WNBA: Brittney Griner 3s, Angel Reese boards and more bold predictions

The 2025 WNBA season tips off on Friday, May 16.

What’s in store for the league’s first-ever 44-game season? Surely tons drama, dynamic play and dang-good basketball. Here are Swish Appeal’s four bold predictions for the 2025 WNBA season:

14 rookies will have a game scoring 20 or more points

As WNBA teams trim down their rosters to 11 or 12 players before opening night, we’re reminded how hard it is for rookies to get a real chance in the league. National champion? All-American? Doesn’t matter. The harsh realities of the league’s limited rosters often seem to render players’ collegiate achievements irrelevant.

That said, rookies who do survive can have an opportunity to make an impact. And it looks like that could be especially true this year. So true that 14 rookies will have a game where they score at least 20 points.

I think everyone has confidence that Paige Bueckers will find her way to 20 efficient points on multiple occasions for the Dallas Wings. A starter for the Washington Mystics, Sonia Citron likely has a 20-ball or two in her. The same is true for her teammate Kiki Iriafen, who, on a rebuilding team, should see the minutes necessary to turn in an explosive offensive performance or two. For the Connecticut Sun, Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers should be in a similar situations, especially if the Sun pivot to developmental priorities down the stretch of the season. In contrast, it’s hard to predict how much the Seattle Storm will empower Dominique Malonga, but she’s too talented to not have a night where she scores 20 or more.

Then, the 2025 rookie class features more than a few 3-point sharpshooters who could use the 3-ball to power their way to 20 points. The Las Vegas Aces’ Aaliyah Nye nearly got there in her preseason debut, while the Los Angeles Sparks’ Sarah Ashlee Barker could explode from behind the arc. Down in Atlanta, Te-Hina Paopao already led the Dream in scoring in their final preseason game, looking like she could be a rotational regular to start the season. In Chicago, it was a relatively quiet preseason for the Sky’s Hailey Van Lith, but with 36-year-old new mom Courtney Vandersloot unlikely to play in every game, HVL should have more than a few games where she has the ball in her hands more often. Back down in Dallas, Bueckers is not the only Wings rookie who can get buckets. No one will be surprised when Aziaha James pops off for 20 or more points. And while JJ Quinerly’s defense will earn her court time, she proved herself to be a big-time scorer during her final college season.

That’s 12 rookies. The final two will come from previous draft classes, with three international prospects slated to make their W debuts in 2025—the Golden State Valkyries’ Carla Leite and Sun’s Leïla Lacan—both passing the 20-point plateau at least once.

We love to see rookies get buckets!

The team and individual records for 3s made in a single game will be broken—by the Indiana Fever and Marine Johannès

WNBA teams are shooting more 3-pointers than ever. The past two seasons, the New York Liberty have led the league by hoisting at least 29 triples per game, setting the record for 3s made in a single season with 444 in 2023. That same year, Sabrina Ionescu made a record 128 treys. In the league’s first 44-game season, it seems likely that both those marks will fall.

And while the extended season will not make it more likely that the single-game records for team and individual 3s made will fall, expect an evermore 3-point happy league to cause both marks tumble nonetheless.

On six occasions, a WNBA team has made 18 3-pointers in a game, with the Washington Mystics first establishing the high in an August 2019 game and the Liberty most recently matching it in a June game last season. In 2025, a team will drain at least 20 3s in a game, with the Indiana Fever being the favored candidate. Kelsey Mitchell (for now) owns a share of the single-game record for individual 3s with nine; she also has two games with seven made 3s. DeWanna Bonner has a game with seven made 3s, as well as two six 3-pointer games. Caitlin Clark’s rookie season high was seven, while Sophie Cunningham also has two games with six 3s made. Lexie Hull’s career-best day saw her make four 3s, although she shot a sterling 47.1 percent from deep last season.

In short, Indy is stocked with players capable of exploding from behind the arc. And if a perfect storm accumulates, with everyone getting on a heater in the same game, the Fever might threaten to make 30 3s!

As noted above, Mitchell has made nine 3s in a single game, a record she shares with Arike Ogunbowale and Jewell Loyd. Any of those three, along with the likes of Clark or Ionescu, seem more than capable of draining a double-digit number of triples in a single game. But what about Marine Johannès? Back in the W with the Liberty after a one-season hiatus, MJ drained a couple of characteristically ridiculous triples in the Liberty’s first preseason game.

Johannès is the most defense and shot prep agnostic player in the league—and maybe in the whole sport. It doesn’t matter how she is being guarded nor how she releases the shot, it just might go in. It wouldn’t be surprising if, in addition to her signature one-legged 3s, she made a hook shot from behind the arc. If Johannès gets in a zone, she could cash in on a dozen 3s. Currently, her career high is six.

Brittney Griner will lead the league in 3-point percentage

Last season, Brittney Griner shot 50 percent from 3 for the Phoenix Mercury. In preseason, she was perfect from behind the arc.

Yes, the volume is low, as she only took 18 3s last season and attempted just three across two preseason games. But, ball don’t lie, and more importantly, the shot looks good. BG appears comfortable behind the arc—as she should be. At 6-foot-9 with a high release, her attempts are unguardable. Even if her defender, usually an opposing center who is more comfortable remaining inside the arc, closes out, Griner can still see over her contest, undeterred as she gets her shot off.

That reality suggests her accuracy is sustainable. And even though Dream head coach Karl Smesko clearly is encouraging all the team’s bigs to take 3, it’s unlikely she’ll take a high volume, especially not a high volume of difficult attempts like the league’s more celebrated 3-point bombers. The higher quality of her shots should further contribute to BG not just shooting a higher percentage—but the highest in the league! Maybe even over 50 percent?

Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso will combine to average 25 rebounds per game

As a rookie, Angel Reese established a new standard of rebounding excellence, corralling a WNBA record 13.1 boards per game for the Sky. Even before a late-season wrist injury limited her to 34 games, Reese grabbed a single-season record 446 boards. (A’ja Wilson subsequently surpassed that mark in her 38 games played).

While new Sky head coach Tyler Marsh seems committed to empowering Reese to play away from the basket, plus the team hopes to see less misses on the offensive end after owning one of the worst shooting percentages in the league last season, expect the Chi Barbie to still clean the glass better than anyone else in the W.

Her boarding could be the backbone of a dominant rebounding duo, with Reese and fellow sophomore Kamilla Cardoso combing for at least 25 rebounds per game.

Last season, the two combined for 21 per game. Finding four more rebounds per game might not seem like a tall task, but the above mentioned conditions—having Reese operate at different spots on the floor; better team-wide shooting—likely will make it difficult, albeit not impossible, for Chicago’s Skyscrapers to take care of the glass in such prolific fashion. Cardoso could join Reese in securing a double-digit boards, especially if she is not limited by injuries. In her final season at South Carolina, she almost approached that level, with 9.7 boards in 25.3 minutes per game.