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Welcome back to No Offseason. It’s Commissioner’s Cup time. Today:
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📍 In-season tournament primer
📊 Does the WNBA lottery system work?
🎧 Early-season hot takes
On the Ground: Commissioner’s Cup is here
Now that it’s June, it’s time for the Commissioner’s Cup.
This annual in-season tournament started in 2021, with the Seattle Storm taking home the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup championship with a win over the Connecticut Sun. The league tweaked the rules slightly in 2024 to create a more compressed, competitive slate of Cup games. What to know:
Instead of each team playing its conference rival twice, teams play one Cup game against each opposing conference team, all over the next two weeks, with more than $200,000 going to community organizations of each franchise’s choosing.
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The teams with the best record in each conference will then compete for a $500,000 prize pool in the championship game on June 30.
The 49 Commissioner’s Cup games tipped off this week with the Dallas Wings hosting the Storm, followed by the Minnesota Lynx at the Phoenix Mercury.
So, how are teams looking heading into this intense slate of highly competitive games?
In New York, the Liberty look to have turned a corner. After dropping three consecutive games at home, something — or should I say, someone — snapped in the third quarter of their game against the Mercury last Wednesday. First-year coach Chris DeMarco had some words for his team during a timeout that, when paraphrased, amounted to something like, “Play some f—ing defense,” according to Liberty forward Leonie Fiebich. They went on to win that game and their rematch Friday, and now carry a two-game winning streak into Commissioner’s Cup play.
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The Mercury, on the other hand, are on a league-worst six-game losing streak. They have struggled to make up the offensive output of the team’s 2025 leading scorer, Satou Sabally, amid injuries, absences and shooting slumps.
Mercury guard Sami Whitcomb underwent arthroscopic surgery on her left knee on May 7 and is set to be reevaluated in the coming weeks. Guard Monique Akoa Makani was out due to overseas commitments followed by a reconditioning period, but she returned to play for the Mercury’s two-game series against the Liberty. Kahleah Copper, the Mercury’s current leading scorer, has been fighting through a tough shooting slump from 3. Copper is shooting 16 percent from deep through the Mercury’s first nine games, the worst 3-point output of her career.
“It’s not the preparation,” Copper told me. “The preparation is there. It’s just something I have to get through. It’s tough right now. I’m overthinking and I’m second-guessing. These are shots I’ve hit many times. So I just have to come in with a clear head and just trust the work.”
Other streaks to watch heading into Commissioner’s Cup play: the Lynx’s five-game winning streak (they lead the league at 7-2) and the Wings’ three-game winning streak. On the losing side, the Chicago Sky are looking to snap a four-game skid against the Washington Mystics tonight.
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Some other news around the W:
Fast Breaks
💥 Our updated power rankings saw the Lynx jump eight spots.
🔗 The Liberty and Mercury’s changing trajectories are linked by Sabally’s move from Phoenix to New York.
⭐ Azzi Fudd made her first career start, and she won’t be giving that spot up anytime soon.
🗣️ The WNBA is attempting to deal with excess fouls and free throws this season, but not well enough for the Las Vegas Aces. Becky Hammon sounded off on officiating after a recent loss.
💸 Paige Bueckers’ jersey sold for over $60K.
🏀 Caitlin Clark and coach Stephanie White downplayed their viral argument during the Fever’s loss to the Portland Fire on Saturday. “It’s coaching,” White said.
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🎙️ Expansion teams making the playoffs? Tanking in the WNBA? Coaches on the hot seat? On the “No Offseason” podcast, the crew dives into their hottest early-season WNBA takes. Listen wherever you enjoy your podcasts.
You Gotta Hear This: Engstler and Cunningham go at it
Sophie Cunningham has had her fair share of disagreements on the court, and now she can add Fire forward Emily Engstler to the list of those she has antagonized. The two were both assessed with technical fouls near the end of Portland’s 100-84 rout of Indiana after Engstler fouled Cunningham, and Cunningham responded with a smack to the head.
“I don’t think you want to know what we were saying,” Engstler said postgame. “… No one scares me, and she sure doesn’t. I’m not going to stand there and let people talk to me a certain way. Or hit me.”
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Engstler hasn’t been shy about mixing it up during the Fire’s strong start to the season. She had some words for DeMarco after the Liberty coach challenged an Engstler block during Portland’s win over New York. DeMarco was unsuccessful, and the 6-foot-1 Engstler currently leads the league in rejections.
You come at the Fire forward, you best not miss.
Mailbag: Should the WNBA update its lottery system?
Today we’re answering a question that came from a “No Offseason” podcast listener:
Q: With other leagues (like the MNBA, NHL and MLB) updating their draft lottery rules in the past few years to discourage tanking for higher draft picks, do you think the WNBA should do the same? If so, what rules updates would you implement?
The WNBA currently has a draft lottery system that tallies win-loss records over two years to determine which teams have the best chance at the top pick in the lottery. This tends to discourage one-year tanking efforts because if a good team has one bad season, its two-year combined record would still be better than perennial lottery teams.
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For instance, the Storm finished out of the playoffs in 2023 after Breanna Stewart left, and before acquiring Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins in 2024. They had the fewest number of ping-pong balls in that draft lottery and ended up with the fourth pick out of four non-playoff teams. With the lottery now extending to seven teams, after WNBA expansion, the outcomes figure to be even worse. A bad start to the season isn’t reason enough to let go of the rope, because the draft won’t be a savior.
I’m mostly a fan of this setup, though the system still incentivizes multi-year tanking efforts. We are likely witnessing those in Washington and Connecticut, for example, even if those teams won’t admit to it.
However, most teams that tank end up with great results and are back in the postseason relatively soon. Look at Indiana ending up with consecutive No. 1 picks (Aliyah Boston and Clark) and then making the playoffs two years in a row, or Dallas getting consecutive No. 1 picks (Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd) and now entering the tier of contenders. It’s the teams that give up their draft picks (cough, cough, Chicago and Los Angeles) that are less competitive, not the tankers.
Perhaps expansion will change the calculus here because it’s harder to make the playoffs and easier to set out a tanking path to start the season, but I’m optimistic. In the last few seasons, the race for the final postseason seeds has gone down to the wire. The WNBA is also a more present-focused league since draft picks can only be traded three years out. No one wants to commit to years-long rebuilds.
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Watch Guide
Here are the top games we’re monitoring this week (all times ET):
📺 Aces-Sparks
Tonight at 10 p.m., League Pass
After the Sparks spoiled the Aces’ banner night, can Las Vegas get one back?
📺 Tempo-Liberty
Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., USA
It’s Sandy Brondello’s first game back in New York since she was fired by the Liberty in September.
📺 Dream-Fever
Thursday at 7 p.m., Prime
Clark and Angel Reese reignited the Fever-Sky rivalry coming out of college. But now that Reese is with the Dream (5-2), will it still have the same fire?
📺 Sun-Sky
Friday at 7:30 p.m., League Pass
Are the 3-5 Sky as bad as they’ve looked with this latest string of injuries? A roster with their talent should still be able to get a win at home against the 2-8 Sun.
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📺 Fever-Liberty
Saturday at 8 p.m., CBS and Paramount+
Both teams are title contenders, which means New York (5-4) should protect home court and Indiana (4-4) should be good enough to win in a hostile environment. Either way, cinema.
📺 Fire-Sparks
Sunday at 7 p.m., NBATV
The 6-4 Fire are exactly where everyone expected them to be 10 games into the season … kidding. Can they continue surprising people with a Commissioner’s Cup game road win?
📺 Storm-Aces
Monday at 10 p.m., USA
The 5-3 Aces are winless at home to start the season. They’ll have two chances to correct that this week with a game against the Valkyries and this one against the Storm.
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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