It is apropos that the Las Vegas Aces are high rollers going for yet another WNBA championship. It would be their fourth in five seasons, all won behind the leadership of four-time MVP A’ja Wilson and head coach Becky Hammon, the former WNBA player that turned into a master basketball tactician and culture builder.
The Aces would be trying to do something that hasn’t been done since the league’s first dynasty. The Houston Comets, who will be revived in 2027 as part of the Connecticut Sun’s relocation, won four straight WNBA titles from 1997 through 2000. Besides the Comets winning four in a row, no other WNBA franchise has won titles in back-to-back years twice.
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“Hunger is still prevalent with this group, just because we’re chasing something that hasn’t been done before,” Aces point guard Chelsea Gray said. “I don’t think anybody’s ever gone back-to-back on two different occasions. It’s really, really hard to do. And to do it with this group would be extremely special.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone how the Aces have gotten to where they are and what they have accomplished. This is a franchise that drafted three straight No.1 overall picks from 2017 through 2019 in Kelsey Plum, who left in 2025 to play in Los Angeles for the Sparks, franchise superstar Wilson, and do-it-all two-way guard Jackie Young.
This is also a franchise that has taken a bunch of risks, some calculated and many not, in their journey to become three-time WNBA champions with sights set on a fourth. The Aces very much embody the city where they play. Gambles are made, and with their mostly good fortune, they haven’t always had to play the price. Will the Las Vegas Aces play their cards right and get back to the WNBA Finals for the fifth time in seven seasons?
With Wilson and her squad playing on both July 11 and July 12 on a back-to-back against the Mercury and the Fever at home, games which will be televised on NBC and NBCSN, let’s examine how their series of gambles have resulted in current domination but also some future concern. When have they played their cards right and wrong, and will any of it matter come October?
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 17: (L-R) Chelsea Gray #12, Jackie Young #0 and A’ja Wilson #22 of the Las Vegas Aces celebrate with the 2025 WNBA championship trophy as they ride on top of a bus during the Las Vegas Aces WNBA championship victory parade and rally at Toshiba Plaza on October 17, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Aces defeated the Phoenix Mercury on October 10 in Game Four of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs finals to win the title. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Louis Grasse/Getty Images)
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The Aces have become who they are via decisions made by two different pairs of people. Their first two rolls of the dice were under the leadership of former head coach and president Bill Laimbeer and former general manager Dan Padover, who is now the executive vice president and general manager of the Atlanta Dream.
In the first year that the Aces franchise existed after a move from San Antonio, Laimbeer drafted Wilson in 2018 and had the highest draft lottery odds to do so. There wasn’t much risk here with Wilson as the consensus No.1 overall pick.
But their luck came in the clutch when the Aces won the draft lottery again, but without the best odds this time. Bouncing balls allowed the Aces to hop over the Indiana Fever who had the better odds and then over the New York Liberty, a team the Aces had better odds than.
At the time of the lottery, Sabrina Ionescu was expected to go No. 1 overall the following spring. (This was before NIL benefits and other NCAA rules that allowed players to extend their college eligibility.) Ionescu, who was old enough to leave college, decided to stay another year at Oregon and as a result there wasn’t consensus around the 2019 No.1 overall pick.
Laimbeer and Padover went with Young, over more dynamic college scorers like AD Durr and Arike Ogunbowale. They took a bet on Young whose athleticism and defense were up to par, but didn’t yet have a reliable three-point shot. Their bet on Young paid off. She’s now a five-time All-Star and went on to win Most Improved Player in 2022, the year the Aces won their first championship.
The next bet the Aces made was after they had fallen short of making it back to the WNBA Finals in 2021. Newly hired President Nikki Fargas worked with Laimbeer to find his replacement as he ran out of gas after having to coach and lead basketball and business operations at the same time.
Hiring Hammon, someone who had been passed over multiple times for head coaching jobs in the NBA, proved to be another roll of the dice that led to immediate success. Hammon’s hiring was the first of many that would soon come from the NBA and she gave the Aces an immediate competitive advantage. Hammon brought a more modern spaced out approach to WNBA basketball, taking a lot of the tips and tricks she learned from eight years working on Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs staff.
In the Becky Hammon era, however, there have been some risks that have played out well and some that have not. Let’s begin with what has played out and that begins with Wilson. Her durability and injury luck have been absolutely critical in the Aces’ dominance. Wilson told Vanity Fair earlier this year that she specifically plans out time when she doesn’t touch a basketball and can reset. This is a choice that’s been quite uncommon for most WNBA players, although with a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) including higher salaries, that could change.
Wilson, 29, has been remarkably durable during her historic WNBA career, missing just six regular season games over the past seven seasons. https://t.co/7EjbTrvrIE
— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) June 30, 2026
This season Wilson suffered a pretty nasty ankle injury against the Chicago Sky and as a result missed three games including the Commissioner’s Cup championship on June 30. Las Vegas went 1-2 without Wilson before she returned just 11 days later and dropped 32 points, 11 rebounds and three assists in 30 minutes played against the Portland Fire on July 9.
In addition to Wilson, the Aces have remained quite top-heavy throughout the Hammon and Fargas era. Laimbeer and Padover’s Aces had respectable benches, but Hammon’s were not until 2025.
Trading for forward Nalyssa Smith over a year ago, having new star acquisition Jewell Loyd come off the bench, and trusting new signee Dana Evans with a bigger role were all what helped the Aces go on a magical 17-game winning streak to find its way back in the WNBA Finals and win it after mediocre and straight-up embarrassing play prior.
The Aces’ 2025 magic was as much of a gamble on the new pieces as it was on the collective greatness of Wilson and Hammon. Wilson ended up beating out Napheesa Collier for her fourth MVP award after she kicked it into high gear following losing 111-58 to Collier’s Lynx last August. And Hammon proved that she’s not just a basketball tactician but instead has a high level of emotional intelligence who found creative ways to get her players to buy in. Blind trust exercises and documentary film watching sessions were all part of how the Aces got it together in 2025.
What hasn’t always gone the Aces’ way throughout their dynasty era, however, has been a series of gambles on potential bench pieces and draft picks.
What became notable WNBA news this week was the Aces deciding to waive Chennedy Carter, the player I predicted to be the 2026 Sixth Player of the Year. While her talent is always what has attracted teams to Carter, there was such an inherent risk.
Carter is someone who has been known to overstay her welcome with each WNBA team she’s been on. She was suspended by Atlanta, the team who drafted her. She was benched for “poor conduct” while playing for the Sparks in LA. Then the Chicago Sky refrained re-signing her for similar reasons.
Hammon didn’t even want to talk about Carter during her first press conference following the move.
NEW: Aces Head Coach Becky Hammon declined to comment on Chennedy Carter being waived from the team ahead of the game against the Portland Fire tonight. “We aren’t going to comment on players that aren’t here anymore.”
— Jade (@JadeALawson) July 10, 2026
This wasn’t the first time the Aces gambled on a player who has had difficulty moving past disciplinary actions. The Aces also cut ties with key bench cog Riquanna Williams in 2023 after she was arrested for a domestic violence incident. Williams also was involved in a similar incident in 2019 while on the Los Angeles Sparks.
When it comes to their scouting of draft picks and international talent, the Fargas and Hammon Aces have been at times quite careless. In the five WNBA drafts leading the Aces, many of their picks haven’t made it past training camp, and the ones who have in Kate Martin and Aliyah Nye were left unprotected and as a result were both picked up in the following year’s expansion draft. Kiersten Bell, who was drafted No. 11 overall in 2022, hasn’t shown a ton of noticeable improvement since she entered the league.
While many of the top WNBA teams like the New York Liberty, Minnesota Lynx and Golden State Valkyries succeed due to having a ton of international talent, the Aces only have Stephanie Talbot rostered. Talbot is an Australian WNBA mainstay who has played in the league for over six seasons. There wasn’t a ton of scouting required.
What also hasn’t always gone the Aces’ way throughout their dynasty era has been how the team has often been embroiled in scandal.
During the season when the team cut ties with Williams, the Aces were under multiple league investigations regarding how they treated their former player Dearica Hamby once they found out she was pregnant with her second child. Also the Aces were under another investigation that was looking into how the franchise was circumventing the WNBA’s salary cap to provide extra benefits to players.
The result of the first investigation was the Aces getting their 2025 first-round draft pick taken away, and Hammon being suspended for two games.
And then another investigation was opened into the Aces in 2024 when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) announced a plan to pay each Aces player $100,000 in addition to their league salary. This was potentially yet another violation of the previous CBA when it came to salary cap circumvention.
But amid all of the scandals, missed draft picks and top-heavy rosters, the Aces still have won three titles and are going for a fourth.
Is there any worry for the future of the Aces, especially when they’ve defied the odds multiple times winning amid scandals and previous inconsistent play? Well, here’s something to look at. Young, who is the third member of the Aces’ current big three, including Wilson and Gray, is only signed on for a one-year max deal.
Does Young become the next Aces star to want more and leave? That’s the same reason why Kelsey Plum wanted a new start after the 2024 season, the only year in the past four seasons when the Aces didn’t make it to the WNBA Finals and win.
Young is critical in making the Aces work. That’s what Hammon said about her 19-point, 11-rebound performance against the Fire on Thursday night. “You always just feel really good when she has the ball,” she said.
If Young is gone in 2027, how will the Aces keep things going past this season? Las Vegas has rolled the dice many times, and luck has mostly been a lady for the Aces. But amid all prior success, there is still room for doubt.
