The Atlanta Dream‘s new franchise cornerstones reversed their matching red-leather inside Corvettes into parallel parking spots, popped the rooftops again on, then stepped out of their game-day suits — Allisha Grey in a inexperienced crewneck, Rhyne Howard in a child blue shirt and Naz Hillmon in a shiny pink pantsuit.
“It gives Powerpuff Girls,” Hillmon informed ESPN forward of their regular-season finale.
It’s not simply the colours they sported that had been harking back to the early-2000s cartoon. Simply as that superhero trio would save their metropolis, Atlanta’s model of the large three has helped restore this group after six straight dropping seasons, doubling its win complete from a 12 months in the past with a franchise-record 30 victories and incomes the No. 3 seed within the WNBA playoffs.
Their friendships have actually formed the group’s tradition on and off the ground.
“We are never not having a great time, and the chemistry has always been there. I literally want to repost every tweet, every post that I see about them because they deserve it all,” Hillmon mentioned. “Our core, we have our values, and we knew what we wanted to accomplish, and that starts off the court.”
This core group has been essential to constructing the muse Larry Gottesdiener needed to ascertain when he purchased the group in 2021. The primary brick he laid was hiring common supervisor Dan Padover, who made a number of trades within the 2022 draft to accumulate the No. 1 and 15 picks and choose Howard and Hillmon, respectively. The subsequent was buying Grey in 2023. And the newest was the hiring of Karl Smesko, who was unproven within the WNBA, however has unlocked the Dream’s full potential together with his distinct offensive model.
Naz Hillmon (left), Allisha Grey (middle) and Rhyne Howard (proper) have shaped a foundational relationship key to the Atlanta Dream’s 2025 success. Scott Eklund/NBAE by way of Getty Photos
Earlier than the rebuild started, Atlanta was not a fascinating vacation spot. Now, solely 4 years later, the reimagined Dream are just one win away from the semifinals — hoping to depart a disappointing Sport 2 loss within the rearview as they host the Indiana Fever for the series-deciding Sport 3 (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN).
“Everything we did was very methodical,” Padover informed ESPN. “It’s a collection of hundreds of decisions that gets you to where you want to go … We haven’t done anything yet, but we are at a point where it finally starts to feel like the change we wanted to see happen is coming to fruition.”
Smesko stood on the entrance of the Dream’s movie room with gamers scattered in chairs round him. The way in which he spoke, the best way he broke down the tape felt like he was giving a lecture to his group.
Grey jotted down notes in her pocket book, clinging to each phrase her coach mentioned.
“Once the film is over, he’s like, ‘OK, what did we learn?’” Grey informed ESPN. “It’s like a college class or a pop quiz, and you have to do well.”
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Smesko’s system — of instructing and magnificence of play — is new to the Dream. When he was employed forward of this season, he informed his gamers that issues would change across the group. It rapidly grew to become clear that he “beats to his own drum,” Brittney Griner mentioned.
How his offensive system would finally work with their roster raised some eyebrows, although. His emphasis on 3-point taking pictures didn’t clearly align with the strengths of newly-acquired submit gamers like Griner and Brionna Jones. However the résumé he in-built his 22 years at Florida Gulf Coast — the place his Eagles completed within the prime 4 of 3-point makes an attempt in Division 1 each season between 2010 and 2024 — earned him rapid respect with the group. Jones has greater than tripled her career-high in 3-point makes an attempt (46), and the combo of pictures has made Atlanta’s offense more durable to foretell — and more durable to defend.
“It felt like he was really obsessed with basketball, playing the right way and winning,” Padover mentioned. “And in professional basketball, you need people who are great at their craft. He’s just that: great.”
Whereas Smesko believed his group would find yourself with one of many league’s higher offenses, he additionally knew a brand new system would take some gamers out of their consolation zone, and so he frolicked watching their movie from the previous few seasons for an thought of how every likes to play. His aim on offense is at all times to attain effectivity.
“How could players be utilized in a way where we could be more competitive?” he mentioned. Smesko doesn’t need his gamers chucking up ill-advised pictures, but when they discover themselves open, they at all times have the inexperienced mild to shoot it.
“He’s a coach who tells you to shoot,” Grey added. “It’s nice for me to have a coach [who tells me] to shoot more than not shoot.”
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Allisha Grey drills the trey
Allisha Grey drills the trey, 09/16/2025
The Dream have improved in practically each statistical class from a 12 months in the past. They went from third to first in rebounding (36.6 per sport), twelfth to 3rd in assists (21.4 per sport) and tenth to 3rd in 3-pointers made (421). They’re additionally second in offensive — they completed in final place a season in the past — and defensive score.
Their 30 wins are additionally a single-season league file for a first-year WNBA coach.
“There are some days we come in after we had a good win, but it feels like we didn’t because of the way he is critiquing us,” Hillmon mentioned. “In his mind he is always thinking, ‘We have to get better, we have to get better.’ We don’t ever want to leave anything on the table. … I appreciate that from him.”
Underneath Smesko’s management, Hillmon has formed as much as be a front-runner for Sixth Participant of the 12 months. She averaged a career-high 8.6 factors per sport off the bench within the common season and persistently gave the Dream a spark on the court docket, in addition to being their go-to vocal chief. Atlanta went 5-0 when Hillmon scored at the least 15 factors, and he or she led the group in web score (+14.5).
In the meantime, her Powerpuff Ladies teammates additionally thrived within the new offensive system.
On June 13, Howard tied the WNBA’s single-game file for many 3-pointers, flattening 9 towards the Chicago Sky. She did it once more on Sept. 6, changing into the primary participant in league historical past to hit the mark greater than as soon as.
Grey put collectively a season that landed her within the MVP dialog, averaging a career-high 18.4 factors within the common season with the fourth-best per-game common of 3-pointers made (2.3) within the league amongst gamers who tried at the least 100 3s.
“I play thinkless basketball,” Grey mentioned. “I’m just out there having fun and the way he has the system is playing with as little thinking as possible. I think that allows me to play at my best.”
Smekso has been impressed with how receptive his group is to his adjustments and credit their preexisting relationships and friendships.
“You get a lot more done when the people you work with actually enjoy being around each other,” Smesko mentioned.
The friendship between Rhyne Howard, Allisha Grey and Naz Hillmon has performed a major position within the franchise’s tradition shift. Andrew J. Clark/ISI Images/ISI Images by way of Getty Photos
The tradition this 12 months’s Dream have capitalized on is in stark distinction to the one Gottesdiener and Padover inherited in 2021. As a substitute of chemistry, there was rigidity — gamers brazenly campaigned for Kelly Loeffler’s opponent in a U.S. Senate race after the previous co-owner brazenly objected to the league’s promotion of the Black Lives Matter motion.
“The No. 1 goal is always to win. So, we had to build a competitive team, but we had to rebuild what the WNBA ecosystem thought of Atlanta,” Padover mentioned. “We wanted positive feelings around us.”
That is the primary locker room Grey mentioned she has been part of by which there isn’t a drama. Music persistently blasts from the Dream’s locker room. Dance events happen on aircraft rides. Grey and Howard do style exams on TikTok. And Smesko tries to maintain up with what Te-Hina Paopao‘s lingo means, such as “lowkey” or “W’s within the chat.”
“There are a lot of things they say that I have no clue what they are saying,” Smesko mentioned. “[They ask] if I knew what it meant, and I say yes, but I’m sure I’m actually wrong.”
“There is a learning curve,” Hillmon mentioned, laughing. “He has really tried to adapt and figure us out. We are such a slick group in general. You can’t run away from it or shy away from it. … He knows the importance of finding a way to bridge the gap between his personality and our personalities.”
Hillmon and Howard have aspired to win a championship collectively for the reason that day they met.
They began dreaming of gold medals in 2018, after they had been launched as members of a USA Basketball U18 group and roomed collectively because of the proximity of their final names on the roster.
After they had been drafted to Atlanta 4 years later, they instantly started to plot how they might win a WNBA title there.
“At that point, we were very naive,” Hillmon mentioned. “Of course, we talked about championships at that point, but in reality, we were so far from it … [But looking back], it speaks to having to come from something to reach a championship and be a contender.”
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When Grey arrived the following 12 months, she was nervous about getting into a brand new dynamic however noticed the potential in what the group was constructing towards. She knew Hillmon from Athletes Limitless — an offseason league they each performed for in 2023 — who rapidly welcomed Grey into the fold with herself and Howard, understanding that the three of them can be on the middle of the Dream’s future.
“They took me immediately and made their duo a trio,” Grey mentioned. “I was honored to be added to the tandem.”
After failing to make the postseason in Hillmon and Howard’s rookie season, the Dream made it as a fifth seed with a sub-.500 file in 2023 — Grey’s first with the group. In 2024, they had been the eighth seed with a dropping file. Atlanta was swept in each years within the first spherical.
“It was a new house when we came in, and we’ve done nothing but continue to build it up brick by brick,” Howard mentioned. “We continued to have as much faith in this organization as they’ve had in us.”
The Dream had been predicted to complete in the course of the pack at the beginning of this season. However they’ve confirmed to be constant, deep and, above all, a scary opponent. They entered the playoffs with the third-best likelihood (15.3%) to win the title, in keeping with ESPN’s BPI.
Grey thinks “it’s crazy” their success hasn’t been extra acknowledged.
“I feel like we’re still not being talked about enough, especially with the improvements that we made being a last-place [playoff] team to now being tied for second,” Grey added. “I feel like people are still sleeping on us as a whole.”
The Dream are assured within the constructing blocks they’ve put collectively over the previous 4 months — and previous 4 years — to get so far. Now, they perceive that is the place all of that shall be examined.
“We don’t mind being the underdog,” Hillmon mentioned. “It’s OK, because we knew what we were working toward. Obviously, you can bring in the talent, but you have to do something with it.”
