1. Is this the Aaliyah Edwards breakout we were hoping for?

Edwards is currently third in the league in points per game and first in rebounds per game. There is a decent chance she wouldn’t even be playing if Napheesa Collier was healthy, but Edwards’s numbers have popped in a way that even her most optimistic supporters couldn’t have anticipated.

Edwards has shown great pick-and-roll chemistry with Marina Mabrey, rolling to the basket with purpose and punishing switches in the post. I’ve also been impressed with Edwards’s dribble handoff game. In Monday’s loss to the Laces, Edwards beat Alyssa Thomas off the dribble multiple times when Thomas overplayed the handoff to Mabrey. It certainly helps that the Lunar Owls almost always have a knockdown shooter in Rachel Banham or Rebecca Allen on the other side while they run these pick-and-rolls, but Edwards has been impressive nonetheless.

I hope that Sylar Diggins returns from her leg injury soon so that we can see how Edwards does with another pick-and-roll partner. Mabrey is a capable floor spacer in her own right, so the Lunar Owls should have favorable situations to run the Diggins/Edwards pick and roll. Even with Diggins out, I think I’ve seen enough in the last week to say that the Connecticut Sun should protect Edwards in the upcoming expansion draft. I wouldn’t have said that after this WNBA season, when Edwards averaged just 4.6 points and 4.2 rebounds in 17 minutes per game after the midseason trade to the Sun. Edwards obviously won’t have the same floor spacing in the W that she enjoys in Unrivaled, but I believe she has shown she should be more involved in the offense, especially if she plays with the second unit.

2. Maybe Chelsea Gray really is The Point Gawd.

I’ve never really loved that moniker for Gray, even if there is no denying she has been the second or third-best player on four championship teams. Rose BC is the only 3-0 team in the league, and Gray deserves the lion’s share of the credit. Gray is the only Rose player averaging more than 14.2 minutes per game, and she leads the league with 31.7 ppg. Gray is tied for third with 5.7 assists per game, while leading the league with 5.3 3PM per game. She is tied for first in game winners (2) and minutes per game (21.8). Gray tied a career high with 3.9 3PA per game this season, but this performance seems to indicate she could be even more aggressive in hunting her three-point shot.

I will be watching closely to see what this Rose team looks like when Kahleah Copper comes back. Gray should see her minutes and usage decrease, which will likely be a good thing for the 33-year-old.

3. Does Monique Billings need to play more?

Hive is the other team, along with the Lunar Owls, that has a negative point differential and is still searching for its first win. And on some level, it doesn’t matter who plays inside if Hive’s perimeter players don’t do a better job navigating screens. That being said, Billings is tied with Sonia Citron for the team lead in points and rebounds despite being third on the team in minutes per game.

Billings has been better than I anticipated off the dribble, and I like her ability to run inverted pick-and rolls. Perhaps more importantly, I think Billings’s mobility makes her more suited to the Unrivaled game than Ezi Magbegor. I also don’t think its a coincidence that most of Kelsey Mitchell’s best moments against Vinyl on Sunday came with Billings setting a screen to get Mitchell open.

Mitchell needs to be dominant offensively if Hive is going to turn their season around, and I think Billings puts her in the best situation to do that.

4. This league is up for grabs.

I think any of the five teams with winning records could make a case for being the best team in the league. Rose is 3-0, but they are third in point differential. The Mist and Breeze are behind in point differential, but that could be mostly due to the fact that they haven’t played the Lunar Owls yet. I might still pick Rose as the best team if/when Kahleah Copper returns, though she could actually disrupt the chemistry Chelsea Gray has developed with her teammates. I love that there aren’t any teams that look like they’re going to run roughshod over the rest of the league. It should keep things interesting all season.

5. Are Breanna Stewart and Arike Ogunbowale bouncing back?

Both players are coming off the worst WNBA seasons of their careers, and it is notable that they are teammates for the Mist in Unrivaled. Stewart is averaging 17.0 points in 16.2 minutes while Ogunbowale is averaging 12.0 points in 13.6 minutes. I have been skeptical of the idea the Dallas Wings would protect Ogunbowale in the expansion draft or that she would have any trade value around the league. If she continues to play like this, I could be proven wrong.

I will say that Unrivaled’s format favors primary creators and mobile bigs, so it isn’t that surprising that Stewart and Ogunbowale are playing well. Ogunbowale does appear to be taking defense more seriously than she has in the past, which could be important coming off the worst offensive season of her career. Of the two, I think Stewart is more likely to bounce back in the coming WNBA season, despite the fact that she is three years older. Stewart is too good of a shooter to struggle again next season, while even after seven WNBA seasons, the jury is still out on whether or not Ogunbowale is a winning player.

6. Can the Breeze take care of the basketball?

Only the 0-3 Lunar Owls have turned the ball over more than the Breeze. That isn’t exactly shocking, considering Breeze has only one player with more than two years of WNBA experience and that is Aari McDonald, who has played just 6.4 minutes this season. I actually think McDonald and Cameron Brink could play more, which might help the Breeze hold onto the ball. McDonald didn’t turn the ball over in her one game, while Brink has been (slightly) better at holding onto the basketball than Dominique Malonga. Malonga has committed 4.0 turnovers per game so far this season, second only to Marina Mabrey.