Early in the 2026 WNBA season, the picture is becoming clearer, and a lot of the preseason assumptions are already in trouble.
The expansion teams are holding their own. The Atlanta Dream are off to a hot start. And if you built your early power rankings around the usual suspects, you may want to revisit them.
The Expansion Teams: Better Than Advertised
When the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo were announced as the WNBA's newest franchises, the expectations were polite at best. Expansion teams lose. Everyone knows that. Except these two did not get the memo.
Portland Fire (4-3) has been the bigger story. They are sitting in the middle of the standings, have already gone 2-1 against the New York Liberty, and are playing with the kind of cohesion that most first-year rosters take half a season to find. Carla Leite has been a revelation. Her ability to run the offense while putting up 15 points and nine assists in a single game against Toronto speaks to the kind of floor general Portland built around. Bridget Carleton, Megan Gustafson, and Sarah Ashlee Barker give the Fire multiple legitimate scoring threats.
The moment that announced them to the rest of the league? That 99-80 dismantling of the Toronto Tempo on May 23 in the first-ever meeting between the two expansion franchises. Emily Engstler had 16 points and seven rebounds. Portland led wire to wire. It was not just a statement. It was a declaration.
Toronto Tempo (3-4) has been more inconsistent, but do not overlook what they have built. Marina Mabrey has been everything they hoped for, bringing shot-making and offensive control to a brand-new roster. In the loss to Portland, she put up 19 points and eight assists. Rookie Kiki Rice matched her with 19 points in the same outing. The talent is there. The Tempo just need to clean up the stretches where they go cold and give games away.
For a franchise playing its first season in a new market, a 3-4 record with its best players still finding rhythm is a foundation, not a failure.
The Standings Are Already Telling a Story
Nobody had the Atlanta Dream on top of the early-season conversation. They opened 4-1, led the league in rebounding and second-chance scoring rate, and played with a toughness that caught opponents off guard. They are not flashy. They are just hard to beat.
The Los Angeles Sparks are the other early surprise. Kelsey Plum is leading the league in scoring at 26.8 points per game, and the Sparks already have a statement win over the Las Vegas Aces, 101-95, on their resume. A team that was supposed to be building is instead competing.
The Indiana Fever are 4-2 and firmly in the early top-tier conversation. That should not be a shock given the talent on the roster, but after a few years of near-misses and noise around their star player, it is good to see them actually winning basketball games this early in the year.
Player Spotlight: Breanna Stewart
If you needed a reminder that Breanna Stewart is still one of the most complete players in the world, the opening stretch of the 2026 season delivered one.
She opened the season with a 31-point, 10-rebound double-double in the Liberty's opener and, in the process, became the second-fastest player in WNBA history to reach 6,000 career points, hitting the milestone in just 293 games. Nobody has ever done it faster except Diana Taurasi.
Through five games, Stewart was averaging 22.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.0 steals, and 1.8 blocks. She has looked exactly like the player the Liberty built around: steady, dominant, and capable of controlling both ends of a game.
At 31, Stewart is not slowing down. She is playing with the maturity of a veteran who has nothing left to prove and the hunger of someone who still has records left to break.
The season is still young. But even this early, the WNBA already looks more open and more interesting than a lot of people expected. The expansion teams are making things uncomfortable, the standings are already a surprise, and the star players are giving everyone a reason to keep watching.
Check back every week. We will keep tracking how it all unfolds.