The Las Vegas Aces have spent much of the season looking like a championship threat yet again. But with the playoffs approaching, Hammon has now lost one of her most important frontcourt pieces, a development that one analyst believes could significantly impact the team.
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During a segment on the No Offseason podcast, The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant emphasized just how valuable NaLyssa Smith was to the team before her season-ending injury against the Toronto Tempo.
“Just been an absolute godsend for them ever since she arrived mid-season last year,” she said.
“You think about the Aces ending the season on that 16-0 run in the regular season. That was all with NaLyssa Smith, right? We were worried about, like, ‘what happened to the Las Vegas Aces’ before that, right? Like, ‘is the dynasty over?’ They were very middling. All of a sudden, NaLyssa Smith comes in, and they’re just right back on track.”
Against the Toronto Tempo on August 23, with 3:15 left on the clock in the third quarter, Smith planted her leg before suffering a no-contact injury that immediately sent her to the ground, and she was subsequently taken out of the game. A few days later, the team announced in a press release that Smith will be sidelined for the rest of the season.
Smith arrived in Las Vegas last season after a difficult start to her 2025 season with the Dallas Wings and quickly became an important frontcourt piece for the Aces. Hammon’s team went 21-5 the rest of the season, including the 16-0 stretch that Merchant mentioned. The team eventually went on to win their third championship in four years, with Smith starting every game while shooting 57.8% from the field across 12 playoff games.
She had been even better this season. Before being shut down, Smith had started every game she played and was the team’s leading offensive rebounder while trailing only A’ja Wilson for total boards. On top of that, she had led the league in FG% at 63.8%, while scoring 11.7 points per game.
Merchant also wondered whether Smith’s injury could have influenced A’ja Wilson’s decision to withdraw from the FIBA World Cup, given the additional burden it places on Wilson in Las Vegas.
“They’re not the number one seed this year, but they’ve obviously been really good for flashes and stretches and big wins over the Lynx and the Liberty and the Valkyries,” she said. “I kind of wonder if this has to do with A’ja Wilson opting out of the World Cup because of this extra burden that is going to be on her with the Las Vegas Aces because her front court partner is now gone.”
Now, Becky Hammon faces an important decision. Out of the remaining bigs on the roster, none of them fit without massive question marks. Brianna Turner, while having size, is close to a traditional center while being heavily limited on the offensive end. Meanwhile, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus can also play the five, but Hammon has appeared reluctant to trust her defensively. Lastly, rookie Justine Pissott remains a long shot, as she has only played 81 total minutes this season.
In their one game since the injury, Hammon opted to start Brianna Turner, moving A’ja Wilson to the four. They also experimented with smaller lineups, opting to run Chelsea Gray or Jewell Loyd at the power forward on defense.
Since Smith’s injury, the Aces have signed former Phoenix Mercury center Kalani Brown to replace her on the roster for the remainder of the season, giving Hammon yet another option to slot next to Wilson in the frontcourt. Brown was part of the Phoenix Mercury team that reached the 2025 WNBA Finals and averaged 5.1 points and 4 rebounds in 29 games.
Whether Hammon and Wilson can lead the Aces to another Finals appearance without Smith remains to be seen, but her absence has undoubtedly made their path more difficult.