Introducing Ranking the W: The Consensus Top 50 WNBA Players for 2024
Introducing Ranking the W: The Consensus Top 50 WNBA Players for 2024
A panel of experts have combined their votes to produce the first ever #RankingTheW, a countdown of the anticipated 50 best players in the WNBA this year
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Welcome, one and all, to the first-ever edition of Ranking the W.
We’re introducing Ranking the W to create a snapshot of the consensus expectations of WNBA player performance in 2024. We invited an international panel of over 100 writers, reporters, analysts and broadcasters from around the world of women's basketball to lend their expertise to this exercise. Thanks to all of them for their time and input.
Participants were asked to vote on player vs. player matchups with the question "Who will be the better WNBA player in 2024?", taking into account both performance and availability. Voting was anonymous among the invitees, so no one had to be worried about their hot takes being stolen or being embarrassed later in the year if a choice turns out to be wildly inaccurate.
After over 10,000 votes, the results are in. We’ll be releasing them from No. 50 to No.1 next week along with commentary on each player and their rank. Let us know your thoughts on what surprised you, who’s been overvalued and who’s been snubbed, or anything else about the project. We’ll be using the hashtag #RankingTheW on social media or you can leave comments on the articles themselves.
To give you a taste of what's coming, and maybe a surprise or two about people who didn't quite make it, here are a few honorable mentions and notable names who missed out.
#32/#37: Candace Parker
The vast majority of our voting was carried out prior to Parker's retirement announcement on Sunday. At the time of her Instagram post our panel had her in 32nd, and by the end of voting she'd slipped to 37th, so both numbers are presented here for the sake of full transparency. At the age of 38, having missed half of last season and all of the playoffs due to injury, it shows the regard she's held in that she was still expected to perform that well before deciding to call it quits. Given she's officially announced that she's done, we removed her from the results of the final 50. But you never know. Someone let her know that she was as low as 32nd and maybe she'll decide that foot can last one more season after all.
#57 Kamilla Cardoso, #58 Aaliyah Edwards, #63 Rickea Jackson
In a league with a notoriously difficult transition, it perhaps wasn't surprising that our panel was a little skeptical about how well some of this year's rookies will perform. Of course, top-60 still means a starting-caliber player in the WNBA, but only just. Largely speaking, the voters seemed to take the approach of wanting to see something from the rookies before they were willing to put them ahead of players who've already proven something on the professional level. You'll still see a rookie or two in the rankings next week, but not many.
#66 Tina Charles
Talking of voting based on what they'd seen lately, how the mighty have fallen. An All-Star and fifth in MVP voting as recently as 2021, and still averaging nearly 15 points per game in 2022, our voters don't expect Charles to have enough left to come anywhere close to the levels of earlier stages in her career. The messy departure from Phoenix followed by a brief stint with Seattle in 2022 didn't leave fond memories, and then being out of the league entirely last year has left expectations low for Charles now she's back in the league with her sixth different franchise. If she can accept a different role in a Dream lineup stocked with players who'll appear in next week's top 50, and perform anywhere even close to her former levels, she could make 66th feel like a ridiculous placement by the end of the season.
#51 Alanna Smith
Last but not least in our honorable mentions, it seemed only fair to name the player who came closest without quite making the list. If we'd performed this exercise 12 months ago, Smith probably would've finished well outside the top 100, never mind the top 50. After three years where Sandy Brondello barely let her off the bench in Phoenix, Smith was signed by Indiana and then cut by comfortably the worst team in the WNBA early in the 2022 season. She was picked up by Chicago for 2023, but even then James Wade appeared to have rookie Morgan Bertsch ahead of her in the pecking order to start the season. Once Smith got her chance with the Sky, she grabbed it with both hands. A breakout year where she shot nearly 50% from the field and averaged 9.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game followed, earning a big raise and significant guaranteed money from Minnesota in free agency this offseason. She likely missed out on our top 50 because there's only been one season of evidence that this is her level, but at 27 years old there's a good chance that the Lynx have her under contract for her peak years.
How high might certain vaunted rookies climb up the list? What order will the members of each ‘superteam’ fall in? Who does the media view as the league’s likely best player in 2024, and their closest competition? Join us next week for the #RankingTheW countdown, starting with Nos. 50-26 on Monday.
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.