From stunning Angel Reese trade to expansion ingenuity: How Dream, Valkyries broke the mold to reach Finals

Atlanta and Golden State paved their own paths and now sit four wins away from a WNBA championship In the modern WNBA, nearly every championship team has walked the same path: stink for a while, wind up with multiple No. 1 overall picks, draft a few generational players, win titles. That may sound reductive, but it's a basic formula that has proven successful time and time and time again. We don't yet know whether the Golden State Valkyries or Atlanta Dream will take home the title this season. But we do know that no matter what, that pattern will be broken. There is only one No.

1 overall pick playing in these Finals — Rhyne Howard, who the Dream selected with the top pick in 2022. In fact, the only other lottery pick in this series is Allisha Gray, whom the Dallas Wings selected with the No. 4 pick in 2017. The Dream had to make trades to acquire both players. Dating back to 2010, 12 of the last 16 champions have had at least two No. 1 overall picks that they drafted on the roster. The 2024 New York Liberty also had two No. 1 overall picks, but only drafted one of them (Sabrina Ionescu), while the 2021 Chicago Sky had one No. 1 overall pick (Candace Parker) and