A WNBA Finals Game between the league’s two super-teams has been expected since the offseason. Freedom of New York were building a veritable powerhouse through free will. Reality hits Sunday when the Liberty and The Aces of Las Vegas announce the first game of the best-of-five series at Michelob Ultra Arena on the Vegas Strip (3 p.m. ET on ABC).
But are the Aces still a superteam? And were they ever one to begin with? Does it really matter?
Few on either side can match the super-team moniker bestowed upon them. But few can argue with the results that each team is made up of some of the best talent in the league who have lined up for an unforgettable finale.
“It’s the narrative that everyone wanted in the beginning,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said after his team clinched its first finals berth since 2002. “I never particularly liked the super-team thing.”
The series is expected to be one of the best and most watched the league has ever seen. Casual fans will tune in to a super-team clash simply because of what the name represents: the best of the best players going head-to-head.
A superteam is generally considered to be a roster of title contenders formed when two or more established All-Stars join a team that already has an established All-Star. Some consider an All-Star signing on an All-Star team to also be a superteam.
The Liberty was traded for 2021 MVP and four-time All-Star Jonquel Jones in January to pair with Sabrina Ionescu And Betnijah Laney, both of whom have been All-Stars in recent seasons. It’s a. When free agency opened, the Liberty signed Breanna Stewart, the most sought-after free agent who had one MVP at the time, two championships and two Finals MVPs. That’s two. And to shake up the nuggets, the All-Star point guard and WNBA champion Courtney Vandersloot joined them.
This countered the embarrassment of riches already present in Las Vegas. The Aces began the 2022 campaign with three All-Star starters in A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray And Dearica Hamby. At the end of the season, they won the city its first professional championship with five starting All-Stars. Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young made their first All-Star appearances that summer.
Las Vegas was a team of local stars that included Plum, Wilson and Young as three straight No. 1 picks. Ahead of 2021, they added free agent Gray to run the offense. This was seen as nothing more than a major step forward in a changing landscape where players were empowered under the new collective bargaining agreement to make their own decisions with a broader pay scale.
The Aces earned the superteam title when Candace Parkera legendary star in all the record books, announced a year later she signed with the Aces. The team traded Hamby the previous week. Las Vegas signed Alysha Clarka veteran forward who has never made an All-Star team, but is a two-time WNBA champion and selected to the All-Defensive team.
There’s not much to counter the argument that Liberty is a superteam. The franchise added three All-Stars, and two MVPs to boot, in one offseason. In a league where top players often didn’t change franchises under previous collective bargaining agreements, it’s revolutionary to see a team go from the playoffs to a title contender so quickly.
The Aces might have more of a case against the nickname. Wilson, a two-time MVP, disputed this before the second team meeting of the season in Brooklyn.
“We’re the same core as last year and no one was talking or saying we were a great team last year,” Wilson said. “I don’t think we won enough for people to claim that.”
Adding Parker to a core that won the title with the best offense in the league made them a superteam in some people’s eyes. And as the two-time champion settled in, the Aces seemed indestructible. They had the best defense in the league, led by Parker’s non-statistical impact.
It was a side of the ball that the Aces ranked seventh last season and head coach Becky Hammon said needs to be improved because opponents will catch up to them on offense. The Liberty boasts the league’s second-best offense and best 3-point range, demonstrating how that increased focus could be prescient for Vegas’ chances of a repeat.
But Parker has only played 18 games and is out indefinitely after undergoing foot surgery in July. The team gave no timetable for his return. She was back on the bench for the Aces during the playoffs, but there’s no indication she’s preparing for the game.
Now that she almost certainly won’t play in the final at all, are the Aces still a superteam? According to Wilson, they have only won one title, although they have appeared in three of the last four finals. So did the Liberty in the early years of the league, and they never won it. Nor were they claimed to be a super-team a decade before the 2010 Games. Miami heat made him popular.
The starting lineup the Aces currently have is actually the one that started all 10 games in the 2022 playoffs. Kiah Stokes intervened after Hamby suffered a bone bruise to his right knee. Hamby was also pregnant at the time, which she announced during the championship parade. She filed a discrimination complaint against the team and the league.
Las Vegas won Game 3 of the 2022 Semifinals in overtime against the Seattle Storm gain momentum and win game 4 to advance. They won games 1, 2 and 4 against the Connecticut Sun by three, 14 and seven points, respectively. Their loss in the third game was 29.
Their offensive rating of 111.5, defensive rating of 95.8, and net rating of 15.7 lead the league and are in the top five in league history. They have the best offense in the league for a fourth consecutive season. Gray, Plum, Wilson and Young finished with career highs in various categories, including shooting averages of over 50% for guards Plum and Young.
Collectively, the Aces have made nearly 50 percent of their shots and are limiting turnovers to a league-best 11.8 per game. They broke numerous championship records, including wins by at least 20 points (14) and the most games with 100 points (11).
That’s great.
It’s a good debate whether Las Vegas is a superteam or not, and that’s really the point. It’s a marketing tactic, a launch topic, a method of engaging fans, from diehards to casuals. If someone says “superteam” to a non-WNBA fan, they know exactly what that means and why it’s important. With this, the league is preparing for what is expected to be huge viewership numbers and a series likely to last a full five games. The Liberty’s Game 4 win over the Sun peaked at nearly a million on a Sunday afternoon during the football season.
The “super-team” is just the opening, while the rest of the storylines are where casual fans are drawn to the diehards the league is looking for. One of its biggest markets, New York, is back in the title race seeking its first title. It is the only inaugural franchise not to win one. Meanwhile, Vegas is aiming to become only the third team in league history to win back-to-back championships and will look to do so with almost exactly the team that won it last year, super team leotard or not.
