Contracts have been a huge talking point of the 2025 WNBA season, as the players negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with the league. Due to that, over three-quarters of the WNBA will be heading into a chaotic free agency period come January — something the league has never seen before.
Yet, one player seems like they should be the clear focus: A’ja Wilson.
The thought process here is pretty simple, and starts with naming off who would usually be the biggest names on the market if they were free agents. Caitlin Clark is top of mind, but after 2025, Clark will still have 2 years left on her rookie-scale contract. Both Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart are free agents in 2026, but it seems unlikely that Collier will leave Minnesota or that Stewart would leave New York. They both are No. 1 options on championship-calibre teams, where they are treated well and (from the outside at least) it seems like they are content with their situations. Both the Lynx and Liberty will pay them what they can, and even if that’s not the max, both have enough endorsement income that it doesn’t matter too much anyway. Plus, they have the depth, support, and facilities needed to make sure their stars are happy.
That leaves A’ja Wilson.
If we were having this conversation a year ago, I would have said that there is no way Wilson leaves Las Vegas. Now, I’m not so confident. As a three-time MVP, Wilson would instantly make any team a contender. Add on the fact that things are looking more and more rocky in Sin City, and it seems like a situation where Wilson could be persuaded to move on if the cards are dealt right (or wrong, depending on your perspective).
Of course, the Las Vegas Aces could core Wilson, retaining her rights (if that still exists under the new CBA). Yet, if Wilson wants to leave Vegas, recent star exoduses from players like Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally, among others, make it clear that coring her wouldn’t make her stay, just ensure that the Aces get something back for their franchise player.
Lack of on-court support for Wilson
One of the things that made Las Vegas so dominant in the 2022 and 2023 seasons was the talent across the lineup. Wilson was playing at an MVP level, but they also had Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, and Kelsey Plum contributing to the Aces being the top offensive team in the league. That has changed in 2024 and 2025, and now Wilson is left to carry both the offensive and defensive burden for the Aces.
At the end of the 2023 season, Gray suffered a leg injury that would sideline her for the rest of the playoffs. Even when she returned to the lineup in 2024, the injury still lingered and affected her contributions to the Aces. Though Plum was averaging 17.8 points per game in 2024, that was her lowest per-game scoring average since 2021, showing a potential regression in her play, too (which has since been corrected in 2025, in a bigger role with the Sparks).
Due to those absences and declines, Wilson was having to score more to just keep the Aces in the title conversation, averaging 26.9 points per game last season. While that awarded her multiple league records, it also burned her out by the end of the year.
This season, things have not improved. The Aces swapped Plum for Jewell Loyd with the expectation that Loyd would be the No. 2 option behind Wilson. Instead, Loyd entered Tuesday evening only scoring 11.1 points per game on 35.6% shooting from the field, and 12 points on 4-12 shooting against Minnesota won’t do much to raise those numbers. Add on that Gray still does not look back into peak form, and the team essentially has no other frontcourt depth to aid Wilson, and it may look even worse in Vegas this year than last.
And if Wilson needed to see how hopeless the Aces would be without her transcendent talent, this week has given her a preview. She has missed the last three games with a concussion, and the Aces have gone 1-2 in those contests. They can’t seem to defend and lost a decent lead to the mighty Lynx, allowing them to come from behind and win in a blowout Tuesday night, 76-62.
If the franchise does not show Wilson a clear plan to build a team around her that can help her win more games and not have to carry as much of the load, she could be convinced to sign elsewhere.
Off-court drama could be affecting Wilson
The Aces were involved in two separate investigations last year, one for their treatment of former player Dearica Hamby while she was pregnant, and another for allegations their team-wide endorsement deal circumvented the salary cap. Then Plum asked out, and when you fast-forward to now, it’s clear something is brewing in the Aces’ locker room.
Head coach Becky Hammon has already called the team out for their lack of effort on the court, and in their recent games, where Wilson was out with a concussion, their problems have been apparent. Lack of defense, lack of offensive punch, lack of depth. All of which leave the Aces odds of contending… lacking. They don’t seem connected, and Hammon is right, their effort is bad. They sit in 7th in the WNBA, with a 5-6 record over their first 11 games.
The fact that Plum is shining in California with the Sparks — now averaging over 20 points per game — is another gut punch, given their “simple” one-player substitution seems to be a failure. Not all trades work out, and that’s normal, but it seems like there is more than meets the eye to this Aces situation.
If Wilson feels like the outside noise is affecting her team’s ability to win, she may head to a franchise that can offer her more peace of mind.
Are the Aces wasting Wilson’s prime years?
Wilson is about to turn 29 years old, which certainly doesn’t mean she is going to slow down anytime soon. Yet, it’s clear we are entering the superstar’s prime, and she already has three MVP awards. She is capable of winning another every single year she steps on the floor, but with the Aces putting so much of the load on her, there is worry she will burn out by the postseason again.
It’s not sustainable to expect one player to have to score more than 30 points every game while also being the No. 1 defensive option, playing somewhat out of position because you don’t have a great center option, and lead the team vocally as well. The best championship teams have 2-3 stars leading their teams, so that if one has an off night, the others step up. Think about the reigning champion New York Liberty, who have Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu as their stars. Then they now have Natasha Cloud and Leonie Fiebich taking on some of that burden, and can trust all of their bench players to impact the game as well.
If Wilson thinks she has a better shot of winning on another team, especially in her prime playing years, she should take advantage of that. Why waste time with a franchise that is asking too much of you, has so much outside nonsense going on, and isn’t signing players good enough to help you win?
Out of all the top talent in the WNBA, it seems like Wilson is the most likely to make a move in 2026. If she does, it would not only shake up the league but also affect all other free agency signings and decisions while catapulting the Aces into rebuilding mode. It’s an interesting prospect, and maybe not very likely, but the more things go wrong in Vegas the more it seems like a reasonable take.
