The 2026 WNBA season is reaching its midpoint, and it’s time to check in with where everyone stands.
Canada's team, the Tempo, is in celebration mode as it gets set for its first home game outside of Toronto.
On Friday, the Tempo will host the Dallas Wings at Montreal's Bell Centre. The game kicks off a season-long cross-Canada series that will see the WNBA’s first international team play twice in Montreal and then, about a month later, twice in Vancouver. This weekend will give a whole new community of Canadian fans access to the team.
However, for many teams in the league, the halfway point isn’t a reason to celebrate. Take the Atlanta Dream, for example. What should have been an easy stretch to end June didn’t exactly turn out that way. The Chicago Sky, with their roster changes and practice-facility complications, meanwhile, are another group veering off-course 21 games in.
Others, like the Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces, have lived up to the positive roster evaluations they received at the beginning of the season.
Considering the surprises, impact of injuries and outcomes of the in-season Commissioner’s Cup tournament, here’s a look at how the teams stack up:
1. Minnesota Lynx: 2025 MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier has yet to take the floor this season and yet the Lynx are still dominant. In her place, rookie Olivia Miles has stepped up to lead the team to a league-best 16-6 record. The second-overall pick paces the Lynx in points per game with 18.5 and assists with 5.7. Fresh off a victory that made coach Cheryl Reeve the winningest bench boss in WNBA history, this team is only going to get harder to beat once everyone is healthy.
2. New York Liberty: The Liberty are hot off a Commissioner’s Cup win and thriving under the leadership of one of the best duos in the game: Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu. The Liberty struggled through the first 10 games of the season, posting four losses, but then responded with an eight-game winning streak to recover their record and prove their place near the top.
3. Las Vegas Aces: Any team with A’ja Wilson will have to rank high. The Aces, with their discipline and high-scoring games, are up to all the same shenanigans that saw them take the championship last season.
4. Dallas Wings: Paige Bueckers has the potential to bring Dallas above fourth and quickly. The Wings are on a three-game winning streak, and mid-season form looks good on them.
5. Golden State Valkyries: Watch out for what head coach Natalie Nakase is building in Golden State. This team is hot with the league’s longest active win streak of six, but what makes it scarier than the results it's strung together is the discipline with which it's been done. The Valkyries know how to control a game. Their pace might be the slowest in the league, but that’s on purpose, allowing them to dominate other elements instead, such as three-point shooting.
6. Indiana Fever: Caitlin Clark is having a powerful season with the Fever. After last year was stunted with injuries, she's bounced back to log 20.5 points and 7.9 assists per game, good for the second-most in the league. The distractions and controversy that have followed her into this season have yet to have a negative impact on her team’s on-court performance.
7. Washington Mystics: The Mystics are at .500 and hovering right around the playoff cut. But with young stars Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen finding their stride and both having been named all-stars, they’re trending up. That trajectory depends on staying healthy, but Citron missed Monday’s game with a knee injury.
8. Atlanta Dream: Angel Reese and her new squad had some tough results the last few weeks and just eked out a win to break a brutal five-game losing streak on Thursday. A return to the playoffs looked breezy, but recent struggles have made that less sure. Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray can’t suffer another shooting dry spell if the Dream want to be playing into October.
9. Toronto Tempo: At first glance, the Tempo are right where expected. But a look at their decent 9-12 record and the lengthy list of injured players sitting out each game reveals the kind of spot they could be in if their roster got healthy. Even their current three-game slide looks less conclusive when you realize each of those outcomes saw a different starter get scratched minutes before tip-off or within the first quarter.
10. Portland Fire: The Fire didn’t build a roster for this season. Instead of going after free agents this year, they looked ahead two to three years down the line. As a result, Portland stands at 10th in the league with a 9-12 record.
11. Phoenix Mercury: The Mercury have had one of the hardest falls from 2025 to 2026, and although the impact of Satou Sabally leaving is real, her loss doesn’t account for all the trouble facing this squad. After Alyssa Thomas was assessed a Flagrant 2 and suspended one game for a foul committed against Caitlin Clark on June 24, there has been much online hate and commotion around this team that it has been difficult to focus on much else.
12. Los Angeles Sparks: Nneka Ogwumike, the Sparks legend who is making her return to Los Angeles this season, can only do so much. With both Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink out with injuries, a group that seemed ready to bust out of a rebuild remains trapped.
13. Seattle Storm: The Storm had a tough span of losses that lasted 11 games, dampening spirits and a chance at returning to the playoffs. But these results are something the roster flush with young talent would have seen coming. The rebuild is underway.
14. Chicago Sky: The most exciting on-court thing happening in Chicago is the All-Star Weekend coming up on July 25. There never seems to be a moment free from controversy in Chicago, and the 2026 season is proving no different. What should have been a high point with Courtney Vandersloot returning from injury turned into more upset as Skylar Diggins took to Instagram to vent about how the backcourt rotation and her starting role have changed as a result.
15. Connecticut Sun: With the Sun setting in Connecticut, there’s not much left to play for at this point. A league-worst record and not much hope on the horizon means it looks like the final season in Connecticut will be bleak. Perhaps the upcoming relocation to Houston can offer more hope.
