Five WNBA storylines that will shape the 2017 season

When Elena Delle Donne made it known that she was looking for a new team last winter, it was a stunner in so many ways. For EDD, as much as it was about a chance to return closer to her home roots in Delaware, her threat to sit out of the 2017 season was also a rebuke of the limited movement WNBA players have for their own playing futures. Delle Donne would have been a restricted free agent, but the Chicago Sky could have simply matched any offer a team made to her. For the Sky, it was the chance to completely reform the roster after four straight years of just coming up short of title hopes.

Yet, Delle Donne’s new team, the Washington Mystics, is making the biggest push for the franchise’s first WNBA Finals appearance in its twenty-year history. And it wasn’t just by adding the 2015 league MVP, but it was adding another home area native in Kristi Toliver, who was a top-notch floor general for the Sparks’ during their title run last season. Washington also drafted the lightning quick guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough out of Maryland. The Mystics were tenth (out of 12 teams) in the league in scoring, but we’ll find out how quickly these new players meld in order to push the team into contending status.

A killer rookie class that has to perform immediately

The improved pace of play in the league has largely been a result of a deep and constantly evolving talent pool coming out of the college ranks. This year was no exception, headlined by the number one draft pick and the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer Kelsey Plum, who has already impressed onlookers in spite of the San Antonio Stars’ seemingly crowded backcourt. The rebuilt Chicago Sky will be thrilled to get #2 overall pick Alaina Coates on the court as the former South Carolina center is still recovering from an ankle injury that sidelined her from the Gamecocks’ national title run.

Yet, there are several other rookies who could be thrusted into big roles for teams with postseason aspirations and/or with major personnel losses. The aforementioned Walker-Kimbrough will have to pick her spots on a Washington team looking to pick up the pace with the reloaded roster. For Atlanta, Brittney Sykes (Syracuse) will be tasked to replicate some of the offensive production the team will lose with the absence of the all-world Angel McCoughtry for at least half of the season. Brionna Jones (Maryland) will shoulder the interior load for Connecticut as the Sun may not have Chiney Ogwumike at all season. Even the defending champion Sparks had to fill a free agency loss (Toliver) with a strong draft pick, which became Sydney Wiese of Oregon State, a tremendous shooter and smart playmaker.

Which teams break up the Sparks/Lynx stronghold on the league?

As mentioned earlier, the rivalry between the defending champion Los Angeles Sparks and the dynastic Minnesota Lynx captured the attention of sports fans throughout the entire 2016 season. Both teams not only broke each other’s record-setting starts to the regular season, but jockeyed for homecourt advantage all year in anticipation for the new playoff format the league debuted in the fall. The Sparks defeated the Lynx in what is regarded as the best Finals series in WNBA history thanks to an exciting, but controversial finish during Game 5 in Minneapolis.

There’s an argument that the single-elimination first and second round games ensured that Los Angeles and Minnesota were not to be disrupted in their paths to the Finals. It’s one that the New York Liberty could claim as they were the third seed in the playoffs and were by and large the best team in the East last year. Shorthanded and perhaps too reliant on Tina Charles, the Libs were ousted by an inconsistent, but talented Phoenix Mercury squad in their lone playoff game. Washington will be pushing New York for supremacy in the East. Phoenix, Seattle and Indiana  were all playoff teams last year and have proven track records of making strong pushes against anyone. How much firepower each team has in order to challenge Los Angeles or Minnesota will be something to monitor all season long.

League reaches live-streaming deal with Twitter

Twitter has been broadcasting live sports since 2015, notably having streamed the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package in 2016. In the recent NewFronts, the social media company announced an expanded sports offering that includes live streaming of 20 WNBA games each of the next three seasons. Believe it or not, this is an incredibly smart play for both sides. A higher profile league like the NFL tangentially gains viewers from Twitter’s live stream since have traditionally watched through the networks themselves on TV. Yet, the WNBA has an avenue to reach sports fans that wouldn’t normally seek out the league on linear television to begin with. In turn, Twitter can keep tapping into the digital-only sports audience beyond a few fall and winter nights as it did with the NFL. Twitter activity during every Los Angeles Sparks/Minnesota Lynx game last year – including the WNBA Finals – as well as this year’s Women’s Final Four served as proof that the league’s profile is on the upswing.

How do the players keep up building on their socially conscious platform?

Prior to last summer’s Olympic break, players wore plain black warm-up shirts in solidarity with the protests against police brutality that were taking place around the nation. After the league fined several teams for what were deemed as violations of the uniform code, many players and teams imposed their own media blackouts until the fines were rescinded (they were after due to the massive PR fallout). The Lynx also dealt with police walking out of their in-arena security detail after the team wore shirts that supported the Black Lives Matter movement as well as paid homage to the five officers slain in Dallas earlier in the month.

Historically, individual athletes who choose to engage in discussions and actions in relation to social matters receive massive backlash from those who want sports to be devoid of “real life” and view athletes for solely entertainment purposes, not as full-fledged human beings with their own beliefs and concerns. Yet the initial response to the players’ methods brought the wrong kind of attention to a league that continues create its footprint in the sporting landscape. In the current American climate, unfortunately there will be another moment that will test how both the players and the WNBA will handle the next expressions of social discomfort. Do the players speak out more? Will the league support them further or as the NFL learned with the national anthem protests, step out of the way?