A day after former MVP Breanna Stewart left the Seattle Storm for the New York Liberty in free agency, All-Star point guard Courtney Vandersloot — who had already indicated she would not be returning to the Chicago Sky — made the same difficult decision, forgoing an opportunity to return home and play for the Storm in favor of joining a star-studded Liberty lineup.
Having added Stewart, Vandersloot and 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones (via a January trade) this offseason to a group that already included All-WNBA second-team pick Sabrina Ionescu, New York now boasts four of the top 10 players when we ranked them at last year’s All-Star break.
Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Aces have three of our top six players (A’ja Wilson, Candace Parker and Kelsey Plum), along with two others (Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young) ranked in the top 25.
Superteams are nothing new in the WNBA, which has seen the Houston Comets dynasty feature MVPs Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes alongside Tina Thompson and the Minnesota Lynx win four championships with a core of MVPs Sylvia Fowles (part of the last two titles) and Maya Moore supported by All-Stars Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsay Whalen.
The difference is the key role free agency played in creating these teams, with the Liberty…
