Angel Reese's WNBA MVP Case Hyped by Dream HC Ahead of Home Debut After Sky Trade

Atlanta Dream head coach Karl Smesko was willing to make a bold prediction as Angel Reese approaches her first home game with the team.

"She's working on different aspects in her game just because she wants to be the best," he told USA Today's Meghan L. Hall. "I've already seen development so far, and I think if she keeps working, that she is that she's gonna be somebody that people are talking about for MVP sometime very soon."

Reese received one fourth-place vote in the 2024 MVP balloting following her historic rookie season. For the most part, the Chicago Sky's futility kept her from being a serious contender for the award.

Going to the Dream represented a big upgrade in that regard as Atlanta has made the playoffs for three straight seasons.

Smesko is also a coach who could help unlock a new dimension to Reese's offensive game.

Naz Hillmon was a total nonentity as a shooter, both in college and the WNBA, before Smesko arrived in 2025. In his scheme, she made 53 three-pointers at a 32.1 percent clip en route to winning Sixth Player of the Year.

It's too early to draw any conclusions about Reese's season and what it means in the bigger picture. Through two games, she's averaging 11.5 points and 15.0 rebounds, and she has attempted just one long-range jumper.

The abbreviated offseason also made it tough for Reese to fully absorb the nuances of Smesko's game plan. The Sky traded her on April 6 and she had her first preseason game on April 29.

"She's come in and picked up the terminology really quickly, picked up our schemes really quickly," Hillmon told Hall. "Just is really in all of the right spots all the time, I feel, or most of the time at the very least. And I just think that she works really well in our system, and she's just really bought in from the very beginning."

During her stint in Chicago, Reese's individual production was juxtaposed against the team's record. Fans and analysts have used the phrase "empty calories" to broadly describe when a player is putting up big numbers on a bad team.

Now, Reese has the opportunity to show she can meaningfully contribute to winning basketball, and an MVP is more than plausible down the road if she achieves that while expanding her scoring repertoire.