Happy Commissioner’s Cup! Over the next two weeks, the WNBA’s regular-season tournament takes over, as every game through June 13 will also be a qualifying game for the Cup. This is the fourth year of the competition, and unlike previous seasons, when qualifiers have been spread out over the first half of the season, the group stages have been condensed into a sprint, making it even more fun to follow along.
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Previously, every team played 10 qualifying games, two against each conference opponent. In 2024, the group stage is half as long, introducing some variability into the outcomes. Whereas it was impossible to imagine any team but the Las Vegas Aces winning the West in 2023, with five games and the Aces hosting only two of them, a meaningful chance exists for another team upending the conference hierarchy, especially with the Seattle Storm’s and Minnesota Lynx’s strong start.
With five games, there is a home/road imbalance, giving certain teams a potential advantage. The Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks will have three home qualifying games apiece. The Sun have excelled wherever they have played, but for the Mercury — whose home court is arguably the best in the W — that extra game in front of their home fans could be an X-factor (pun intended).
Rookie Connection 🤩
Cameron Brink lays in the lob from Rickea Jackson for the easy 2 🫡
LAS-PHO | WNBA Commissioner's Cup presented by @coinbase pic.twitter.com/TWLjBs6u4k
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 2, 2024
If it seems like the stakes of the Cup aren’t relevant for fans, rest assured, they matter to the players. The winning team earns $500,000. Divided evenly among 12 players, a bonus of more than $40,000 dramatically exceeds the $11,356 payout given to the league’s champions.
As Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said before Minnesota’s first Cup game: “It’s the first time in a while that we’ve had a chance to actually think about getting in contention for some money for the players, so I am thrilled to be able to be excited.”
After winning their first Cup contest, the Lynx jumped back into second in the power rankings. Despite beating Minnesota, the Aces simply haven’t played enough to be in the top two right now. After three more games this week, they still will have played fewer games than the Indiana Fever did in May alone. For now, the overall body of work of the Sun and Lynx stand out.
| Rank | Team | Previous rank |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | |
2 | 2 | |
3 | 3 | |
4 | 4 | |
5 | 8 | |
6 | 5 | |
7 | 6 | |
8 | 9 | |
9 | 7 | |
10 | 11 | |
11 | 10 | |
12 | 12 |
Three standout performances
How is Brionna Jones already this good again?
Jones tore her Achilles on June 20, 2023, and missed the rest of the regular season for Connecticut. Less than a year after that devastating injury, however, Jones is back in All-Star form. The Sun have kept her on a minutes restriction to aid in her recovery, but they haven’t needed to stretch those limits because of how well they’ve played when she’s on the court. Jones ranks third in the league in overall plus-minus despite playing 23 minutes per game.
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Jones began this past week by steadying Connecticut against Phoenix; she was the lone Sun player with more than one field goal in the first quarter during a slog of a game that saw both teams shoot below 40 percent. She followed up with a game-high 22 points in a 2-point win over the Wings. Her pristine footwork — again, one year out from an Achilles tear — allowed her 6-foot-3 frame to find openings within the Dallas frontcourt’s trees. Jones’ defense also helped limit the three-headed Wings center tandem of Teaira McCowan, Kalani Brown and Stephanie Soares to 23 total points. Jones ended the week with a ho-hum 19 points against Atlanta while her defensive assignment, Tina Charles, shot 5-of-18.
#BringTheHeat pic.twitter.com/ZMPfzqX5Ne
— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) June 2, 2024
It’s impressive how light on her feet Jones has been, able to move in space even though she’s a traditional back-to-the-basket center. Jones might not stretch the floor on offense beyond the free-throw line, but she does cover ground defensively on the perimeter, allowing Connecticut to vary its defensive schemes. She collected three steals this week outside the 3-point line, whether that was coming out to blitz the ballhandler, racing back in transition to intercept a pass or deflecting a potential entry pass.
The Sun have started the season 8-0, the seventh team to do so in WNBA history. All six others made the finals, though those runs came in regular seasons that were shorter than 40 games. Nevertheless, it’s hard to imagine Connecticut being any worse if Jones’ minutes and impact keep increasing as the season goes on.
Chennedy Carter is too talented to mess up her second chance
Carter has been in the news for committing a flagrant foul on Caitlin Clark, but her return to the WNBA after a year out has been most notable for her quality of play. She remains impossible to contain in the open court and even on drives; she is devastatingly quick with the ball in her hands and has a mean crossover. In Chicago’s win over Los Angeles on Thursday, she spurred the game-breaking run in the first quarter, scoring or assisting on 10 points in 2 1/2 minutes as the Sky turned a tie game into a double-digit lead. Nearly every play involved Carter breaking down the defense by getting into the paint.
When Kamilla Cardoso made her regular-season debut Saturday, Carter was responsible for getting her rookie center on the board. Carter had multiple drives that led to dump-offs for Cardoso, allowing the No. 4 pick to focus exclusively on finishing instead of putting the ball on the floor. As the broadcast talked about the challenge guards face learning how to play with such a tall center, Carter needed no adjustments to make Cardoso’s life as easy as possible. Few guards in the league can match Carter’s playmaking ability.
Chicago definitely has something special with this Carter-Cardoso connection.
Looking forward to seeing that on-court chemistry grow over the course of the season. pic.twitter.com/15uo6iRfMe
— Sean Hurd (@seanahurd) June 1, 2024
Of course, the game against Indiana was also memorable for the aforementioned foul, which gave the Fever their 1-point margin of victory at the foul line. The Sky guard’s postgame comments, both in the news conference and on social media afterward, betrayed some of the questionable decision-making that has dotted her WNBA career. Carter already has been cast away by two franchises, getting suspended and then traded by the Dream and getting cut by the Sparks before training camp even though she had a guaranteed contract. She has been so good to start the season, but with her history, she can’t have a repeat of any extracurricular activities, not when opportunities in this league are so hard to come by.
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Dearica Hamby remains a bright spot for the flickering Sparks
Hamby was an All-Star in her last two years in Las Vegas before being traded to Los Angeles. Even though she played 40 games in a season that started two months after she gave birth to her second child, Hamby consistently expressed disappointment with her performance. She didn’t want grace; she wanted excellence.
The All-Star version of Hamby is back and then some. She is the leading rebounder in the league and the sixth-leading scorer despite having limited help, and her shooting efficiency exceeds that of all the players in front of her. Opponents put their best frontcourt defender on Hamby, and she powers through centers and power forwards alike. She’s dynamic in transition, shooting the ball well from 3-point range, and that’s before considering her defense, which is her more impactful end of the floor. She led the W in steals this week, and it’s a delight to watch her deflect entry passes away from poor, unsuspecting bigs.
The Sparks crater when Hamby isn’t on the floor, forcing her to play more than 37 minutes per game. Hamby made it a goal to get MVP votes this season, and though that will be tough on a lottery-bound team, she has been outstanding. If the trade deadline mattered in the WNBA, contenders would be clamoring to get a hyper-athletic, high-motor forward with championship experience.
Rookie of the week
Alissa Pili, Minnesota Lynx
Three rookies have scored at least 20 points in a game this season, and Friday against the Mercury, Pili became the first to reach the mark in a win. Entering the game, Pili had played 26 minutes in six games, scoring 5 points. She obliterated that total against Phoenix, tallying 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including making all four of her 3s.
It feels strange to say this about a player who was among the most versatile scorers in college, but Pili’s performance was surprising because of how she got her points. She didn’t get any post-ups, which were her bread and butter at Utah; rather, she made quick decisions off the ball. She scored as the roller on ball screens, cut to the basket and even drew free throws on a rim run when she beat every Phoenix frontcourt player down the court. Pili always has been able to lose defenders with her craft, but north-south speed wasn’t on her scouting report.
She also added a nice touch pass to Dorka Juhász in the paint and a one-handed offensive rebound — a true rarity in the W — that led to a putback. Heading into the draft, Pili was already touted for her unique skill set, but she seems to be adding more tricks to that bag. To show so much in her first extended minutes makes me excited about what’s to come with Pili, even if she won’t see the court on most nights because MVP candidate Napheesa Collier takes up most of the power forward minutes.
Reeve said this moment was coming, as Pili got more assertive and confident in practice, but it was extra special for the rookie’s coming-out party to happen on Native American Heritage Night in Minnesota. As Pili said after the game, “To have a night like this and have all those fans come out, that means a lot to represent for them, because representation has been a huge thing for me as my platform has grown.”
GO DEEPERWhat Utah star Alissa Pili represents to the fans who flock to see herGame to circle
New York Liberty at Chicago Sky, 8 p.m. (ET) Tuesday
It’s simple: The Sky destroyed the Liberty in a preseason game and followed up with a convincing victory in New York in their third regular-season game. If the Liberty fancy themselves a contender, they have to figure out how to deal with an active and athletic defense like Chicago’s. New York also doesn’t have a win this season against an opponent with a positive net rating.
(Photo: Ron Hoskins / NBAE via Getty Images)
Sabreena Merchant is a women's basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. She previously covered the WNBA and NBA for SB Nation. Sabreena is an alum of Duke University, where she wrote for the independent student newspaper, The Chronicle. She is based in Los Angeles. Follow Sabreena on Twitter @sabreenajm
