Angel Reese’s switch from the Chicago Sky to the Atlanta Dream was a move wrapped in no small amount of controversy. And a lot of that was heavily driven by her public frustration regarding the Sky’s lack of competitive roster depth, its organizational facilities, and her desire to play for a WNBA championship contender. After back-to-back losing seasons, she made her position unmistakably clear, she was “not settling for the same s–t next year.”

And those sentiments haven’t softened with time. Speaking in a recent interview at Atlanta Dream practice, Reese reinforced exactly what drove her out of Chicago and toward Georgia. “Because I’ve won at every level, I wanna win a WNBA championship, no matter what it looks like for me,” she said. And for Reese, Atlanta appear to be the most realistic path toward achieving that goal, especially considering “the success that they had under one year with Karl.”

And of course, head coach Karl Smesko did have quite a historic season with the Atlanta Dream in his debut 2025 campaign. He met a team, who had six consecutive losing seasons and completely transformed the franchise in a single year. He guided them to a 30-14 record and first place in the Eastern Conference. And he doing so, they achieved the best regular-season record in the franchise’s history. Smesko himself, also officially broke the WNBA record for the most wins by a first-year head coach.

But for Angel Reese, Smesko represents more than just a winning record. She believes he can also take her individual game to another level. “I was just seeing how the player development was for him. And how he developed Naz (Natasha Hillmon) in one year, and I wanted to win. I wanted to come somewhere where I was going to be able to win and was going to be a fit for me,” she said.

Interestingly, the groundwork for her move started even before any trade news became public. Reese had already begun making inquiries from the inside, reaching out to Atlanta teammate Allisha Gray during their time together with Team USA in the offseason. “I know Lish and I had a conversation with her a little bit while in the USA,” Reese revealed. 

The off-court fit, she said, was never really in question, Atlanta felt like home almost immediately. “Off the court, I knew this is going to be the place for me, everybody knows that. But on the court,” she said, the implication being that the basketball side of the equation needed to be right too.

Four games into her tenure with the Dream, Reese has now helped propel the franchise to a strong 3–1 record. Perhaps that’s an early indication that the fit she was looking for is very much materializing. The next test comes against the Phoenix Mercury, and the expectation is that Reese will once again play a central role.

How Has Angel Reese Performed Since Joining the Atlanta Dream?

Angel Reese is four games into her tenure with the Atlanta Dream. And while it may be too early to fully judge whether she is genuinely steering this team toward a championship the way she envisioned, her performances so far are still very much worth examining. And to a meaningful extent, they can offer a window into what the foreseeable expectations around her role with this franchise might look like.

Simply put, Angel Reese’s start with the Atlanta Dream has’t been the best. The best part, however, has been her elite rebounding, which of course, is her area of specialization. In her official Atlanta debut against the Minnesota Lynx, she posted 11 points and 14 rebounds. And in doing so, she recorded her 50th career double-double in just 65 games, to break Tina Charles’ WNBA record as the fastest player ever to reach that milestone. She is also currently averaging 12.7 rebounds per game, which puts her right at the top of the WNBA leaderboard. In short, on the boards, she has been virtually unstoppable.

Off the boards, however, Angel reese has faced severe offensive and ball-handling struggles. Most notably, in her home debut game at State Farm Arena she delivered a performance that was widely criticized as one of the worst games of her professional career. She finished with 9 points, 8 rebounds, and a staggering 8 turnovers. She also shot an abysmal 1-of-8 from the field and missed multiple layups around the rim. In fact, her struggles against A’ja Wilson were significant enough that Coach Smesko made the decision to bench her late in the fourth quarter, and the team appeared to function more smoothly in her absence.

Beyond that single game, the broader offensive picture has also been a concern. In her forur games so far, Reese is shot just 33.3% from the field. Her finishing at the rim has also been highly inefficient. She’s making ball-handling mistakes, averaging over five turnovers per game. For a player who wants to help deliver a WNBA championship, these numbers shows that there’s a need for urgent improvement.

And perhaps she’s already showing the signs, as her most recent game on Friday was a considerable impreovement from waht she showed against the Aces. She scored 15 points and 9 rebounds, and had a noticeably sharper efficiency. If she can build on that performance, and continuethe improvement, the version of Angel Reese that the Dream traded for, and that she promised she would be, may still be very much on the way. And of course, their championship dream might end up being a reality.