Plum's full-circle move to Sparks among WNBA storylines to watch

The WNBA is coming off its most successful season ever.

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese both set league records in their rookie campaigns, while A'ja Wilson became just the second player to unanimously win MVP.

The WNBA also shattered its previous attendance and viewership records, and the buzz carried into the offseason as numerous stars found themselves on the move.

Here are six storylines to watch when the new campaign tips off Friday.

Aces go all-in on Loyd

The Las Vegas Aces are betting that Jewell Loyd's 2024 campaign was just an anomaly. The Aces acquired the six-time All-Star in a three-team trade that sent starting guard Kelsey Plum to the Los Angeles Sparks. Loyd's scoring dropped five points from the previous season when she averaged a league-leading 24.7 points. The 31-year-old also shot a career-low 36% from the field, including a 27.4% clip from downtown.

Loyd is familiar with the Aces' core, having suited up for Team USA at the 2024 Olympics alongside Wilson, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young. Loyd won't have to shoulder as much of the offensive load in Las Vegas, but her shot selection needs to improve for this to be a success. Loyd's athletic finishing at the rim and ability to get to the charity stripe adds another dimension to an already potent Aces offense.

Plum joins childhood team

Plum attended Sparks games while growing up in the San Diego area. Her move to L.A. is a full-circle moment and addresses many needs for a squad in desperate need of an offensive boost. Plum provides stability at the point with her shot creation, playmaking, and sound decision-making. The former No. 1 pick drilled the third-most threes (110) last season and was 10th in scoring (17.8 points per contest).

While Plum mostly served as a secondary facilitator for the Aces, she's more than capable of running an offense. The Washington product has posted an assist percentage of 20% or higher in six of her seven seasons and ranks 10th among active players with a career average of four dimes. Plum's 3.44 assist-to-turnover ratio in 2018 trailed only Sue Bird.

Plum can push the ball upcourt in transition, orchestrate the pick-and-roll, and create clean looks for 3-point shooters off the drive-and-kick. Rickea Jackson's off-ball cutting and Dearica Hamby's prior chemistry with Plum from their time in Las Vegas will help maximize Plum's court vision. New Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts' up-tempo offensive system has Plum eager to get going.

"I think the most exciting part is obviously playing in space ... Everyone's a threat," Plum told theScore during a recent media availability. "In this league, you've gotta have multiple players firing on all cylinders to be extremely effective.

"I definitely understand there's a transition period with any offense that you enter in any sport ... But I do know that when it clicks, it's gonna be wonderful."

Mercury's new Big Three

The Phoenix Mercury didn't waste much time forming a new Big Three centered around Kahleah Copper. The front office added All-WNBA first-team forwards Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally in a four-team blockbuster deal following Diana Taurasi's retirement and Brittney Griner's departure in free agency. The significant splash puts Phoenix in a position to contend now, and the club's aggressiveness wasn't lost on Copper.

"I want to play with great players ... I want to win," Copper told theScore. "It means everything when they're willing to do whatever to put those great pieces around me."

Copper had a strong debut campaign in the desert last year, averaging a career-high 21.1 points and earning her fourth consecutive All-Star nod. She's one of the league's top scorers and will benefit from Thomas' elite passing. Sabally's 3-point shooting will draw opposing bigs away from the paint and create space in the lane for Copper to attack. The German's defensive versatility is also an asset in the club's switch-heavy scheme. All three players have grab-and-go ability in transition off a missed shot, which should help a Mercury unit that scored the fewest fast-break points last season.

Phoenix boasts the top-end talent needed to win a championship, but the pressure will be immense with Copper, Thomas, and Sabally all on expiring deals. Will a lack of depth be the team's downfall once again?

Bueckers' transition to pros

Clark changed the Indiana Fever's fortunes when they drafted her first overall a year ago. Can Paige Bueckers have a similar impact for the Dallas Wings in her rookie campaign?

Bueckers will have every opportunity to leave her imprint on the game. She'll immediately slot in as starting point guard and gives the Wings their best floor general since Skylar Diggins. Bueckers' efficient three-level scoring and defensive playmaking will bolster a Dallas squad in need of help on both ends. The All-American guard even served as UConn's power forward for most of her junior year with the roster decimated by injuries. Bueckers says that experience helped her develop into a versatile defender.

"I can stay in there and guard fours, but it's definitely a different level of physicality and grown women strength in the fours here than the fours in college," Bueckers told theScore. "But it just adds another layer to competitiveness to make a point, that you want to prove that you can do it. So just wanting to get defensive stops and be able to guard one through five - probably not five - but we'll get there."

Laney-Hamilton's absence

The New York Liberty will embark on their title defense without key starter Betnijah Laney-Hamilton after they suspended her contract for the 2025 campaign. The two-time WNBA All-Defensive selection was set to miss most if not the entire season after undergoing knee surgery in March. The move opens up a roster spot and provides an additional $185,400 in cap space for a potential external move.

Laney-Hamilton was often tasked with covering the opposing team's top perimeter threat. Those duties will now collectively fall on veteran floor general Natasha Cloud, second-year forward Leonie Fiebich, and ex-Chicago Sky guard Rebekah Gardner. Cloud was named to her second WNBA All-Defensive second team last season, Fiebich has the size and length to disrupt opponents, and Gardner is a multi-positional defender who registered the league's second-best steal percentage (3.3%) in her last healthy campaign.

Head coach Sandy Brondello knows it won't be easy to fill Laney-Hamilton's shoes. But she expressed full confidence in the options at her disposal.

"Gardner is coming back from a serious injury, but she looks great. So I'm excited to see her development as the year goes on," Brondello told theScore. "But (Cloud) is one of the greatest perimeter defenders I've ever seen in the WNBA. So I'm happy that she's on the Liberty now.

"And then adding the other pieces with the versatility of (Breanna Stewart) and (Jonquel Jones), I'm really excited with how we can continue to grow."

Rookie head coaches

Over half the league will have a new voice leading the locker room after a flurry of offseason head coaching changes. Seven of the eight vacancies were filled by a first-time WNBA head coach, with the Fever's Stephanie White being the lone exception.

The Atlanta Dream's Karl Smesko and the Sparks' Lynne Roberts are making the jump to the pros after spending nearly the last two decades coaching Division-I basketball. Both are offensive-minded with an emphasis on high-volume 3-point shooting.

Chris Koclanes of the Dallas Wings specializes on the opposite end of the floor. He's previously served as Curt Miller's defensive coordinator during the latter's coaching stops with the Connecticut Sun and Sparks. Koclanes returns to the WNBA after spending the past two seasons on Lindsay Gottlieb's staff at USC.

The Chicago Sky's Tyler Marsh and the Golden State Valkyries' Natalie Nakase each spent the previous three campaigns on Becky Hammon's Aces staff. Marsh and Nakase also have prior assistant coaching experience at the NBA level and have been lauded for their player development during their Las Vegas tenure.

Sydney Johnson of the Washington Mystics and Rachid Meziane of the Sun round out the list of rookie head coaches. Johnson coached Princeton's men's program to an Ivy League regular-season title in 2011 and was an assistant with the Sky last season. Meziane served as head coach of the Belgium women's national team. He's spent the last 18 years plying his trade in his native France and was the 2023-24 EuroLeague Coach of the Year.