LAS VEGAS – In a league where the youth movement has become all the rage, the Las Vegas Aces hope to prove once again that experience and continuity reign supreme in the W.
The Aces are entering this season after enduring a tumultuous 2024 campaign, one that saw the team suffer its worst regular season since 2019. Still, the Aces were among the title favorites entering the postseason before falling in the semifinals to the New York Liberty in four games.
Wilson Still Improving
The reality is, any team with a prime version of A’ja Wilson is going to be a legitimate threat to win the championship. Wilson had arguably the greatest individual season in WNBA history last year when she averaged 26.9 points and 11.8 rebounds per game and set the all-time record for points (1,021) and rebounds (451) in a single season. The problem was, injuries throughout the roster necessitated this dominance from Wilson and in the end she simply couldn’t do it all on her own.
What the rest of the WNBA will probably not be too thrilled to hear is that the collective consensus among members of the Aces organization coming out of camp is that, unsurprisingly, Wilson looks like an even better player this season. Wilson has been known to add weapons to her arsenal throughout the years.
“I sometimes surprise myself in a lot of different ways,” Wilson said. “I’ve been working hard on making sure that I could be a complete player for my basketball team, on both sides. I want to be the most complete player I can for my teammates. Whatever that looks like, whether it’s handling the ball more, whether it’s shooting more threes, whether it’s just trying to dominate the paint the best way I can, that’s what I’m here to do.”
Healthy and Hungry
Even with Chelsea Gray entering the 2025 season back at full strength and having proved it with an impressive run at Unrivaled, it still feels like the Aces have kind of been brushed to the side in regards to this year’s championship conversation. Especially in comparison to teams like the New York Liberty and Indiana Fever. What many people don’t know is that Kiah Stokes and Jackie Young were both dealing with nagging injuries late in the season as well.
“It was tough,” Stokes said. “I never really felt like myself until after the Olympic break. Just trying to get through rehabbing for six months and trying to get back to where we were, it was really difficult. Now, knock on wood, I finally feel good. I can run. My knees feel alright. My foot feels great. So there’s a different mindset for sure.”
The point is, I would bet that the growing contingent of WNBA fans that are rooting for the Aces’ demise are going to be sorely disappointed this year. Not only because the Aces are fueled from their loss to the Liberty last season, but also because they’ve now been able to recover from their collective ailments. And it certainly helps that they got to do so with a chip on their shoulder.
“Becky (Hammon) is not playing any games in training camp,” Gray said. “She has us on the line this year a lot more. She’s gonna be mad I said that, but like she says, there’s a difference between being hungry and starving. I feel like there’s a starvation kind of mode that we’re kind of in. The vibe has kind of been like, we want to get back on top.
“When you come back from not winning a championship, and that’s been the standard for years running, it just feels different. We want that other feeling back. When you’re addicted to winning and trying to be legendary and trying to be great, and that’s been the standard, anything less than that is just not what we want.”
Shaking Up The Core
The Aces’ biggest offseason move was a difficult decision to make, as it was a core-altering decision that saw the team undergo its greatest season-by-season change organizationally since moving to Las Vegas. The Aces traded Kelsey Plum, who the organization drafted first overall in 2017 when they were still the San Antonio Silver Stars, to the Los Angeles Sparks in a three-way deal that saw Vegas net former Seattle Storm star Jewell Loyd in return.
For Loyd, it’s the perfect fit and was her preferred destination when requesting a trade from Seattle this offseason. In large part because of pre-existing relationships she’s built with the Aces core through their time at USA Basketball, especially Wilson and even Wilson’s family.
“(Our moms) need a show, probably because it’s a lot of personality. They’re like family at this point, so like, all the jokes and the seriousness, but like I said, we support each other often off the court.
“I’m really lucky, because I knew a lot of these players before. We were actually friends off the court for many years. Our families get along, I know them, so I don’t feel out of place. Which is really nice.”
Another big offseason addition for the Aces was Tiffany Mitchell, who played alongside Wilson at South Carolina from 2013-2016. Mitchell was a two-time SEC Player of the Year and a 2015 first-team All-American for the Gamecocks. She was also a member of the WNBA’s 2016 All-Rookie team as a member of the Indiana Fever.
“I think they brought me in to provide that fit on both ends of the floor. Just letting my defense create my offense, and having my hands ready for Chelsea (Gray). It’s different playing with someone like Chelsea, because you never know when you’re going to get the ball. I think that’s great for me, because I like to cut. I like to be in places that others aren’t. So for me, like I said, I just want to play both ends of the basketball, bring a lot of energy off of the bench, and make that create my offense as well.”
Opening The Season
The Las Vegas Aces open their season on Saturday, May 17 with a rematch of last year’s semifinal loss against the New York Liberty at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The game is set to air on ABC at 1 p.m. ET. It’s the first game of a national doubleheader on ABC as the game leads into the matchup between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky at 3:30 pm ET. The Seattle Storm are also set to face the Phoenix Mercury at 10 pm ET on Saturday, though that game is not being broadcast nationally.
