WNBA Awards: MVP, Rookie of the Year, All-WNBA, FAQ, top candidates and more

There are some no-brainer picks when it comes to the All-WNBA team, an honor bestowed upon the league’s ten best players and voted on by members of the media. A’ja Wilson, who is having the best season of her career, is one. Napheesa Collier is another. Caitlin Clark, the rookie phenom, has put herself into the conversation after an incredible second half to the season. Second Team was a little bit harder to pick — so many great players, so many putting up big numbers — with only five spots.

Here’s who I selected:

Every year, WNBA head coaches vote on the All-Rookie Team, an honor bestowed upon the five most impactful first-year players each season. This draft class has been particularly stacked, and there are lots of compelling candidates who could have made the five-member All-Rookie squad.

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have dominated the national conversation, but here’s the full list of who should be named the All-Rookie team.

Defensive Player of the Year is one of the hardest awards to determine in professional basketball. There’s the question of whether guards can ever impact a game defensively the same way that post players can (see: DiJonai Carrington), and a dilemma regarding whether someone should be able to earn the honors if their team’s defense has been underwhelming (see: A’ja Wilson).

There’s also a question around how much counting stats like blocks and steals matter versus more advanced analytics.

UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT — It’s a Friday morning at the Mohegan Sun Arena, and A’ja Wilson and the rest of the Las Vegas Aces have just completed shootaround. They are a few hours away from a match-up against one of the WNBA’s premier teams — the Connecticut Sun — a game they would go on to win.

It hasn’t been a perfect season for the two-time defending champions; they hovered around .500 in the first few weeks, their defense looking disjointed, and their offense anemic at times.

Dearica Hamby is a somewhat unconventional candidate for Most Improved Player — she’s been named All-Star three times, and Sixth Player of the Year twice. She’s in her tenth year in the WNBA and has averaged double-figures three teams. And, she anchors the team with the worst record in the league — the Los Angeles Sparks.

Still, it’s hard to overlook what Hamby has accomplished this season, and how much of a jump she’s made since last year. Last season — her first in Los Angeles — she averaged 8.9 points on 43.1% shooting alongside 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists.

Alanna Smith’s statistical improvement won’t jump out at you — in her first year as a Minnesota Lynx, she’s averaged just one point per game more than she did in similar minutes in Chicago the year prior. But, the 6’4 center has improved tremendously in a number of areas, primarily as a passer, shooter, and defender. Her leap has been a big reason why the Lynx have had one of the WNBA’s top defenses all season, and why the they currently have the league’s second-best record and are in contention for a championship this season.

No player playing Smith’s minutes this season has had as good of a defensive rating. Of note, she also has the 8th best plus-minus rating in the league.

The Phoenix Mercury are in the midst of an underwhelming season, and Sophie Cunningham — one of the longest-tenured players on the roster — hasn’t been shy about calling the team out.

“We need to learn how to be great teammates,” Cunningham said after the team lost to the Storm, their fifth loss in six games. “At the end of the day, we get to play basketball for a living, so that’s a blessing. Maybe, changing our perspectives to start to be a little more grateful would be a good start.”

The Sixth Player of the Year award — an honor bestowed upon the WNBA’s most impactful bench player — could go to a number of viable candidates this season. Tiffany Hayes of the Las Vegas Aces has led all bench players in scoring, while Leonie Fiebich of the New York Liberty has had the best plus-minus numbers. Sophie Cunningham, who had become accustomed to starting in Phoenix, has done a little bit of everything for the Mercury.

I spoke with each of the three candidates to learn more about what being named Sixth Player of Year would mean to them, how they feel they’ve improved, and what the experience of coming off the bench has been like. All three players — Tiffany Hayes, Leonie Fiebich, and Sophie Cunningham — were previously accustomed to starting, but all three have found a way to make an impact off the bench on their respective playoff-bound teams.

NEW YORK — Leonie Fiebich is used to being a star. The 24-year-old was already named MVP of the Spanish League twice, and she averaged double-figures in each of her professional seasons in Europe.

But as a member of the New York Liberty in her first WNBA season, the German forward showed that she’s can star in any role — not just the star one. She’s come off the bench 23 times this season, averaging 21 minutes per game. Sometimes, she takes just a few shots, simply serving as a connector and deferring to her All-Star teammates. Other times, she’ll take over offensively, scoring double-digits points and sinking threes.

CONNECTICUT — When Tiffany Hayes announced her retirement from the WNBA last December, it appeared that an 11-season, year-round career had finally caught up to her.

“I really feel like I’m older now,” Hayes said at the time. “I got a lot of stuff that I really always want to get into but I’m so busy ’cause I’m playing year-round. Plus, my body, playing 11 seasons straight with no breaks, every year, two seasons in a year every time — that’s a lot.”