Picks and predictions for the WNBA SZN Awards

This week, Above the Break is evaluating the WNBA Awards races and adding some of our newest prizes to recognize special seasons.

The WNBA regular season ends on Sunday. The final two playoffs still head into the weekend, with Minnesota, Atlanta, New York and Phoenix all vying for that spot.

It’s also a good time for us to think about the WNBA awards. Official Awards Voters are probably going to fill out their ballots now (I suppose at least – I just want to take a second to say that if anyone in the league reads, I’d love to vote next year!), and we’ll soon see who wins things like MVP and DPOY.

So, today I’m going to participate in the prize game. Some of these prizes will be real. Some of these trophies will be fake I wish they were real. Let’s talk about the awards, ye.

WNBA Awards: MVP

The way I see it, MVP is up to two players at the moment: Brianna Stewart and Aja Wilson.

There are big arguments for both players.

Stewart leads the league in points per game at 22.0, the highest mark of her career. It also adds 7.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Perhaps most importantly, Stewart had to do it on a Storm team that gradually became less talented over time. When Stewart won her first player, it was in a team that included Alisha Clark and Natasha Howard. Now, she’s doing this on a team where talent falls a little faster as she goes down the list.

Then there is Aja Wilson. She is fifth in points per game, and is ahead of one of her teammates, Kelsey Bloom. But she also ranks second in the WNBA in rebounds per game and tops the WNBA in blocks per game. Stewart is a great defender too, but Wilson was great on this end.

Eventually, I am pulled in Wilson’s direction. For the reasons mentioned above, but also because Wilson had to do all this while learning an entirely new scheme. Normally, adjusting to a new coach wouldn’t make much of a difference to something like this, but when you go from the old school system of Belle Lambert to the pervasive Becky Hammon system and you don’t miss a thing, it matters to me, especially in a close race like this.

WNBA Awards: Defensive Player of the Year

Hello! Another race between A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart.

What Stewart has done defensively this year with Seattle has been very impressive, but sometimes you have to count on the numbers. Stewart has 0.1 more defensive arrows to win this season than Wilson, but Wilson’s ability to block shots gives her a slight advantage here, just as in the MVP race.

But how awesome that MVP nominees are also DPOY nominees!

WNBA Awards: Sixth Player of the Year

That’s easy The Aces have had two perennial candidates for the role over the past few years, but Becky Hammon decided to start her best player in Vegas, knocking Kelsey Bloom and Derica Hamby out of the picture.

That means the runway is clear for Breonna Jones to go out and get that award. She started seven games this year but played largely off the bench. Jones averages 13.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.2 steals per game.

WNBA Awards: Seventh Player of the Year

This award is given to the best player who finishes seventh on his team in minutes per match. Unlike the 6POY prize, I’m not basing this on whether the player starts playing or not.

Rebecca Gardner receives this award. The 31-year-old, who was also named “Rookie of the Year among Uncharted 2022 Players,” was a fixture at Chicago Sky on both ends of the floor. She averaged 8.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. She is second in the league with theft rate behind Britney Sykes

WNBA Awards: Most Improved Player

These may be the hardest prizes. Part of me wants to go with Tierra McCwan, but let’s save her for another prize. Part of me says I should look at Sophie Cunningham because she’s seen her numbers increase, but I’m wondering in part if it’s just because she’s got more minutes. To be, “improved” means that the player has improved, not just that his numbers have improved. And I think there’s someone who “improved” at a higher rate than Cunningham:

Jackie Young.

The previous No. 1 overall pick hit 25 percent of the depth last year. This season, he’s shot 43.1% from behind the arc. Her points per game jumped from 12.2 to 16.4 and Young has gone from a spinner to a true star this season. Her real shooting percentage increased from 56.4 to 59.4 percent. Her winning stakes per 48 minutes jumped from .174 to .234. You more than doubled your offensive winning stakes from last season.

WNBA Awards: Most Improved Player (Season Edition)

As much as I want to name Tierra McCwan as the best female improved player, I really can’t, because she barely spent the first half of the season on the field. I don’t think we should mistake McCwan on the team rotation and I want to admit how well she’s been doing over the past month or so in some way.

Therefore, we received the Player of the Year award (in-season edition), which reflects the player who has achieved the most growth from the start of the season to the end.

In May, McEwan averaged 4.1 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. So far in August, he’s averaging 18.2 points and 12.8 rebounds.

Earlier in the season, Dallas was playing Izzie Harrison in 5 a lot, which makes sense, because Harrison is really good. But Wings traded in with McCowan for a reason: They needed a long-running answer at 5. And then for two months, they ignored that need and didn’t give McCowan a real chance. I’m sure that being a space responsibility on the defensive end was part of that, but there’s literally no one in the WNBA who can shut down the paint like McCowan.

WNBA Awards: Retired Player of the Year

We have some players who will retire this season and there are rumors that some other players will retire. Because I don’t want to get out of the rumors, the players who qualify for this award must have already announced that this is their last season, which means Candice Parker is ineligible, even though many people think she will end after that. this chapter.

That leaves us deciding between Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles.

Bird has played 29 games this season, averaging 8.0 points and 6.0 assists per game.

Fowles wasted some time due to injury, but eventually came back with Bird, playing only one game less. Fowls averages 14.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game while shooting 63.6 percent from the ground.

Let’s go by the numbers here and add another glass to Fowles’ case.

WNBA Awards: Rookie of the Year

No disrespect for NaLyssa Smith and Shakira Austin, who have had great seasons, but my Rookie of the Year vote goes to Rhyne Howard.

I’m not even sure I really need to explain this choice. Howard was the best player on a team that would go on to make the playoffs. Smith has been really good for the struggling Fever team and Austin has been a great piece for the good Mystics team. In a normal year, these two would have a huge battle for the prize as we end up having some deep conversations about how to evaluate stats versus winning.

But with Howard, we get the stats and win – or at least, the competition, because the dream will surely end under 0.500 and maybe still miss the post-season.

Howard averaged 16.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. It wasn’t very effective, shooting only 36.7 percent off the ground, but this inefficiency would happen when a freshman was asked to do what Howard did, and I wouldn’t hold that against her. Howard had a lot of expectations to live up to after being announced in the No. 1 pick for 2022 when she was a freshman at Kentucky State. She lived it.

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