Minnesota lost the 2025 WNBA Finals to the New York Liberty in overtime of Game 5 and came back this offseason with the band intact and one painful asterisk: Napheesa Collier had surgery on both ankles over the winter and is not expected back in basketball activities until early June. The Lynx tipped off Season 30 on May 16 against Atlanta without her. Everything about this season bends around when she comes back and how she looks when she does.
The roster
Collier is the anchor. She re-signed on a one-year supermax after back-to-back MVP runner-up finishes, and she spent the offseason publicly pushing the league office over CBA transparency, which tells you where she sits in the hierarchy of the sport. Kayla McBride returns on a two-year max, Courtney Williams is back on a two-year max, Bridget Carleton is back, and Alanna Smith is back. Head coach Cheryl Reeve kept the core that took the Liberty to overtime in the deciding game.
The headline addition is Olivia Miles, the No. 2 overall pick out of TCU, who averaged 19.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.6 assists last college season. She is the secondary creator this roster has been missing since Lindsay Whalen retired. Natasha Howard is back in Minnesota after years away, and Dorka Juhász returns from a year in Europe where she was named EuroLeague Women MVP. That is real depth, not vibes depth.
The 2026 schedule and outlook
The league tipped off Season 30 on Friday, May 8, 2026, with a 44-game regular season running through September. The Lynx have already played their opener. The dates worth circling: Indiana Fever at Minnesota on September 24, a marquee Caitlin Clark return trip; Dallas Wings at Minnesota on August 9 on NBC; and the rematches with the Liberty and the defending-finalist field. Indiana will appear on national TV in all 44 of its games this season, a record, so the Fever-Lynx slate will carry the heaviest ratings load Minnesota has ever played under.
Projected outcome: with Collier back by mid-June and the Miles-McBride-Williams perimeter clicking, this is a top-three team in the league. The Liberty and Aces are still the bar. The Fever are the wild card. Anything short of the Finals would be a disappointment given how close they were last year.
The bigger picture
The WNBA enters 2026 as a 15-team league. The Golden State Valkyries are in year two. The Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire debut this season, with Toronto opening at home on May 8 against Washington and Portland opening at home on May 9 against Chicago. That is the first time the league has had a meaningful expansion footprint outside the United States and outside the legacy markets. It also tells you what the league knows about its own valuation: media rights, expansion fees, and arena economics are finally lining up.
Collier is the MVP front-runner if she comes back healthy. She has finished second the last two years. The third time tends to be the one. Minnesota's season is the league's most interesting case study in whether a franchise built on continuity and coaching can beat the teams being built on stars and ratings. Reeve has the answer if anyone does.
Related on Uristocrat: Uristocrat's Games to Watch.
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