One of the best developments in the WNBA in recent seasons is that many of the best players stay home in the offseason. It used to be that nearly the entire league played overseas after the WNBA season ended. That still happens quite a bit, but not like it used to. The introduction of Unrivaled, as well as other revenue streams, has helped to give WNBA players more time to rest, recover, and work on their game than in years past.

One of the things I love to see each season is which players have added aspects to their game in the offseason. Perhaps they have improved their shot or their handle. Maybe they’ve developed counters for how teams defend them. They have may have worked on skills to help them fit in better with new teams or situations.

Players are working on all of those things right now, and while we won’t know what those things are until we see them next season, we can speculate. Here are four players that I would like to see expand their games next season.

Angel Reese - Midrange game

Perhaps the only bright spot for the Chicago Sky last season was Angel Reese’s willingness to try to expand her game. She was much maligned as a rookie for her ineffectiveness outside of the paint, and she took steps towards changing that. Due in part to Chicago’s lack of anyone who could create off the dribble, Reese was aggressive in driving to the basket. It didn’t go particularly well, with Reese finishing second in the league in turnovers, but it should help her in the long run. Already this offseason we have seen clips of Reese working on her outside shooting, and that should help, as well, but what I really want to see in her third year is Angel Reese working more in the midrange.

In a functional WNBA half-court offense, which Chicago did not have last season, Reese’s drives to the basket would begin almost exclusively at the elbows, and rarely from outside the three-point line. Unless her handle and her passing improve drastically this offseason, I think Reese will be far more effective taking a couple of quick dribbles and going into her defender rather than trying to drive past people from 25 feet away.

Even before the Chicago Sky drafted her, I thought Reese’s absolute ceiling if everything went right was to be the next A’ja Wilson. When Wilson came into the league, she was mostly effective around the basket. In her second season, Wilson shot 62.2 percent on 135 attempts inside five feet and 38.1 percent on 194 attempts outside of five feet. This past season, Wilson shot 44.9 percent from 5-9 feet, 42.4 percent from 10-14 feet and 46.3 percent from 15-19 feet. I still hope that Reese can similarly improve her effectiveness from the midrange.

The biggest difference right now is that in her first two seasons, nearly all of Reese’s attempts came right at the basket. As a rookie, Reese took 76.6 percent of her shots inside five feet. Last season, those shots accounted for 77.2 percent of her shot diet. It is difficult for me to see how her offensive game can improve significantly without her taking at least a few more shots away from the basket.

Jessica  Shepard - Shooting

I don’t even mean three-point shooting, though I do think Shepard is capable of expanding her game beyond the arc. That might take a couple of seasons. In 2026, I want to see Shepard improve her shooting from 15 feet. Jessica Shepard shot a career-high 103 free throws last season and made a career-low 54.4 percent. It was the first time in her five-year WNBA career she had shot below 73.4 percent. At the same time, 74 percent of Shepard’s shots last season came within five feet of the basket.

That worked fine during the regular season when Shepard was surrounded by floor spacers and willing passers for 20 minutes a game, but her lack of floor spacing was a glaring weakness with Napheesa Collier out in Game 4. I believe Shepard can take on a bigger offensive role, either for the Lynx or another team, but she has to be more effective outside of five feet.

For me, it starts at the free-throw line. If Shepard shoots close to 50 percent at the line again, teams are going to start fouling her whenever she catches the ball close to the basket. She has to shoot over 70 percent again to at least keep opposing defenses honest. Then she can, hopefully, expand her game to include floaters and midrange jumpers. Shepard is a very good screener, rebounder and cutter, which is how she’s managed to be effective offensively despite rarely shooting from outside the charge circle. Those things can only take you so far, however. I think her form looks good and she has decent touch. Hopefully she can put it all together next season.

Kiki Iriafen - Three Point Shooting

It is nearly impossible to quibble with anything about Kiki Iriafen’s rookie season. She was an All-Star along with fellow rookie Sonia Citron and they had the rebuilding Washington Mystics in the thick of the playoff race before management pulled the ripcord and traded Brittney Sykes. That being said, I was interested to find that Iriafen was 12th in the WNBA in field goal attempts per game from 15-19 feet. Unlike most of the names ahead of her on that list, Iriafen mostly did not shoot three-pointers. She was just 2-for-11 on the entire season.

If last season taught us anything, it is that it is more important to take threes than to make them. You have to make at least a few, but when I see someone like Kayla Thornton make an All-Star team by doubling her three-point attempts despite shooting just 28.2 percent on threes, I see no reason why Iriafen can’t do the same. She is already willing to shoot jumpers; we just need her to move back a step or two.

Amy Okonkwo - Passing

Okonkwo joined a Dallas team desperate for scoring, and she provided it in impressive fashion. Even so, I was a little disappointed to see her 6.5 percent assist rate ranked 153rd in ithe WNBA last season. I think Okonkwo is going to start drawing more help defenders now that opposing teams are familiar with her offensive game, and that should open up more opportunities to feed her teammates. She has flashed good vision at times to find open teammates, especially in transition. If she can do that a bit more consistently, she will solidify her position in Dallas’s rotation.