The 2020 WNBA season was the 13th season for the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The season began on 26 July 2020, against the Dallas Wings.
On 18 October 2019, the Dream unveiled a rebranded logo and color scheme ahead of the new season. The team was originally scheduled to play its home games at the new Gateway Center Arena at College Park, electing to move from State Farm Arena in the 2019 off-season. The WNBA season was to have a 36-game schedule, which would have been the most games in a season in league history. However, the plan for expanded games was put on hold on 3 April 2020 , when the WNBA postponed its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under a plan approved on 15 June 2020, the league is scheduled to hold a shortened 22-game regular season at IMG Academy, without fans in attendance, beginning on 24 July 2020.
The Dream started the season promisingly, winning two of their first three games, but then suffered a ten game losing streak. After the ten game losing streak was broken, the Dream lost their next two games to finish August with a 3–13 record, and a slim hope at making the playoffs. September proved to be a turn in fortunes for the Dream. They recorded four wins in five games to go into their final game against the Washington Mystics, with a chance to make the playoffs. However, Washington prevailed and the Dream missed the playoffs. Their overall winning percentage of .318 was the third worst in team history.
Transactions
WNBA draft
The Dream made the following selections in the 2020 WNBA draft.
Round Pick Player Nationality School/team/country 1 4 Chennedy Carter Texas A&M 2 17 Brittany Brewer Texas Tech 3 25 Mikayla Pivec Oregon State 3 27 Kobi Thornton Clemson
Trades and roster changes DateDetails January 21, 2020 Exercised 4th-year Team tption on Marie Gülich and Monique Billings Extended a qualifying offer to Alaina Coates January 22, 2020 Renounced the rights to Celine Dumerc and Isabelle Yacoubou February 10, 2020 Traded Brittney Sykes and Marie Gülich to the Los Angeles Sparks in exchange for Kalani Brown February 12, 2020 Signed Glory Johnson February 16, 2020 Signed Shekinna Stricklen February 18, 2020 Claimed Alexis Jones off waivers February 19, 2020 Traded Jessica Breland and Nia Coffey to the Phoenix Mercury in exchange for Courtney Williams and the 17th pick in the 2020 WNBA draft from the Connecticut Sun, as part of a 3-team trade February 23, 2020 Signed Blake Dietrick to a training-camp contract February 25, 2020 Signed Elīna Babkina to a training-camp contract April 16, 2020 Signed Alaina Coates to a training-camp contract April 19, 2020 Signed Mikayla Pivec to a rookie-scale contract April 20, 2020 Signed Brittany Brewer to a rookie-scale contract April 23, 2020 Signed Chennedy Carter to a rookie-scale contract April 27, 2020 Waived Alaina Coates May 23, 2020 Waived Elīna Babkina May 24, 2020 Full season suspension of Maite Cazorla due to her sitting out the 2020 season for personal reasons May 25, 2020 Full season suspension of Mikayla Pivec due to her sitting out the 2020 season for personal reasons June 18, 2020 Renee Montgomery opted out of the 2020 season June 23, 2020 Tiffany Hayes opted out of the 2020 season June 24, 2020 Signed Betnijah Laney and Jaylyn Agnew July 12, 2020 Signed Erica McCall to a hardship contract July 29, 2020 Released Erica McCall from her Hhrdship contract August 23, 2020 Waived Alexis Jones Signed Kaela Davis to a 7-day contract August 31, 2020 Signed Kaela Davis to a 2nd 7-day contract September 7, 2020 Signed Kaela Davis
Roster
Depth Pos.StarterBench C Elizabeth Williams Kalani BrownBrittany Brewer PF Monique Billings Glory Johnson SF Betnijah Laney Shekinna StricklenKaela Davis SG Courtney Williams Jaylyn Agnew PG Chennedy Carter Blake Dietrick
Schedule Regular season
| 1 | July 26 | Dallas | W 105–95 | Billings (30) | Billings (13) | Carter (8) | IMG Academy | 1–0 |- | 2 | July 29 | Las Vegas | L 70–100 | E. Williams (16) | Billings (7) | Tied (4) | IMG Academy | 1–1 |- | 3 | July 31 | New York | W 84–78 | Laney (30) | Billings (15) | Carter (3) | IMG Academy | 2–1
| 4 | August 2 | Indiana | L 77–93 | C. Williams (18) | Billings (8) | Laney (6) | IMG Academy | 2–2 |- | 5 | August 4 | Phoenix | L 74–81 | Carter (26) | C. Williams (9) | Laney (5) | IMG Academy | 2–3 |- | 6 | August 6 | Seattle | L 92–93 | Carter (35) | C. Williams (10) | Carter (7) | IMG Academy | 2–4 |- | 7 | August 8 | Dallas | L 75–85 | Laney (16) | Tied (7) | 3 tied (3) | IMG Academy | 2–5 |- | 8 | August 10 | Connecticut | L 82–93 | Stricklen (18) | C. Williams (7) | Dietrick (6) | IMG Academy | 2–6 |- | 9 | August 12 | Seattle | L 63–100 | Laney (17) | Tied (7) | Dietrick (4) | IMG Academy | 2–7 |- | 10 | August 14 | Phoenix | L 80–96 | Laney (16) | C. Williams (14) | Dietrick (7) | IMG Academy | 2–8 |- | 11 | August 16 | Chicago | L 67–92 | C. Williams (15) | Billings (8) | Tied (4) | IMG Academy | 2–9 |- | 12 | August 19 | Washington | L 91–98 | Laney (35) | Billings (12) | C. Williams (7) | IMG Academy | 2–10 |- | 13 | August 21 | Los Angeles | L 85–93 (OT) | Johnson (23) | Billings (9) | Laney (11) | IMG Academy | 2–11 |- | 14 | August 23 | Minnesota | W 78–75 | Tied (16) | Billings (13) | Laney (10) | IMG Academy | 3–11 |- | 15 | August 28 | Minnesota | L 79–88 | Laney (22) | C. Williams (10) | Tied (5) | IMG Academy | 3–12 |- | 16 | August 30 | Los Angeles | L 79–84 | Carter (26) | Billings (14) | Dietrick (5) | IMG Academy | 3–13
| 17 | September 1 | Indiana | W 102–90 | Tied (22) | Johnson (8) | Carter (6) | IMG Academy | 4–13 |- | 18 | September 3 | New York | W 62–56 | C. Williams (15) | C. Williams (13) | Laney (3) | IMG Academy | 5–13 |- | 19 | September 5 | Las Vegas | L 79–89 | Laney (21) | 3 tied (7) | Carter (6) | IMG Academy | 5–14 |- | 20 | September 9 | Chicago | W 97–89 | Laney (24) | 3 tied (10) | Tied (5) | IMG Academy | 6–14 |- | 21 | September 11 | Connecticut | W 82–75 | Carter (22) | Laney (10) | Tied (4) | IMG Academy | 7–14 |- | 22 | September 13 | Washington | L 78–85 | Laney (27) | C. Williams (11) | Dietrick (4) | IMG Academy | 7–15
Standings
Statistics
Regular season Player GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG Chennedy Carter 16 16 25.4 47.3 37.5 82.1 2.3 3.4 0.9 0.3 17.4 Betnijah Laney 22 22 33.3 48.1 40.5 82.7 4.9 4.0 1.6 0.1 17.2 Courtney Williams 20 14 30.5 43.6 23.5 69.6 7.2 3.2 0.7 0.1 14.6 Elizabeth Williams 22 22 29.2 48.9 0 74.2 5.7 1.4 0.8 1.4 10.1 Monique Billings 22 16 27.1 40.0 0 76.1 8.5 1.2 1.1 0.8 8.5 Shekinna Stricklen 22 15 21.7 34.1 33.3 100 1.9 0.6 0.3 0 6.1 Blake Dietrick 22 4 21.0 47.1 44.8 62.5 1.6 3.4 0.8 0.1 5.9 Glory Johnson 18 1 15.1 37.3 26.2 50.0 3.7 0.6 0.8 0.4 4.7 Kalani Brown 10 0 6.1 52.2 0 60.0 1.2 0 0.1 0.1 3.0 Jaylyn Agnew 12 0 5.9 26.7 23.1 80.0 0.4 0.3 0 0 1.3 Brittany Brewer 5 0 6.6 66.7 0 0 1.0 0 0.6 0.8 0.8 Kaela Davis 2 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Awards and honors Recipient Award Date awarded Ref. Betnijah Laney Most Improved Player September 24 WNBA All-Defense 1st Team September 29 Chennedy Carter All-Rookie Team September 27 Elizabeth Williams WNBA All-Defense 1st Team September 29
References
External links Official site of the Atlanta Dream