As the 2025 WNBA season approaches mid-June, a number of standout performances and key trends have emerged. Let’s check on five developments from the first month of the season.
A’ja Wilson’s passing
The most significant development in A’ja Wilson’s already elite game has been her dramatic improvement as a playmaker.
Wilson’s assist percentage has jumped from a modest 14 percent last season to an impressive 27 percent this year—the largest season-to-season improvement in that metric since Diana Taurasi’s leap from 2017 to 2018. While assist percentage isn’t a measure of passing ability, this dramatic increase reflects Wilson’s enhanced court awareness and willingness to trust her teammates in crucial moments.
The improvement is most noticeable in her anticipation of double teams. Where Wilson previously would miss passing lanes when help defense arrived, she now is reading defensive rotations before they happen, finding open teammates in the corners and dunker spot. Her processing speed has accelerated dramatically, allowing her to make quick decisions that punish aggressive defensive schemes.
Wilson’s late-game playmaking has reached another level. There was a late-game sequence against the…
