There are many well-documented ways in which Unrivaled serves as an extension of the WNBA, from rosters and coaching staffs to player rivalries and friendships.
But, there’s still a significant difference between the basketball itself. Within the small-sided constraints of Unrivaled basketball, individual skill is given a taller podium. Fewer help defenders within the same spacing (in terms of court width and 3-point line distance, not length) allows for a higher rate of isolation success. On paper, the true bucket getters should dominate Unrivaled.
So, if play style is so different across the two leagues, who benefits the most? Which players are seeing success in 3×3 that they haven’t necessarily found in the WNBA?
Aaliyah Edwards (Lunar Owls BC/Connecticut Sun)
Having played on two WNBA teams and two Unrivaled teams in the past year, Aaliyah Edwards is constantly reinventing her role. Getty Images
In her second Unrivaled season, Aaliyah Edwards has swiftly become the poster child for upscaled isolation basketball.
While her 3×3 production wasn’t anything to write home about last season when she was a member of Mist, her memorable run to the championship of the 1-on-1 Tournament sparked some healthy debate about whether her skills were being properly displayed in the WNBA. Edwards beat WNBA All-Stars Breanna Stewart (12-0), Allisha Gray (12-6), and Arike Ogunbowale (11-2) before losing to Napheesa Collier in the final round.
This season, Edwards seems to have devised an equation to bring her tournament success to Lunar Owls. She’s averaging 21.8 points per game through the first five games of the season, good for sixth in the league. Compared to her 5.4 points per game average last season in the WNBA, when she spent time on the Washington Mystics before being traded to the Connecticut Sun, there is no bigger point differential between any other Unrivaled player and their WNBA production.
Edwards also leads Unrivaled in rebounds at 12.2 per game, a far cry from her 5.4 WNBA average. While this should hopefully go without saying, such a production gap isn’t indicative of some hidden ability for Edwards to average 22 points per game in the W. Because of pace, spacing and more streamlined offensive options, Unrivaled basketball will always see higher scoring performances. However, it’s enough to suggest that Edwards’ talent in comparison to her peers is more impressive than we might imagine. While she continues to adjust to a new system in Connecticut, her Unrivaled portfolio is helping her build a case for a bigger role.
Monique Billings (Hive BC/Golden State Valkyries)
Monique Billings has three double-doubles in five games for Hive BC. Getty Images
Edwards’ untapped youthful potential isn’t the only archetype of Unrivaled riser.
Monique Billings, an eight-year WNBA veteran, has followed a similar trajectory of impressive, and perhaps unexpected, production. Billings wasn’t selected for Unrivaled’s inaugural season, which was not too surprising considering her WNBA career has been defined by a constricted role and limited offensive usage. She’s constantly made herself useful enough to stick around on rosters, but has never been prominently featured in a team’s system.
Billings was assigned to Hive, making her a player new to Unrivaled joining a club new to Unrivaled. While she’s only playing 11 minutes per game thus far, Billings is averaging over 14 points and eight rebounds per night. That’s historical per-minute production in basketball. Five games is enough of a sample to suggest that Billings interior successes aren’t a fluke. Her 3-ball hasn’t been falling yet, but she’s been able to get it off more than she usually can in 5×5. Billings has been trying to add a deep shot to her arsenal for the last couple of years, and Unrivaled is a perfect place to experiment with it.
Billings has jelled well with Hive’s backcourt players in Sonia Citron, Kelsey Mitchell and Natisha Hiedeman. While she splits forward minutes with Ezi Magbegor and Saniya Rivers, she’s found moments to get her own game going. Her production has felt fairly equal to Magbegor’s, and has actually been more consistent than Rivers’ (although Rivers’ defense has easily kept her on the court). The Hive are just 1-4, but they have plenty of time to test new rotations and build more consistency with minutes.
Marina Mabrey (Lunar Owls BC/Connecticut Sun)
Marina Mabrey and Paige Bueckers are the only Unrivaled players in the top 10 of points, rebounds, and assists. Getty Images
There are two names who deserve attention for how their games shine in the Unrivaled 3×3 setting. For Breeze, Dominique Malonga is drumming a rhythm similar to her game-changing output towards the end of the Seattle Storm season last year. Chelsea Gray, Rose’s maestro, is once again showing that she can score the ball at will when she chooses, leading the league in scoring.
Unfortunately for both of them, it’s just too hard to ignore the 2026 Marina Mabrey Unrivaled experience.
If you haven’t had the chance to catch a Lunar Owls game, Mabrey’s stats speak for themselves. She’s averaging 28.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game. For lack of better words, that’s just ridiculous. Mabrey and Paige Bueckers are the only two players sitting in the top 10 of all three stats, and Mabrey is averaging nearly five points more than Bueckers. Mabrey and Edwards combine for 49.6 of the Lunar Owls’ 65.4 points per game—almost 76 percent!
Mabrey has always been a bucket getter, but she’s operating on a different level with this kind of space. She averaged 14.7 points last Unrivaled season as a member of Phantom, when she only played in the final three games of the regular season due to injury. That output was much more similar to the 13 points per game she has averaged across her WNBA career. It’s hard to tell if her louder numbers are due to her role on the somewhat-thin Lunar Owls, or just a new level of comfortability in a 3×3 environment—but something new is clicking with Mabrey.
She’s also an elite competitor, much to the dismay of her opponents sometimes. She got into an intense shoving match with Vinyl’s Courtney Williams in the Lunar Owls’ most recent game, backing up her talk with 31 points, nine rebounds and an 11-point win. Lunar Owls aren’t winning much, but Mabrey is getting hers, and that’s fun to watch.