broadcast companions, becoming a member of ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, CBS Tv Community/Paramount+, ION and NBA TV. Obtained all that?

ION leads all companions with 50 broadcasts this season, together with Friday night time doubleheaders.

The Mickey Mouse networks will broadcast 30 video games, and amongst them are the league’s main tentpoles just like the All-Star Sport.

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NBC is again after broadcasting the primary WNBA sport in 1997 with a seven-game slate.

USA Community will air the second-most video games (48). Prime Video will stream 30 video games, CBS and Paramount+ may have 20, NBA TV will air 15 and Peacock/NBCSN will broadcast 15, together with the WNBA Finals collection.

All 44 of the Fever’s video games will likely be obtainable nationally. The Wings may have 36 nationwide video games, the Liberty may have 35 and the Aces may have 33.

Now listed here are the largest video games, and the place to observe them, throughout opening week:

Friday, Could 8

Solar-Liberty: The Solar’s first sport of the franchise’s ultimate season in Connecticut will likely be performed on the street in opposition to a Liberty workforce making an attempt to rebound after a first-round playoff exit final season. (7:30 p.m. ET, ION/League Go)

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Mystics-Tempo: This sport will likely be historic with the Tempo debuting (at house) because the WNBA’s first Canadian workforce. (7:30 p.m. ET, ION/League Go)

Saturday, Could 9

Wings-Fever: Indiana hosts Dallas in what might be the preeminent rivalry of the WNBA for the foreseeable future with Clark and Bueckers anchoring every. (1 p.m. ET, ABC/Disney+)

Mercury-Aces: Phoenix travels to Las Vegas for a rematch of the 2025 WNBA Finals minus Sabally, final season’s main scorer. (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC/Disney+)

Sky-Fireplace: The WNBA returns to Portland for the primary time since 2002, when the unique Fireplace franchise folded. (9 p.m. ET, NBA TV)

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Sunday, Could 10

Aces-Sparks: Los Angeles hosts the reigning champions because it appears to be like to snap its postseason drought with a retooled roster that features 2016 MVP Ogwumike. (6 p.m. ET, USA)

For our full 2026 WNBA watch information, click on right here.

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