Stars Thomas, Bonner run it back

Entering her 11th season with the Sun, Alyssa Thomas just keeps getting better and better. The 6-2 forward had a historic 2023 season, finishing second in both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year voting while earning the first firstteam ALL-WNBA honors of her career. Thomas averaged a career-best 15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game, and she set the league’s single-season record with six double-doubles. She became the first players in WNBA history to log more than 600 points, 300 rebounds and 300 assists in a single season, also making her the fastest player in league history to surpass 3,000 career points, 1,500 rebounds, 1,000 assists and 400 steals.

Returning alongside Thomas is fiancée and fellow star forward Dewanna Bonner, who had one of the best seasons of her career at age 36 last year. Bonner earned her fifth WNBA All-star selection — her third in four years with the Sun — in 2023 after averaging 17.4 points and 5.6 rebounds, and she also ranked top 10 in the league in defensive win shares. Bonner signed with the Sun on a one-year deal for 2024, but Thomas will join her as a free agent in 2025, so this may be the franchise’s last opportunity to capitalize on the veteran duo.

Thomas and Bonner alone weren’t enough to get Connecticut past division rival New York in the postseason, but the team gets back a potential gamechanger in Brionna Jones in 2024. Jones was on a meteoric rise after she was named Most Improved Player in 2021 and Sixth Player of the Year in 2022, but she suffered a season-ending Achilles rupture on June 20. She was on pace for her best season as a pro, averaging a career-high 15.9 points plus 8.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals over her 13 starts in 2023.