Around the W: July 2024 Review
A look back at how each WNBA team did in the month of July.
All WNBA games in July have been completed so let’s review what took place. The league is now on hiatus as players head to Paris, France for the 2024 Olympic games.
Before they left, they celebrated All-Star Weekend. Team WNBA defeated Team USA 117-109. I wrote all about All-Star Weekend, if you missed it you can read the recap here. All-Star Weekend Recap
Now let’s look back at how each WNBA team did with their games in July. The records listed are specific for July. The full WNBA standings will be listed at the very end. First up, it’s time to highlight the monthly award winners.
Monthly Awards
Caitlin Clark won her 2nd Rookie of the Month Award in July. Clark averaged 20.3 PPG, 12.5 APG, and 6.3 RPG. Both Clark and Angel Reese were named All-Stars and helped Team WNBA defeat Team USA.
The Rookie of the Year race will likely come down to those two players. Each has won at least one Rookie of the Month Award. It’ll come down to which player stands out the most over the final two months of the season.
For the third month in a row, we have had a new Coach of the Month. Connecticut Sun’s Stephanie White won the award in May. Minnesota Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve won the award in June. And now Sandy Brondello of the New York Liberty has won the award for July. The New York Liberty finished July with a 5-1 record but more importantly, they finished with the best overall record in the WNBA at 21-4.
Overall, the New York Liberty have looked like the best team in the league up to this point; a little more than midway through the season. They look primed to return to the WNBA Finals for a second consecutive season.
We have a repeat from June. Once again, Sabrina Ionescu was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month, and A’ja Wilson was named the Western Conference Player of the Month.
Ionescu has led the New York Liberty to the best record in the WNBA. During her six games in July, she averaged 23.2 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 4.8 APG.
While Ionescu is having the best season of her career, A’ja Wilson might be having the best season in WNBA history. She has won Player of the Month every month so far this season. She leads the league in points (27.2 PPG), rebounds (12.0 RPG), and blocks (2.9 BPG). Wilson is on pace to shatter Jewell Loyd’s record of 939 points in a single season. If she keeps this up she’ll score nearly 1,100 points this year.
Something drastic would have to happen at this point for A’ja Wilson to not be awarded her third MVP Trophy at the end of this season.
Atlanta Dream
July Record: 0-7
No team performed worse in July than the Atlanta Dream. They finished the month without a single win. Rhyne Howard got injured and the team struggled offensively without her.
Their most competitive game was their 85-82 defeat to the Wings on the road in Dallas. The Dream’s most lopsided defeat came against the Las Vegas Aces by a final score of 84-70.
The Dream are three games out of the 8th and final playoff spot. They will have to turn things around quickly to make a run at the playoffs. If they aren’t able to, Coach Tanisha Wright might be on the hot seat.
The good news for them is that Rhyne Howard returned during the All-Star game and is playing with Team USA’s 3 x 3 team in the Paris Olympics. If all goes well, she should be ready to rejoin the Dream’s lineup in mid-August after the Olympics are over.
Chicago Sky
July Record: 4-3
July was the first month the Chicago Sky finished with a winning record. They bounced back after a 3-8 record in June and now find themselves in playoff position.
Chennedy Carter and Angel Reese have helped elevate the team to a higher level. Reese set a record by earning 15 consecutive games with a double-double. Carter had multiple games where she scored 30+ points and several others where she scored in the 20’s.
The Sky will be battling with the Indiana Fever, the Atlanta Dream, and the Dallas Wings for one of those last two playoff spots. That might be a little more difficult after the team traded away Marina Mabrey, one of their top scorers, right after their last game in July. Mabrey requested to be traded according to reports. The younger players will have to step up in her absence.
Coach Teresa Weatherspoon probably won’t win Coach of the Year because the Sky are likely to finish as a fringe playoff team. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve some votes. I think she’s already played a big role in changing the culture in Chicago and they appear to have a bright future with her behind the bench.
Connecticut Sun
July Record: 4-2
The Connecticut Sun finished July with a 4-2 record. They picked up two wins against the Phoenix Mercury and their top win of the month was 78-73 against the Minnesota Lynx. Those victories have helped keep the Sun in the number two spot in the WNBA standings at 18-6.
Unfortunately for Connecticut, their two losses came against the New York Liberty, the top team in the WNBA. More concerning is the Sun’s struggles against the other top teams in the league. They’ve lost all their games to New York but they have also lost games to Las Vegas and Seattle. It’ll be difficult for the Sun to become champions if they’re struggling against other top contenders.
As noted in the section above, the Sun and Chicago Sky made a trade that sent Marina Mabrey to Connecticut. She will provide them with additional scoring and three-point shooting. Will it be enough to put them over the top? We will see.
Dallas Wings
July Record: 2-5
The Dallas Wings continued their struggles this season. They followed their awful 1-11 record in June with a 2-5 record in July. This has led the Wings to fall to 12th place, the very bottom of the standings.
Dallas is currently 4.5 games out of 8th place for the final playoff spot. That’s a lot to overcome over the final two months. It’s not impossible but it is very unlikely. They are hoping to get Satou Sabally back after the Olympics. Sabally has missed the first three months of the WNBA season with a shoulder injury.
Their best win came against the Indiana Fever after they won 101-93. That is especially important because the Fever currently hold one of the final playoff spots and Dallas’s only chance to reach the playoffs will be to surpass a team like Indiana.
Indiana Fever
July Record: 3-3
The Indiana Fever had a solid month with a .500 record at 3-3. However, it does feel a little bit like a missed opportunity. They picked up huge wins against the New York Liberty (83-78) and the Minnesota Lynx (81-74). But then they faltered against the Washington Mystics (89-84) and the Dallas Wings (101-93). Those two teams have the worst records in the WNBA.
Big wins against some top playoff teams but losses against teams they should beat exemplify what the Indiana Fever are right now. An improved, potential playoff team, that is still figuring itself out. They are certainly making progress. They have positioned themselves into one of the last playoff spots; currently ranked 7th in the league.
Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell all participated in the All-Star game last weekend. Those three have the opportunity to lead the Indiana Fever to the playoffs for the first time in eight years!
Las Vegas Aces
July Record: 6-2
The Las Vegas Aces have been a significantly improved team once Chelsea Gray was healthy enough to join them. They won several games in a row. Their best win came at Seattle where they defeated the Storm 84-79. That temporarily helped them leapfrog the Storm in the standings.
However, they lost 98-93 in OT to the Los Angeles Sparks earlier in the month and they lost their final game of July, 93-85 to the Chicago Sky in Las Vegas. That dropped them back below Seattle.
The Aces are still one of the most talented teams in the WNBA. A’ja Wilson is the best player in the league. Jackie Young continues to prove she is a young superstar and might be turning into Wilson’s “Robin”. Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray still have the potential to play at a high All-Star level in any given game. But will they still be the best team in the league at the end of this season? That’s difficult to say. They have already lost more home games this year than they lost in all of 2023.
Their record against top teams is still pretty strong. They’re 2-1 against Seattle, 1-1 against Minnesota, and 1-0 against Connecticut. Until someone actually knocks them out, the two-time defending WNBA Champions are still a legit threat to win their third championship in a row.
Los Angeles Sparks
July Record: 2-4
The LA Sparks have struggled all season as they look to rebuild after losing top stars Candace Parker, Chelsea Gray, and Nneka Ogwumike over the past few years. After a very tough June where they finished 2-9 and lost Cameron Brink to a season-ending injury, they were a lot more competitive in July despite still having a losing record. Three of their four losses were by six points or less.
Maybe it’s the Dearica Hamby revenge factor, but the Sparks beat the Aces again. This time 98-93 in OT. It’s the 2nd time Los Angeles has defeated the two-time defending champions this season. In fact, 33% of their wins this season have come against the Aces.
The Sparks sit four games out of the 8th and final playoff spot. They are honestly better off missing the playoffs this season and having the opportunity to add Paige Bueckers to a young core that includes Rickea Jackson and Cameron Brink. While Brink will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL, Jackson has been one of the best rookies behind stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. She is averaging 11.2 PPG and nearly 4.0 RPG. Rickea will likely be named to the First-Team All-Rookie Team at the end of the season.
Minnesota Lynx
July Record: 3-4
After an incredible month of June where the Minnesota Lynx won 9 of 11 games and defeated the New York Liberty in the Commissioner’s Cup Championship game, they stumbled a bit in July.
It might be the curse of the Commissioner’s Cup. I still remember in 2021, the Storm were leading the WNBA and handily defeated the Connecticut Sun in that year’s Championship game. But after they did, they started losing multiple games and then Breanna Stewart tore her Achilles costing Seattle a chance to repeat as WNBA Champions.
While not the exact same, the Lynx have also struggled since winning the Commissioner’s Cup. They had a losing record in July at 3-4. That included losses to the Liberty, Sun, and Storm. All teams the Lynx are fighting with for playoff position.
Their superstar player, Napheesa Collier, also missed five out of the seven games in July. The Lynx went 3-2 in those five games. However, it should be noted that their three wins came against teams that are at the bottom of the standings and their two losses were against playoff teams.
The good news for Minnesota is that Collier returned during the All-Star game and played during the Team USA Olympic scrimmage against Team Germany. If it wasn’t for A’ja Wilson’s unpreceded season, Collier would be a true legitimate candidate to win the MVP Award this season. When she is healthy, the Lynx have proven to be one of the best teams in the WNBA with their excellent three-point shooting, strong defensive game, and Collier as their go-to player.
New York Liberty
July Record: 5-1
The top team in the WNBA remains at the top of the standings after a strong 5-1 record in July. All five of their wins came against other playoff teams. Most importantly, they picked up two wins against the Connecticut Sun. The Liberty improved to 3-0 against the Sun which is very important considering Connecticut currently sits as the second seed in the standings. The Liberty are 2.5 games ahead of 2nd place but that’s actually 3.5 games ahead of the Sun because they own the season series.
New York is in the best shape to own homecourt advantage throughout the entire 2024 WNBA Playoffs. They’ve lost just two games over the past two months. They’re 17-3 over their last 20 games and 15-2 throughout June and July.
Sabrina Ionescu is arguably having the best season of her career. Breanna Stewart is still one of the best players in the entire league even if she’s having a slightly down season for her standards. Meanwhile, Jonquel Jones is having her best season since she won the MVP award in 2021.
Maybe one slight concern is that Betnijah Laney-Hamilton just had knee surgery and will be out for around 4-6 weeks. That normally would be a huge deal but because it’s happening over the Olympic break it shouldn’t be. She may not miss any WNBA games at all or if she does, it’ll likely only be a few.
The New York Liberty should be the betting favorites to win the championship this season but they will be challenged. They’ve had some struggles against Minnesota and they haven’t faced the Aces at full strength yet. If they do rematch Las Vegas this season, New York will likely have the homecourt advantage this time.
Phoenix Mercury
July Record: 4-3
The Phoenix Mercury have found themselves right in the middle of the WNBA standings. They aren’t quite as good as some of the elite teams like the Liberty, Sun, and Lynx. But they are clearly better than all the non-playoff teams, plus Indiana, and Chicago.
They had another month where they finished just above .500 record. One concern for the Mercury is that all of their wins came against non-playoff teams at the bottom of the standings. Phoenix’s losses came against Indiana (95-86) and two times against Connecticut. One was a total blowout where the Sun defeated the Mercury 96-69.
Phoenix will make the playoffs but can they actually make a deep run in the postseason? Their first-round opponent will most likely be against either Minnesota, Seattle, or Las Vegas on the road.
Something to keep an eye on. Rebecca Allen suffered a hamstring injury during a pre-Olympic exhibition game and will no longer be medically qualified to play in the Paris Olympics. Will this impact her during the remainder of the WNBA season?
Seattle Storm
July Record: 5-2
The Seattle Storm had another strong month going 5-2 in July after going 7-3 in June. They lost a game against the Chicago Sky after Angel Reese and Chennedy Carter combined to score 60 points in the upset victory over Seattle. The Storm got their revenge two days later over the Sky (84-71).
Seattle’s most important win was a 91-63 dominant performance over the Minnesota Lynx. The Lynx were without Napheesa Collier but Seattle did what they should do against a team missing their superstar player. It helped the Storm close the gap in the standings with the Lynx.
They did lose a critical home game against the Las Vegas Aces (84-79) that could come back to bite them come playoff time. As of right now, Seattle and Las Vegas would meet each other in the first round of the WNBA Playoffs where Seattle would host Games 1 and 2 at Climate Pledge Arena. However, if the Aces win the season series against Seattle and these two teams finish with the exact same record, then Las Vegas would host that first-round matchup.
Seattle is four games out of first place in the standings but only 1.5 games away from having the second-best record in the league. That is still clearly a goal they could reach if they have a strong finish to the season. Ideally, Seattle wants to move up to either the 2nd or 3rd seed in order to avoid that extremely tough matchup in the first round of the playoffs.
If everything remained the same at the end of the season as it is now, Seattle would face the Las Vegas Aces in the first round of the playoffs and if they were lucky enough to get past that, they would face the New York Liberty in the WNBA Semi-Finals. The Storm need to do everything they can to finish in the Top 3 at the end of September.
Washington Mystics
July Record: 2-4
The Washington Mystics have struggled with injuries all season long. Players like Brittney Sykes and Shakira Austin have missed more games than they’ve played.
Washington is tied with the Dallas Wings for the worst record in the WNBA at 6-19. They are 4.5 games out of the playoffs and are unlikely to be able to rally enough to play in the postseason. Like the LA Sparks, the Mystics are much better off missing the playoffs and trying to land a top pick like Paige Bueckers. Washington’s chances to land the superstar guard from UConn will increase substantially if the Atlanta Dream also miss the playoffs.
The Mystics own the Dream’s 2025 first-round pick. Plus their own. Right now that would give them the second-best and third-best odds to win the lottery. But when you combine those two it would give them a 45.4% chance to win the Draft Lottery. That is just slightly better than the team that normally has the best odds at 44.2%.
If Washington does want to try and reach the playoffs, their wins against Los Angeles (82-80) and Indiana (89-84) will certainly help. But it’s an uphill battle and doesn’t benefit their long-term vision.
The biggest concern for the Mystics right now is that budding star Shakira Austin played less than 50% of the games in 2023. And has only managed to play six games in 2024. She has now been more injured than healthy through her first three years in the WNBA. That’s really unfortunate and concerning considering Elena Delle Donne may not return to the Mystics in the future and Austin was supposed to be their next franchise player.
Overall Standings
New York Liberty 21-4
Connecticut Sun 18-6
Minnesota Lynx 17-8
Seattle Storm 17-8
Las Vegas Aces 16-8
Phoenix Mercury 13-12
Indiana Fever 11-15
Chicago Sky 10-14
Atlanta Dream 7-17
Los Angeles Sparks 6-18
Washington Mystics 6-19
Dallas Wings 6-19
Notes:
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Also, I want to credit Across the Timeline and HerHoopStats as I use their sites frequently for stats and information.
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Nice review article. Thanks, Jeff.