As free agents begin to decide where they are going, here is my list of the 15 best free agents. Obviously intended to have this out last week, but life intervened as it does sometimes.
I am including those who have already signed because still worth discussing their relative position in the league. I am judging these players on their ability to help teams win deep into the playoffs in the 2025 season. So a rebuilding team with a good to great 22 year old, for instance the situation the Wings hope to be in, would have a different order.
Adding Golden State to the mix increases the amount of money available. Expect every one of these players to sign for one year as the entire league prepares for a new CBA in 2026. I am not including Elena Delle Donne because so far as I know she has made no noises about returning..
- Breanna Stewart
The least likely player on this list to change teams, Stewart may not be as good as she was a couple of years ago, with 2024 seeing her lowest true shooting % of her career, but she can still clearly be the best player on a championship team. Stewart’s skills should age gracefully and allow her to share the load with other superstars. Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu benefited immensely from Stewart being just as, if not more, effective off ball as she is with the ball in her hands.
- Kelsey Plum
How valuable is a player who can drive top offense by themselves, if they are only a competent defender? I think very valuable. A singular offensive talent is more valuable on the margins than a singular defensive one. Just like one bad defender is less damaging than one offensive player a team can ignore.
You put Kelsey Plum on any team in the WNBA and she is going to drive your offense to higher heights. She has experience playing off ball, as she has with the Aces, but I believe could take over a higher usage role, especially in the playoffs, if a team needed her to.
- Satou Sabally
This is admittedly high for Sabally. This is a bet that she continues to develop and that her injury issues are mostly bad luck and a team can hope for a healthy season in 2025. But Satou is this good when clicking on all cylinders. A 6’4” wing who can play 3-5 depending on who is around her, Sabally is a force. I’m not ready to say she can be your best player and win a championship, but her skillset fits next to any other star, especially if her 3 point shooting continues to be good.
- Emma Meesseman
Will Meesseman play again in the W? All basketball fans hope, but we shall see. Meesseman is a wonderful offensive player, even if I do wish her game was 10% more analytically friendly. Her midrange is so useful when an offense stalls or at the end of the shot clock, but the number of awkward midrange 2s early in the clock, shots that could have been 3s quite often, is not ideal. However, Meesseman would help any team in the W with her all around game.
Defensively she can hold her own, but she is not going to cover for the mistakes and limitations of teammates. Putting her on a team with strong defenders would be best.. Hope she comes over soon, as there are only so many seasons left of her at her best.
- Alyssa Thomas
If this ranking were what player is best equipped to get your team through one round in the playoffs, Thomas would be second on the list. A regular season force who overwhelms lesser playoff opponents, AT is a one of a kind player. But the further one gets in the playoffs, the more her limitations put a ceiling on a team. She is a tricky player to put other top players around, since one would ideally have all 4 other players on the court able to shoot 3s and a center who can protect the rim.
While AT seems to be a consummate professional and is always in shape, she also has the kind of game that may be susceptible to falling off quicker than expected as she enters her age 32 season. Typically players who age well have 2 of three things going for them, passing, shooting, and height. AT has the passing and that will asbsolutely help her age more gracefully on the court,, but she does not shoot and she is undersized for her position.
- Kelsey Mitchell
While Aliyah Boston rounded into form over the 2024 season, we have yet to see Mitchell play with a top 5 front court player in her career. I think she would do very well as a prime offensive driver if paired with any of the front court players consistently on all-wnba teams. The defense will never be great, but she can be passable on that end.
Who can the Fever put at the 3 and the 4 to give this team enough defense to compete deep in the playoffs? That is the big next question for the Fever. Clark and Mitchell could win a title with a #1 offense and an acceptable defense, but the solution at the 3 and 4 is not on the current roster. Leonie Fiebich will not be available to offer a massive contract for a while, but someone like her would be perfect.
- Nneka Ogwumike
Ogwumike is a super role player at this point, but a very valuable one. She needs someone else to be the driving force on offense. She is not going to generate efficient offense for other folks as even really a secondary creator. As long as there is enough shooting and creation around her, Ogwumike knows where to be and her all around skillset will help any team. An offense with her, as we saw with Seattle, can get clunky with her on the court as teams don’t fear her shooting even though she does hit the odd three.
- Brittney Griner
Griner could have a throwback season and be a lot closer to three on this list, but this is where she is based on last couple of seasons of play. Still an effective offensive player, her defense has slipped a bit. Without her driving a top offense all her own, she can be a tricky fit on the court. Though with presumably pristine spacing Karl Smesko will work to get her in Atlanta, it will be very interesting to see how she plays in a different offense. Nate Tibbets wasn’t exactly running last years Dream offense though, and Griner was somewhere between ok and good.
- Brionna Jones
Like her former teammate Alyssa Thomas, Jones is a very good regular season player, but whose weaknesses come to the fore in the playoffs. She has improved her defense in space impressively since she joined the league, especially with her quick hands, but there are limits to how much she can hang. She was played off the court last season against the Lynx and teams are only going to follow the spaced out model both the Lynx and Liberty showed more. Still well worth signing for a team wanting to make the semifinals, but a real ceiling on how much she helps a team on the way to a title.
- DeWanna Bonner
How long can Bonner keep this up? Bonner will turn 38 during this season and will presumably drop off at some point. But her height and shooting, if at times underwhelming from 3, may continue to allow her to be effective another year or two. Best as a 4 or even a 5 at this point, even given the amount of strength she is giving up in those matchups, Bonner could still be a very good fit on a number of teams. Relying on her to generate offense in the playoffs is too much, but she can do a lot of things fairly well even this long into her career.
Five Out Basketball 