Atlanta Dream general manager and executive vice president Dan Padover has been named WNBA Executive of the Year after the team finished with a 30-14 record this season and grabbed the No. 3 seed in the playoffs.
This is Padover’s first time winning the award in Atlanta, having won the other two (2020 and 2021) during his tenure as general manager of the Las Vegas Aces. The Dream have made the playoffs in three of Padover’s first four seasons running the team.
Under Padover’s leadership in the front office, Atlanta has made the postseason three years in a row, winning 30 games in 2025, which doubled the teams regular season win total from 2024. This season, the Dream finished atop the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2018 and also set a new franchise record with 30 wins.
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The Dream’s turnaround this season can largely be attributed to Padover signing free agents Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones during the offseason. Naz Hillmon took home Sixth-Player of the Year honors for 2025 after averaging 8.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. Hillmon was Padover’s second-ever draft pick for the Dream, selecting the 6-foot-2 forward 15th overall in the 2022 WNBA Draft.
While Atlanta has yet to make it out of the first round of the playoffs under Padover, the team is headed in the right direction. With the addition of Karl Smesko as head coach coupled with big free agent signings and the team’s overall improvement on the court, it looks like the Dream could be contenders moving forward.
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Padover built from the ground up beginning his WNBA career as a video coordinator with the New York Liberty, working his way up through the ranks to become the team’s vice president of basketball operations over a span of seven seasons. From there, Padover went to the Aces, where he won back-to-back Executive of the Year awards before he left to join the Dream following the 2021 season.
