Hello, hoopheads! We’ve exhausted the supply of 2025 WNBA playoff teams on our preseason tour through the league, leaving just the five squads who missed out on last year’s postseason and the neophytes in Portland and Toronto left to preview. Our next subjects, the Los Angeles Sparks, very nearly crashed the playoff party after a dreadful start to 2025, but are still looking for their first playoff appearance since the Wubble.
What happened last season?
Much like yesterday’s subject, the Seattle Storm, the Sparks’ current trajectory was determined by the three-way trade last offseason which sent LA’s No. 2 overall pick to Seattle (to be used on Dominique Malonga) while Jewell Loyd went from Seattle to Las Vegas (and won a title) and Kelsey Plum went from Vegas to LA. Had the Sparks held on to that pick, they’d presumably have paired Malonga with 2024 No. 2 pick Cameron Brink and had a pair of twin towers not unlike the ones Seattle is rebuilding around at the moment. The Sparks instead opted to try and get back into the postseason (and ostensibly title contention) in the short term. Unfortunately, a mixture of injuries (including Brink’s 2024 ACL tear which kept her out for much of last season), player absences due to EuroBasket and the team not playing very well sent them into last July 4th with a 5-13 record and without having won consecutive games.
The season got quite a bit better from there, as LA won nine of the next 11 and had a 16-10 record after the 5-13 start, but it ultimately came up shy of chasing down the last playoff spot. Things were never particularly pretty on the defensive end — Plum memorably went viral saying the Sparks needed to “play some fucking defense” in an on-court interview — but the Sparks put on a hell of a show once they got rolling. LA finished sixth in offensive rating, averaging 103.2 points per 100 possessions according to Her Hoop Stats, but its 15 games with a rating of at least 110 were tied for third-most in the WNBA behind only the Minnesota Lynx (19 such games) and Atlanta Dream (16). All but three of those games came during the Sparksmentum portion of the season, while LA was 13-2 when it had an offensive rating in the 110s (but 8-21 when it didn’t).
What’s the roster going to look like?
The Sparks leaned even further into immediate success this offseason, trading 24-year old wing Rickea Jackson (the No. 4 pick in 2024) to the Chicago Sky for 29-year old shooting guard Ariel Atkins, who they then signed to a three-year contract in the seven figures. The pick used on Jackson was originally acquired in a trade that sent the pick the Storm used this year on 19-year old Awa Fam to Seattle, so in a sense, LA got 10 years older with those two trades. Atkins was an All-Star for the Washington Mystics in 2021 and 2022 and has averaged at least 13 points per game in five of the last six seasons, but has now been traded in back-to-back offseasons. The Sparks’ next major addition, Nneka Ogwumike, isn’t new to the team by any stretch, having spent the last two seasons in Seattle, but 2012-23 with LA including a WNBA MVP campaign during LA’s last championship season in 2016. If I had to guess, and if her one-year contract is any indication, Madam President is back in LA for exactly one last ride and to enjoy the spoils of the CBA she worked so hard to attain as the WNBPA’s leader.
Since reunions are so much fun, Ogwumike’s teammate in Seattle last season, Erica Wheeler signed a two-year deal to return to the team with which she spent the 2021 season, making LA the third franchise she’s played for twice (also the Indiana Fever and Atlanta Dream). Wheeler was lowkey one of the Storm’s best players last season, averaging 10.3 points and 3.3 assists per game while hitting 37.3% from deep and providing seemingly endless energy. The Sparks also re-signed two-time former Sixth Player of the Year and three-time All-Star Dearica Hamby to a three-year deal worth over $1.1 million annually and Plum re-upped for one year and a dollar under a million. Plum was everything the Sparks traded for last season, by the way, averaging 19.5 points (fourth in the WNBA) and 5.7 assists (sixth) while becoming the first WNBA player since 2018 to rank sixth or higher in both points and assists per game. The other eight players to do so in WNBA history are some fantastic company: Cynthia Cooper, Skylar Diggins, Becky Hammon, Angel McCoughtry, Candace Parker, Cappie Pondexter, Diana Taurasi and Kristi Toliver.
Brink is the only other player on the roster set to make more than the minimum she’s eligible for, and while I can’t say it feels like the Sparks are building around her anymore, I also can’t imagine she isn’t on the team this season. Rae Burrell, the No. 9 pick in 2022 and a solid performer for the Sparks, is also a pretty strong bet to make the roster. Ditto free-agent signings Emma Cannon, Julie Vanloo and Sevgi Uzun, because it seems pretty clear the Sparks value veterans (Cannon and Vanloo were also with the team last season). That’d leave two roster spots up for grabs for the rest of the players in camp, most notably this year’s second-round pick Ta’Niya Latson and last year’s Sania Feagin, both of whom came from South Carolina.
What’s the Marvel Snap deck?
The goal in a hand of Snap is to have more points than your opponent at two out of the three lanes cards can be played in. Today’s deck is built around a package of cards intended to put points on the board faster than the opponent can keep up with while (and by) leveraging abilities that allow them to move between the locations. The up-tempo, snowballing points package here feels very much like what the Sparks brought to the table once they found their groove last season. Plus, one of the cards that does the most to make this deck sing is a dark-haired woman who makes me think of Plum as she’s constantly bouncing around the board.
Truth be told, this deck might be too good at defense to be the Sparks
What’s the expectation?
There’s at least a little reason to worry that overhauling the starting five could lead to another slow start, but this team should once again be able to put a whole lot of points on the board once it’s developed chemistry. The return of Ogwumike, a seven-time All-Defensive honoree, should also help the Sparks improve on their weaker end of the floor, as should having Brink available for the whole season, assuming she can stay out of foul trouble long enough to block some shots. I don’t think the ceiling is as high as LA has probably convinced itself it is, but I could see the Sparks being something like the No. 5 or 6 seed in the playoffs if things go well. I think the floor, assuming the veterans stay healthy, is probably right about where LA finished last season. I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather be building towards 2027 and beyond with the likes of Malonga and Jackson, but the Sparks will be better this year than they would’ve been in that scenario, and that certainly seems to be what they were going for.