Credit: Courtesy of X
The 2024 WNBA season starts up again this week. It’s been nearly a month since the league took its annual Olympic break, and now there are nearly six weeks until the playoffs and the end of the regular season.
Minnesota hosts Washington on Thursday, August 15. The Lynx are currently fourth in the standings behind New York (1), Connecticut (2) and Seattle (3). The top eight teams will advance to the playoffs in late September.
Lakeville native Rachel Banham was part of the biggest transfer of the season when she, Moriah Jefferson and the Sun’s 2025 first-round pick were traded to Chicago in July in exchange for Marina Mabrey.
Before the move, the experienced guard told MSR that the 2024 W season “is much more balanced this year with all the different teams. I think the gap is closing right now,” Banham emphasized.
But is there still enough time for some teams like Atlanta and Chicago, who are fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot, to make one last push?
“We have to get back in shape,” noted Atlanta’s Aerial Powers. “We have to come back and focus on winning games.” Eight-year veteran Powers is 17 points away from 2,000 career points. She and Tina Charles were Atlanta’s two free agents signed in the offseason, and the Dream also traded Jordin Canada and Crystal Dangerfield.
At All-Star Weekend last month in Phoenix, we spoke with Akiem Bailum of Beyond the W about his impressions of the season so far.
“I think the first half was definitely entertaining,” Bailum noted. He said he was disappointed that Dallas “didn’t live up to expectations after getting to the semifinals last year.”
“I think Minnesota was a surprise in a lot of ways because I think a lot of people had probably written them off before the season even started,” he continued. “Minnesota had a really good year.”
Credit: Courtesy of X
“I think the (New York) Liberty looked like the team to beat. And Connecticut is good again. Seattle was expected to be good,” Bailum said.
“I think one of the stories will be whether the Liberty can sustain what they did in the first half,” the reporter noted. “I was never worried about Vegas, even when they struggled early on. I knew Vegas would do well,” he added of the two-time defending champions.
On the Chicago-Connecticut transfer: “This could be a situation that benefits both teams,” Bailum said. “I think as long as Sky still has Chennedy (Carter) and Angel (Reese), they’ll definitely be fine.
“When you’re the Connecticut Sun, you think about the championship because you’re so close,” he surmised. “I think maybe both teams won, but we’ll see how that really pans out in the second half.”
The remaining part of the season “will be absolutely exciting,” Bailum predicted.
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