WNBA power rankings: Will the New York Liberty eventually find their groove?

For most of the WNBA’s history, the league’s champion has looked the part from start to finish — not just during the playoffs, but throughout the regular season. Dominance was expected from the moment the ball tipped in May. From 2009 to 2024 — the league’s 12-team era — only two champions weren’t the top seed in the regular season or within at most two games of the league’s best record: Indiana in 2012 and Chicago in 2021.

Last season was a different situation, as the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces sputtered for the first two-thirds of the regular season before ending it on a 16-game winning streak. The Aces had one of the poorer net ratings (plus-3.9) of any WNBA champion but were able to find themselves when it mattered and hung another banner.

Two things changed in 2025: The league added another team and four more regular-season games. The WNBA expanded twice more in 2026, even if the schedule didn’t get any longer, but more games are on the horizon in 2027. In a bigger league with more regular-season games, it stands to reason that dominance may be a little more difficult over a six-month stretch. Perhaps Las Vegas was just the tip of the iceberg in 2025.

Recent champions Las Vegas and New York are once again flailing through the regular season, relying on their ability to flip the switch at an opportune moment. The teams that have taken the start of the regular season a little more seriously, such as Dallas and Golden State, don’t have any meaningful playoff history and are thus harder to trust come the postseason.

Minnesota looms as the obvious championship favorite. A title-winning head coach and a roster that has been at the top of the standings for most of the season spell a title in 2026, especially with Napheesa Collier on her way back. (And it would in just about any other year in WNBA history.) In the second half of the season, let’s see if teams continue to put stock in winning every game or shift toward managing players’ loads before the postseason.

RankTeamPrevious rank1Golden State12Minnesota23Dallas34Indiana 45Las Vegas56Atlanta87Washington 78New York69Chicago 1410Portland 1011Connecticut 1112Toronto 913Seattle1214Phoenix 1515Los Angeles 13

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Golden State Valkyries

The Valkyries haven’t technically risen in the rankings — nowhere to go but up when you open the week in the top spot — but they have at least risen in my estimation by continuing their nine-game winning streak. Incredibly, their offensive rating is still 10th in the league during this stretch, but their defensive rating of 93.7 points allowed per 100 possessions is comfortably the best in the league. For context, the best defensive rating in the WNBA last season was 97.5, and offenses have improved league-wide in 2026.

Of all the things Golden State does well defensively, what stands out most is its ability to protect the paint. The Valkyries have an excellent rim protector in Kiah Stokes, who leads the league in block percentage; she rejects 8.2 percent of opponents’ 2-point shots when she is on the court. But defense isn’t a one-woman effort, and Stokes plays only 22 minutes. Everyone on the Golden State roster plays her part.

Against Washington, whenever Kiki Iriafen got the ball in the post, Stokes was solid enough to stay between Iriafen and the hoop. But Veronica Burton and Kayla Thornton both slid into the paint as well, not doubling to the point of leaving their shooters open, but creating congestion. That’s how the Valkyries lead the league in paint points allowed.

Another thing Golden State excels at is keeping opponents out of transition. It concedes the fewest points (12.1 per game) off turnovers, and it’s a stylistic choice based on how the Valkyries run their offense. They are the most isolation-heavy team in the league, and reducing the number of passes limits the number of giveaways. Even if it lowers Golden State’s offensive upside, there are so many other teams that thrive in the open court, and the Valkyries take that away. Consider Indiana, which plays at the highest pace in the WNBA and is averaging 94.4 points per game, the most in league history; the Valkyries held the Fever to 77 points in their win in Indiana this week, and the Fever scored four fast-break points.

Connecticut Sun

It’s been a very strange season in Connecticut, where it seems like too much energy is being spent resurrecting the value of veterans such as Brittney Griner and Kennedy Burke. At 35 and 29 years old, respectively, they aren’t on the same developmental timeline as the Sun’s core. Also, it doesn’t behoove Connecticut to win games when it currently boasts a slim one-game lead for best odds of the No. 1 pick in the 2027 draft lottery.

But when Connecticut wins games because of improvements from its young players, it’s hard to be disappointed in the overall process. Aaliyah Edwards was a driving force in the Sun’s first win of the week against Portland, sometimes literally, with 21 points on 13 shot attempts.

Edwards is quick to drive after facing up against her defender, even when the spacing around her isn’t exactly pristine; none of the Connecticut guards really give the defense a reason to stay home, but Edwards still finds a way to the basket.

Her jumper is also going in at a high clip, and the Sun went to her in the midrange out of the pick-and-roll to close out the Fire. Edwards has the highest shooting percentages of her career on 2-pointers, 3-pointers and free throws this season, and she is scoring her most points despite playing fewer minutes than she did as a rookie.

Edwards’ pick-and-roll partner, Leïla Lacan, got the job done in Phoenix for Connecticut’s second win of the week. Lacan’s defense has always popped, but she needs to be more of an offensive threat to succeed long term in the WNBA. Her performance against the Mercury — 26 points and five assists — showed flashes of what that player could be.

It wasn’t just that Lacan was calling her own number off screens to take jumpers. She was also aggressively driving off closeouts and taking advantage of defensive gaps. Lacan is a decent finisher at the rim (66.7 percent this season) and is making a respectable 43 percent of her midrange jumpers. Taking those shots with confidence will make up for the current lack of a 3-point jumper.

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New York Liberty

The Liberty have to be the most confounding team in the WNBA. They are 2-8 in their last 10 regular-season games, with the only wins coming against the Lynx and the Aces; they’re like the anti-Valkyries. The ceiling is as high as any team’s in the league, but the floor is far too low for this talent level. Even with the German duo of Leonie Fiebich and Satou Sabally missing the last four and seven contests, respectively, New York is too deep to continue lollygagging through games.

The rotations don’t make a ton of sense right now. Why bench Rebekah Gardner, the team’s best perimeter defender, against Indiana (with Fiebich unavailable) when Kelsey Mitchell has been absolutely molten lately? Why play Sabrina Ionescu so much off the ball when the team’s other guards aren’t great passers, but instead finishers? Marine Johannès is a shooter, not a playmaker, and Pauline Astier’s best skill is getting downhill to score. Ionescu is excellent at spacing, catching and shooting and reading the defense, but the Liberty are marginalizing her because the rest of the backcourt players can’t get the ball to her frequently enough.

New York looks like a team with a first-year head coach (and not a ton of experience among his assistants) still figuring out how to construct his team’s identity. That would be fine if the Liberty didn’t have three All-Stars in their prime who want to win a title now.

Rookie of the week

Serah Williams, Portland Fire

(Reminder: This isn’t the best rookie of the week, but rather a player who caught my eye.)

The “steal of the draft” concept gets thrown around a lot, but I have come to understand it as the UConn player who falls out of the first round. Last year, Kaitlyn Chen fell into the third round after being the starting point guard on the national champs and previously winning three consecutive Ivy League titles. Now, she’s the backup point guard on potentially the best team in the WNBA.

Serah Williams fell into the third round in 2026, in a weaker draft, after starting every game for the one-loss Huskies. Sure, UConn didn’t win a national title with her (the absence of Paige Bueckers might have had something to do with that), but you don’t start 38 games for Geno Auriemma without knowing how to play. Williams knows how to play. She is the only third-round pick contributing for her team this season, and it’s not as if there is a deep pool of rotation players taken above her. There are only four (maybe five) second-round picks out of 15 who are playing regular minutes.

In her two spot starts this week, Williams looked comfortable in the post. She shot 9 of 14 over two games for 20 points. She showed off a nice drop step against Nia Coffey and faked out the Minnesota defense on a dive to the basket.

let’s go Serah 👏

Serah Williams with the Fire’s first points against the Minnesota Lynx. https://t.co/OWx14jMuCJpic.twitter.com/nKLyuF0sRr

— Portland Fire (@theportlandfire) July 19, 2026

To be fair, Williams did not provide much defensive resistance on Natasha Howard, though she was tighter on Shakira Austin. She seemed to execute the pick-and-roll coverages properly, showing high and then rotating back to her rolling big. She does have a tendency to sink in the paint a little too much and is slow to get back out to shooters — that’s not unexpected since college teams have far fewer capable shooters than WNBA squads. Still, she was a positive plus-minus in both games, not too shabby for a rookie.

Game to circle

Minnesota at Seattle

10 p.m. (ET) Monday, USA Network

The Lynx remain at the top of the WNBA standings, but their defense has slipped. In the first 19 games, they allowed only one opponent to shoot 50 percent from the field; that has happened three times since. In the first 19 games, Minnesota allowed one opponent (incidentally, the same one) to shoot 40 percent from the 3-point line; that has happened four times in the seven games since. Seattle may not be winning, but the Storm just dropped 90 points on Chicago and 107 on Indiana. This youthful Seattle group is well-equipped to give Cheryl Reeve some headaches.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix Mercury, Golden State Valkyries, Portland Fire, Toronto Tempo, WNBA

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