After the Atlanta Dream scored a season-low 55 points in their loss to the Dallas Wings on June 24, head coach Karl Smesko was asked about the play of Brittney Griner, the team’s highest-profile offseason who scored two points on just three shot attempts in less than 20 minutes of action. Smesko quickly insisted, “That’s gonna be on me. We gotta find her a way to get her some more deep touches.”
In the Dream’s subsequent two games, an overtime loss to the Minnesota Lynx on Friday and a win over the New York Liberty on Sunday, it’s been evident that Smesko meant what he said.
Griner played 28 minutes in both games, her most in over a month. She had 10 and 12 shot attempts, respectively, resulting in 16 and 14 points. Those numbers exceeded her opportunities and production since the Dream’s June 6 loss to the Connecticut Sun. It’s also the first time she’s scored in double figures in back-to-back games since the first two games of the season.
This perked up play from Griner, one of the team’s highest-paid players who is averaging career lows across the board, has to be a positive for Atlanta, right?
Eh, it’s complicated.
Because, even though Griner has not met expectations and seen her role minimized, the Dream, especially the Dream offense, has exceeded expectations, transformed from the W’s worst offensive units in 2024 to, before the low-scoring loss in Dallas, the league’s best in 2025. Even accounting for that outlier awful effort against the Wings, the Dream still rank in the top three in points per game and offensive rating.
Does diverting more usage to Griner risk disrupting an Atlanta offense that has found an identity? Or, does activating BG introduce a needed off-speed pitch that will ultimately enhance the Dream’s offensive attack?
From tons of 3s to more BG
Embracing a high-volume, high-variance 3-point-centric style had propelled Atlanta’s offensive potency. Before the team’s two recent home games against Minnesota and New York, Atlanta led the league in 3-point attempts per game, hoisting nearly 31 per contest. A league-high 37.1 percent of the Dream’s points were coming from 3-pointers, while 38.3 percent of the points were produced in the paint, the second-lowest percentage in the league.
The past two games, when Smesko prioritized Griner, the Dream’s profile almost completely flipped. Only 13.2 percent of the Dream’s points came from behind the arc, while 62.6 percent were scored in the paint.
To a certain extent, a poor stretch of 3-point shooting from other members of the Dream explains this stark shift. Against the Lynx and Liberty, the Dream shot 18.2 percent and 21.1 percent, respectively, from deep, making just four 3-pointers in both games. However, the Dream took 22 and 19 3s, their lowest number of attempts in games this season. The second-half absence of Rhyne Howard against the Liberty adds further context for team’s reduced number of 3-point attempts. Atlanta’s most prolific 3-point shooter, Howard was sidelined with an upper body injury after an early-third quarter clash with Natasha Cloud. (After the game, Smesko had no update on Howard’s status moving forward.)
Yet, even when accounting for those factors, the Dream’s departure from it’s established, effective offensive identity is striking. That Atlanta dropped 92 points on Minnesota, the league’s best defense, and 90 points on New York, ranked third in defense, suggests its not necessarily the wrong decision. But again, it’s kind of complicated.
The crux of the BG conundrum
The matchups against the Lynx and Liberty presented favorable opportunities to try something different, as they offered potentially advantageous circumstances for Griner to be a more featured part of the Dream offense. Minnesota employs an undersized frontcourt, while New York was without Jonquel Jones.
In both games, Griner got more of the deep touches Smesko described. And when receiving the ball, BG mostly eliminated the hesitancy that has characterized her offensive integration in Atlanta, instead quickly going into her scoring move before finishing strong through, rather than around, contact. Griner converted 60 percent of her attempts against Minnesota and 58.3 percent against New York, her most efficient scoring games since the aforementioned early June game against Connecticut.
Don’t forget about the space the Atlanta Dream can create for Brittney Griner. Zipper action into a post up but the key is the left side. Jones lifted at the Elbow, Howard lifted on the wing. No low help + deep post position. pic.twitter.com/cys5XseXFR
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) June 27, 2025
There is, however, another complicated catch. In the four-point overtime loss to Minnesota, Atlanta was outscored by nine points in Griner’s minutes, the second-worst mark on the team. While the tandem of Griner and Brionna Joneshad a size and strength advantage over the Lynx’s pairing of Napheesa Collier and Alanna Smith, the Minnesota duo possesses a versatility that punished the defensive limitations of Griner and Jones, with Collier, in particular, finding herself open for a few too many automatic jumpers.
Had the Liberty’s Jones been available, a similar scenario likely would have emerged. New York’s frontcourt of Jones and Breanna Stewart is the most difficult to guard in the league. But with the Liberty forced to rely on Isabelle Harrison, they lacked the kind of elite frontcourt shooting that would have rendered the Dream’s three big lineups of Griner, Jones and Naz Hillmon untenable.
Overall, there is not enough of a sample to make definitive declarations about Atlanta’s potential shift from Smesko-ball, where 3s fly early and often, to BG-ball, where getting the 6-foot-9 center the ball on block becomes a featured element of the offense. Ideally, a melding of the two approaches can happen, with the team toggling and tweaking its offensive identity within games to exploit matchup advantages.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. But, as the past two games have shown, Smesko means what he says.
