This is the best version of A’ja Wilson yet

The last year felt like a Coronation for A’ja Wilson. She received a Finals MVP in addition to her two regular season MVPs. won another championship and received another award as Defensive Player of the Year. Wilson set career highs in points, rebounds and blocks. It was her sixth season in the WNBA and, it seemed, the first taste of her eventual peak.

It feels more like a warm-up now. Wilson has taken her career-high performance from last season and managed to improve it across the board. She hasn’t just improved her game this year, she’s completely expanded it.

As the WNBA returns from its Olympic break this week, Wilson is ready to close out a remarkable, possibly historic season. The 28-year-old Las Vegas Aces forward is on pace to surpass all the career records she set last season. She comfortably averages a double-double and leads the league in points (27.2 PPG) and rebounds (tied with the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese with 12.0 RPG) and blocks (2.9 BPG). Wilson returns this weekend with a second gold medal to their name and a challenge to be mastered.

Could this be the best single season the WNBA has ever recorded?

“Despite all the pressure on her, she’s just always there,” said Jackie Young, Aces guard and Olympic teammate. “She gets better every year, and it’s so hard to get better at this level, but she does it. That just shows the kind of person she is.”

No one has done as much and as efficiently as Wilson. Her PER of 35.6 would be the highest in league history. She is currently on pace to break the WNBA records for points and rebounds per game: those records were set by Diana Taurasi in 2006 and Sylvia Fowles in 2018, a pair that represent very different talents. Yet here, in Wilson, is a player who has proven to be both a more prolific scorer than Taurasi in her prime and a more effective board-crasher than full-time Fowles. That combination might have sounded impossible not so long ago. But the game has changed, and an accomplished, versatile Wilson has changed with it.

The former No. 1 pick has gradually expanded her skills about her years in the league. At 6’4″, Wilson historically played like a traditional post, albeit an exceptionally agile one. But under Aces coach Becky Hammonshe’s started to stretch out over the last few seasons, occasionally shooting three-pointers and creating more space on the court. That’s set the stage for what feels like a revelation this year. Wilson is still as dominant in the penalty box as ever. But she’s also gotten much closer to a model of modern, positionless basketball, playing more on the perimeter and creating her own shots more often.

“A is so dynamic, she definitely gets the rebound and then sinks it in transition,” says Aces guard Kelsey Plum. “She’s like a great guard.”

That approach means Wilson has a very different shooting stat line than she did last year. She’s more than doubled her attempts from three. That number is still modest — 1.6 shots per game — but it represents a significant shift for a player who made virtually no threes at all for the first four seasons of her career. Her two-point shot selection has changed significantly. Wilson hasn’t changed the number of shots she takes on or near the basket — which still accounts for the majority of her attempts — but she’s started to make more from nearly every point further out. She’s shooting more overall this season, yes, but she’s especially shooting more from midrange:

She’s also improved as a passer, with fewer turnovers and more assists. Wilson is now much better at finding her teammates when the defense is collapsing on her. “When people try to do doubles and triples, she finds us,” Plum says. “A’ja has more than done her job.” She’s basically taken on a whole new set of responsibilities. While she can still be a nightmare in the post, she’s now a much more dynamic and versatile player all over the court.

Teammates say her development as a leader and facilitator has paralleled her development in other areas. Wilson has been more vocal on the court this year, especially on defense, Aces center Kiah Stokes says. In the early weeks of the season, when the Aces were missing injured point guard Chelsea Gray, there was little discussion about who could fill the leadership void. It was Wilson who played extra minutes, played a more flexible role and brought the group together.

“She’s no longer a young player,” says Stokes. “She’s become an experienced player.”

All the ingredients for a historic season are there. But teammates insist some people are missing the bigger picture. When asked if there was anything left out in discussions about Wilson’s play, Plum doesn’t hesitate. “Yes,” she says. “That’s true.”

“The fact is that she is the best player in the world, by far.”