The WNBA regular season has come to a close and with the playoffs around the corner, it is time to look at which players are most likely to nab the league’s awards.
That said, some awards are relatively straightforward, with Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson proving that she is one of the best basketball players in the world with her historic season en route to potentially another MVP award. Speaking of history, while Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky sensation Angel Reese battled for the Rookie of the Year award, the winner became clearer as the season progressed.
Aside from Wilson, Clark and Reese, other players made it known just how valuable they were to their team and are highlighted below. Without further ado, here are the winners of the WNBA’s most prestigious awards…
Furthermore, Wilson is first in Player Efficiency Rating, Win Shares and Offensive Rating, while also setting the record for being the first WNBA player to score more than 1,000 points in a single season and the highest point-per-game average in league history. She also set the WNBA record for most consecutive 20-point games (15) and 30-point, 10 rebound games, with eight.
By and large, the Rookie of the Year award was Clark’s to lose and once Reese announced she would be missing the rest of the season with a wrist injury, it was all but certain that the 22-year-old would have a new piece of hardware. And considering what Clark did in her first year, it stands to reason that the Fever star had one of the best rookie seasons of all time.
For context, Clark set the record for most assists in a single season (337), most assists in a single game (19), most points scored by a rookie in a single game (35), the first rookie to record a triple-double, and she became the first rookie in WNBA history to record more than 400 points, 150 assists and 100 rebounds in the same season, among many other records. She also helped the Fever break their playoff drought, reaching the postseason for the first time since 2016.
For as well as Reese played, Clark just operated in another realm. That’s not to say the Sky star played poorly – Clark just exceeded the expectations placed upon her and then continued to rise.
The Minnesota Lynx are one of the best teams in the WNBA this season, thanks to the guidance of head coach Cheryl Reeve. She’s been coaching the Lynx since 2010 and has led Minnesota to four WNBA championships, showing how successful she has been throughout her tenure.
That said, there have also been some lows during her time leading the Lynx, missing the playoffs in 2022, before rebounding last season with a 19-21 record. This year, Minnesota had the second-best record in the league (30-10) had the third-best net rating in the WNBA (+8.1), the second-best defensive rating (96.5) and held opponents to the worst effective field goal percentage (46.0 percent). With Reeve and Napheesa Collier leading the way, the Lynx look to make noise in the playoffs.
