The Las Vegas Aces may be about to fold

05.07.2025, 17:31 sbnation.com

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how A’ja Wilson seemed to be the best WNBA player who could move teams in free agency. Every night her current Las Vegas Aces take the floor, that sentiment feels more and more true. Thursday night’s game against the Indiana Fever seemed to be a turning point for this team — and it was a hard turn straight towards a rock bottom it never felt like this team was capable of sinking to until now.

The Aces spent the seasons between 2020 and 2022 building one of the most powerful WNBA teams the league has ever seen. In 2022, they finally added the last piece to the puzzle — Becky Hammon as coach — and won their first championship. It seemed like nothing could bring them down in 2023 either, as they went back-to-back and were almost expected to three-peat in 2024.

The team not making it back to the WNBA Finals in 2024 was not just on them, though. While the Aces were struggling a bit, other teams in the WNBA have built rosters specifically to target the Aces in the playoffs. The rise of Napheesa Collier and New York’s dynamic trio of Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu gave the Aces their first true challenge in the Becky Hammon era. Yet, what started as a patchy season that could easily be turned around — or just explained by fatigue from multiple title runs — has turned into one of the most shocking slides in the WNBA this year.

Las Vegas currently has a losing record of 8-9, and ranks 10th in the WNBA in points per game (79.3), 12th in field goal percentage (40.1%), 13th in 2-point percentage (43.8%), 11th in rebounds per game (33.1), and 12th in assists per game (16.9).

It’s a long fall from their 2023 Championship season, when the Aces ranked 1st league-wide in points per game (92.8), 1st in field goal percentage (48.6%), 1st in 2-point field goal percentage (54.9%), 5th in rebounds per game (34.8), and 2nd in assists per game (21.7).

After their 81-54 loss against the Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever last night — their worst offensive output in franchise history — Coach Becky Hammon was not pleased. It was the first time her team had shot under 30% from the field collectively since she took over as coach.

Hammon had a lot of things to say in her postgame press conference, including that her team got “their ass kicked” and that their play was “a complete lack of professionalism.”

Becky Hammon on Las Vegas Aces "That’s a complete lack of professionalism…that's a complete lack of focus…I don't know how you step on the court with 20,000 people in the stands and perform like that."— Moreau Sports Media Prod Co. (@MoreauSportsCo)

While there is no “I” in team, it seems like A’ja Wilson may be the exception to that rule. In Thursday’s game, Wilson scored 29 of the team’s 54 points, shooting 9-18 from the field. No one else on the roster made more than 2 field goals. Wilson is in her prime, and currently holds records for most points in a season (1,021 in 2024) and highest point average in a season (26.9 PPG in 2024). In 2025, she is putting up 22.1 points per game (99th percentile league-wide), grabbing 9.4 rebounds per game, and making 3.6 assists per game.

Thursday was not the first time these problems with her supporting cast have come to light, though, and the team has tried to make “win-now” moves to shake things up. Of course, there was the trade for Jewell Loyd in the offseason, but Loyd is having her worst season since her rookie year, only scoring 10.8 points per game. The Aces then made the move to trade for NaLyssa Smith, an attempt to give Wilson some help in the frontcourt. Kiah Stokes has not been contributing as much as she needs to, and the team is missing Megan Gustafson with injury and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus due to pregnancy. While the improvements of making the move for Smith can’t be fully calculated in one game, even in the best-case scenario it’s still probably not enough to create visible change.

The kicker here is that in those two trades, the Aces gave away first-round draft picks for 2026 and 2027. There is absolutely no benefit for them not to make the playoffs; it could even be called disastrous if they didn’t, given they don’t have their picks for the next two drafts. There is also the fact that you have a 3x MVP on your team, who should be competing for a championship most years... time is ticking to keep Wilson invested before she decides it is time to take her talents elsewhere.

It’s clear the Aces need to do something drastic... but what do they have to deal? Loyd, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, and Kiah Stokes aren’t playing well enough to have serious trade interest. They already gave away their first-round picks for the next two years. The bench is pretty decimated to begin with, but you don’t have the depth there to get anything back that will have enough impact to turn this season around. Firing Hammon won’t do anything — she’s already lost her top assistants in Natalie Nakase and Tyler Marsh this season, and no one else on the staff is going to make that much of a change. Most of the roster is on expiring contracts anyway, making them very expensive rentals to other teams.

The Aces are lucky they’ll each be walking away $100,000 richer after this season, because as of right now, it doesn’t seem like they will be collecting any other hardware in 2025.