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The thud and ensuing net swish of Atlanta’s first made field goal served as a statement months in the making. In the Dream’s first possession of their preseason debut at Washington on Wednesday, the first points came off the hands of Brittney Griner, not under the basket, but completely alone, 25 feet dead center from it.
That is how this is going to work.
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It’s the question that’s dogged the Dream since signing Griner and Brionna Jones as their major free-agent additions. How exactly would first-year head coach Karl Smesko, whose college rosters famously featured players all listed as “shooters,” incorporate two All-Star centers not known for, well, being standout shooters?
The answer? By encouraging and adding it to their established games, creating a versatility few can match.
“Either one of us, we can interchange, pop in, or going down low,” the 6-foot-9 Griner said on a video call Friday. “The other team, you’ve got to pick your poison. Definitely don’t want to be them. Yeah, this is going to be a good partnership right here.”
Added Jones, “It’s a lot of fun to be able to have that other post player that I know I can dump it down to and play off of it.”
The Dream, as annual lottery contenders, remained rather quiet over the past five years while free agency movement took off under the 2020 collective bargaining agreement. With notable names on the market and a fresh start in Smesko, executive vice president and general manager Dan Padover, a two-time executive of the year with the Aces, took both of the 2025 offseason’s centers off the board to pair with their high-octane backcourt.
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It gives Smesko interior size and skill he didn’t have at Florida Gulf Coast University, where his teams remained atop the 3-point shooting lists and set the NCAA record with 431 in 2018. They can both clean up missed shots for high-efficient looks and draw defensive attention that allows a kick-out to the guards. Their ability to rebound defensively will spark the transition offense for which Smesko strives. And their improving skill beyond the arc will create space in the offense he envisions.
“I thought these two would work really well together,” Smesko said. “But I thought it would take a little bit of time to gel. They’re just so smart and they’re able to realize their advantages. They really pick things up quickly. They’ve only practiced together a few days and to be as far along and to make as many smart reads as they’ve been doing is really remarkable.”
Griner, a WNBA champion who spent her entire 11-season career in Phoenix, said this offseason she strove to evolve her game. The league dunk leader increasingly shot from deep in Phoenix after zero attempts in her first five seasons. In her emotional 2023 home debut, she drained her only make of the year on nine attempts, working back from a year away while wrongfully detained in Russia. A season ago, she made half of her 18 attempts — double her previous single-season high.
In the inaugural Unrivaled season held in Miami, she shot 5-of-9 from 3-point range for the Phantom. It is where she announced her signing with the Dream on a boat alongside new teammates Rhyne Howard, Jordin Canada and Allisha Gray.
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In this week’s preseason game, Griner hit both 3-point attempts en route to 16 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block in 19 minutes. It’s not difficult to imagine Griner toying with her career 16-of-44 mark within one season in Atlanta. The range was a consistent focus of her offseason and the first two weeks of Dream training camp.
“It’s a thing that we do every single day and it started in training camp day one and I already can tell the difference now,” Griner said. “I definitely feel comfortable taking the shot.”
Griner said she feels the confidence from Smesko and her teammates to not only attempt the shots, but move around the arc to free up for them. Translating that practice to a game looks different for each player.
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“You have to feel comfortable taking it and you have to feel comfortable missing,” Smesko said following the 80-70 win over the Mystics on Wednesday. “The best shooters in the world miss plenty of 3s and they just keep shooting. So it’s a shot that we think that you can make a good percentage of the time, you just do it.”
Jones, a 6-3 former Most Improved (2021) and Sixth Woman of the Year (2022) winner, was less of a 3-point threat in her eight seasons at Connecticut or overseas, where she won MVP leading Praha to the EuroLeague championship in April. Her career high is shooting 2-of-14 a year ago, and she’s 5-of-29 over her career. Jones’ one attempt in the preseason game came within the first 65 seconds, sandwiched between Griner’s two makes that started the Dream off into their new era.
Though Atlanta clawed into the final playoff spot last fall, the franchise hasn’t had a winning season since 2018. The Dream ranked 11th in offensive rating (99.0) and last or second-to-last in nearly every offensive category, from field goal percentage (40.8%) to 3-point shooting (30.8) to assists (23.6).
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It’s a large climb up to top-four contention with the likes of the Liberty and Aces, who, combined, have won the past three WNBA Finals.
“We want to have the Dream be mentioned like that,” Smesko said. “What are you going to do to try to combat the Dream? That’s the type of season that we hope to have where everybody comes together, that we make continual improvement, and by the time we get to the end of the year, that we’re mentioned with those top teams and that we have a chance to be the very best in this league.”
There are 44 actual games that count waiting to be played for that to be answered. Until then, there is one thing Griner already knows about the Dream’s talent haul.
“Every day I’m just so glad I don’t have to guard [Jones] anymore,” Griner said. “It’s been amazing.”
