2021 Major WNBA Awards Watch – Week 12

This past week, we saw some teams have some great wins and some teams lost some games. The Connecticut Sun are the best team in the WNBA right now and proved it in their win against the second best team in the league in the Las Vegas Aces. Meanwhile, the Seattle Storm have gone the opposite way and lost three straight games. They also got swept by the Chicago Sky.

Listed below is the current WNBA Major Awards watch for Week 12. You can view the previous week’s award watch here.

MVP: It continues from where we left off last week, but Jonquel Jones is still the leading front runner after A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces struggled and Breanna Stewart’s team, lost three straight this week. Joining the conversation, however is Minnesota’s Sylvia Fowles after her impressive effort of 29 points and 20 rebounds versus the Storm last week.

DPOY: This one is easy. It’s Sylvia Fowles. After last week in which there was no standout performer, Fowles came through. She has been the front runner for this award, as you will see in my previous week’s posts, so she leads entering this week of play.

Most Improved Player of the Year: Brionna Jones of the Connecticut Sun. She continued to perform well last week and is the front runner. She has been for a large majority of the weeks and there’s no denying it. She deserves it.

Sixth Woman of the Year: The battle continues between Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby. Last week, Kelsey Plum took the lead, but Dearica Hamby took it back this past week with her solid performances off the bench. At this point, the voters will have to decide to either split the votes between these two Aces player or really look closely during this last few weeks of the regular season to really decide on who gets this award.

ROY: This past week, there were some great performances from the rookies, but no player really stood out to grab the Rookie of the Year lead. As I have stated in my last post, Michaela Onywere was the front runner for this award but has not played well for a while now. Aari McDonald picked it up last week, only to not play as well as she did this past week. Getting playing time as rookies is hard, but currently no rookie is shining for a whole week when they do receive the full minutes. Dana Evans was great in her last game, but played poorly the game before that. The rookies will step up in games, but in order to win ROY, you need to deliver weekly/monthly good performances.

Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award: Sue Bird, Seattle Storm

Coach of the Year: This week, it’s someone new. Curt Miller of the Connecticut Sun. You could make a case for Sandy Brondello or Cheryl Reeve, but Curt Miller has some excellent wins under his belt and has made his team to beat moving forward.

Executive of the Year: This week, it’s someone new. This award belongs to Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx.

All-WNBA First Team

• Jonquel Jones, Connecticut Sun
• A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces
• Dewanna Bonner, Connecticut Sun
• Sylvia Fowles, Minnesota Lynx
• Diana Taurasi, Phoenix Mercury

All-WNBA Second Team

• Breanna Stewart, Seattle Storm
• Brittney Griner, Phoenix Mercury
• Napheesa Collier, Minnesota Lynx
• Skylar Diggins-Smith, Phoenix Mercury
• Courtney Vandersloot, Chicago Sky

All-WNBA Defense Team

• Sylvia Fowles, Minnesota Lynx
• Ariel Atkins, Washington Mystics
• Natasha Cloud, Washington Mystics
• Kahleah Copper, Chicago Sky
• DiDi Richards, New York Liberty

All-Rookie Team

• Aari McDonald, Atlanta Dream
• Michaela Onyenwere, New York Liberty
• Dana Evans, Chicago Sky
• DiDi Richards, New York Liberty
• DiJonai Carrington, Connecticut Sun