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WNBA rookie rankings: How Angel Reese surged to No. 1 – ESPN
A lot can happen over the course of a month in the WNBA.
Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese has gone on a historic double-double streak. The Indiana Fever‘s Caitlin Clark became the WNBA’s first rookie to record a triple-double. And Cameron Brink, who was No. 1 the last time we ranked the WNBA rookies, was lost for the season to a torn ACL after only 15 games.
With so many shakeups, our updated rookie rankings reflect a much larger sample. As a refresher on our process, each 2024 rookie is rated based on how many wins each has added so far this season, using a consensus of three different advanced value metrics: Basketball-Reference’s Win Shares, Estimated Wins Added from Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and wins generated via Estimated RAPTOR, a plus/minus-style stat that accounts for both a player’s individual production and her effect on her team’s net rating during a game. The RAPTOR metric is a new addition to these rankings, and it’s a big improvement because it includes a player’s stats and the effect of those stats on the game.
Each estimate of wins created is then averaged into a single metric, called Consensus Wins, which can then be used to rank every qualified rookie. Last time, we ranked off of per-minute production because teams had played wildly disparate numbers of games; now we can simply rank off of total wins added, as each team has played between 21 and 23 games — which also marks the halfway mark of the WNBA’s 40-game season.
We’re still judging each rookie’s rate metrics on a percentile scale (0-100) relative to all WNBA players this season — in scoring (based on points per 100 possessions), true shooting percentage, passing (based on assist rate), rebounding rate and defensive impact (based on both RAPTOR and defensive rating). That way, we can see why players rank where they do.
Let’s begin with the two rookies who have begun to put distance between themselves and the rest of the 2024 draft class.
Last ranked: No. 2 | Draft pick: No. 7 (LSU)
Win Shares: 2.8 | PER Wins: 3.3 | RAPTOR Wins: 2.5 | Consensus: 2.9
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