2024 WNBA End of Season Award Picks
One writer's choices for every WNBA award, from Most Valuable Player all the way to Executive of the Year
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It's that time of year again. The time where I moan about the WNBA still not having given me an official End-of-Season Awards ballot, promise that if they ever do I'll be open and honest about my picks, and then make my choices anyway. We've got some shockingly easy choices this year alongside a few that are pretty tricky and could be a surprise when ultimately announced. On to the picks.
Most Valuable Player
Well the pick here to draw attention and clicks is obviously to go against the grain, but it's essentially impossible to make a case for someone other than A'ja Wilson. The Aces may have struggled a little more than in other recent years, but Wilson herself has had a season for the ages as their centerpiece. Already a two-time MVP who easily could've won last year as well - I had her second behind Alyssa Thomas, the voters had her an incredibly close third behind Breanna Stewart and Thomas - Wilson has somehow taken another step up this year. Her field-goal percentage has taken a small tick down but that's while taking on a significantly heavier load and increasing her production in virtually every statistical category. She's set new records for both points and rebounds in a season, and just generally dominates game-in and game-out. Depending on tonight's final game, she might break Lauren Jackson's long-standing single-season PER record, just to top off all the other statistical marks she's shattered this year. The only question in the announcement of this award is whether someone's going to be an outlier or if she'll be a unanimous No. 1.
So any actual debate comes down to filling out the ballot. As the only true star on a roster surrounded by a cast that has gelled shockingly well, Napheesa Collier is my No. 2 this year. The Minnesota Lynx have been an incredibly impressive collective unit, but Collier is their unquestioned centerpiece and first option. She's a threat from anywhere and a key piece of Minnesota's league-leading team defense. She's had an outstanding year.
Purely because of the standards she's set for herself, this hasn't felt like a great Breanna Stewart season. But she's still the focal point for the top-seeded New York Liberty and the player who carries them through difficult stretches when necessary. Even on a squad with so much talent, they ask her to carry a heavy load because she's still just that good and it's often a better option than letting anyone else share the weight. All that's really dropped off this year is her 3-point shooting, while everything else has been as good as ever. That's good enough to end up on the vast majority of All-WNBA first team ballots.
It starts to get trickier further down the ballot, and we'll see more variation in the official media votes. Caitlin Clark has ultimately had an exceptional year regardless of the fact that she's a rookie, immediately taking on huge responsibilities for the Indiana Fever and leading their offense. Her advanced numbers are hurt by the volume of turnovers and her defense, but her value for the Fever as a scorer and orchestrator is clear to see in any game. Alyssa Thomas, despite very different physical characteristics and offensive profile, is a similar central hub for Connecticut. She hasn't been as productive on the scoreboard this year as more of the shots have been spread out to her teammates, but she remains central to everything the Sun do.
Then we start moving down the list to teammates of the stars, or the best players on less successful teams. Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones have both been productive alongside Stewart in New York. Jackie Young has had another good year in Las Vegas, albeit with her percentages dropping off from the last couple of seasons. Nneka Ogwumike has had another strong season, this time in new surroundings in Seattle. Kahleah Copper has carried Phoenix's offense at times this year, despite being surrounded by other star names, and had a very successful season (albeit one that faded a little later in the year). Several other names - Brittney Griner, Kelsey Mitchell, Kayla McBride, Aliyah Boston, Brionna Jones among them - may well also appear on All-WNBA ballots, or even sneak into the lower spots for MVP here and there. But there's no debate for No. 1.
1. A'ja Wilson
2. Napheesa Collier
3. Breanna Stewart
4. Caitlin Clark
5. I guess Alyssa Thomas? Honestly, I struggled after 4.
All-WNBA Teams
Most of the necessary discussion for this is above, especially now that the WNBA selects All-WNBA teams without regard to position. Wilson, Collier, Stewart and Clark all make my first team, although I think you could argue that Clark's 'value' to Indiana as a focal point and creator could place her higher on an MVP ballot than for All-WNBA (where her turnovers and defense might drop her back). As indicated above, for now Alyssa Thomas joins them on my first-team, but that could change any minute. Connecticut have become a more collective unit this year which has concentrated less 'value' into Thomas. That's likely good for them as a team - they're not so reliant on her to carry them through games - but makes the arguments for her in these awards more difficult. You don't see many people winning these kinds of accolades when barely averaging double-digits in scoring. But Thomas's value defensively and as a creator keeps her up in these conversations.
I found second team difficult this year, which may not be a surprise after the number of names I listed above. A lot of players had great stretches but didn't keep it up the whole year, and when you take a look at their season stats they came out as good but not exceptional. A lot of perimeter scorers aren't as efficient as you'd like, and a lot of bigs are efficient but don't take as many shots as you'd prefer in order to dominate games. And then there are teams like Minnesota where the collective has been great, but after their star it's hard to pick out individuals who've been better than the next.
So I have the group below, but I promise you I'll probably have changed it at least three times after typing this but before you see it.
First Team:
Caitlin Clark
Napheesa Collier
Breanna Stewart
Alyssa Thomas
A'ja Wilson
Second Team:
Kahleah Copper
Sabrina Ionescu
Kayla McBride
Nneka Ogwumike
Jackie Young
Coach of the Year
After that struggle, let's go with one of the awards that I consider an easy choice. Most years, there are a host of options for Coach of the Year. There's the head coach of the best team, the one that managed to finally drag a team to a step forward, the leader of a plucky squad that was meant to suck, and plenty of other types. This year has most of those archetypes if you want to go looking for them (although maybe not quite as many as in typical seasons). But for me, it's very difficult to look past Cheryl Reeve. Maybe some of it comes down to roster-building rather than coaching (and she's not technically the GM anymore in Minnesota, although now the President of Basketball Operations), but this Lynx team was not supposed to be this good. That's what Coach of the Year often comes down to - which team outperformed expectations by the most - and Reeve does fit that storyline this year. But it's about more than that.
When you watch the 2024 Minnesota Lynx, you see a team that embodies one of my favourite terms when describing successful basketball: 'collective responsibility'. Everyone is trying to make the whole better with everything they do. It's most evident defensively, where they're constantly filling holes, trusting that someone else will fill the resulting hole left behind, and then everyone sliding smoothly back into position at the next opportunity. They fully grasp that if the opponent scores then they lost that possession, and if the opponent doesn't then they won - it's irrelevant whose assignment did the scoring. Offensively they know Collier's their star and feed her as such, but they're unselfish to a fault within that, find the right shot more often than not, and maximise the skills of their available pieces (to the extent that I've even come to terms with all of Courtney Williams's 18-foot pullup twos). To bring all this together on a squad that had a lot of new pieces, winning 30 games in the process (and a gold medal during her month ‘off'’), has been incredibly impressive from Reeve.
She wins this every four or five years. It's time again.
CotY: Cheryl Reeve
Rookie of the Year
I know people wanted to make this a debate, and god knows social media has decided there are very much two sides to this argument, but ultimately I don't think this is even remotely close. Caitlin Clark has had a great year. The turnovers are somewhat concerning, the defense is poor and the shooting percentages aren't yet what you hope they might become, but all of that is picking holes in a player who's changed the game for the Indiana Fever. Combined with her passing vision and ballhandling, her range bends defenses in dangerous ways. She's already putting up numbers we've barely ever seen before, and you put up with a little bad for this exceptional level of good. Not that it was necessary, but for voting purposes she's also inadvertently organised this season perfectly. Indiana's 2-9 start while everyone got used to her and the Fever were working out how to mesh together is a distant memory at this point. Now all anyone wants to talk about is how dangerous they might be in the playoffs.
Angel Reese still had a remarkable season in Chicago. It was far from orthodox, and shooting under 40% from the field as a post with no range still terrifies me, but that doesn't negate all the positives. She swallowed every rebound in sight, and played with an energy and physicality that immediately made an impact at the pro level. She has plenty to work on and improve when she recovers from her injury, but this was a heck of a start.
Also worthy of a mention here is Los Angeles's Rickea Jackson, who's had a season that would've won this award in several other years. It took her a while to settle in (and for the Sparks to decide if she was a 3 or a 4), but in the second half of the season we've seen signs of a player that could become a genuine star. Scoring talent on multiple levels and the physical attributes to become impactful in all other areas of the game, Jackson ultimately performed so well that LA had a star rookie even after losing Cameron Brink to a serious knee injury.
RotY: Caitlin Clark
All-Rookie Team
Obviously, three spots go to the three players mentioned above. Then it starts to get a little more complicated. With apologies to the Jacy Sheldon collective, I see a reasonably legitimate case for four names in the final two spots: Kamilla Cardoso, Aaliyah Edwards, Julie Vanloo, and Leonie Fiebich.
Cardoso missed the start of the season and then spent much of the rest in Reese's significant shadow, but can be a real force in the paint when they get her the ball and is a tantalising prospect for the future. Edwards has slid in as part of the group in Washington, looking solid and useful already as a rookie but without really jumping out. Vanloo has been more exciting with her feast-or-famine shooting from outside and the ballhandling Washington have desperately needed at times this year, but 35% from the field is a disappointing number (and she's 31 with a wealth of overseas experience, which always makes calling players a 'rookie' a little weird). Fiebich is only 24 so comes closer to the typical American rookie archetype and has settled impressively quickly into WNBA basketball. Surrounded by stars in New York she's perhaps had an easier role to slot into than some of the others, but she's become a meaningful part of the rotation and earned enough trust to start a string of games.
For me it's Cardoso and Fiebich over the Mystics pair, but if you wanted to lean differently I would understand.
All-Rookie Team:
Kamilla Cardoso
Caitlin Clark
Leonie Fiebich
Rickea Jackson
Angel Reese
Defensive Player of the Year / All-Defensive Teams
This is always so hard. We still don't really have great statistics for analysing defense, and with a season that's less than half as long as the NBA, even simple on/off stats are subject to a lot of noise. Also, in my opinion, the best defense in the league this year - Minnesota's - has been very much a team effort (detailed in the Coach of the Year section above). Some pieces are inevitably more important than others, but when the success is all born from how well the collective shifts together it's hard to pick out individuals.
Then there are cases like Connecticut, the team ranked second in defensive rating and close enough to Minnesota that a couple of contrasting games tonight could see them swap in the final rankings. Several players are strong defenders and they have a lot of chemistry from the number of years their core has been together, but DiJonai Carrington has drawn a lot of attention and plaudits for her perimeter defense this year. Only the on/off numbers hate her, and suggest the Sun have been meaningfully better defensively (and offensively, actually) when she's been on the bench. Maybe that's because she constantly matched up with the biggest threats, but it doesn't help her case.
New York have again been a strong defensive team, and their interior base of Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones offer easy options. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, their go-to stopper on the perimeter would've been heavily involved in these discussions as well, but a midseason injury means she's played only 27 games (28 for the season assuming she plays tonight). That definitely removes her from the Defensive Player of the Year options (for me, at least) but might still be enough for a few All-Defensive votes.
Las Vegas haven't been the same as a defensive team this year, which lessens the case for both A'ja Wilson and Jackie Young, but both still pass the eye-test as impressive performers on the defensive end. Wilson also leads the league comfortably in blocks per game (and is top-five in steals) so she has the counting stats to back her up. Ezi Magbegor is a comfortable second in that blocks list as the rim protector in Seattle, while Nneka Ogwumike usually matches up with the primary interior threat alongside her. All the Storm perimeter players have their moments defensively as well.
Then there are all the good individual defenders on the okay-to-bad defensive teams, which can be hard to isolate and often feels like they're being rewarded more on historical performance or reputation than this year's play. Ariel Atkins is a perennial member of these teams, but as virtually the only Mystic who's stayed healthy this year she was left on something of an island. Allisha Gray is the designated stopper in Atlanta and has done her best in that role. Phoenix have had such a chaotic system, playing small most of the season and asking guards to defend posts while constantly switching that it's hard to reward players like Natasha Cloud or Kahleah Copper who can be stoppers in the right situation. Brittney Griner hasn't impacted the game defensively in the way she once did for a long time. Chicago are very young and looked it most of the year, although Lindsay Allen might make an appearance on some defensive ballots. No one in LA, Indiana or Dallas deserves being discussed here.
All of which is to say that I understand why Napheesa Collier seems to have emerged as the consensus choice. She's a good, versatile defender with strong block and steal numbers and she's the best player on the best defensive team. But it almost feels like a representation pick for the Lynx (and a consolation award for Collier). Is she that much better as a defender this year than she was on the league's 10th-best defense in 2023, or did the introduction of Alanna Smith, Courtney Williams and Bridget Carleton into Minnesota's starting lineup make the real difference? And if that's the case, why aren't any of them in the DPotY debate?
But you know what? I don't have a better answer. The league has several wings who are their team's designated perimeter defender but - especially after Laney-Hamilton and Brittney Sykes missed big chunks of the season - none that I feel are truly DPotY worthy. The gap between the Lynx and the Aces as defensive units is enough for me to swing towards Collier over Wilson, even though Wilson's individual defensive stats are actually up from the last two years - when she won this award both times.
DPotY: Napheesa Collier
All-Defensive First Team:
Napheesa Collier
Nneka Ogwumike
Breanna Stewart
Alyssa Thomas
A'ja Wilson
Second Team:
Bridget Carleton
DiJonai Carrington
Jonquel Jones
Ezi Magbegor
Alanna Smith
Most Improved Player
Okay, if the previous set of awards is difficult because it's so hard to assess, this one is tricky because it's so amorphous. I always try to lean towards players who've visibly, tangibly improved their basketball skills. But inevitably, the award trends towards people who've simply gotten to play much more than last year. Obviously sometimes that's because of their improved level of play, but sometimes it's just a different situation. And there is value in being able to produce exactly double what you did in 15 minutes per game when you're playing 30, but it doesn't necessarily indicate improvement. Maybe you should've been playing 30 last year.
I also don't particularly like voting for bounce-back players here. The league doesn't have an official Comeback Player of the Year award, so those players often end up being rewarded here. But Dearica Hamby, for example, has basically been this good before back when she was in Las Vegas. It's just been a while, and they had players like A'ja Wilson and Liz Cambage eating minutes and shots in front of her. I also find it very difficult to reward Chennedy Carter for basically playing her way out of the league, being out entirely for a year, then coming back and reminding everyone what a gifted offensive player she can be. We saw virtually the same player as a rookie back in 2020.
Are players like Bridget Carleton and DiJonai Carrington better than they were last year, or were they given greater opportunity and a consistent defined role, which maximised and highlighted talents they'd already showed significant signs of? Carleton's certainly shot exceptionally well this year, which she'd never done before at this kind of volume. Everything else was pretty much there before and waiting for Cheryl Reeve to trust her enough. Carrington's numbers aren't even better on a per minute basis, but she's played more and therefore had the chance to make a greater impact.
Before my pick, a couple of people who deserve a mention here. Maddy Siegrist was making a strong case for this award back in May and June when everyone else in Dallas was hurt and she was a central piece of the offense. The Wings continued to lose a lot, but she was effective and efficient offensively. Then she got hurt as well, everyone else was back by the time she returned, and she's been very quiet since. Assuming people forget that early-season stretch and she gets the playing time, she could be back in the running for this award next year. Stefanie Dolson is having a 3-point shooting season for the ages. But I refuse to give Most Improved to a player who's had that shot in her locker for years and finally landed on a team who told her to shoot every time she glimpsed the basket.
I don't honestly feel like there are any glaringly great options here this year. I won't be surprised if we get a rogue vote or two for A'ja Wilson, who has somehow gone from two-time MVP to even-better-than-a-two-time-MVP. But I'll go with Carleton, whose shooting has taken a leap, and whose overall performance has been so good that Diamond Miller can't even get token minutes in Minnesota since returning from injury.
Most Improved: Bridget Carleton
Sixth Player of the Year
To be eligible for this award, you have to come off the bench in more games than you start, which in a few cases has been quite close (Aaliyah Edwards's eligibility, for example, depends on whether or not she starts tonight). It also feels like a little bit of a cheat if you have all your best games as a starter, but came off the bench just enough to count for this award. It doesn't feel like it's quite in the spirit of a Sixth Player, somehow.
There isn't a single eligible player averaging double-digits in scoring this year. The closest are Maddy Siegrist and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, both of whom missed a large chunk of the season due to injury. However, there are some reserves who've been important and effective pieces for their teams this year. Tiffany Hayes added yet another quick scoring guard to Las Vegas's arsenal. Jordan Horston took the wing starting spot from Victoria Vivians in Seattle with her improved sophomore play (she could garner a few votes for Most Improved), then lost it to Gabby Williams and so remains eligible. Leonie Fiebich has provided length and shooting on the wing for New York, ultimately pushing ahead of veteran bench options like Kayla Thornton and Kennedy Burke. Lexie Hull has been a big part of Indiana's surge and is now cemented in their starting lineup (but came off the bench enough times that she's still eligible here). Emily Engstler's strong finish to the season in Washington probably started a little too late to really get her involved in this discussion, but deserves a mention. Similarly, Temi Fagbenle has missed too many games in Indiana, but her defensive presence has been vital for the Fever when available.
I'll go with Fiebich, with Hayes right there in the running by basically being the same old Tiffany Hayes, only off the bench for the first time in a decade. Fiebich's length and shooting as a perimeter player has helped open up options for New York that they didn't really have before, and meant they barely skipped a beat when Laney-Hamilton was injured. Recency bias could help Hull get some votes, but the first 20 games when she was in and out of the lineup and fighting for minutes count too.
6thPotY: Leonie Fiebich
Executive of the Year
If you're still with me at this point, thank you. I'll finish this off quickly. For a lot of the same reasons detailed in the Coach of the Year section, I don't think you can look far past Minnesota. They haven't acquired any true superstars beyond Napheesa Collier, but this time round when they had some money to spend in free agency everything has worked. They added two players from a 2023 Chicago Sky team that went 18-22, one who'd only started playing point guard last year when virtually forced into it and another with just one good WNBA season on her resume. Both have worked like a dream. They filled out the bench with pieces like Natisha Hiedeman and Cecilia Zandalasini who give them what they need when necessary, and even made a deadline-day trade for Myisha Hines-Allen which has worked out well.
When your head coach is also the President of Basketball Operations you feel like they may have the final casting vote in front office moves, but I presume the officially designated General Manager is the one eligible for this award. So congratulations to Clare Duwelius.
Executive of the Year: Clare Duwelius
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Talisa Rhea snagged Skylar and Nneka, pulling Seattle out of their bottom-dweller situation. Perhaps worth an EOTY mention.
Noticed a whole lot of front-court performers on the defensive teams. I get it: they can block and/or alter shots and frequently can get steals or 50/50 balls. However, those steals and open-ball situations are frequently generated by some tough ball-hounding. ND alums Lindsey Allen and Skylar Diggins-Smith put a lot of pressure on ball handlers and both came on strong in the second half of the year.
SDS also blocks a lot of shots for a point guard. I'd nominate her for 2nd team All-Defensive Team.