Coming into the final stretch of the 2026 WNBA season, the Atlanta Dream are a team primed for a potential playoff run. A big reason for the Dream’s strong season has been the play of star forward Angel Reese, who could potentially see her name squeezed into the league’s MVP race. In fact, former WNBA star Tina Thompson believes she’s already there.

During a recent segment of ‘Cousins with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady,’ Tina Thompson laid out her case as to why Angel Reese deserves to be in the WNBA MVP conversation due to how she’s elevated the Dream this year.

“She went there and that Atlanta team is revived, they’re different. I think that they’re maybe No. 4 right now in the league. They’re in that top five, and it just looks different,” Thompson said. “What she brings is impactful. What Angel Reese does, it impacts winning. And it doesn’t necessarily mean scoring … I like that she’s taken a different route to impact the game. That she’s not just kind fixated on scoring.”

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As of right now, the top two candidates for WNBA MVP appear to be Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson and Minnesota Lynx rookie sensations Olivia Miles. But after that, it wouldn’t be surprising if Reese started gaining a little bit of steam.

The three-time All-Star has appeared in 39 of the Dream’s 40 games so far, at a little over 31 minutes per game. She’s been averaging 16.1 points, 12.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals with splits of 43.7 percent shooting from the field and 73.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line.