A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray are at the heart of Las Vegas Aces’ success

PHOENIX – Humility. Accountability. Family.

Those have been the defining tenets of the Las Vegas Aces’ core three – A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray – that have served as a foundation amid the construction of one of the most impressive franchise runs in WNBA history.

In four seasons, the Aces have appeared in three WNBA Finals, winning two championships in back-to-back fashion – which hadn’t been done in the WNBA in more than 20 years.

Leading 3-0 on the Phoenix Mercury in the best-of-seven WNBA Finals, Las Vegas is knocking on the door of a third championship in four years. Present in each of those seasons has been the trio of Wilson, Young and Gray, who continue to pilot the franchise to historic heights while building individual legacies that will likely end enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

“That’s why the expectation is so high,” Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon said. “Because of those three.”

In recent years, the Aces have been synonymous with a level of dominance that has made them championship contenders at every point of the regular season.

This season, however, has not looked or felt like those dominant Las Vegas runs of the past – not initially, anyway. It was just two months ago that the Aces suffered a 53-point loss to the Lynx – the worst margin for a home loss in WNBA history. Las Vegas dramatically turned its season around, though, and sit — yet again — within arm’s reach of another title.

If the Aces end the season as champions, it’ll be in large part because of the elite playmaking of their “big three”:

–Gray, the magician with the basketball in her hands who also has shined defensively.

–Young, one of the strongest guards in the league who has come to be known as the “silent assassin.”

— Lastly Wilson, the league’s first four-time MVP, who is blazing a path to be the best talent the league has ever seen.

Their greatness also has been derived as a unit, a combination of dynamic forces that have worked harmoniously as a collective over the past five seasons.

“It’s really unique,” said Aces guard Jewell Loyd, who joined the team this offseason. “It’s never about, you know, any one person. They just want to compete together, make each other better. They just want to win together.”

While teams like the Mercury have found success this season with a roster including a majority of new faces to gel in Year 1, a key for the Aces’ longevity has been their continuity and cohesion. Between their core three, Wilson and Young have played with Gray for five seasons, while Young, the 2019 No. 1 overall pick, and Wilson, the 2018 No. 1 overall pick, have been teammates for seven.

When Gray joined the Aces in 2021, she was a needed spark. Touted as one of the best passers and playmakers in the league and carrying championship experience (2016), Gray joined an Aces team that had been steadily building off its homegrown talent and had made the semifinals and Finals in its two previous seasons.

“I feel like we have all just banked equity with each other off the court to where on the court we can get just to our spots. We [have] an understanding of what makes people great. How do we get the best out of them?” Wilson said after Las Vegas’ Game 2 victory.

The development of on-court chemistry between Wilson, Young and Gray hasn’t come without its share of growing pains. It has been a process that has required patience. Gray credited Hammon, who took over as the Aces’ head coach in 2021, with allowing the trio to adapt to what they’re seeing on the court.

“Even if [Hammon] calls something out of the timeout, a lot of times we’ll see something, and Jackie takes it right down the lane, or A’ja fakes it and we go,” Gray told Andscape. “She’s allowed us to play basketball and given us the freedom to do that. With that has come chemistry.”

That chemistry certainly took time. In the beginning, Gray noted, turnovers occurred because of missed timing between the trio, or defensively one of the three would slip out of coverage, leading to an opponent’s layup. Over time, though, the three learned each other’s habits on the floor.

“Especially when we’re in a three-man action,” Gray said. “Whether Jackie’s come out with pick-and-roll with [A’ja] or it’s me and she’s the riser. We have confidence in each other and our chemistry really takes a hold of that, especially in the playoffs.”

For assistant coach Charlene Thomas-Swinson, who has been on the Aces’ coaching staff since their first title in 2022 and seen the development of Wilson, Young and Gray on the floor, what has been most impressive is witnessing their insatiable appetite to continue growing as pros. Thomas-Swinson said the three are wired a bit differently in their approach, but when thrown together become aligned in their process.

“They’re still the biggest students of the game. This game is ever-evolving. The level of talent in the league has gotten better from four years ago,” Thomas-Swinson said. “Them being able to embrace that and to be better and hone in more on their craft so they can be better, against that better talent – I think that’s been the biggest and exciting thing. They embrace it. They don’t walk away from it. You know, they meet it head on.”

This season presented a bit of a shakeup for the Aces. Las Vegas had lost an integral member of its championship core in Kelsey Plum, who departed for the Los Angeles Sparks, while a number of new faces like Loyd and guard Dana Evans joined the fold. Wilson, Young and Gray’s return provided the stability, but even that wasn’t enough to meet the Aces’ contending standard early in the season. 

When the Aces fell as far as ninth place in the standings, starting the season 14-14 overall, Thomas-Swinson said it was Wilson, Young and Gray who shouldered the bulk of the responsibility knowing that if the Aces were to turn their season around, it would start with them.

“It hurt them to their core what was going on,” Thomas-Swinson said. “It forced them to even dig a little bit deeper.”

To turn the team around, Thomas-Swinson said the trio leaned more heavily on the newcomers and embraced the younger players.

“Them as veterans to be able to say, ‘Look, we can be better – there’s some things that we can hone in on to be that team where we can hopefully turn the corner like we needed to,’ ” Thomas-Swinson said. “Thank goodness we did.”

Since Aug. 3, the Aces have won 24 of their past 27 games.

“It took a lot of grit and toughness to get here, just being resilient,” Young said before Game 1 of the Finals. “In the past, we were probably [a] top three [team] all season. This year, it was different.”

All three players have had opportunities to leave the franchise in pursuit of an expanded individual role on another team. All three, however, have chosen to stick together, with Wilson signing an extension in 2023 and Young and Gray signing extensions in 2024. The commitment to selflessly place winning above all else is what Las Vegas Aces team president Nikki Fargas said has been a key to their success as a group.

“They complement one another with no egos attached,” Fargas said. “And when you’ve got three superstars, what they’ve done a great job of is [that] they block out the noise.”

Each of the three has had her moment to shine during these Finals, whether it was Young scoring 21 points in the third quarter of Game 2, the most points in any quarter in WNBA Finals history; Gray netting back-to-back 10-assist performances in the first two games of the series; or Wilson hitting the game-winner in Game 3 on Wednesday night.

“When you see someone who works so hard every single day and you get to see the hard work paying off, it’s a beautiful thing to witness,” Wilson said of Young’s performance after Game 1.

Following Wilson’s heroics in Game 3, Gray could be heard in the halls of Mortgage Matchup Center hyping up her teammate.

“A’ja f—g Wilson, boy!” Gray shouted.

The trio’s desire to see each other do well, combined with a shared love of the game, is what has stuck most with Thomas-Swinson.

“They’re their biggest cheerleaders,” she said. “That’s been the concept for the four years I’ve been with them.”

With a league-shifting collective bargaining agreement, as well as one of the most chaotic free-agency periods the league has ever seen on the precipice, there’s also no guarantee that this core — which has fueled Las Vegas’ dominance — will continue.

Wilson, Young and Gray will each enter the offseason as unrestricted free agents. Keeping the core intact will be the priority of the Aces’ front office.

“We want to continue to have those three. There is no desire to do anything but do our best to make sure that we sign them back to the Aces’ organization,” Fargas said.

Young understands what it means to be on this special once-in-an-era journey with talents such as Wilson and Gray, and she is doing her best to relish it while she can.

“Those are two of my best friends,” Young said. “Just being able to, you know, be on this ride with them – I think it’s pretty cool. You just kind of take it in and enjoy these moments being present, being in the moment.”

That close-knit bond is what Loyd took note of when she arrived in Las Vegas. 

“They’ve been together for so long, but I think it’s deeper than that. They really want the best for each other,” Loyd said. “They support each other off the court just as much as they’re on the court. They kind of act like family, right?”

And sometimes, families spar. The trio’s tight connection also has allowed for a deeper level of accountability, with one always ensuring another that they are meeting the standard set by each other.

“They’re always on me,” Young said. “[A’ja] might need to cuss me out real quick, and I’ll lock in. If I’m not myself on the court, they’re going to look at me, see if I’m OK. We just know how to communicate with each other, too.”

The Aces will have an opportunity to end their season Friday night with a championship – perhaps an outcome that, through the first 25 games of the season, felt like a longshot. Should they win, they’ll join the Houston Comets as the only other team in WNBA history to win three titles in four seasons. The Comets won consecutive titles in the league’s first four seasons (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000).

Gray didn’t want to speak too soon and underestimate the resolve of the Mercury, but she spoke on what the significance would be if she were to win one more title with Young and Wilson by her side.

“It’s hard to really put into words. I guess I hopefully can find them when it happens,” Gray said. “It’s been a process. It’s been a journey. It’s been up and down. There has been tears. I’ll just be happy to do it with them – for sure.”

The post A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray are at the heart of Las Vegas Aces’ success appeared first on Andscape.