September 22, 2025
Hillmon has been a crucial piece of the Dream’s offense below the course of first-year head coach Karl Smesko
Atlanta Dream ahead Naz Hillmon has gained the WNBA’s Sixth Participant of the Award for the 2025 season.
Hillmon acquired 44 of 72 votes from a nationwide panel of sportswriters and broadcasters, beating out one of many Studbudz, Minnesota Lynx guard Natisha Hiedeman, who acquired 22 votes, Hiedeman’s teammate, Lynx ahead Jessica Shepard, who acquired 4 votes, and the Seattle Storm’s rookie phenom Dominique Malonga and Phoenix Mercury guard Sami Whitcomb, who every acquired a vote apiece.
Per the WNBA’s press launch, since she was named the Kia WNBA Sixth Participant of the Yr, Hillmon will obtain an extra bonus of $5,150 and a trophy.
Hillmon, who has been a crucial piece of the Dream’s offense below the course of first-year head coach Karl Smesko, put up 8.6 factors and 6.2 rebounds a recreation for the Dream and buried 53 three-pointers after solely totaling one three in her three earlier seasons.
Smesko, to make certain, is a giant a part of the rationale why the Dream gained 30 video games, each probably the most in franchise historical past and probably the most for a rookie head coach. The group additionally made the playoffs, shedding to the Indiana Fever within the first spherical
The opposite cause is that the Dream’s accelerated rebuild, led by its 2022 draft picks Rhyne Howard and Naz Hillmon and commerce acquisition turned MVP candidate Allisha Grey, got here collectively seamlessly.
“Naz embodies all the things we would like the Atlanta Dream to face for — toughness, consistency and progress,” Dream basic supervisor Dan Padover famous. “Her potential to embrace any function and make successful performs has elevated not solely her personal recreation, however our total group. Credit score additionally goes to Karl and our teaching workers for serving to take Naz’s recreation to a different stage and placing her in positions to thrive.”
Within the WNBA, the one requirement for Sixth Participant of the Yr is to come back off the bench in additional video games than a participant begins. Hillmon got here off the bench in 27 of the group’s 44 video games, she was used as a bench participant. She set a brand new Dream report with 150 consecutive appearances, good for the third-longest lively streak within the league.
Hillmon was additionally named The Related Press Sixth Participant of the Yr, marking the primary time that an Atlanta Dream participant has gained both or each of the sixth participant end-of-season awards.
Hillmon ranked second total within the WNBA in plus-minus (+7.6 per recreation, +335 complete), and likewise led the Dream in one other superior ranking, internet ranking swing (+13.4). The Dream additionally went 5-0 when she scored 15 or extra factors.
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