A few weeks ago I wrote about how A’ja Wilson seemed to be the best Wnba Player who could move teams in a free desk. Every night her current Las Vegas Aces takes the floor, that sentiment feels more and more true. Thursday evening against the Indiana fever seemed to be a turning point for this team – and it was a hard turn directly to a rock bottom, it never felt like this team was able to sink so far.
De Azen spent the seasons between 2020 and 2022 building one of the most powerful WNBA teams that the competition has ever seen. In 2022 they finally added the last part to the puzzle – Becky Hammon as a coach – and won their first championship. It seemed that nothing they could get down in 2023, because they went back-to-back and in 2024 almost became three vague.
The team did not return to the WNBA final in 2024, however, was not alone on them. While the aces were struggling a bit, other teams in the WNBA gratings have specifically built to aim the aces in the play -offs. The rise of Napheeesa Collier and the dynamic trio of New York by Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu gave the ACEs their first real challenge in the Becky Hammon era. Yet what started as a fragmentary season that could easily be reversed – or simply explained by fatigue of multiple title runs – has become one of the most shocking slides in the WNBA this year.
Las Vegas currently has a loss record of 8-9 and is in 10th place in the WNBA in points per match (79.3), 12th in field target percentage (40.1%), 13th in 2-point percentage (43.8%), 11th in Rebounds per game (16.1).
It is a long fall compared to their championship season 2023, when the ACES 1st competition in points per match (92.8), 1st in field target percentage (48.6%), 1st in 2-point field target percentage (54.9%), 5th in a assist per game of Game’s)
After their loss of 81-54 against the Caitlin Clark-Less Indiana Fever last night-hun worst output in franchise history-Was coach Becky Hammon not satisfied. It was the first time that her team collectively shot less than 30% because she took over as a coach.
Hammon had many things to say in her postgame press conference, including that her team “kicked their ass” and that their game was “a complete lack of professionalism”.
Becky Hammon on Las Vegas Aces
“That is a complete lack of professionalism … that is a complete lack of focus … I don’t know how to get on the field with 20,000 people in the stands and thus perform.”
– Moreau Sports Media Prod Co. (@MoreauSportsco) July 4, 2025
Although there is no “me” in the team, it seems that A’ja Wilson might be the exception to that rule. In the game on Thursday, Wilson scored 29 of the 54 points of the team and shot 9-18 from the field. No one else on the Roster made more than 2 field goals. Wilson is in its Prime and currently has records for the most points in a season (1,021 in 2024) and the highest point average in a season (26.9 ppg in 2024). In 2025 she places 22.1 points per match (99th percentile competition), taking 9.4 rebounds per game and makes 3.6 assists per match.
On Thursday, however, it was not the first time that these problems with her supporting cast came to light, and the team tried to make “win -now” movements to shake things up. Of course there was the trade for Jewell Loyd in the low season, but Loyd has her worst season since her smoke year, only scored 10.8 points per game. The aces then made the switch to act for Nalyssa Smith, an attempt to give Wilson some help on the Front Court. Kiah Stokes does not have as much contributions as she needs, and the team misses Megan Gustafson with injury and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus due to pregnancy. Although the improvements of making the move for Smith cannot be calculated completely in one game, it is still probably not enough in the best scenario to create visible change.
The kicker here is that in those two transactions the Azen gave the first round picks for 2026 and 2027. There is absolutely no advantage for them not to make the play-offs; It could even be called disastrous if they did not do that, since they do not have their choices for the following two concepts. There is also the fact that you have a 3x MVP in your team, which would have to compete for a championship for most years … Take time to invest Wilson before she decides that it is time to bring her talents elsewhere.
It is clear that the aces have to do something drastic … but what should they deal with? Loyd, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Kiah Stokes do not play well enough to have a serious commercial interest. They already gave their first round picks away for the next two years. The bank is quite decimated in the beginning, but you don’t have the depth to get something back that will have sufficient impact to deal with this season. Hammon fired nothing – this season she has lost all her top assistants in Natalie Nakase and Tyler Marsh, and no one else in the staff is going to change so much change. The majority of the schedule is about the decline of contracts anyway, making them very expensive rental properties for other teams.
The aces are lucky that they will Each runs $ 100,000 richer After this season, because it doesn’t seem like they will collect other hardware in 2025.
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