The guiding principle of Unrivaled in its first season is optimizing player experience, and a primary part of that package is player development. The new 3×3 women’s basketball league, which begins Friday in Miami, has pitched itself as an additive to the WNBA — intended to help players expand their games during the WNBA offseason, which is an important factor to ensure the two entities complement one another.

“That was the missing thing when we played overseas was you’re not getting that development,” said Unrivaled co-founder Breanna Stewart, a WNBA star for the New York Liberty. “You’re not getting that every day, getting a little bit better. And here, we are.”

In support of that effort, Unrivaled’s coaches come from mostly player development and training backgrounds, as do league president Alex Bazzell and president of basketball operations Luke Cooper. Success in Year 1 of Unrivaled will include players’ honing skills that will translate to five-on-five play.

Even though Unrivaled is a three-on-three league, the league’s stakeholders are confident their style of play is compatible with WNBA basketball given the full-court setup compared to FIBA 3×3.

Unrivaled seems particularly well suited to helping young players develop. They’re spending months attached at the hip to WNBA stars, learning their habits and their secrets. The size of the league — 36 players in total, six on each team — means every player takes on an outsized role. Even those who weren’t getting regular reps on WNBA teams will have the opportunity in Unrivaled, and they’ll be asked to do more since only three players are on the court at any time.

In five-on-five, most half-court sets aren’t designed to use every player; someone inevitably ends up as a spacer or decoy. In Unrivaled, everyone is directly involved in the play — as a ballhandler, screen setter, cutter, roller or some other function. With fewer players on the court, seeing the play develop and making the proper next read becomes easier, especially with fewer possible help defenders tagging from the corner or sitting in the paint. The game simplifies for younger players, who can take that court vision back to the WNBA.

“In the grand scheme, you’re playing with three-player type of offenses within the five-on-five,” Brittney Sykes said. “If anything, it just kind of enhances and helps break down the little things while you’re in three-on-three.”

Younger players are also getting more live reps than in a WNBA season. The advantage to competing in Unrivaled instead of playing overseas is the rosters are primarily filled with elite players. Six of the 10 All-WNBA players in 2024 and eight of the 2023 All-WNBA players are in Unrivaled. The extra talent should accelerate the development curve.

“It’s even harder to hide in this type of three-on-three,” Katie Lou Samuelson said. “You have to be involved no matter what, offensively and defensively the whole entire time. You have to be able to hold your own.”

FIBA 3×3 historically has led to players’ improving in isolation and pick-and-rolls. For instance, Jackie Young’s 2021 Olympics experience helped transform her ballhandling, and Hailey Van Lith has become a dramatically better pick-and-roll player after the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Three-on-three also forces players to become better one-on-one defenders since the help defender is much farther away. Stefanie Dolson saw huge gains in her defensive mobility through 3×3, which almost immediately resulted in her critical role in the Chicago Sky’s 2021 title. Allisha Gray, Young and Kelsey Plum became better on that end after their gold medal run.

Those skill developments should also occur in the full-court version. Unlike the FIBA version, Unrivaled probably won’t prioritize post-ups since players have to run the full court before sealing their defender, but that type of play is becoming less common in the WNBA anyway.

For veterans, there should be general growth expected for all players in terms of conditioning and one-on-one defense due to the pace of three-on-three. Experienced players who normally go overseas can preserve their bodies by avoiding travel during the offseason. They are also playing a less physical game at Unrivaled, where the space afforded by full-court three-on-three allows for less wear and tear. Like their younger counterparts, veterans will also challenge themselves at Unrivaled by playing against their peers.

“To be able to implement everything that we’ve been working on up until this point against live action, and against the most elite players, that’s where you continuously get better,” Natasha Cloud said. “Iron sharpens iron.”

However, the openness of 3×3 might not help WNBA stars in five-on-five. During the WNBA Finals, Stewart and Napheesa Collier had to maneuver in tight spaces and navigate double teams and sometimes even more defenders. Unrivaled will be a nice respite and enable them to show off their skills, but when they return to the Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, defenses will once again put them in a phone booth. That’s a situation that can’t exactly be replicated in the winter league.

Nevertheless, the overall setup of Unrivaled figures to provide more advantages, even when the players return to WNBA basketball. They are in a space designed to make them more complete basketball players and keep their bodies conditioned yet not worn out by the time the WNBA season begins.

“This is the best possible development place you could be,” Cooper said. “If all you cared about was just getting better at basketball, this is where you go. You get training from the best strength and conditioning team in the world, you get training from the best trainers in the world. Our actual game flow, everyone’s involved. You’re in every action.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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