WNBA: Las Vegas - In Search of its Edge?

By Andy Lipton, Leading the ‘Break

 

Down 2-0, in the midst of the 2024 WNBA semi-final playoff series between the defending WNBA champions Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty, Aces head Coach Becky Hammon spoke about her team losing its edge during the season. She didn’t single anybody out.

 

She thought the team found it the last month of the season, but I got the impression she felt the team didn’t have it during the two losses to the Liberty.

 

She said the feeling from the beginning of the season was different. 

She mentioned players doing commercials and being celebrities. Again, she didn’t single anybody out.  

“You get distracted,” she said.  “It’s human nature to be distracted.  That’s why it’s so hard to three-peat.”

 She said the last time there had been a three-peat championship was with Kobe and Shaq. That was over 20 years ago with the Lakers.

 

She referenced the days as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs which started in 2014.  

The Spurs lost a NBA Finals to the Miami Heat in 2013 due to a missed defensive rebound in Game 6 she said. 

 Hammon said the next year the Spurs came back with so much drive, discipline, and focus. The Spurs won the title that next year.

 

This competitive Hall of Famer was flat out honest.  

The Liberty had been the best team all season and presented many problems for the Aces she said.  Her team also had not played up to par.  She was not conceding the series to the Liberty who had held home court, but it seemed like she saw the writing on the wall.

 

She praised the Liberty for their habits, edge and incredible attention to detail.  

Before the first semi-final game, Hammon spoke about the Liberty having played pissed off all year, having that kind of edge. 

The trauma of having lost the year before to the Aces in the 2023 Finals can be a powerful factor according to Hammon.

 

And although the Aces won Game 3, they lost the series in Game 4 at home.

 

Right after Game 4, Hammon said, “And for us, we will be back next year.  And I’m sure the focus level will be very different.  I can pretty much guarantee that.”

 

So what does it really mean to have an edge about yourself?

 

Is it anger, determination, focus, discipline, combativeness, argumentativeness, trauma, intensity, sharpness, or dedication, or some combination of these?

 

In 2023 the Las Vegas Aces won its second WNBA championship in a row defeating the New York Liberty in four games, clinching it on the Liberty’s home court at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Liberty team had added three terrific players for the 2023 season, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Courtney Vandersloot.  Combined they were like a booster rocket, propelling the trajectory of the Liberty franchise to new heights.  

The last time the Liberty had made the WNBA finals was 2002.

 

In the clinching Game 4 to win the 2023 championship the Aces were without two starters, Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes, who were both injured in Game 3.  In an exciting final game, the Aces prevailed 70-69.

 

In the middle of the 2023 season in July, the team had lost starter and future Hall of Fame Candace Parker with a broken foot for the rest of the season. 

 Riquna Williams, who had been an important bench player for the Aces 2022 championship team, had been out with an injury from the beginning of the season until she was then barred from participating with the team after her arrest on domestic violence charges in July.  She never played again for the Aces.

 

Winning its second WNBA championship in a row was quite an accomplishment for the Aces. And they had the best record the whole season.

 

I didn’t cover the Aces during the 2023 regular season except for an August regular game against the Liberty in which the Aces lost.

 

But if you want to talk about edge, it seemed that the Aces had it based on their post-game press conference after winning the 2023 championship. 

There was jubilation, chanting, bopping, pride, tears, relief, thankfulness, and  praise for teammates, the bench, the staff, the Almighty, and the owner Mark Davis who was standing in the back of the press conference room. All expected. But mixed in was some grievance/anger that made it seem a bit bizzaro.

 

The press conference started with Aja Wilson and Alysha Clark coming in swigging champagne and then answering questions.  

Wilson talked about how a lot of people counted us out.  

“From jump, a lot of people said Liberty in five. That just fueled us…We read it, we see it and it fueled us so thank you.”

 

Although Wilson may have been speaking about before the series began, she may have been speaking about the series after Game 3. 

The Liberty had won Game 3 and although the Aces were up 2-1 going into game 4, neither starters Chelsea Gray nor Kiah Stokes were going to play in Game 4 due to injury after having played in the previous games in the series.

 

A few minutes after the press conference began, the rest of the Aces players came into the press conference room, bopping, dancing, singing and chanting with champagne bottles aloft as well as being swigged. 

Kelsey Plum came in holding a boom box.  Hammon also came in.

 

She said, “This one’s [championship] sweeter [than the one the year before].  It just is. It’s harder to do. We went from darling to villain pretty quick.  We had our names, our good names slandered.  And all these women did was lock in together…Probably the tightest group I’ve been around.  I don’t know what else you can throw at them.”

 

At this point Aja Wilson chimed in with “Cause we’ve been through some stuff this year, man.”

 

Hammon then continued. 

“And they didn’t say nothing.  And it’s hard to not say nothing when people are lying about you.  

“And all we did was buckle down and keep playing. And that was our mantra. Keep playing. Next play. Keep playing…Your character will be like your culture…And we’ve had plenty of times to fall apart.  But because of their character and the culture we’ve built, you can’t crack this group. You just can’t.”

 

So what were Hammon and Wilson talking about? 

 

I think it’s a pretty good guess they are the allegations made by former Aces player Dearica Hamby after she was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks in January 2023 of discrimination and retaliation against her by the Aces due to her pregnancy, the resulting league investigations that took place as to those allegations, as well as allegations that the Aces circumvented the salary cap, and the findings of and the penalties imposed by the WNBA in May 2023 after its investigations.[1]

 

The WNBA found “The team violation involved promises of impermissible benefits in connection with negotiations for an extension of then Aces player Dearica Hamby’s player contract.  The Respect in the Workplace violation was related to comments made by Hammon to Hamby in connection with Hamby’s recent pregnancy.”  The WNBA also said that it was unable to substantiate additional concerns about the conduct of the Aces during the most recent free agency period.[2]

 

The league rescinded the Aces first round draft pick in the 2025 Draft and suspended Hammon for two games.[3]

 

After 14 minutes into the press conference following the championship win, the WNBA representative, Ron Howard, who was directing the press conference attempted to wrap it up to some indignation from some Aces. 

A chorus of Aces, including Hammon, said that they wanted to keep answering questions and Howard acquiesced and the press conference continued for almost another 20 minutes.

 

At one point, Wilson gave a shout out to one of people in the media who she said was one of the only ones who was with us and held us down. Hammon then said, “We can read.”

 

There were grumblings from players - not Wilson - that Wilson should have been voted the regular season’s MVP.  At one point Alysha Clark asked a room full of media  (and there were also people on Zoom)  who in the media placed Aja fourth in the voting for the regular season MVP?

 

Clark also took issue with certain people questioning the value of a few bench players. 

Clark said people don’t see behind the scenes and the work the bench players do every day. She poignantly and rightfully added, “People forget, just because you accept a role doesn’t mean that’s the only role you are capable of.”

 

Earlier in the press conference, Hammon praised Clark for character, her hard journey that season and her importance to the team. 

Clark began to shed tears.  I later learned that Clark’s father had passed away about a year before and she had dedicated the 2023 season to him.

 

At that press conference, you got the sense that the Aces had an us against the world mentality that season. There was definitely a chip on their shoulders. That would certainly qualify as having an edge.

 

Interestingly and contrastingly, six months later during the 2024 WNBA pre-season media sessions, the tone from a few of the Aces players I listened to was much different than the tone of the press conference after winning the 2023 championship.

 It was calm, relaxed and friendly. No combativeness.  Players seemed at peace and were very supportive of their new teammates, Meg Gustafson and Kate Martin.

 

 The comedian Bill Burr who recently starred in the Broadway show Glengarry Glen Ross talked about his edge as anger in an interview with the New York Times. 

In the Times article entitled, “Fast-Talking Charmer, With an Edge,” Burr said “ ‘ I want to lose my edge.  I don’t want to go through life angry.  And here’s the thing: If you have an edge, you never lose it.  I can tap into that whenever I need to. You bark at the other dog and make it go away. I know how to do that.’”[4]

 

In the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary one of the numerous definitions of edge is “a noticeably harsh or sharp quality.”[5]

 

 2025 Pre-Season

 

At one of the Aces’ 2025 pre-season media session I asked Aja Wilson and Chelsea Gray if they thought the team had lost its edge in 2024.  They framed it differently.

 

Wilson said she wouldn’t say they lost their edge.  

“It’s a certain feel,” she said, “and we didn’t have it.  She said you need to value each possession, value the game, and “we lost our value.”

 

Gray said that the league got better, and that the Aces stopped doing the little things that make you better.  Attention to detail was mentioned.

 

At that same session, Hammon agreed with Gray’s answer.  

“It is taking pride in the little things, the attention to detail.  Nobody, “she said, “was happy with last season.  You need to play 40 minutes, being present and in the moment.  

“This year,” she said, “it’s not going to be a problem.”

 

I asked starting center and veteran Kiah Stokes if the tone of this year’s training camp and Hammon’s messaging was different from previous years?

 

Stokes said “I think she [Hammon] probably felt last year she wasn’t as intense with our training camp, she let a lot more things slide.  

“From day one of camp she kind of nipped that, nipped all that in the bud.  Basically said we got to come out with some hunger some fight you know…And she definitely made a statement day one.  She’s not letting anything slide so we got to come ready to play every day, every practice, every game.”

 

2025 Season

 

As the 2025 season reached the All-Star break at the halfway mark, the Aces resume play at a pedestrian 11-11 and bunched up in the middle of the pack in the WNBA standings, in eighth place separated by a game from the number sixth and ninth place teams. It’s surprising.

 

Shortly after the Aces lost to the Liberty in the semi-finals, the team parted ways with general manager Natalie Williams.  It does not look like that position has been filled.

 

The team has had important roster changes, as well as assistant coaching changes going into the season, but still features four starters who were 2024 All-Stars and Olympians - Aja Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd.  Loyd is new to the team.

 

The team traded Kelsey Plum during the off-season and received Loyd in a three-way trade involving Plum. Would seem to be equal value received by the Aces.

 

Wilson and Young made this year’s 2025 All-Star team, Loyd and Gray didn’t.

 

The team no longer has Sydney Colson, Tiffany Hayes, and Alysha Clark all of whom went to other teams in free-agency. All three of them were valued, important, and talented bench players for the Aces, all with different skills, and all respected by their teammates and Hammon.

 

Colson was +17 in the final game of the 2023 Finals in her 15 minutes of play.  Far greater than anybody on the Aces or Liberty.

 

Kate Martin left in the expansion draft.  The team seemed to be very high on her.

 

Assistant coaches Natalie Nakase and Tyler Marsh became the head coaches of the new WNBA franchise the Golden State Valkyries, and the Chicago Sky, respectively.

 

Besides, Loyd, the other new members of the team are Dana Evans, NaLyssa Smith, who was acquired in a trade at the end of June, rookie Aaliyah Nye, and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus who hasn’t played this year because of her pregnancy.

There were four other players who were on the team at some point in the first half of the season who were waived.

 

The team’s offensive and defensive ratings are each ninth in the league.

 

Loyd’s points per game are significantly down from her last five seasons.

 

At the end of May the Aces were 3-2.  

They won their last game in May by beating the Sparks by 15 points.  The game before that they lost to the Storm by 20.

 

In the Sparks pre-game press conference, Hammon said it wasn’t about the type of Xs and Os.  

It was that other teams were running them better than the Aces.  “It’s about execution and playing hard.  Let’s start with that,” she said.  “Competing every minute you are out on the court.  The team had to match the intensity and emotional level of the other teams.”

 

She thought that the team was still a championship contending team.  “Ninety-five percent of our issues are self-inflicted,” she said.

 

At the end of June, the Aces were 8-8.  

They won their last game of June beating one of the best teams in the league, the Phoenix Mercury.  The game before that they lost to Washington by 11.

 

In the Mercury pre-game press conference, Hammon said she was not satisfied with a lot right now. 

A lot of the stats was putting her in a bad mood. She said the team needed more effort and urgency at the beginning of games.  Defense was key as it also helped generate offense.  Nevertheless, she said she saw strides in the right direction which kept her optimistic.

 

The team resumes the season and approaches the stretch of the playoff race on a two-game win streak.

 The last game they played before the break was last Wednesday against the Dallas Wings, which they won 90-86. 

The game before that they beat the Valkyries, 102-100.

Before the Wings game Hammon said the team was starting to understand how hard you have to work every night to be great.  She is harping on the basics. Her team is moving in the right direction, but not as fast as she would like. If her Aces plays simple basketball, things will work out.

She’s doing a lot of teaching, which is more of a review of things.

 

As this point in the 2025 season, the Aces are still searching. But I imagine it’s searching for much more than just its edge.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4167351/2023/02/08/las-vegas-aces-wnba-investigation-salary-cap-dearica-hamby/

[2] https://pr.nba.com/wnba-penalties-aces-investigation/

[3] Ibid. p.2

[4] Jason Zinoman, “Fast-Talking Charmer, With an Edge”, New York Times, Sunday, March 2, 2025

[5] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/edge