1 year ago
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Multiple Contributors
Jul 14, 2025, 09:00 AM ET
Every play brings caller endowment to the WNBA. This twelvemonth besides brought a caller team. And for the archetypal time, a subordinate of the enlargement Golden State Valkyries made ESPN's ranking of the apical 25 players successful the league.
As the WNBA All-Star interruption nears, ESPN's midseason rankings are based connected however players are performing this season, not connected their vocation accomplishments. So immoderate notable names who are typically successful these rankings aren't connected the database now.
New players coming into the WNBA are making names for themselves, portion others are getting opportunities successful caller places to grow their games. Injuries ever interaction our rankings, too; players who haven't competed successful astatine slightest fractional of their teams' games were ineligible, which includes the New York Liberty's Jonquel Jones and Phoenix Mercury's Kahleah Copper.
And portion we didn't see rookies for the preseason list, they are besides successful the premix now. ESPN's Kendra Andrews, Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel fertile the WNBA's champion players truthful acold successful 2025.
1. Napheesa Collier, Minnesota Lynx
Forward | 6-foot-1
Preseason ranking: 2
2025 stats: 23.6 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 3.4 APG
For the archetypal time, Collier tops our rankings aft submitting a archetypal fractional that has her successful rod presumption for MVP. Collier leads the WNBA successful scoring by much than 3 points per crippled and is simply a starring contender to repetition arsenic Defensive Player of the Year, averaging a combined 3.2 steals and blocks per game. After finishing runner-up for MVP to A'ja Wilson and losing a WNBA Finals bid that went the distance, Collier has established herself arsenic the league's champion subordinate and the Lynx arsenic the league's champion team. -- Kevin Pelton
1:41
Napheesa Collier scores 22 points vs. the Valkyries
Minnesota Lynx guardant Napheesa Collier leads the Lynx to a triumph with 22 points vs. the Valkyries.
2. A'ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces
Center | 6-foot-4
Preseason ranking: 1
2025 stats: 21.5 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 2.4 BPG
No crippled could amended sum up the three-time MVP's superstar presumption than Saturday's triumph implicit Golden State. She had near Tuesday's crippled vs. New York due to the fact that of a wrist wounded and past missed Thursday vs. Washington, some losses. She returned with 34 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks to assistance the Aces bushed the Valkyries 104-102. It was the large show the up-and-down Aces had to have. Because she does it truthful often doesn't mean we should instrumentality it for granted. -- Michael Voepel
1:40
A'ja Wilson comes up large for Aces with 34-point double-double
A'ja Wilson goes for 34 points and 16 rebounds successful the Aces' choky 104-102 triumph implicit the Valkyries.
3. Alyssa Thomas, Phoenix Mercury
Forward | 6-foot-2
Preseason ranking: 5
2025 stats: 15.3 PPG, 9.5 APG, 7.5 RPG
Thomas is flourishing much than ever successful Phoenix manager Nate Tibbetts' system, wherever she's fixed loads of abstraction to run and is surrounded by shooters. The result? A dazzling twelvemonth for the Terps fable who is starring the league successful assists portion shooting a career-best 53.8% from the field. The Mercury mean much 3-point makes per crippled than immoderate different team, boast the third-best antiaircraft standing and person been 1 of the WNBA's astir pleasant surprises -- and it's successful ample portion owed to Thomas' brilliance. -- Alexa Philippou
1:57
Alyssa Thomas drops career-high 29 successful Mercury's win
Alyssa Thomas scores a vocation precocious with 29 points successful the Mercury's 79-71 triumph implicit the Lynx.
4. Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty
Forward | 6-foot-4
Preseason ranking: 3
2025 stats: 19.5 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 3.8 APG
Especially with Jonquel Jones being retired for 11 games, Stewart's consistency is the instauration New York relies upon. She has scored successful treble figures successful each but 1 crippled this season. Her shooting percent from beyond the arc (21.0%) could beryllium better. But she is shooting 53.6% from 2-point scope and ranks successful the apical 5 successful the league successful triumph shares. If the Liberty repetition their rubric this season, Stewart volition beryllium a large reason. -- Voepel
5. Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty
Guard | 5-foot-11
Preseason ranking: 7
2025 stats: 19.4 PPG, 5.3 APG, 4.6 RPG
Averaging a career-high 19.4 points per game, Ionescu is showing however her discourtesy tin instrumentality implicit a crippled erstwhile needed. She recorded back-to-back 34-point games past month, went 7-for-7 from the escaped propulsion enactment successful the last 3 minutes to unafraid a Liberty triumph implicit Golden State and, aft a pugnacious roadworthy trip, posted 3 20-point games past week. As the Liberty person navigated an injury-riddled season, Ionescu's strength and ratio person been important to keeping New York connected track. -- Kendra Andrews
1:59
Sabrina Ionescu's 28-point crippled propels Liberty past Aces
Sabrina Ionescu finishes with 28 points and 8 assists successful the Liberty's 87-78 triumph implicit the Aces.
6. Allisha Gray, Atlanta Dream
Guard | 6-foot
Preseason ranking: 23
2025 stats: 19.4 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 42% 3FG
Playing for caller caput manager Karl Smesko has brought retired the champion successful Gray, deservedly a first-time All-Star starter aft making it arsenic a reserve the past 2 seasons. She is averaging vocation highs successful scoring, rebounding and assists (4.0 per game). With Smesko surely encouraging her to fto it fly, Gray is attempting a career-high 46% of her shots from agelong region portion besides averaging arsenic galore escaped throws per crippled (5.4) arsenic ever before. If Gray keeps it up, she should marque an All-WNBA squad for the archetypal time. -- Pelton
7. Satou Sabally, Phoenix Mercury
Forward | 6-foot-4
Preseason ranking: 12
2025 stats: 19.1 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1.4 SPG
Coming disconnected a 2024 play successful which she played conscionable 15 games aft offseason enarthrosis surgery, Sabally is putting up immoderate of the champion numbers of her career. In her archetypal play with the Mercury, Sabally is simply a top-10 scorer who has recorded 10 20-point games. Pairing her alongside Alyssa Thomas has been a winning operation for Phoenix and helped Sabally get backmost to the level of play radical person travel to expect from her. -- Andrews
8. Aliyah Boston, Indiana Fever
Forward/center | 6-foot-5
Preseason ranking: 21
2025 stats: 16.2 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 1.1 BPG
Boston's relation with the Fever has ne'er been much important arsenic Indiana navigated playing without Clark for 9 games. Boston delivered. She entered the play arsenic an elite defender, but her crippled has go much well-rounded. She is averaging a career-high 16.2 points connected 58.1% shooting to spell with a career-best 3.7 assists. Last month, she scored a career-high 31 points successful a triumph astatine Seattle. -- Andrews
9. Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever
Guard | 6-foot
Preseason ranking: 4
2025 stats: 16.7 PPG, 9.0 APG, 4.8 RPG
Clark is simply a hard subordinate to measure fixed her deficiency of availability owed to wounded -- she has appeared successful 12 games, sitting retired 2 stretches of 5 games. Though she is presently amid a shooting slump (13-for-41 from the tract and 5-for-19 from 3 since returning from her latest injury), she has shined with her playmaking. She has 19 assists implicit her past 2 games, including the 17th 10-assist crippled of her vocation Sunday -- her archetypal with nary much than 2 turnovers. -- Philippou
10. Nneka Ogwumike, Seattle Storm
Forward | 6-foot-2
Preseason ranking: 8
2025 stats: 17.0 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 52% FG
Quietly, Ogwumike keeps steadily climbing the WNBA's all-time leaderboards. She's present seventh successful points and eighth successful rebounds, and this season's All-Star quality volition beryllium Ogwumike's 10th, tied for 3rd astir successful league history. At 35, Ogwumike shows nary motion of slowing up. She's surpassing her vocation averages successful some points and rebounds. Ogwumike remains 1 of the league's astir businesslike scorers. Her 52% shooting is champion of immoderate subordinate who has attempted astatine slightest 100 shots and astatine slightest 50 3-pointers. -- Pelton
11. Skylar Diggins, Seattle Storm
Guard | 5-foot-9
Preseason ranking: 18
2025 stats: 18.2 PPG, 5.9 APG, 40.5% 3FG
The driving unit down a Storm discourtesy that ranks sixth successful per-possession scoring aft trading starring scorer Jewell Loyd, Diggins has been unsafe 3-point menace to spell with her playmaking. Diggins is shooting 39% connected 3s, up from 29% successful 2024, and making 1.6 per game. Per GeniusIQ, conscionable 2 shot handlers who person utilized astatine slightest 250 screens person surpassed Diggins' 1.01 points per nonstop chance: Caitlin Clark and Courtney Williams. And lone Williams has tally much pick-and-rolls. -- Pelton
0:23
Skylar Diggins rises to artifact the shot
Skylar Diggins rises to artifact the shot, 07/13/2025
12. Kelsey Plum, Los Angeles Sparks
Guard | 5-foot-8
Preseason ranking: 10
2025 stats: 19.9 PPG, 5.9 APG, 1.4 SPG
When Plum arrived successful Los Angeles, the Sparks hoped she would assistance remedy their violative problems from a twelvemonth ago. While the squad has struggled, Plum has filled that role, starring the Sparks successful scoring, assists and minutes. Her 19.9 points per crippled are the astir she has averaged since 2022 (20.2), erstwhile she finished 3rd successful MVP voting, and fertile 3rd successful the league this season. -- Andrews
1:42
Kelsey Plum (23 points) Highlights vs. Connecticut Sun
Kelsey Plum (23 points) Highlights vs. Connecticut Sun, 07/13/2025
13. Paige Bueckers, Dallas Wings
Guard | 6-foot
Preseason ranking: Unranked
2025 stats: 18.3 PPG, 45.6% FG, 5.4 APG
Winning has been pugnacious to travel by successful Dallas, but Bueckers has been stellar successful her debut play arsenic an All-Star and the wide favourite for rookie of the year. She ranks apical 10 successful scoring and is 1 of 3 players to mean astatine slightest 18 points and 5 assists per game. In conscionable 17 contests, she has had 8 games with 15-plus points and five-plus assists, already tied for 3rd astir each clip by immoderate rookie. -- Philippou
0:21
Bueckers snatches stone from Clark, finishes with and-1
Paige Bueckers snatches the shot from Caitlin Clark and takes it coast-to-coast for a Wings and-1.
14. Jackie Young, Las Vegas Aces
Guard | 6-foot
Preseason ranking: 9
2025 stats: 17.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 3.9 APG
It has been a frustratingly inconsistent play for the Aces, but that's not the lawsuit with the stoic, business-like play of Young. She ever stays even-keel, which Las Vegas depends on. While her 3-point percent (30.3%) has dropped, she's shooting 52% from 2-point scope and 90.5% from the escaped propulsion line. She scored 30 points Saturday successful the Aces' triumph implicit Golden State. -- Voepel
15. Kelsey Mitchell, Indiana Fever
Guard | 5-foot-8
Preseason ranking: 13
2025 stats: 19.2 PPG, 45.9% FG, 37.3% 3FG
Mitchell, an All-Star successful each of the past 3 years, has recovered her shooting signifier arsenic the play has progressed. She boasts 7 20-point performances successful her past 9 games aft signaling 3 specified performances successful her archetypal 12. Her violative accumulation -- 19.2 points per crippled matches her career-best scoring mean from past twelvemonth -- has been adjacent much important for Indiana with Clark successful and retired of the lineup and inactive moving backmost from injury. -- Philippou
1:04
Kelsey Mitchell's 25 points substance Fever to triumph astatine home
Kelsey Mitchell contributes a large 25 points astatine location for Indiana to assistance the Fever with a large 99-82 triumph implicit Atlanta.
16. Rhyne Howard, Atlanta Dream
Guard | 6-foot-2
Preseason ranking: 20
2025 stats: 16.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.5 APG
New Dream manager Karl Smesko's discourtesy fits multidimensional scorer Howard well. She has astir improved her passing this season, averaging a vocation precocious successful assists. Howard missed Sunday's crippled astatine New York aft injuring her genu successful Friday's crippled astatine Indiana. We volition spot whether she tin play Wednesday astatine Chicago and past successful Saturday's All-Star Game, for which she was chosen arsenic a reserve. -- Voepel
0:18
Rhyne Howard comes retired of obscurity for monolithic rejection
Rhyne Howard sends distant the changeable with an emphatic artifact nether the backboard.
17. Kayla McBride, Minnesota Lynx
Guard | 5-foot-11
Preseason ranking: 15
2025 stats: 13.9 PPG, 37.9% 3FG, 3.1 APG
McBride wasn't named an All-Star -- galore considered her a snub, her existent shooting slump notwithstanding -- but the Lynx cognize however integral she is to their success. The elite two-way defender knocks down 38% of her 3-pointers. There's nary uncertainty that for Minnesota to bring location its 5th title aboriginal this fall, it can't trust connected lone Napheesa Collier. It volition besides request seasoned person McBride to beryllium astatine her best. -- Philippou
18. Angel Reese, Chicago Sky
Forward | 6-foot-3
Preseason ranking: 25
2025 stats: 13.6 PPG, 12.8 RPG, 1.6 BPG
Reese has made a sizeable leap up this database since our preseason rankings. She is connected a blistery streak, signaling 8 consecutive double-doubles including a 22-point, 15-rebound crippled against the Washington Mystics earlier this month. Once again, she is starring the league successful rebounds (12.8 per game), but she has besides shown betterment successful her facilitating, averaging 3.8 assists (she averaged 1.8 past year). If Reese keeps up this level of play, she could proceed to emergence successful these rankings. -- Andrews
1:52
Angel Reese, Ariel Atkins spell disconnected successful Sky's triumph implicit Lynx
Ariel Atkins drops a game-high 27 points and Angel Reese chips successful 19 arsenic the Sky outlast the Lynx, 87-81.
19. Dearica Hamby, Los Angeles Sparks
Forward | 6-foot-3
Preseason ranking: 22
2025 stats: 16.8 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 3.7 APG
The Sparks haven't had back-to-back victories yet this season. If they had a small much consistency, Hamby mightiness person been an All-Star for the 4th time. As it is, she is playing astatine a precocious level again. And if the Sparks tin amended successful the 2nd half, Hamby volition beryllium 1 of the reasons. -- Voepel
20. Gabby Williams, Seattle Storm
Forward | 5-foot-11
Preseason ranking: Unranked
2025 stats: 14.0 PPG, 4.5 APG, 2.6 SPG
Having Williams successful grooming campy from the commencement has paid disconnected for some her and the Storm. Long a unit successful EuroLeague and with the French nationalist team, Williams has translated that to the WNBA, earning her archetypal All-Star appearance. Williams is the lone subordinate averaging amended than 2 steals per game, putting her in the premix for Defensive Player of the Year. The versatile Williams has recorded point-rebound and point-assist double-doubles, and her scoring mean is easy a vocation high. -- Pelton
21. Brionna Jones, Atlanta Dream
Forward | 6-foot-3
Preseason ranking: Unranked
2025 stats: 13.3 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 2.4 APG
Another subordinate who could person easy been an All-Star, Jones has brought to Atlanta her trademark subdued excellence connected the interior. While determination mightiness person been archetypal questions astir however she'd acceptable successful manager Karl Smesko's system, she has thrived -- and is adjacent starting to motorboat much 3s. She is 1 of 4 players with astatine slightest 8 double-doubles, alongside Reese, Boston and Thomas, portion her 51.7% shooting makes her 1 of the WNBA's astir businesslike players. -- Philippou
22. Brittney Sykes, Washington Mystics
Guard | 5-foot-9
Preseason ranking: Unranked
2025 stats: 17.6 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 4.5 APG
Sykes leads the Mystics successful scoring and assists but is not an All-Star, though her 2 rookie teammates Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen are. She has been a bully teammate and supportive of them, but look for that snub to substance a beardown season. She has been a driving unit successful starring the Mystics to an 11-10 record, which is overmuch amended than what astir were projecting. -- Voepel
23. Sonia Citron, Washington Mystics
Guard | 6-foot-1
Preseason ranking: Unranked
2025 stats: 14.3 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 88% FT
Citron and teammate Kiki Iriafen are the archetypal brace of rookie All-Stars straight retired of assemblage successful WNBA history. Although Iriafen was the aboriginal standout, Citron's accumulation has remained much accordant implicit time. The No. 3 prime has instantly been 1 of the league's astir businesslike scorers, posting an effectual tract extremity percent of 53% aft factoring successful 3-pointers portion besides shooting astir 90% astatine the foundation stripe. -- Pelton
1:59
Mystics clasp connected to bushed Storm
Brittney Sykes' 19 points assistance assistance the Mystics past the Storm.
24. Kayla Thornton, Golden State Valkyries
Forward | 6-foot-1
Preseason ranking: Unranked
2025 stats: 14.8 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 1.5 SPG
Thornton and the Valkyries person been 1 of the champion surprises successful sports. The Valkyries are successful the playoff hunt, and Thornton is having the champion twelvemonth of her career, earning her archetypal All-Star selection. If much accidental is what Thornton needed to person a breakout year, getting selected by Golden State successful the enlargement draught was the champion happening that could person happened to her. Thornton has established herself arsenic the team's go-to violative enactment portion besides defending the opponents' apical scorers. If the Valkyries support uncovering success, Thornton volition enactment connected this database for the remainder of the season. -- Andrews
25. Courtney Williams, Minnesota Lynx
Guard | 5-foot-8
Preseason ranking: Unranked
2025 stats: 14.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 6.0 APG
Williams is 1 of the motors for the first-place Lynx, and they request her astatine some ends of the court. She is their second-leading scorer and ranks archetypal connected the squad successful assists, positive her defence is crucial. Williams besides does a bully occupation rebounding from the defender position, and that tin assistance propulsion Minnesota's offense. -- Voepel
