Anna Leigh Waters played like an MVP last year, and just got a big boost for her 2025 New Jersey 5’s … [+]
mplete, lets take a look at the teams, give grades on the draft, and do some way-too-early predictions on their 2025 finishes. These teams are in alphabetical order of their current cities of local.
I wrote most of this right after the premier draft … and already we’ve had trades that have changed the nature of the draft and teams. I’ll note them when applicable.
The Predicted place would be a regular season finish, not a playoff finish. As we saw last year, 3rd place in the regular season was the year end tourney winner.
Atlanta Bouncers
– Starting Roster: Vich, Glozman, Fought, Di Muzio
– Bench: Querrey, Rettger
– Draft Grade: B
– Quick analysis: they netted the DUPR superstar Di Muzio as their second starting female, and had already acquired Glozman to go with their premier-quality males. They opted for Di Muzio over Callie Smith, who was still on the board, possibly for a lefty/righty mix here.
– 2025 Prediction: 12th place: I think they had a solid base coming up from Challenger, and will finish above some 2024 premier teams.
Carolina Pickleball Club
– Starting Roster: Christian, B.Johns, C.Johns, Emmrich
– Bench: Trulock, French
– Draft Grade: D
– Quick analysis: They chose to spend the absolute minimum on both their 4th starter and both bench spots in a predictably disappointing approach to MLP for the ownership group. Unless the Johns brothers decide to try in 2025, this team is set up to be an also-ran once again.
– 2025 Prediction: 11th place if we get 2024 Johns effort, 6th place if they try.
Chicago Slice
– Starting Roster: Ignatowich, David, Freeman, Smith
– Bench: Imparato, Di Laura
– Draft Grade: A+
– Quick analysis: Chicago did what I thought New York would do with all its cash; spend a ton of money to build a premier-league level squad. That’s exactly what Chicago did, spending $320,000 on four established pros. Bravo. I don’t think this is a playoff team necessarily, but they’re going to easily out-play some returning Premier teams.
– 2025 Prediction: 9th place
Columbus Sliders
– Starting Roster: Daescu, Todd, Klinger, Jansen
– Bench: Bellamy, Hones
– Draft Grade: B+
– Quick analysis: Columbus swiped Jansen early in the draft, taking her away from the team many thought she’d go to (New Jersey) and really making a statement to go with the rest of their roster creation. Bravo to them for taking the initiative to win the 3rd overall pick. This is going to be a solid team.
– 2025 Prediction: 4th place
Dallas Flash
– Starting Roster: JW Johnson, J.Johnson, Black, Ge
– Bench: D. Young, Ruhl
– Draft Grade: A
– Quick analysis: Dallas didn’t mess around; they went out with the 2nd overall pick and got the player they had to drop in Ge to run 2024 right back around. Why not? All they did was win the title with this quartet last year, and as we speak both Jorja and Tyra are improving.
– 2025 Prediction: 2nd place
DC Pickleball Team
– Starting Roster: Bar, Rohrabacher, Kawamoto, Newman
– Bench: Blatt, Smith
– Draft Grade: C
– Quick analysis: I’m not sure I like Newman paired with Bar honestly, but I love DC getting back the player who starred for them in 2023. That is meaningful for sure. Other pundits are clearly more bullish on Newman; fair point.
– 2025 Prediction: 5th place
LA Mad Drops
– Starting Roster: Parenteau, Kawamoto, H. Johnson, Duong
– Bench: Wilson, Walker
– Draft Grade: B
– Quick analysis: The team made a solid move to grab Duong, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough to get this team to the playoffs as constructed.
Post Draft move: Wilson has already been moved to the IR, and they’ve picked up Wes Burrows in his place.
– 2025 Prediction: 10th
Miami Pickleball Club
– Starting Roster: Rane, Oncins, Bui, Devilliers
– Bench: Funemizu, Ignatowich
– Draft Grade: B
– Quick analysis: GM Goldberg could prove me wrong here with the Bui pick, and the team got a steal with Devilliers so late and for so little. I don’t think this team is competing for a playoff spot, but they should be a little frisky.
– 2025 Prediction: 14th
Post Draft Move: the team flipped Oncins for Khlif to get their 2024 teammate back. This may make them a little better, but they’ll still finish in the 13-16th range.
New Jersey 5’s
– Starting Roster: Waters, Navratil, Howells, Bouchard
– Bench: Gecheva, Johnson
– Draft Grade: D
– Quick analysis: New Jersey lost out on bid after bid and watched the two primary replacements for Humberg go to rivals, then picked up Bouchard in lieu of veteran players David or Smith. There’s rumors of a pre-arranged trade here, which could make this more palatable (which turned out to be true). Honestly, NJ’s big win was getting Howells under contract for 2025, but this team is now worse than they were last year.
– 2025 Prediction: 3rd
Post Draft Move: the team flipped Bouchard for Dizona and vastly improve. They might repeat as #1 now.
New York Hustlers
– Starting Roster: Ford, Young, Spiridis, Schaefer
– Bench: Benitez, Funaro
– Draft Grade: F
– Quick analysis: New York turned a playoff team in 2024 into a team that may not have even qualified for the challenger playoffs. They should have been doing what Chicago did, and there has to be concerns about the lack of spending from other owners.
– 2025 Prediction: 15th
Orlando Squeeze
– Starting Roster: Staksrud, Frazier, Schneemann, Parker
– Bench: Evans, Phillips
– Draft Grade: D
– Quick analysis: Orlando had ample opportunities to get in on the bidding for a top female, but waited until the 18th pick to snag a player in Parker who was basically a challenger sub last year. They did their heaving lifting via trades of course, so they’re relatively set for 2025, but Parker is instantly a weak link.
– 2025 Prediction: 8th
Phoenix
– Starting Roster: Irvine, McGuffin, Dizon, Sock
– Bench: Walker, Teoni
– Draft Grade: C
– Quick analysis: The selection of Sock was from a dwindling collection of premier-quality males at the time, so the draft itself wasn’t terrible. Is this a winning team? Sock willed a weaker team to the playoffs last year, so probably so.
– 2025 Prediction: 6th
Post Draft Move: the team flipped Dizon to get Bouchard …. and got a lot worse. I don’t think they’re finishing 6th anymore. What’s the goal here? Now they have the two big-money ex-tennis pro signings plus social media star McGuffin; is their goal to win games or to win Instagram?
SoCal Hard Eights
– Starting Roster: Tereschenko, Castillo, Jakovljevic, Fu
– Bench: Hovenier, Hidalgo-Smith
– Draft Grade: F
– Quick analysis:
The Hard Eights sat out the entirety of the premier bidding, netting the two males they needed for minimum $10k bids, then got their bench for a combined $11k. We thought we might see something like this from the rising challenger teams, who are already at a huge disadvantage from a personnel perspective. But as this team is comprised now it’ll be a shock if they don’t finish dead last.
– 2025 Prediction: 16th
St. Louis Shock
– Starting Roster: Bright, Patriquin, Tardio, Fahey
– Bench: Di Laura, Lange
– Draft Grade: A
– Quick analysis:
St. Louis made fast work of their draft day, winning the opening bid to secure Fahey back, then blitzed the bench draft to get the players they wanted early. Can’t say too much more. They’ll battle Dallas & New Jersey for the top spot all year.
– 2025 Prediction: 1st
Texas Ranchers
– Starting Roster: Alshon, Wright, Pisnik, Khlif
– Bench: Loyd, Jansen
– Draft Grade: B
– Quick analysis: Texas was in play to try to retain Duong’s services, but got out bid and pivoted to the sneaky-good Khlif, who has been quietly rising up the ranks on tour. This could be a decent team.
Post Draft Move: the team traded what I thought was a great draft pick for Oncins, and may have taken a step back. Khlif is more established right now than Oncins, though both are good. Alshon has taken a large step up so far in 2025, so that helps, but this team may struggle to get to the playoffs now.
– 2025 Prediction: 7th
Utah Black Diamonds
– Starting Roster: Loong, Garnett, Truong, Safdar
– Bench: Erokhina, Y.Johnson
– Draft Grade: D
– Quick analysis: Perhaps this grade will age poorly if Safdar turns out to be a fast-rising female star in the mold of Rohrabacher in 2023 or Fahey in 2024. But for now, this may be the weakest female pair in the league, and I’m not sure what they’ve really done to improve on last year’s last place finish.
– 2025 Prediction: 13th
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