The WNBA pyramid has spread the teams around about as much as a pyramid of this size could have in four years. At the end of 2019, the Connecticut Sun was the fourth team to win the First Division.
Jonquel Jones of the Connecticut Sun led the WNBA in rebounding (9.7 per game) and tied for the lead in blocked shots (2.0) in 2019 (BDZ Sports/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).
The Second Division also has had four different champions. Along with constant changes in the championships, the promotion and relegation patterns here are spread as widely as possible. Out of a 12-team league, eight different teams have been promoted and eight have been demoted. Each team has changed divisions at least once.
At the end of 2019, three teams are changing divisions for the second time. The most newsworthy of these is the Minnesota Lynx, who won the First Division in its opening manifestation (2016) and finished one game behind the Sparks for that same title in 2017.
In 2018, the Lynx took a winning record into August, then lost their last four games in the First Division and slipped into relegation territory. But the Lynx made a reversal of those fortunes in 2019, winning their final five Second Division games and rallying to second place, thus securing their return to the First Division.
The Lynx finished one game behind the Las Vegas Aces, who began their history in this pyramid as the utterly futile San Antonio Stars. After finishing at the lowest bottom of the Second Division in 2016 and 2017, the franchise packed for Vegas, hired former Notre Dame and Detroit Pistons tough guy Bill Laimbeer to coach 'em up, and they have been on the rise.
The Aces climbed out of the Second Division cellar in 2018, then went all the way to the top in 2019 with an 11-4 record. So, the Aces and Lynx are headed up to the top division in 2020.
The relegation zone in the First Division shows us, at the very bottom, an Atlanta Dream squad that clearly wasn't ready for this competition after being promoted for 2019. The Dream finished one-half game behind the Washington Mystics in the 2018 Second Division, but won only two of 16 games in the top tier and headed back down for 2020.
The other relegant is the defending First Division champion, the Seattle Storm, which won the 2018 First Division by a whopping three games, only to tumble in 2019 to 6-9, one game short of survival.
The Mystics are playing against the Suns starting this week for the WNBA championship. In their first crack at the First Division, the Mystics finished 9-6.
The Sparks improved from third place in the First Division last year to second place in 2019, coming in a game behind the Suns at 10-5.
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