6 Storylines That Will Define the Historic WNBA 2026 Season

The start of the WNBA season is scheduled for May 8, beginning the most consequential season in women’s basketball yet. This, despite an ongoing impasse between the league and its players’ association, is shaping up to be the biggest season in the league’s history. With that comes an unprecedented spotlight on the league, and extra pressure on the two parties to reach some sort of middle ground. However, there are more storylines to keep an eye on as we count down to opening night. In this article we are going to take a look at 6 storylines that may make or break the season (3 on the court, and 3 off the court) and tell you why you should care about them as well.

Let's get the off the court stuff away first shall we?

1. How do we avoid a lockout?

It goes without saying that the WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the players have a broken relationship. On September 30, a clip of former Defensive Player of the Year and MVP runner up Napheesa Collier went viral for blasting Engelbert during an interview. Collier bluntly said that Engelbert was “The worst owner in sports” and called her negligent in her role for not doing what's best for the sport and its players. Engelbert would later release a statement claiming disheartenment for the things Collier said, something that didn't seem to go over well with the league's top players who seemed to echo Collier’s sentiments. This was just a sign of the bubbling over of tensions, most of which had been building up for months and years prior to that,

However, let it be known that the reason for the looming potential lockout isn't some petty beef between the league brass and its players. This is just one of a million issues that need solving. I am working on a different article that goes deep into the issues the league is facing, but long story short it's all about the balance of power, and of course money. Since signing the new media rights deal which was valued at 2.2 billion dollars; and could rise to over $3b over 11 years; the WNBPA has been trying to restructure the revenue sharing system. Basically, the league wants to pay the players based on the net revenue (after all expenses have been taken out) but the players want pay determined as a percentage of the gross revenue, aka don’t pay us after you pay off all your bills with the leftover change. 

We’re still waiting to see who will be the first to budge in this game of chicken, and that's not even mentioning the disputed salary cap rules. The two parties have vastly differing numbers in mind, with the league proposing a team salary cap of $5 million and the WNBPA proposing a number north of $10 million; and a compromise is going to have to be made. There is also the question of whether the $200 million a year valuation was actually correct, with the players fearing that the NBA and Engelbert might have undervalued the league, something that they have felt has happened multiple times before. 

There is so much work to be done to resolve this dispute, and we can only hope that all things go smoothingly. The players seem confident that strides will be made, and I believe that they do want to put out a good product on the court. Till that happens, though, all fingers will be crossed and all breaths will be baited.

2. New Teams, New Cities?

Are you a billionaire looking for an investment opportunity that could potentially 10x over the next five to ten years? Look no further! I present to you… (drumroll please) Buying a WNBA franchise! The WNBA has hit unprecedented highs in valuations, and this of course has garnered loads of interest from ownership groups and investors alike. This has also opened the door for smaller ownership groups ( so called ‘millionaire owners”) to look for potential buyers who could pay north of 20 times what they initially paid for the teams. 

The Connecticut Sun have basically been on the market for a couple years now, with the owners of the smallest market in the league trying to capitalize on this opportunity. Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca has made an attempt to move the team to Boston, claiming that New England will still have its basketball team. However, the sale didn’t go through and since then  a different ownership group has made a bid that would require the team to move to Las Vegas. The league, of course, has been trying to have more teams in the West as most of the current teams seem to only cover the Northeast part of the country. It would bode well for the league to move one of its Eastern teams to the West. 

In addition to this, the league is introducing two new teams this season, the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire. Before a single tip off is done for the season, these two teams will have to do an expansion draft to fill out their rosters. With the new CBA still under discussion, free agency is frozen (which is a bummer in a league where about 75% of the players are free agents) but especially for these new teams which can not have a roster until the CBA is finalized. The league also announced new teams coming to Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia by 2030, with Engelbert mentioning Houston as another city gaining expansion interest.

With the injection of new owners for the new teams and potential change of ownership for others, the WNBA’s ownership group starts to look a little different. Gone are the days where tens of millions of dollars could get you a seat at the table, now most ownership groups will start resembling the NBA. As a result, the league has to do its due diligence to move the game forward, and learn from its and the NBA’s mistakes. 

3. League truly Unrivaled?

WNBA players have played overseas basketball as well for as long as I can remember. It is one of the many ways they try to supplement their earnings and do the thing they love as well. However, it did come as a surprise when two of the league’s best players: Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, announced that they would be holding an offseason 3 on 3 tournament which would involve some of the best players in the WNBA. This new tournament, ironically, was named Unrivaled. In its first year, Unrivaled was a huge success. More than 30 of the league’s best players showed up and put on a show. In return, they were offered on site childcare, chef catered meals, and salaries north of $200,000. In addition, they got equity, with the players basically owning 50% of the league. This shone a major spotlight on what the WNBA could be, but as you know by now, there are a lot more intricacies when it comes to major leagues.

Not long after, a new Saudi-backed 5 on 5 league named Project B was announced, with WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike being the first WNBA player to join it. Project B is an actual league with similar rules as the WNBA that expects to be played late in the year in Europe, Asia and Latin America.. Some of the league’s top players have already committed to playing in it this year, and that's not surprising seeing as rumored salaries of up to $2 million are up for grabs (plus that ever so important equity stake). Project B claims to not be directly competing with the WNBA, citing their opposing schedules, but their signing of a former WNBA MVP in Ogwumike suddenly gives it legitimacy and doesn’t bode well for the league in its CBA discussions. 

A few questions arise from the upstart of these new competitions. Do the players have conflicting interests? Is the WNBA in any way threatened by the emergence of these tournaments? What can the league learn from how these new leagues handle the players and player safety? I guess the hope is that more equals better, even if sometimes that isn't the case. The only thing we can do is hope, for the future of women’s basketball, that it all works out for the best.

Now that we have all that out of the way, let’s get into the more serious stuff. Here are three on court storylines that I am keeping a close eye on

1.Caitlin Clark SZN?

The impact that Caitlin Clark has had on the WNBA since getting drafted cannot be overstated. It gets even crazier when you dig deeper into the numbers, from viewership to merchandise sales and ticketing numbers, and that’s just scratching the surface. Granted, the popularity of the league was on a steady rise before her draft, but her presence has simply skyrocketed the league to new heights.

The WNBA is currently experiencing what the NBA did in the late 1980’s with Michael Jordan; a generational talent who becomes a household name and is suddenly the ‘face of the league’. The Indiana Fever attendance numbers went from just over 4,000 fans in 2023 to over 17,000 fans in 2024 after Clark was drafted. Yes, that is more than a 300% increase. Nine of the top ten most viewed games across ESPN networks in the 2025 season involved the Indiana Fever. The All Star game hit record highs in viewership, and the matchup between the Fever and the Chicago Sky became the most watched regular season game in 25 years. Everywhere the Fever played, the average ticket price shot up by 140% according to StubHub. An article by NBC News of a study done by Ryan Brewer of Indiana University reported that Clark was responsible for 26.5% of all WNBA economic activity (Take that Cathy Engelbert) in her rookie season. Not to mention an estimated $36 million in economic impact for the City of Indianapolis which has aided in the Fever’s evaluation reaching an estimated $370 million.

In the 2025 season, however, Clark was sidelined for a majority of the games, the first time she had missed games due to an injury since before high school. In her 33 games of absence, many players stepped up and showcased how truly deep and talented the WNBA is. Players like Kelsey Mitchell and Natasha Howard of the Fever proved that they were capable of somewhat filling the void, with them helping the Fever secure a playoff berth. Elsewhere, the Minnesota Lynx, led by Napheesa Collier, were running riot on the rest of the league, but a late surge by the seasoned Las Vegas Aces made things extremely interesting. A new star was born in Dallas, with the Wings turning to a new Paige, hopefully offering some comfort to Dallas fans who had just lost another star in Luka Doncic. Suddenly, the league was moving on from Clark, with a plethora of young talented women at the helm. Consequently, the playoffs offered some of the highest levels of competition we have seen in years as the Aces raced to the top of the mountain yet again, defeating a spirited Phoenix Mercury team led by triple-double queen (and my personal favorite player) Alyssa Thomas. (Please go watch some of her highlights)

With Clark expected to be back at the beginning of the season, one can only hope she reaches the heights that were promised. Could this be the season where she carries the Fever to the WNBA finals? Do we get those jaw dropping performances from her night in and night out? How many times will she keep us at the edge of our seats as she keeps nailing 30 footers as if they are free throws? We all know that she has league MVP capabilities, but is this the season all that comes to fruition? This is without question my biggest storyline to follow this year and mark my words, I shall be watching her every time she steps on the court; and I think you should too.

2. Old Guard vs Young Pups

There has been a trend in almost all major sports this year: Younger teams filled with energy and stamina are taking the torch from the older, veteran-led teams. In the NFL, the New England Patriots, led by second year quarterback Drake Maye took the league by storm, amassing wins from all quarters to finish the regular season with a 14-3 record and are now headed for the SuperBowl. In the NBA, the defending champions Oklahoma City Thunder still boast one of the youngest rosters in the league, and the East is led by the unheralded Detroit Pistons with ultimate-archetype Cade Cunningham leading the way. While the old bucks have been running these leagues for a while now, these young pups are not here to play. Much like Caleb Williams and the Bears in that scrappy NFC North, one of these young WNBA teams is bound to make a surprise entrance and spoil the party.

The easy guess of course would be the aforementioned Indiana Fever. They have everything they need, including a superstar first option in Clark, a self-creating scoring machine in MItchell (if they don’t lose her in free agency) and a phenomenal post scorer in Aaliyah Boston. The Wings hold the number one overall pick in the draft, and could draft Bueckers’ former UConn teammate Azzi Fudd to pair with Bueckers in the backcourt. Although they might not yet be ready to go all the way, I wouldn’t be surprised if they made the playoffs. Rookie of the Year runner up Sonia Citron and the Washington Mystics could be a team to watch as are the LA Sparks with their talented starting five. 

However, the seasoned teams are not going to go down without a fight. I expect the Mercury to be as competitive as ever as long as the big three of Thomas, Sabally and Copper stays intact. The Aces go without saying, they’re the best team in the league until proven otherwise. Will the Lynx be back with a vengeance, looking to grasp that elusive crown? This is why we love the WNBA, trying to predict it is honestly doing yourself a disservice, especially with so much up in the air. I honestly prefer to sit back, crack open a cold one and just watch it all play out.

 

3. Lynx the new Sun or the new Liberty?

This is a question that I have found myself asking more and more as time goes. If you were to ask me which team’s trajectory I’m most interested in this coming season, it would be without a doubt the Minnesota Lynx. For a team that has enjoyed loads of success in the past couple years, the end has felt eerily similar to two other teams of this decade; The Connecticut Sun and the New York Liberty.

The Connecticut Sun have been one of the more underappreciated teams of the 2020s. From 2020 and 2024, they made the playoffs every year and reached the WNBA semifinals in each of those years. They set franchise records in wins in two of those years, and their defence was consistently ranked number one. Led by the perennial MVP candidate in Alyssa Thomas, who was churning out triple-doubles for fun, the Sun were the team everyone expected to be there in the end no matter what. It was no surprise in 2024 when they decided to go all in and traded for Marina Mabrey, a microwave scorer and sharp-shooter, to help round off a championship team. This, coupled with the ascension of defensive stalwart Dijonai Carrington, signalled the opening of a championship window, one that the Sun needed to capitalize on. Instead, it was yet another disappointing exit in the semifinals, this time, ironically, to the Minnesota Lynx, that ended the championship window. Before the start of the 2025 season, the Sun had traded away their entire starting five and were on the way to a full rebuild.

On the other hand, the New York Liberty was sort of a rags to riches story. At the start of the decade, the team was only able to muster 2 wins, finishing with the worst record in the league. However, things could only get better from here. The return of Sabrina Ionescu from a season ending injury proved to be the jumpstart they needed, and from there, steady improvements to the roster were made. In 2022, they made the playoffs but lost in the first round. Much like the Marina Mabrey signing, the Liberty went all in in 2023, signing former MVPs Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones and adding All-Star guard Courtney Vandersloot to their roster. This instantly made them the favorites to win it all, and they were dominant in the regular season. Heartbreak again struck, this time in the finals, when they lost to the Las Vegas Aces and A’ja Wilson. However, unlike the Sun, they felt like they had enough to run it back, with marginal moves to the roster. Run it back they did, and behind another stellar regular season, they were able to avenge their demons when they beat the Aces in the semis and eventually crushed the Lynx in the finals to win the 2024 championship

Now begs the question, which trajectory will the Minnesota Lynx follow? The similarities between them and the Sun are uncanny. They are led by a superstar in Napheesa Collier who, like the Sun’s Thomas, has finished top 3 in MVP voting multiple times but has been unable to grasp the actual title. They have also had unparalleled success in the regular season (they went 34-10 in 2025, a franchise record) but have ultimately fallen short of the goal. The loss to the Mercury last season left a bitter taste in the fans’ mouths, seeing as the team collapsed multiple times when they had double-digit leads. However, like the Liberty, the Lynx have the opportunity to right the ship this coming season. They still have a player with the case of best player in the world, and roster construction will be critical. 

I will probably still be picking the Lynx to win the WNBA title this season, based on what I saw them accomplish in the regular season last year. However, this might be their last chance before it becomes clear that the hump might be too great for this group. Hopefully they steal a page out of the Liberty’s book and sign some high profile free agents and put all their chips on the table and that culminates in a WNBA championship. Only time will tell.