# 2020 Atlanta Dream season

The 2020 WNBA season was the 13th season for the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association. The team began its season on July 26, 2020, against the Dallas Wings.
On October 18, 2019, the Dream unveiled a rebrand of their logo and color scheme for their upcoming season. The Dream was originally scheduled to start play its home games at the new Gateway Center Arena at College Park, electing to move from State Farm Arena in the 2019 off-season. The WNBA season was to have a 36-game schedule, which would have been the most games in a season in league history. However, the plan for expanded games was put on hold on April 3, when the WNBA postponed its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under a plan approved on June 15, the league is scheduled to hold a shortened 22-game regular season at IMG Academy, without fans present, starting on July 24.
The Dream started the season promisingly, winning two of their first three games. That promise was short lived, as the team lost their next ten games in a row. After the ten game losing streak was broken, the Dream lost their next two games to finish August with a 3–13 record, and a slim hope at making the playoffs. September proved to be a turn in fortunes for the Dream. They recorded four wins in five games to go into their final game against the Washington Mystics, with a chance to make the playoffs. However, Washington prevailed and the Dream missed the playoffs. Their overall winning percentage of .318 was the third worst in team history.

## Transactions
### WNBA draft

The Dream made the following selections in the 2020 WNBA draft.
| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/team/country |
| 1 | 4 | Chennedy Carter | United States | Texas A&M |
| 2 | 17 | Brittany Brewer | United States | Texas Tech |
| 3 | 25 | Mikayla Pivec | United States | Oregon State |
| 3 | 27 | Kobi Thornton | United States | Clemson |

### Trades and roster changes

| Date | Details |
| January 21, 2020 | Exercised 4th-year Team tption on Marie Gülich and Monique Billings |
| January 21, 2020 | Extended a qualifying offer to Alaina Coates |
| January 22, 2020 | Renounced the rights to Celine Dumerc and Isabelle Yacoubou |
| February 10, 2020 | Traded Brittney Sykes and Marie Gülich to the Los Angeles Sparks in exchange for Kalani Brown |
| February 12, 2020 | Signed Glory Johnson |
| February 16, 2020 | Signed Shekinna Stricklen |
| February 18, 2020 | Claimed Alexis Jones off waivers |
| February 19, 2020 | Traded Jessica Breland and Nia Coffey to the Phoenix Mercury in exchange for Courtney Williams and the 17th pick in the 2020 WNBA draft from the Connecticut Sun, as part of a 3-team trade |
| February 23, 2020 | Signed Blake Dietrick to a training-camp contract |
| February 25, 2020 | Signed Elīna Babkina to a training-camp contract |
| April 16, 2020 | Signed Alaina Coates to a training-camp contract |
| April 19, 2020 | Signed Mikayla Pivec to a rookie-scale contract |
| April 20, 2020 | Signed Brittany Brewer to a rookie-scale contract |
| April 23, 2020 | Signed Chennedy Carter to a rookie-scale contract |
| April 27, 2020 | Waived Alaina Coates |
| May 23, 2020 | Waived Elīna Babkina |
| May 24, 2020 | Full season suspension of Maite Cazorla due to her sitting out the 2020 season for personal reasons |
| May 25, 2020 | Full season suspension of Mikayla Pivec due to her sitting out the 2020 season for personal reasons |
| June 18, 2020 | Renee Montgomery opted out of the 2020 season |
| June 23, 2020 | Tiffany Hayes opted out of the 2020 season |
| June 24, 2020 | Signed Betnijah Laney and Jaylyn Agnew |
| July 12, 2020 | Signed Erica McCall to a hardship contract |
| July 29, 2020 | Released Erica McCall from her Hhrdship contract |
| August 23, 2020 | Waived Alexis Jones |
| August 23, 2020 | Signed Kaela Davis to a 7-day contract |
| August 31, 2020 | Signed Kaela Davis to a 2nd 7-day contract |
| September 7, 2020 | Signed Kaela Davis |

## Roster
### Depth

| Pos. | Starter | Bench |
| C | Elizabeth Williams | Kalani Brown Brittany Brewer |
| PF | Monique Billings | Glory Johnson |
| SF | Betnijah Laney | Shekinna Stricklen Kaela Davis |
| SG | Courtney Williams | Jaylyn Agnew |
| PG | Chennedy Carter | Blake Dietrick |

## Schedule
### Regular season

2020 game log Regular season total: 7–15 :
July
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
July 26
Dallas
W 105–95
Billings (30)
Billings (13)
Carter (8)
IMG Academy
1–0
2
July 29
Las Vegas
L 70–100
E. Williams (16)
Billings (7)
Tied (4)
IMG Academy
1–1
3
July 31
New York
W 84–78
Laney (30)
Billings (15)
Carter (3)
IMG Academy
2–1 :
August
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
4
August 2
Indiana
L 77–93
C. Williams (18)
Billings (8)
Laney (6)
IMG Academy
2–2
5
August 4
Phoenix
L 74–81
Carter (26)
C. Williams (9)
Laney (5)
IMG Academy
2–3
6
August 6
Seattle
L 92–93
Carter (35)
C. Williams (10)
Carter (7)
IMG Academy
2–4
7
August 8
Dallas
L 75–85
Laney (16)
Tied (7)
3 tied (3)
IMG Academy
2–5
8
August 10
Connecticut
L 82–93
Stricklen (18)
C. Williams (7)
Dietrick (6)
IMG Academy
2–6
9
August 12
Seattle
L 63–100
Laney (17)
Tied (7)
Dietrick (4)
IMG Academy
2–7
10
August 14
Phoenix
L 80–96
Laney (16)
C. Williams (14)
Dietrick (7)
IMG Academy
2–8
11
August 16
Chicago
L 67–92
C. Williams (15)
Billings (8)
Tied (4)
IMG Academy
2–9
12
August 19
Washington
L 91–98
Laney (35)
Billings (12)
C. Williams (7)
IMG Academy
2–10
13
August 21
Los Angeles
L 85–93 (OT)
Johnson (23)
Billings (9)
Laney (11)
IMG Academy
2–11
14
August 23
Minnesota
W 78–75
Tied (16)
Billings (13)
Laney (10)
IMG Academy
3–11
15
August 28
Minnesota
L 79–88
Laney (22)
C. Williams (10)
Tied (5)
IMG Academy
3–12
16
August 30
Los Angeles
L 79–84
Carter (26)
Billings (14)
Dietrick (5)
IMG Academy
3–13 :
September
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
17
September 1
Indiana
W 102–90
Tied (22)
Johnson (8)
Carter (6)
IMG Academy
4–13
18
September 3
New York
W 62–56
C. Williams (15)
C. Williams (13)
Laney (3)
IMG Academy
5–13
19
September 5
Las Vegas
L 79–89
Laney (21)
3 tied (7)
Carter (6)
IMG Academy
5–14
20
September 9
Chicago
W 97–89
Laney (24)
3 tied (10)
Tied (5)
IMG Academy
6–14
21
September 11
Connecticut
W 82–75
Carter (22)
Laney (10)
Tied (4)
IMG Academy
7–14
22
September 13
Washington
L 78–85
Laney (27)
C. Williams (11)
Dietrick (4)
IMG Academy
7–15 :
2020 season schedule :

## Standings

| # | Team | W | L | PCT | GB | Conf. |
| 1 | x – Las Vegas Aces | 18 | 4 | .818 | – | 8–2 |
| 2 | x – Seattle Storm | 18 | 4 | .818 | – | 8–2 |
| 3 | x – Los Angeles Sparks | 15 | 7 | .682 | 3 | 5–5 |
| 4 | x – Minnesota Lynx | 14 | 8 | .636 | 4 | 4–6 |
| 5 | x – Phoenix Mercury | 13 | 9 | .591 | 5 | 4–6 |
| 6 | x – Chicago Sky | 12 | 10 | .545 | 6 | 6–4 |
| 7 | x – Connecticut Sun | 10 | 12 | .455 | 8 | 7–3 |
| 8 | x – Washington Mystics | 9 | 13 | .409 | 9 | 6–4 |
| 9 | e – Dallas Wings | 8 | 14 | .364 | 10 | 1–9 |
| 10 | e – Atlanta Dream | 7 | 15 | .318 | 11 | 5–5 |
| 11 | e – Indiana Fever | 6 | 16 | .273 | 12 | 4–6 |
| 12 | e – New York Liberty | 2 | 20 | .091 | 16 | 2–8 |
* v
* t
* e
Notes
    x – Clinched playoff berth
    e – Eliminated from playoffs
    Home and Away records not shown, as all games played at a neutral location.
    Updated to include results from September 13, 2020
    Source

## Statistics
### Regular season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Chennedy Carter | 16 | 16 | 25.4 | 47.3 | 37.5 | 82.1 | 2.3 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 17.4 |
| Betnijah Laney | 22 | 22 | 33.3 | 48.1 | 40.5 | 82.7 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 17.2 |
| Courtney Williams | 20 | 14 | 30.5 | 43.6 | 23.5 | 69.6 | 7.2 | 3.2 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 14.6 |
| Elizabeth Williams | 22 | 22 | 29.2 | 48.9 | 0 | 74.2 | 5.7 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 10.1 |
| Monique Billings | 22 | 16 | 27.1 | 40.0 | 0 | 76.1 | 8.5 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 8.5 |
| Shekinna Stricklen | 22 | 15 | 21.7 | 34.1 | 33.3 | 100 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0 | 6.1 |
| Blake Dietrick | 22 | 4 | 21.0 | 47.1 | 44.8 | 62.5 | 1.6 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 5.9 |
| Glory Johnson | 18 | 1 | 15.1 | 37.3 | 26.2 | 50.0 | 3.7 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 4.7 |
| Kalani Brown | 10 | 0 | 6.1 | 52.2 | 0 | 60.0 | 1.2 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 3.0 |
| Jaylyn Agnew | 12 | 0 | 5.9 | 26.7 | 23.1 | 80.0 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 1.3 |
| Brittany Brewer | 5 | 0 | 6.6 | 66.7 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | 0 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Kaela Davis | 2 | 0 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Awards and honors

| Recipient | Award | Date awarded |
| Betnijah Laney | Most Improved Player | September 24 |
| Betnijah Laney | WNBA All-Defense 1st Team | September 29 |
| Chennedy Carter | All-Rookie Team | September 27 |
| Elizabeth Williams | WNBA All-Defense 1st Team | September 29 |