With two weeks left in the regular season, former WNBA greats and fans alike are weighing in on this year’s historic Rookie of the Year race.
“I don’t care what comparisons you make both @Reese10Angel and @CaitlinClark22 deserve the Rookie of the Year award,” basketball legend Lisa Leslie posted this week. “The pressure and the weight of this season has forever changed the @WNBA and both rookies rose to the top and exceeded all our expectations. Take a bow, ladies.”
Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese leads the WNBA in rebounds per game. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Rookies continue shattering league records
While only one player can win the award, both Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have undoubtedly left their marks on the season.
Clark leads all rookies in scoring at 18.7 points per game, while her 8.4 assists per game tops the entire WNBA. Even more, she’s on pace to surpass Seimone Augustus’s rookie scoring record, and has already broken the record for most three-pointers in a rookie season while leading the league in three-pointers made.
For her part, Reese recently shattered Sylvia Fowles’s single-season rebounding record and leads the league in rebounds per game. Plus, she holds the longest consecutive double-double streak in WNBA history, averaging 13.3 points and 13.2 rebounds per game.
Field goal percentage favors Clark
Despite the neck-and-neck competition, Clark does hold one major statistical advantage over Reese. Clark’s field goal percentage sits at 42.4% while Reese’s is 38.5% — a significant gap considering Reese makes most of her attempts close to the basket.
That same stat arguably makes Sparks guard Rickea Jackson a dark horse in this race: Shooting 46.6% from the field, she’s currently the WNBA’s most efficient rookie averaging over 10 points per game.
All to say, while Clark appears to be pulling away as the ROY frontrunner, the way this year’s rookie class has performed in the face of huge expectations will impact the league far beyond 2024.
