Week 1 of the shortened WNBA season has come to a close and WNBA rookies have finally played a WNBA game. Some rookies had a great first week, other rookies struggled, some did not get enough playing time and some rookies got injured. We have it all covered for you from our WNBA Rookie Report comittee members Teylor Hines, Blake O’Tain and myself (Aneela Khan). The rookies are put together by their respective draft order.
Sabrina Ionescu
As one of the most anticipated WNBA rookie debuts in WNBA history, Sabrina Ionescu’s first game was against one of the top WNBA teams in the Seattle Storm. She struggled from the field and was 0-8 from three. She finished with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Four days later, she turned it around against the Dallas Wings, another young team in the WNBA. She had 33 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. She shot 55% from the field and 60% from three. Two days later, she suffered an ankle injury and was out the rest of the game. She had 10 points in 12 minutes before the injury. Ionescu’s injury will keep her out for a month, maybe longer and so unfortunately there will be no more rookie updates of Sabrina Ionescu for a while. – Aneela
Satou Sabally
As one of the most versatile players in this draft, Satou Sabally’s WNBA rookie debut was also much anticipated. Her first game was against the Atlanta Dream in which she fouled out but had 11 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Her second game was against New York and fellow rookie and Oregon team mate in Sabrina Ionescu. Sabally struggled in the game and finished with 12 points and 4 rebounds. In Sabally’s third game of the season against the Indiana Fever, she showed her versatility and promise as she had a big game and scored 23 points and had 17(!) rebounds. In her final game of the week, she struggled and ended up with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Satou Sabally still has so much upside and will continue to get better as she gets used to the WNBA. She is now one of the leading candidates for Rookie of the Year. – Aneela
Lauren Cox
Cox has still not made her WNBA Debut and still remains in COVID protocol. -Blake
Chennedy Carter
Chennedy Carter is just as great as advertised. Her handles are great and she can create her own shot whenever she pleases. The most surprising, but, also positive observation of Carter’s game has been her willingness to distribute. We often discuss Chennedy’s focus on scoring the ball, but she has shown in spurts of games that she can shift her mindset. However, it’ll be in the Dream and Carter’s best interest if she starts to cut down on the turnovers. Most of her turnovers come from trying to do too much and not letting the game flow, but those errors can be fixed. Carter wrapped up the first week of play averaging 15.3 points per game along with 4 assists. -Teylor
Bella Alarie
Bella has had a slower start in the WNBA than I expected, only putting up 3 points per game. She is definitely still adjusting to this new level of competition in the WNBA. In her 12.5 minutes per game, she is averaging 1 block, which is 3rd best among rookies. -Teylor
Mikiah Herbert Harrigan
Mikiah Herbert-Harrigan started the season not playing in the Lynx’s opener, but unfortunate injuries opened the door for playing time. In the last three games, she’s averaging nearly 13 minutes on the floor. Herbert-Harrigan has yet to find her touch offensively and that could be due to adjusting to playing heavily on the perimeter. As the season progresses, the hope is that those open shots will start to fall. On the contrast, her defensive presence has been impressive. Herbert-Harrigan’s active hands and ability to be an effective defender without fouling, specifically, in the Chicago game makes her a viable asset to the Lynx’s rotation. -Teylor
Tyasha Harris
Ty Harris has the makings of an All-Rookie team candidate. Harris has showed a little bit of everything that she’s capable of since her debut. Noticeably, she’s great with change of pace and has displayed amazing court vision early on. Harris wrapped up the first week of play averaging 7.5 points per game and 4 assists on nearly 48 percent shooting from the field. Harris’ assist-to-turnover ratio sits at 4:1 to start the season. -Teylor
Ruthy Hebard
Ruthy Hebard’s playing time has been limited due to the depth of Chicago’s front court. However, with Dolson foot injury it has allowed Hebard to come off the bench and make a difference specifically with rebounding. Most notably, in her eight minutes of play against Washington she pulled down six rebounds. With making that kind of impact in such a short amount of time, Hebard’s confidence and growth going forward for the Sky could be major. -Teylor
Megan Walker
Megan has played in 3 games for the Liberty, after passing COVID protocol. She has struggled to begin her career, she’s only shooting 18% from the field, and 0-11 from 3. Megan has scored 2 points in each of the Liberty’s 3 games. Walker was a junior who declared for the draft early, so she is younger but having a very slow start to her career to say the least. -Blake
Jocelyn Willoughby
Willoughby has made meaningful contributions for the Liberty early in this season. She’s averaging 7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, and is shooting 55 percent from 3! Willoughby has been strong defensively too, against Atlanta she had 3 steals and 2 blocks. She has definitely put of some strong stat lines for a WNBA rookie. -Blake
Jazmine Jones
Jones has played in 3 of New York’s games. She had an outstanding performance against the Atlanta Dream. Jones scored 20 points in that game, along with 2 steals and 2 blocks. Jazmine is averaging 10.3 points per game, which is 4th among rookies. Jones has also been a good rebounder averaging 3 rebounds per game, which is 5th among rookies. -Blake
Kylee Shook
Kylee Shook got off to a rough start in her first two games, but averaged 8 points and 4.5 boards in her last two. With such a young team, Shook will get a solid amount of playing time to perfect pick and pops with Clarendon running point. The main question for Shook is if she’ll be able to adapt to the physicality of the league and make a difference on the defensive of the ball like she did in college. -Teylor
Kathleen Doyle
Doyle suffered an ankle injury in practice which delayed her WNBA debut. She did make her debut against Atlanta on Sunday. She played 7 minutes 0-1 from the field, with one assist, and one turnover. Not a lot of time on the court yet for Kathleen, after her delayed debut. -Blake
Leaonna Odom
Leaonna Odom played in all four New York Liberty games in her first week as a rookie. She played the most minutes in New York’s first game and scored 9 points and had 3 rebounds. She was held scoreless in the Liberty’s second game but had 4 rebounds. In the third game, Odom scored 3 points and had 2 rebounds. In the final game of the week, Odom scored 4 points and had 1 rebound. She has shown flashes of what she can do as rookie but still has a long way to go. – Aneela
Crystal Dangerfield
Crystal Dangerfield excelled in the point guard role for Minnesota in her first week as a rookie. She had 10 points and 2 rebounds in her first game but was held scoreless in her second game. Due to injuries, Crystal Dangerfield played heavy minutes in the final two games of the week for the Minnesota Lynx and had 9 and 17 points respectively. She has played well in starters minutes, so we will see if it will be kept that way for the rest of the season. – Aneela
Brittany Brewer
Brittany Brewer has not gotten much playing time so far in the WNBA and has only seen action in 2 games for the Atlanta Dream this week. She played just 17 minutes against the Dream and had 2 points, 2 steals and 4 blocks. She just played only 3 minutes versus Indiana and was held scoreless across the board. – Aneela
Te’a Cooper
Te’a Cooper exudes the energy that the Sparks often need from their second unit along with Sykes. Her ability to execute on the pick-and-roll with both Ogwumike and Parker will keep her on the floor. The best part of Cooper’s game thus far has been her defensive prowess with how she picks players up mid-court and causes havoc. It doesn’t always result in steals or blocks, but the disruptions make a difference. It’ll be big for the Sparks if she can knock down 3-pointers consistently going forward. Through the first week of play, Cooper averaged 7.3 points per game on 47 percent shooting. -Teylor
Joyner Holmes
Holmes has played in all 4 of New York’s games so far. She’s averaging 3.5 points per game, and 2.8 rebounds per game. She is yet to hit a 3 pointer (0-7 on three point attempt). Joyner did have an excellent game against the Dallas Wings. She scored 7 points, her career high, along with 4 rebounds. -Blake
Beatrice Mompremier
Beatrice Mompremier only got limited time and played in only 3 games out of 4 for the Connecticut Sun. The most playing time she got was on July 26th against Minnesota in which she scored 2 points and had 3 rebounds in 9 minutes. – Aneela
Kaila Charles
Kaila has played in 3 of the Sun’s games, she is averaging 5.3 minutes per game. She hasn’t made a field goal yet in her WNBA career (0-3 on field goal attempts). We will see if Charles can develop a little bit more, and if the Sun utilizes her more within these next couple of games. – Blake
Jaylyn Agnew
Agnew has seen limited minutes thus far for Atlanta. In that time, the former Creighton star hasn’t been able to find a groove with her 3-point shot until their most recent game sinking both of her attempts. – Teylor
Stella Johnson
Stella Johnson has seen the court for a total of one minute and it came in the Sky’s decisive 96-78 victory over the Sparks. There wasn’t much to dissect at that point, but hopefully Johnson can receive minutes before the team’s backup point guard arrives. -Teylor
Ezi Magbegor
Ezi Magbegor got off to a great start in her first week as a rookie. She was a terrific finisher and a great defensive presence for the Seattle Storm. She only averaged about 14 minutes per game in the four games she played but she made the most out of her minutes scoring 7.8 points per game and 2.8 rebounds per game. – Aneela
Megan Huff
Megan Huff has only played in 2 games out of 4 for the Minnesota Lynx in her first week as a rookie and has only played 3 minutes so far. – Aneela
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