Kelsey Plum Is Leading The Surging Sparks Into The Playoff Race

By all reporting, Kelsey Plum did not formally request a trade from the Las Vegas Aces last offseason. She didn’t have to. They were the San Antonio Stars when she got picked first overall in 2017 and eight years later, they had been through more together than just a rebrand out West.

Plum struggled, failing to average double-digit points in any of her first three seasons. After an Achilles tear, she watched from home as the Aces lost in the 2020 WNBA Finals. But a return saw her win Sixth Player of the Year, as she was starting to fulfill the massive expectations that hung over her career. In 2022, the real leap: Plum was the leading scorer on a championship team, then the Aces repeated as champs in 2023 before a semifinals loss in 2024.

A successful, exhausting, complete journey for the 30-year-old Plum. (And those are just her on-court trials.) So, it came as little surprise when she did not sign an extension with Las Vegas, which ultimately signed-and-traded her to the Los Angeles Sparks before the 2025 season.

“It was time for me to grow,” she told reporters in mid-May. “That’s why I took a leap of faith. It’s just time for a new chapter in my life — personally and professionally.”

That new chapter, now three-quarters into the season, is in full swing. How’s it going?

Plum Dawg, LA’s Top Dawg

I am, perhaps, not the most unbiased narrator. I love watching Kelsey Plum hoop, and when the Sparks play, Plum does a lot of hooping. Per Synergy Sports, 47.4 percent of her possessions this season have come in pick-and-roll, handoffs or isolations, her highest rate since a wildly overtaxed rookie year.

Tasked with such a creation burden, Plum does slip into some of her more unbecoming habits. She chucks or drives recklessly into the paint, only to get swallowed up by larger help defenders. But her skill application is consistently jaw-dropping. Here are two drives from a July 26 contest against the New York Liberty, just a minute apart in a tight fourth quarter:

Plum first ducks under the 6-foot-4 Leonie Fiebich with a jump-stop and pump-fake, then outwits the quick, 5-foot-10 Natasha Cloud with a deceleration. They are opposite but wholly effective finishing moves, deployed perfectly against two distinct defenders. That deceleration might be her go-to-move, but she can pull anything out of a bottomless toolbox as a driver.

And yet, the way Plum sets up her drives is more impressive — and more crucial — than how she finishes them. On each of those plays, her defender is initially trying to force her right but Plum gets back to her dominant left hand. This is how every team tries to guard her, and this is how most fail. Plum always knows where defenses are shepherding her and there is no WNBA player better at avoiding containment. At just 5 feet 8 inches and as the Sparks’ lead creator, it’s a necessity.

It’s not solely about getting back to her left hand. More importantly, Plum is the league’s most prolific screen-rejector — with either hand. Sometimes, it’s unspectacular. Here, she catches Kate Martin leaning with a calm jab-step, then gets away from the middle of the floor to draw strong-side help and it’s an easy pass for a corner three that rims out…

With Plum at the helm, reject opportunities are built into L.A’s offense, as well as counters to punish defenders who live in fear of rejection. (Who among us?) Here’s a diabolical sequence from earlier this season where, first, the Sparks use ‘pitch’ action to let Plum set up an advantage like a wide receiver, faking a cut into a downhill opportunity. Then, she actually does reject a ball-screen to do it again. Brutal:

fun KP sequence from earlier this season pic.twitter.com/OGZLa46Lwe

— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) August 15, 2025

In rejecting ball-screens, Plum rejects defensive game-plans and all hell breaks loose. Help points get scrambled and her passing reads get easier. Those plays above resulted in layups, but more often, defenses collapse in an unorganized panic, creating easy kick-outs to 3-point shooters; Plum has made the third-most threes in the WNBA (76), but she’s assisted on the third-most as well (73). That total (149) leads the league by a lap or two.

Plum is no stranger to carrying a major offensive load in the WNBA and it’s not exactly novel to praise these skills in 2025. She’s already been the leading scorer on a championship team, and her 25.3 percent usage rate in 2025 is right in line with her post-Achilles average.

But her on-ball skills are exhilarating and during her first season in Los Angeles, we get to see them more often. According to Synergy Sports, just 21.2 percent of her field goal attempts have been of the catch-and-shoot variety this season, nearly halved from 40.1 percent last season.

She sees more traps and earlier help than she’s ever seen in her career. For the first time in years, she is the No. 1 priority on every scouting report. This is what she asked for and she’s delivering. Her 59 percent true shooting is three percentage points higher than it was in 2024 and right in line with her post-Achilles career.

The Sparks Are Rolling, And Are More Than Just Plum

Los Angeles did start Plum’s tenure with a tough schedule. On July 4, it was just 5-13, rocking the league’s eighth-best offense and 11th-best defense. Talk about a tale of two seasons. The Sparks are 11-4 in their last 15 games and while their defense is still laughably bad, they have the WNBA’s very best offense in that timespan. It’s no Kelsey Plum carry job.

Some of their improvement is natural growth as a unit. Not only are they playing more lottery-bound teams but gelling under a new head coach and lead ball-handler takes time. Here are two very different possessions: In May, Plum drives around a hedge but not one teammate is spotting up outside the arc, the spacing totally discombobulated. In August, two passes lead to a baseline drive, then Rickea Jackson’s sacrifice cut leads to a wide open corner three:

You may notice Plum isn’t the one driving and kicking in the second clip. Aside from finding their flow, they’ve also integrated a crucial piece. Julie Allemand was with the Sparks at the start of the season but left for the majority of June to lead Belgium to a EuroBasket gold medal.

Since returning, the pass-first guard has started next to Plum in the backcourt, with Jackson, Dearica Hamby and Azurá Stevens rounding out the starting five. This group is on fire, posting a 114.3 offensive rating in nearly 300 minutes, which would easily lead all WNBA teams. Allemand fills a couple needs for the Sparks’ offense. She’s the only starter truly looking to pass every time down, averaging more assists than shot attempts per game.

More importantly, Allemand gives Plum a reliable ball-handler on the other side of the court and can initiate opportunities for her. Plum’s usage drops 3.5 percent points with the Belgian sharing the backcourt, the largest drop among Allemand’s teammates. In addition, 14 percent more of her 3-point looks are assisted.

Plum is having a great season leading L.A.’s offense but a true two ball-handler look has been a godsend, even in bench units. The Sparks signed fellow Belgian guard Julie Vanloo in early July as well, and on this possession, she doesn’t create an advantage on the initial action. Still, the ball finds its way to Plum on the second side, with Indiana’s defense shifted a tad out of position. A wonderful re-screen and slip from Hamby gives her a lane to the rim and the help is late, a death sentence against Hamby:

Los Angeles has found its offensive stride and thus, it’s found the balance for Plum. She’s still initiating a ton of possessions, but there are more advantage situations and tilted floors for her to attack. Plum’s chemistry with her former Las Vegas teammate, Hamby, is all the way back, re-forming one of the league’s most dangerous pick-and-roll combinations, with Hamby shooting a pristine 61 percent from two. And if all that doesn’t work out, Stevens and her career year are on the perimeter, just waiting:

Sparks offense is on fire right now: pic.twitter.com/eGtUUYQjUZ

— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) August 15, 2025

You can see why the Sparks are neck and neck with the Atlanta Dream for the most mathematically satisfying offense in the league; they take 72.5 percent of their shots at the rim or from three, just behind Atlanta’s 72.6 percent. Every player on the Sparks deserves credit, as does first-year head coach Lynne Roberts. Plum has a new home but she isn’t making it all by herself.

Big Questions To Answer

Despite their 11-4 run to climb back into playoff contention, the Sparks still have major issues to solve. That their defense still ranks 12th — meaning there is one team worse than them — is horrifying. Plum often matches up with the opponent’s least threatening player, but the team’s leader does bare responsibility for its (lack of) effort. I find this possession pretty instructive:

Plum doesn’t fight too hard on the screen, but Hamby offers no help at all, and while that’s the timeliest Jackson has been on a rotation all season, it’s still a tad late. Stevens is but a bystander here, but she’s really just a big wing masquerading as a center — opponents shoot 7 percent better from two with her on the floor.

What is the best path forward? Not just with Los Angeles clawing to make the playoffs but long-term, hoping to retain Plum in free agency. Jackson is young enough to improve defensively and fellow sophomore Cameron Brink feels like a future Defensive Player of the Year. She’s coming off the bench in her return from ACL surgery and pulling this whole group up is yeoman’s work. And are we sure she’s a floor-spacer approaching Stevens’ quality or a dynamic roller like Hamby?

If not, how optimized must the offense be for Plum? Does it matter her true shooting percentage is the same with or without Allemand sharing the backcourt? Despite early season turnover issues, Plum is a feather away from the 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio she’s been hovering around her whole career. Can full-time Brink (whenever we get there) and a bigger, defensive-minded backcourt partner drag this defense to respectability? The Sparks are wickedly fun but it’s not sustainable.

Yet maybe Plum’s offensive burden is. Maybe, she has proven she can lead an elite offense of nearly any kind.

The Liberty spent much of that July 26 game applying pressure to Plum, even trapping guard-to-guard screens for her. In the third quarter, she threw a bad turnover right to Fiebich, who was sitting in the passing lane. Fast forward to crunch time and on a do-or-die possession, Plum threw one of her best passes of the season:

With Allemand on the wing, she strings out the double-team, waiting for something better. Stevens cuts, and it comes.

Plum is one of the more individually skilled guards the W has seen, but there were — and still are — questions about her ability to truly lead an offense. She is small and can struggle trying to drive through multiple bodies. She goes into chuck mode and did so even when playing with three fellow All-Stars on the Aces.

Despite all that, the Sparks bet big on her this past offseason, sacrificing the No. 2 overall pick to hand Plum the keys to the franchise. Plays like that help you understand why.

A year after posting the league’s worst record and offensive rating, the Sparks are fun again, creeping toward good. Can Kelsey Plum can take them there? I wouldn’t bet against her.

All stats are courtesy of PBP Stats and accurate prior to games played on Aug. 15 unless otherwise noted.