Indiana Fever rookie sensation Caitlin Clark is the heavy favorite to win the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year Award, but ESPN does not seem to think she is the top rookie in the league this season.
On Thursday, Neil Paine of ESPN published an article ranking the top rookie players in the WNBA this season. But when it comes to the No. 1 spot, Paine went with Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese over Caitlin Clark, citing a number of advanced stats for his decision even though Clark is better in nearly every standard stat aside from rebounds.
“Though Clark is an extremely heavy favorite for WNBA Rookie of the Year according to ESPN BET, the metrics continue to give a slight nod to Reese — though it’s getting closer by the day. Reese’s narrow edge in PER comes from her stat totals like her numerous double-doubles; she has 22 (including a streak of 15 straight at one point), which is tied for the third most in a WNBA season, just six off of the Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas’ record from last season,” Paine wrote.
“Reese also thrives in estimated RAPTOR in part because of her outsized impact on Chicago’s performance when she’s on the court: The Sky have a net rating of plus-0.6 points per 100 possessions with Reese in the game, and they are an unthinkably bad minus-20.8 per 100 when she sits. Even granting that Chicago has one of the worst benches in the league, Reese has the WNBA’s best on-versus-off real plus-minus.”
Obviously, this was a pretty shocking decision given that Clark is almost certainly going to win the league’s Rookie of the Year award with David Hookstead of OutKick going as far as to call it “disrespectful” to Clark.
