2024 WNBA Power Rankings: Give me Liberty!

Just over three weeks remain in the 2024 WNBA regular season, leaving every team with 10 to 12 games to play. The New York Liberty, Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx have clinched a spot in the postseason, meaning five spots are up for grabs.

Ahead of the season’s final, critical stretch, here’s how Swish Appeal power ranks all 12 teams based on how they have performed since the Olympic break and how we expect them to perform through the remainder of the regular season:

1. New York Liberty

Record: 25-5; 4-1 since Olympic break

After winning their first four games since the resumption of play, the New York Liberty fell to the Connecticut Sun on Saturday. Yet, the loss looks like a mere blemish for a Liberty team that is cultivating resiliency. The team has persevered through Sabrina Ionescu missing two games with a neck injury, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton remaining sidelined after a knee procedure and Leonie Fiebich playing though injury, on top of the fact that Ionescu, Fiebich, Nyara Sabally and Breanna Stewart played in Paris. In turn, the team has not been the highly-efficient offensive machine that they are their best, instead relying on their defense—a league-best 86.7 defensive rating since the Olympic break—to grind their way to wins. This adaptability should pay off in the postseason.

2. Minnesota Lynx

Record: 22-8; 5-0 since Olympic break

Before the Olympic break, one could categorize the Minnesota Lynx as a “cute story,” an overachieving team that, ultimately, would not have the mettle or muster to compete with true title contenders. The Lynx, surely, have disabused any doubters. They are for real. Minnesota has come out of the break blazing, highlighted by a two-straight wins over the Las Vegas Aces—in Vegas—by a combined 24 points. Since the season restarted, they have the league’s best net rating at 16.5, powered by their league-leading offensive rating of 113.5.

3. Connecticut Sun

Record: 22-7; 4-1 since Olympic break

Did the Connecticut Sun get their most important win of the season on Saturday night? The Sun hadn’t beaten the Liberty since July 2022, losing seven in a row to New York. On Saturday, Connecticut broke the streak in Barclays, with new addition Marina Mabrey displaying how she can raise the Sun’s ceiling by leading the team with 15 points from off the bench, along with six rebounds and four assists. The league’s best defense held down New York’s league-leading offense, while getting just enough offense themselves to escape with a victory. Can that formula carry Connecticut to the franchise’s first title?

4. Seattle Storm

Record: 18-10; 1-2 since Olympic break

The Seattle Storm seemed situated to surge out of the Olympic break. While Jewell Loyd, Ezi Magbegor and Sami Whitcomb competed in Paris, Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith remained stateside, suggesting that the well-rested, Olympic-caliber vets would be ready to lead their team to statement-making wins. Instead, Seattle opened with two-straight losses, let down by their formerly fiercesome defensive. Those losses could have raised real concern about the Storm’s postseason viability, but winning the Gabby Williams sweepstakes silences any such suppositions. Although she has yet to suit up, expect Williams’ two-way tenacity to re-stabilize the Storm.

5. Las Vegas Aces

Record: 18-11; 2-3 since Olympic break

The Las Vegas Aces have earned every benefit of the doubt. The memory of Game 4 of the 2023 WNBA Finals, when A’ja Wilson willed her depleted squad to a second-straight title, is still too fresh to write off the back-to-back defending champs. And yet, it is hard not to deduce that the challenge of three-peating in Olympic year, all while the organization is under scrutiny for multiple alleged violations, might be too much. In hopes of helping her team rediscover their championship form, head coach Becky Hammon has begun experimenting with the starting lineup, giving both Alysha Clark and Megan Gustafson a look with the first five.

6. Indiana Fever

Record: 13-16; 2-1 since Olympic break

Many analysts and fans alike believed the Indiana Fever were poised to benefit from the Olympic break. After a rough start to a much-hyped season, it was envisioned that the young squad would regroup and refresh before rounding into the team it was believed they would be when they drafted Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft. Offensively-explosive victories over the Mercury and Storm proved such prognostications prescient. However, a loss to Lynx suggests that, when the shots are not falling, the Fever have yet to establish the foundation necessary to consistently compete with the league’s toughest teams.

7. Phoenix Mercury

Record: 16-14; 3-2 since Olympic break

The Phoenix Mercury continue to frustrate. In some games, such as their post-break opener against the Chicago Sky, they look unbeatable. There’s the dominance of Brittney Griner, the explosiveness of Kahleah Copper and the intensity of Natasha Cloud, all topped by a dose of throwback Diana Taurasi. In other games, such as subsequent losses to the Fever and Atlanta Dream, all that is absent, with the Mercury apparently unable to access, much less amplify, their strengths. That inconsistency suggests it is unlikely that they secure homecourt advantage in the playoffs; at the same time, no opponent should want to meet a version of Phoenix that has, finally, figured it all out.

8. Atlanta Dream

Record: 10-18; 3-1 since Olympic break

Was the Atlanta Dream’s nightmarish slumber of a season temporarily interrupted? Or, have they fully awakened, prepared to make a push for the playoffs? We’ll see. Their three-game winning streak, with all victories over quality opponents, demonstrated that the Dream have the potential to be a team that is greater than the sum of its parts. The presence of Jordin Canada, in particular, has made things click into place on both ends of the floor. Since the break, Atlanta has the league’s fifth-best offense and fourth-best defense, giving them a positive net rating of 6.2. That contrasts with a season-long net rating of -5.5. That 11.7-point swing, however, raises doubts about the sustainably of the re-engerized Dream.

9. Chicago Sky

Record: 11-18; 1-3 since Olympic break

The Chicago Sky are not going to win with elegance or efficiency. It will always be scrap in the Windy City, with every ounce of effort required to earn a positive result. They’re one of the poorest shooting teams in the league, with their teamwide 3-point shooting percentage hovering around 27 percent since play resumed. Offensive rebounding, led by the precocious prolificness of Angel Reese, is how the Sky attempt to make lemonade out of lemons on the offensive end. That’s a tough way to get by—or get into the playoffs—in an increasingly offensively-focused WNBA. Especially if the team does not tighten up on the defensive end. Their season-long defensive rating of 101.3 has spiked to 105.3 in August.

10. Dallas Wings

Record: 6-22; 1-3 since Olympic break

Satou Sabally is back, but the Unicorn has not solved the Dallas Wings’ woes. The opening of Dallas’ post-break schedule, however, did not do them any favors, with a game against Connecticut followed by a two-game set in New York. The Liberty locked down the Wings, holding them to 71 and 74 points. The other end of the floor also has remained an issue; Dallas has the league’s leakiest defense, with a defensive rating of 117.0 in their four games in August compared to a league-worst full-season mark of 110.5. It looks like this will be a lost season in Dallas, indicating lottery positioning, rather than a playoff push, could define their final games.

11. Washington Mystics

Record: 7-22; 1-3 since Olympic break

Are the Washington Mystics executing a perfect tank season? While it might not be where the team wants to be, Washington has been clear-eyed about their station, recognizing that the combination of offseason departures and in-season injuries would make it difficult for team to contend for a playoff spot. Those absences have opened extended opportunities for the likes of Aaliyah Edwards, Julie Vanloo and Jade Melbourne. Yet, this reliance on players with limited WNBA experience has not resulted in uncompetitive—and thus uninformative—losses; instead, the Mystics have been competitive in most contests, challenging opponents for at least three quarters before fading down the stretch. Will they be rewarded for their sportsmanlike struggles with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft?

12. Los Angeles Sparks

Record: 6-23; 0-6 since Olympic break

The Los Angeles Sparks’ eyes are on 2025. (See the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Wings.) Not only did the organization recently extend the contracts of Azurá Stevens and Steph Talbot, but, on the court, opportunity and experimentation have taken priority over any win-now strategy. Since the Olympic break, nine Sparks have played at least 15 minutes per game, led by Rickea Jackson’s 32.3 minutes. Jackson, as Eric Nemchock recently analyzed, also has been fully empowered on the offensive end, leading the team in field goal attempts in the month of August. Despite the loss, she was sensational on Sunday, scoring a career-high 25 points. LA just has to hope their focus on 2025 will include a co-star for Jackson via the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft.