The news hit the timeline like a truck: after missing the 2025 WNBA season, Chennedy Carter was back, signing with the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces. Immediately, fans and media outlets alike posed questions: Is Carter ready to be back? What role will she take on in the stacked guard room alongside Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young? Perhaps the most puzzling of them all: How on Earth did the league let the Aces get away with this?
In less than 10 games with Las Vegas, we seem to have some answers. Through six, Carter is leading the Aces’ bench unit, averaging 20 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.5 steals per game in only 22 minutes. Her uncanny speed and world-class ability to score on all three levels has meshed seamlessly with four-time MVP A’ja Wilson. The Sixth Player of the Year Award seems to be hers to lose.
After scoring a game-high 27 points against the Connecticut Sun on May 13th, Carter addressed the USA Sports media team, touching on her growth as a player and as a person: “I’ve been at the mountaintop, I’ve been at the bottom, I’ve been in between…it’s just trusting my growth.”
For many fans, this meant more than her on-court performance—it showed a new and improved Carter that has the tools to stay in the W for a long time to come.
Carter’s quick rise and subsequent fall
Carter was a star for Texas A&M between 2017 and 2020, averaging 22.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, and four assists per game. She stole the nation’s attention in 2019, when she scored 34 points against Team USA in an exhibition game, accounting for 54 percent of her team’s points.
“We anticipated that Chennedy [Carter] would be really geeked up and rise up in big moments,” said coach Cheryl Reeve about the then-college junior. “That’s sort of what she does…she’s very crafty. She has the ability to break it down.”
Five months later, Carter was selected No. 4 in the 2020 WNBA Draft to the Atlanta Dream, joining a roster featuring high-caliber players like Courtney Williams, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and Elizabeth Williams. Her first season went fairly smoothly, and she led the team in scoring with 17.4 points per game.
The next season, however, Carter was suspended by the Dream after an altercation with Courtney Williams, who’d had similar issues in 2018 with the Connecticut Sun.
This incident lingered with Carter for much of the rest of her career, as claims of locker room issues followed her to the Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky. As a result, many teams were not willing to take a chance on the star guard in 2025, so she had to head overseas, where she played in China, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. As expected, Carter put up monster numbers, turning the heads of WNBA teams and international fans alike. To be clear, it was never a lack of skill that kept Carter out of the league.
Carter on the “mountaintop”
If her gameplay is any indication, Carter’s done a full 180. She’s accepted her new role with poise, showing a clear respect for coach Becky Hammon and her vision for her championship-level team. There’s some extra force behind how she’s come out this season, too; she plays like she wants to make opposing front offices pay for not being willing to give her a shot.
In only 22 minutes per game, she’s playing like one of the best guards in the league, and you’d truly never be able to tell she spent any time away with how fast she’s been able to fit back into the W’s system. The minute Carter checks onto the floor in any game, she plays with the energy of someone who refuses to take this renewed opportunity for granted. She immediately forces defenses to shift and torments opposing guards with her pure tenacity and effort.
A player of Carter’s caliber has the tools to make any team better, even those that already have all the pieces. With the W extending its season to 44 games this year, the depth she brings to the Aces should terrify the rest of the league. If the Aces win another championship this year, Carter can rest knowing she played a huge role in doing so.
A few days after being signed to a training camp contract with Las Vegas, Carter told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that, “I feel like I’ve grown, matured, and I’ve took time to myself to find out what really matters to me…So far it was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.” We seem to be looking at a truly transformed Carter, and when a player like her is on the court, the sport is better for everyone involved.
As the league continues to expand and more roster spots open up, there’s a very good chance we see Carter be given the keys to her own team in the next few years. When that happens, there’s no telling where her limit is.
