With the WNBA’s first-ever 44-game season approaching its midpoint, some identities are starting to take form, whereas others are hardening. Huge names like Napheesa Collier and Paige Bueckers are exceeding their already huge expectations, whereas rising characters like Natalie Nakase and Naz Hillmon are simply beginning to depart their mark.
Oddities that started as small-sample-size anomalies are actually turning into historic, record-breaking seasons. Collier is having one of the crucial environment friendly campaigns ever, whereas the growth Valkyries are probably going to shatter 3-point information. With nearly two months of motion within the books, and with All-Star rosters settled and gamers packing for Indianapolis, we thought it could be a superb time to show our consideration to the awards races. Listed below are my picks as we close to the midway level.
MVP: Napheesa Collier, Minnesota Lynx
The most recent instance of Collier’s precision, perfection, and reliability? As of this second, Collier—whose 95.4 p.c accuracy from the free throw line would rank fifth all —has nailed 45 straight from the charity stripe, placing her 14 away from breaking Elena Delle Donne’s WNBA document for consecutive makes.
True to the components that has fueled her fixed, incremental enchancment over her profession, Collier’s offseason purpose to turn into a 90-percent free throw shooter grew to become a actuality by behavior and repetition. “No,” she informed reporters who requested if she’d modified something about her routine, shortly summing up her no-frills method: “No bounce,” she stated, pantomiming a free throw launch. “That’s it. It doesn’t look cool, but it surely helps me lock in.”
Collier can be making a career-high 5.0 free throws per sport, a nod to the truth that she is leaving all the things on the ground. Maybe it’s additionally an indication of her place in a league that’s shifting. Is it potential that Collier, a longtime hipster favourite, is lastly getting a celebrity whistle? Unequalled, the 3-on-3 winter league she helped create, has turned her right into a family title, and in what might be her first MVP season within the WNBA, she’s actually purporting herself like one, placing up profession highs in factors (23.9, which additionally leads the WNBA), subject purpose share (52.8), and blocks (1.5 per sport).
She completed second in All-Star voting this season, amassing 1.17 million votes, behind solely Caitlin Clark.
Numbers and recognition apart, maybe the best MVP case for Collier lies in how her reliability has given the 17-3 Lynx the phantasm of reliability. Phee’s dominance is powering a potent however flawed juggernaut.
Courtney Williams is as more likely to go 2-for-11 as she is to blow up for 25 factors. Accidents to Kayla McBride and Karlie Samuelson, plus an off 12 months from Bridget Carleton, have damage Minnesota’s accuracy past the arc. Cheryl Reeve, toggling between Russian standout Maria Kliundikova and the precocious however younger sophomore Diamond Miller, continues to be looking for frontcourt depth behind Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard. On any given evening, Minnesota depends on completely different manufacturing from completely different gamers.
And but, the Lynx are racking up wins at a historic fee as a result of Phee’s versatility and consciousness could make up for no matter is misplaced. On an evening that Williams—Minnesota’s capturing guard turned level guard—is off, Reeve can sub in Natisha Hiedeman, realizing that Phee can adeptly handle the sport, like she did in opposition to the rising Mercury. If Smith is in foul hassle? Phee can slide right down to de facto rim protector. Earlier this season, Collier dropped 33 factors on the Solar, main a 15-point fourth-quarter comeback whereas the remainder of the beginning lineup went 4-for-26.
Phee is standing out greater than ever, however her greatest power, as ever, is how effectively she will mould herself seamlessly to the wants of the sport.
Honorable point out: Alyssa Thomas, Phoenix Mercury
Solely two gamers in WNBA historical past have dished over eight dimes per sport whereas sustaining an assist-to-turnover ratio higher than 2.5:1. The primary is Courtney Vandersloot, among the finest table-setting level guards of all time. The opposite is 6-foot-2 powerhouse Alyssa Thomas, who’s meting out a career-high (and league-best) 9.5 assists for the 14-6 Mercury.
So how is a 33-year-old, 12-year vet placing collectively her greatest season but?
There are a few causes. Thomas, who has performed by a torn labrum for a decade, can solely get a lot carry on her jumpers. However she’s made changes by the years, and he or she’s now placing up profession highs in effectivity throughout the board. Her tornado-esque (rise up, Joakim Noah heads) push shot was essential to the Mercury’s come-from-behind victory over the Lynx on Wednesday, through which she scored a career-high 29 factors:
Her accuracy can be forcing opponents to play her actually in a positionless system that has stretched her versatility to its logical excessive. Thomas, like Phee, has by no means been referred to as a flashy participant. However she will do some little bit of all the things. Knocking down boards and initiating the break, she’s a one-woman wrecking ball in transition. And now she’s flanked by a number of shooters who can set screens that both create open pictures from past the arc, or enable Thomas to feast within the put up in opposition to opposing guards.
After years of flying below the radar, Thomas has turn into a do-it-all guiding mild for younger playmaking bigs like Angel Reese and Aliyah Boston. She is the proper large for this contemporary second.
Defensive Participant of the 12 months: Alanna Smith, Minnesota Lynx
There was a time when Smith, a 2019 first-round decide, was pushed and muscled out of the WNBA totally. However a comeback season on the high-octane 2023 Chicago Sky supplied a squinting simulacrum of how the 6-foot-4 ahead might assist maximize Napheesa Collier’s versatility, ability, and pace.
That offseason, Collier herself informed Cheryl Reeve, “We have to get Lan.”
“Unassumingly,” Collier informed The Subsequent’s Terry Horstman, “she’s so onerous to protect within the put up. You didn’t hear about her quite a bit. She was a bit of bit underrated, however I knew each time I performed her, it was a extremely robust matchup, and people are the form of folks you need in your workforce.”
The Lynx signed her that offseason, and Smith anchored all of them the way in which to the 2024 WNBA Finals, incomes second-team All-Defensive nods. This season, she’s taken issues to the subsequent degree. Smith is now the floor-spacing, switchable, rim-protecting anchor of the no. 1 protection within the WNBA, on tempo to log 50 blocks and 50 3-pointers—a feat achieved by simply 4 different gamers in
She will be able to decide up guards on the degree of the display, defending Courtney Williams and Karlie Samuelson, whereas permitting Collier to protect the much less bodily of the frontcourt threats. She’s tailored to the physicality of the WNBA by merely accepting it, continuously taking part in by some form of damage—whether or not it was the again damage that drove her to tears throughout the WNBA Finals, or the current knee contusion. Hell, the WNBPA’s complete argument for higher retirement plans might be a spotlight reel of Smith falling on her again. As she informed Reeve, “Aussies all the time rise up.”
Within the put up, Smith’s lengthy, fast arms make entry passes really feel unimaginable. Handle to sneak one in, and also you’ve set your teammate up for an train in futility, thudding up in opposition to one of the crucial deceptively sturdy frames within the sport. Like every elite defender, a lot of the work Smith does is preventative, however she’s additionally an explosive play-saver on assist. Smith is obstructing extra pictures than anybody not named A’ja together with a game-winning rejection in opposition to Rachel Banham this weekend.
Because the arc of basketball historical past has bent in the direction of tempo, house, and small-ball, Smith has met it with emphatic swats.
Honorable point out: Gabby Williams, Seattle Storm
Williams, who leads the WNBA in steals, is a hypnotic ball hawk. Like every good pickpocket, she pounces on free dribbles and errant passes. However Williams’s mixture of athleticism, anticipation, and IQ permits her protection—an inherently reactive a part of the sport—to dictate the selections of opponents.
Peep this second in opposition to the Mercury, the place she fakes out Kalani Brown by pretending to assist on the diver, solely to reverse course and intercept the 3-point kickout:
She trails performs and goads opponents into pondering there’s a gap, forcing them to recalibrate simply how a lot of the realm round her is harmful terrain, successfully warping the courtroom.
Seattle’s defensive quadrant of Nneka Ogwumike, Ezi Magbegor, and Skylar Diggins operates like an amoeba, toggling between traps and switches seamlessly, however Williams is each the pinnacle of the snake and the skeleton, the participant who has the flexibility to maintain up with guards like Allisha Grey and the power to carry off Bri Jones within the put up. If Seattle’s workforce rebounding was a hair higher, they’d probably be a top-three protection.
Rookie of the 12 months: Paige Bueckers, Dallas Wings
Bueckers leads all rookies in factors, assists, and steals, whereas her effectivity numbers are creeping again as much as UConn ranges, and her reads proceed to enhance.
The Wings began the season 1-11, however they’re 5-4 of their final 9 video games, owing to a slew of accidents which have opened up lineup mixtures which have maximized Bueckers’s capacity.
The NaLyssa Smith commerce opens up extra taking part in time for Li Yueru, an adept screener, curler, and popper whose presence has created extra space. The absence of DiJonai Carrington (rib damage) and Arike Ogunbowale (thumb) has given JJ Quinerly, a 5-foot-8 speedster, a possibility to start out alongside fellow rookie Aziaha James. Alongside Bueckers, the trio orchestrated a medley of transition drives, dishes, cuts, dump-offs, and triples that ran the Mercury off the courtroom this previous weekend. Fast, guard-heavy lineups additionally unlock Bueckers’s off-ball capacity, although Dallas continues to be a high-level playmaker away from unlocking her full potential as a cutter. Within the meantime, her teammates can simply dump it right down to her for simple assists on robust middies.
After the sport, the sight of three rookies in the identical sideline interview supplied shades of the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. Phoenix obtained their lick again on Monday, however it is a components that may work. (I’m calling it “PB & JJJ.”)
I’d additionally love to make use of this house as a possibility to focus on a nitty-gritty side of Bueckers’s sport that I discover intriguing: her closeouts on protection, the place she beelines towards opponents with the pace of a bullet prepare:
Bueckers, a nominal level guard who typically performed the 4 as a junior for a hobbled UConn workforce that made an unlikely Closing 4 run in 2024, has all the time had nice positional measurement. It’s a part of the rationale Dallas may even play three-guard lineups. She’s solely an inch shorter than Napheesa Collier, and shares a number of vital traits together with her: pace, processing capacity, and nice instincts. As Bueckers continues to develop, I ponder if she’ll finally be the identical form of defensive skeleton key, unlocking a number of lineup prospects. That future might be coming ahead of anybody thinks. Now that Quinerly and James are proving their W chops, there’s a hyper-quick, defensively versatile, junky four-guard lineup simply ready to be unlocked when Carrington comes again from damage. For Bueckers, the chances are simply starting.
Honorable point out: Washington Mystics’ Sonia Citron and KiKi Iriafen (who I’ve gone in-depth on right here and right here)
Most Improved Participant: Allisha Grey, Atlanta Dream
Those that imagine this award needs to be reserved for youthful, up-and-coming abilities might take subject with this decide, however making the leap from star to celebrity is a Herculean activity and Grey has made it look pure.
After going by the Smesko system (lower than 4 p.c of her makes an attempt are coming from the midrange space, a profession low), each the standard and amount of her offense has improved. Grey is placing up profession highs in factors, rebounds, assists, and shot makes an attempt.
Her rise is an affirmation of Atlanta GM Dan Padover’s first large commerce, coach Karl Smesko’s system, and Grey’s expertise. In Dallas, the place she was drafted, Grey was at worst a uncommon 3-and-D wing with elite positional measurement and preternatural rebounding instincts. Now, her abilities are being maximized by an ideal synergy of system, personnel chemistry, and self-improvement.
Her mixture of elite vary (41.6-percent accuracy on 5.9 makes an attempt, each profession highs) and downhill power makes her an unimaginable cowl on dribble handoffs, particularly off bone-crushing screens from Brittney Griner, Bri Jones, and Naz Hillmon, all of whom have acquired extra assists from Grey than another teammate. That’s regardless of her being flanked by inventive guards like Rhyne Howard and Jordin Canada. Peep the falling move over two Liberty defenders to a large open Jones, and the bullet between the outstretched arms of Ezi Magbegor and Nneka Ogwumike:
This sort of scale-up, from All-Star to borderline MVP candidate, merely doesn’t occur fairly often at 30 years
Honorable point out: Veronica Burton, Golden State Valkyries
Burton’s rise has been a collision of enchancment and alternative. Trapped in a logjam of Connecticut’s cavalcade of wings final season, Burton averaged simply 12 minutes per sport as a stopper off the bench. With the growth Valkyries this 12 months, her minutes have doubled and her manufacturing has practically tripled. Burton has been engaged on her vary, and coach Natalie Nakase’s system dictates that you just let it fly. On Wednesday, it culminated in a career-high 5 triples in opposition to the Fever. Her rising vary additionally permits her to toggle on and off the ball within the Valkyries’ multi-guard configuration.
Her sport administration may be much more spectacular, although. She’s the one participant this season to have a number of video games with double-digit assists and nil turnovers.
Nakase has additionally repurposed Burton’s defensive bona fides as a guard right into a zone-heavy scheme that depends on her to rotate down low. Up to now, it has labored to devastating impact.
As Burton continues to work on her vary and her reads, she might develop into among the finest 3-and-D playmaking guards within the league, the form of participant any title workforce would salivate over.
Sixth Participant of the 12 months: Naz Hillmon, Atlanta Dream
Hillmon supplies an alternate look off the bench to the Dream’s twin-towers configuration and is shortly changing into Karl Smesko’s most popular finisher, main qualifying bench gamers in fourth-quarter and crunch-time minutes.
And why not? Atlanta’s beginning lineup is a staggering 18 factors per 100 possessions higher when Brittney Griner is swapped out for Hillmon, who makes the Dream sooner, spacier, and generates extra steals—all core tenets of Smesko-ball.
This isn’t Griner’s fault as a lot because it’s a matter of lineup synergy. Griner and Bri Jones, two back-to-the-basket bigs, conflict and crash into one another. Hillmon’s presence, in that context, is a panacea, creating house for Jones’s post-ups and drives from Allisha Grey, Jordin Canada, and Rhyne Howard.
Hillmon’s vary has expanded dramatically below Smesko, owing a lot to the tutelage of assistant coach Chelsea Lyles. Her common shot distance has doubled this season, and over half of her pictures come from past the arc. In opposition to the Valkyries on Monday, she nailed a career-high 4 3s, together with two open crunch-time daggers, created by the specter of Jones within the put up.
Griner, it is value noting, celebrated on the bench, making the 3-point goggles signal over her eyes.
On protection, Hillmon’s quickness affords additional versatility and provides away little physicality. She units rock-solid picks. She defends on the degree of the display. She’s a superb communicator. In time, she might play herself out of qualifying for this award and earn a full-time beginning position.
Honorable point out: Natisha Hiedeman, Minnesota Lynx
The StudBudz are a dynamic duo, on and off the courtroom. When Courtney Williams doesn’t have it, Cheryl Reeve has no qualms about ending video games together with her understudy and streaming associate, Natisha Hiedeman. Whereas Williams is the queen of the midrange, Hiedeman affords a special look. She’s a shifty scorer who makes use of her skinny body to slide by defenders and get to the rim, the place she’s making over three-quarters of her pictures, due to a knack for inventive ending. She’s additionally main certified bench gamers in assists.
Coach of the 12 months: Natalie Nakase, Golden State Valkyries
No workforce has surpassed expectations just like the Golden State Valkyries, who’re on tempo to turn into the primary growth workforce to make the WNBA playoffs in over 25 years.
Nakase was tasked not solely with setting the tradition for a roster, but additionally for a whole franchise. Up to now she’s confirmed to be the best girl for the job, taking a hodgepodge of bench gamers and abroad expertise and making them cohere regardless of fixed turnover.
In 19 video games, they’ve performed 17 completely different gamers, and used 10 completely different beginning lineups. Regardless of that, they’ve gone 10-9 and stayed true to their core ideas: capturing a ton of 3s (extra, in reality, than any workforce in WNBA historical past), rebounding their misses, and defending with effort and collective IQ. They use a number of ball handlers and quick, hard-diving bigs who’ve confirmed to be interchangeable. Golden State isn’t chock filled with stars, however they know who they’re and what they do effectively.
Nakase can be maximizing the expertise on the roster. Below her tutelage, Veronica Burton—whose playmaking capacity was subdued in a Connecticut Solar offense run by Alyssa Thomas final season—leads the Valkyries in assists. Kayla Thornton, the Liberty’s former bench spark plug, has turn into a first-time All-Star.
Nobody has accomplished extra with much less, although she’d most likely abhor that characterization of the Valkyries’ expertise, which is what makes her a particular coach: She sees issues in her gamers that others don’t.
Honorable point out: Karl Smesko, Atlanta Dream
There have been loads of questions on Smesko-ball after the Dream signed two back-to-the-basket free agent bigs in Brittney Griner and Bri Jones, however Karl Smesko has made it work. His 3-point-happy system has translated to the WNBA (the Dream are second within the W in 3-pointers hoisted) whereas powering Allisha Grey, Naz Hillmon, and Rhyne Howard into profession years. Jones, who discovered herself glued to the bench throughout Connecticut’s playoff run final season, has stretched her vary and her defensive capabilities below Smesko, making the form of variations that may extend her profession. Griner hasn’t translated as effectively, however Smesko has given her the liberty to discover her vary, and he’s utilized her capacity as a screener to create house for actions on the opposite finish of the ground, whereas opening up Atlanta’s bevy of shooters.
Seerat Sohi
Seerat Sohi covers the NBA, WNBA, and girls’s faculty basketball for The Ringer. Her former stomping grounds embrace Yahoo Sports activities, SB Nation, and basements throughout Edmonton.
