The WNBA’s trade deadline is officially a week-and-a-half away with teams having until August 7 at 3:00 p.m. ET to get all trades done before the WNBA’s regular season reaches 70% complete. As Cole Huff explained last week, it is reasonable to believe that the Dallas Wings and the Washington Mystics will be sellers in the next ten days. The Dallas Wings remain the second worst team in the league while the Washington Mystics have reportedly been entertaining calls to trade sophomore forward Aaliyah Edwards.
But who might be the buyers? The New York Liberty got their work done early earning a commitment from free agent Belgian superstar and 2019 WNBA Finals MVP Emma Meesseman. She is set to arrive in August. But how will the Lynx match especially since they lost Karlie Samuelson for the season on July 4?
Advertisement
What about the Seattle Storm, a team who continues to lose to teams without as much talent? As of now the Storm are fifth in the WNBA standings, but have the ninth ranked offense in the league. That has to improve if Seattle wants to go on a deep playoff run.
Before moving to the week ahead, the injury endemic in the WNBA must be discussed. In the past week Golden State’s Kayla Thornton got season-ending knee surgery following an injury she sustained in practice, Angel Reese missed two games this past week nursing a bad back, and Breanna Stewart left the Liberty’s game on Saturday against the Sparks with presumably a right calf strain.
Add that to the fact that Caitlin Clark has remained out after injuring her right groin right before the All-Star break. And MVP Napheesa Collier has been playing through something in her shoulder. She began wearing a wrap on her shoulder on July 25 to mitigate some discomfort.
Advertisement
What’s the cause of this and why does it feel like so many notable players are injured and banged up all at once?
There has been a ton of heat this season for questionable and inconsistent officiating from WNBA referees, and while some of this is warranted especially when the league has more eyes on it than it ever has, there’s another part of this story. Poor officiating isn’t just why the WNBA has been on pace this season to register the most injuries ever during a regular season in recent memory per Lucas Seehafer of The IX Basketball.
Since 2021, the amount of games played in the regular season has increased by 37.5%. Coming off the pandemic bubble season in 2020, there were 32 regular season games played because it was an Olympic year and the footprint of the season had to include a month-long break in the middle of the season. From 2022 to 2025, the amount of games has gone up from 36 games in 2022, to 40 games in 2023 and 2024 and then in 2025 there are 44 games during the regular season, the most ever. Last season, 2024 was also an olympic year.
While the amount of games played has vastly increased, the WNBA footprint, or amount of days that encompass a whole regular season and playoff schedule has not. More games are being shoved into less time.
Advertisement
In just this past week, six teams in the Dream, Aces, Liberty, Mystics, Sun and Wings have all played in back-to-back games. This prompted ESPN broadcast analyst and former WNBA player Rebecca Lobo to dig up some research that showed the dramatic decrease in average days between games during the regular season since 2021. The numbers via ESPN researcher Garrett Gastfield show that even in a non-olympic year, the schedule is even more brutal than it was a season ago.
As of now the WNBA and its players are involved in on-going CBA negotiations, and the length of time in between games in addition to a longer season footprint ought to be brought up in further discussions. While Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is preparing to extend next season into the month of November due to the 2026 FIBA World Cup that takes place in September, the league’s calendar footprint needs to be expanded in the long term rather than just for a season.
“We want to promote player safety,” Mercury forward Satou Sabally told reporters on June 19.”I think that’s the biggest thing, and we want to work together with the league about it, because we’re the product, right? And we also understand it’s a business, so just finding the best possible way to make it accommodating for everyone…to ensure that we can play all these games and give our best performance.”
Advertisement
The current model––playing 44 games in 119 days–– has in turn led to more players getting injured at a moment when die-hard fans and new audiences crave seeing their favorite players play instead of in street clothes on the bench.
The Week Ahead
There’s a theme in the games selected for this week. Each one has specific playoff implications as these are all matchups between teams that are very close to each other in the standings.
As of this writing, the only matchup I have highlighted that doesn’t include teams just a game or two apart from one another in the standings is when the Liberty finally face off against the Lynx on Wednesday night.
Advertisement
The Liberty remain 3.5 games behind the Lynx, but that shouldn’t deter anyone from watching the 2024 WNBA Finals rematch that features the top two teams in the league that took over two months to be played. Also, some of the best matchups this week are nationally televised games. That’s what the WNBA’s playoff push deserves.
Las Vegas Aces @ Los Angeles Sparks
(Tuesday July 29 at 10 p.m. ET on NBA TV)
The Aces and the Sparks go into Tuesday’s matchup having each won a game of the teams’ season series. As of this writing, the Aces are 13-13 and are 1.5 games up on the 11-14 Sparks. Los Angeles has momentum riding a five game winning streak where they’ve defeated the Sun and the Mystics twice and then defeated the Liberty on a Rickea Jackson buzzer beater on Saturday. While the Sparks have improved especially offensively, their win streak came against teams that are either negative in net rating or in the Liberty’s case just came off playing the day before. While the Aces blew out the 12th place Dallas Wings on Sunday, Las Vegas is still looking for consistency. Does Jewell Loyd coming off the bench help the Aces moving forward? Also, Tuesday the Sparks will welcome back Cameron Brink, the 2024 No.2 overall pick who tore her ACL and meniscus last season and hasn’t played in a game since.
New York Liberty @ Minnesota Lynx
(Wednesday July 30 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN)
Advertisement
There’s good news and bad news. First the good. After over two months, the moment most WNBA fans have been waiting for is almost here: the first rematch of the epic 2024 Finals that went five games and into overtime twice. The bad news is that the New York Liberty will most likely play this game without Breanna Stewart, who appeared to strain her lower right leg in the first quarter against the Sparks. Also, the Liberty will most likely be without Finals Game 5 hero Nyara Sabally who according to the New York Post’s Madeline Kenney will be out for between two to three weeks. While the Lynx have battled with less injuries, they still won’t be completely healthy. They’ve missed Karlie Samuelson’s shooting on the wing ever since she went down with a season ending foot injury. Regardless of who’s in and who’s out, there’s still a lot of talent on the floor that will battle it out on Wednesday. But without Stewart, it will be hard to know after this week how these teams match up against each other in 2025. Some more good news is that both teams will play each other three more times in the month of August.
Golden State Valkyries @ Washington Mystics
(Thursday July 31 at 7:30 p.m. ET on Prime Video)
The Valkyries and the Mystics have both been struggling as of late. Both teams got blown out by opponents on Sunday and they both sit at the bottom of the playoff picture. As of Monday, Golden State just trails Washington by half a game for the final eighth spot, and if the Valkyries still want to make the postseason, which isn’t certain especially considering their All-Star Kayla Thornton is out for the season, this is an important game for them to win. With a win on Thursday night, the Valkyries would hold the advantage in the season series against the Mystics, although these two teams play each other two more times before the end of August.
Advertisement
Phoenix Mercury @ Atlanta Dream
(Friday August 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ION)
When these two teams faced off on July 23, Brittney Griner’s return to Phoenix was sprinkled with some competitive juice in addition to some genuine emotion. She wanted to show out and defeat the franchise that wanted to go in a different direction after she played for the Mercury for over a decade. Griner succeeded at both tasks. She had 18 points and eight rebounds in her Dream’s 90-79 win over the Mercury. I expect Griner to want to show out once again when the Mercury face the Dream in Atlanta on Friday. But besides the pride associated here, there are playoff implications too. The Mercury are just a game above the Dream in the standings as of Monday, and if the Dream defeat the Mercury again on Friday night, Atlanta could clinch the season series, a valuable seeding advantage if the two teams end up with the same record at the end of the season.
Indiana Fever @ Seattle Storm
(Sunday August 3 at 3:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
Advertisement
The Fever and the Storm are inverses of one another. The Fever have the third best offense in the league, but inconsistency on the defensive end of the ball has led to being sixth in the standings. The Storm, however, have the second best defense and ninth ranked offense. Seattle scored 58 points against the Mystics who have a mediocre defense, ranked seventh best in the league. The Storm’s offense remains so inconsistent. As of Monday the fifth place Storm have a one game edge over the Fever in the standings. The Fever have the edge in season series, and if they defeat the Storm again on Sunday, Indiana will have the seeding advantage if these two teams also end up tied on the last day of the season.
