Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
Toward the end of the 2025 WNBA season, Angel Reese laid down an ultimatum to the Chicago Sky. Either the team brought in better players, or Reese would have to look to find a new franchise to play for.
Chicago had the joint-worst record in the league last season, and Reese made it clear that she wouldn’t tolerate that level of incompetence. However, the former LSU star never once stopped to think that perhaps she was part of the problem.
Prior to the start of the 2026 season, Chicago traded Reese to the Atlanta Dream, who tied for the second-best record in the league last season at 30-14.
Atlanta is off to another hot start this season, sitting 4-2 and atop the Eastern Conference. However, numbers suggest that they could be even better if not for the minutes that Reese players. Meanwhile, Chicago has shown a slight improvement and sits at 3-4 through seven games.
Advanced Stats Paint An Ugly Picture For Angel Reese With Atlanta Dream
On the surface, Reese’s numbers are incredibly impressive. Through six games, she’s averaging a double-double with 12.3 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.
However, if you look just a little bit deeper, the picture gets a lot murkier for Reese and Atlanta.
The Dream fell to the Minnesota Lynx, 96-81, on Wednesday to drop to 4-2 on the season, and Reese’s advanced numbers, both in the game and for the season, aren’t all that flattering.
She finished the game with a plus-minus of -16 in 27 minutes, while backup Sika Kone was +8 in just nine minutes of play.
For the season, ESPN’s advanced analytics show that Reese is last on the team in net points, which quantifies the impact a player has on their team’s point differential.
The numbers show that Reese is at -13 net points through six games, and is a significant negative on offense at -11. Somewhat surprisingly, she’s also a net negative on defense at -2.
On top of that, Reese’s WAR (Wins Above Replacement) checks in at -0.1, which is the worst on Atlanta’s team. And while a 4-2 start seems great, it’s actually below the Dream’s .681 win percentage from a season ago.
Perhaps this is all just a matter of small sample size, and Reese will grade out well when it’s all said and done. But in the early going, the numbers suggest that Angel Reese is actually keeping the Atlanta Dream from being even better, while Chicago has improved without her.