Hi everyone, welcome to the brand new WNBA season. This is the 27th year of the league and the 15th for me personally. This will be the 8th year that I will be covering the WNBA season on the blog and the third year that I will freelance write for Her Hoop Stats. Make sure you are subscribed to them, if not already because the site does incredible work in terms of statistics, salary cap information and so much more. It truly has elevated our WNBA writing/freelance work. For international visitors, this year Andrew came along and he keeps up with all of the WNBA players overseas as well as internationals for the blog. You can read his work all over the site.
Finally, if you would like to be subscribed to the blog, you may do so below. You will recieve overseas updates, WNBA rookie watch in your inbox.
During the preseason, I was finally able to attend a WNBA game in my own country, I wrote about my experience here. I asked my Twitter followers what I should keep track of on a week to week basis with a Twitter poll and they responded that I should keep up with WNBA rookies.
Of course, this makes a ton of sense for this blog because I keep up with Women’s College Basketball Player Rankings – Class by Class! during NCAA Women’s College Basketball season, so now of course, they want to see how the senior class is doing! In the past, I’ve writen about scoring/rebounding/assist milestones, but now I’ll leave that up to Across The Timeline and other sites.
WNBA ROOKIE WATCH – FIRST WEEK OF THE WNBA SEASON
*Note – This WNBA rookie watch will be updated every three weeks instead of every week. This is because in the WNBA, there are a limited number of roster spots and so rookies have to compete with veterans/star players for spots. A majority of them either get cut, get limited minutes or need time to get adjusted. Their minutes will vary from game to game, opponent to opponent. It will be hard to find consistent minutes and so it won’t be easy to judge rookies on a week to week basis. I’m updating this every three weeks so that I have several games and data(!) to work with.
- Aliyah Boston – Indiana Fever
Welcome to the WNBA, Aliyah Boston! The #1 overall 2023 draft pick had an amazing first game at home in her rookie debut. She finished with 15 points, 9 rebounds and she was able to display her skills around the basket and why she was chosen as the #1 overall pick this year. She almost helped lead the Indiana Fever back into a win against the Connecticut Sun. It was very impressive. In her second game, it was a blowout loss against the New York Liberty in which superstar Breanna Stewart went off for 45 points and so the game was over during the third quarter. She finished with 15 points and 4 rebounds.
2. Zia Cooke – Los Angeles Sparks
In her first WNBA game against the Phoenix Mercury in which featured the return of Brittney Griner, Zia Cooke came to play. She only played 15 minutes in that game and made every minute on court worth it. She finished the game with 14 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and shot 83% from the floor. She made both of her three point attempts. The Sparks won the game over the Mercury and Cooke’s contributions certainly helped. She gave the Sparks help off the bench whenever it was needed.
3. Diamond Miller – Minnesota Lynx
Diamond Miller has had a strong start to her WNBA career. She has been fantastic when given minutes. She’s currently averaging 22.5 minutes per game and has shown her capabilities in various areas. She’s currently averaging 8.5 points per game, 4.0 rebounds per game, 2.5 assists per game and 1.5 steals per game. Talk about a versatile defensive guard for the Lynx. What a steal. She’s been able to perform whenever given minutes and show off her various skills. It will be fun to see her develop as the WNBA season continues to progress.
4. Jordan Horston – Seattle Storm
The Seattle Storm are going to look different this season because they are rebuilding after Sue Bird retired and Breanna Stewart left for New York. There’s going to be plenty of oppurtunities for Jordan Horston to earn playing time on this roster. During Seattle’s first game of the season against Las Vegas, it was a complete blowout. She finished the game with 8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in 24 minutes. It was a very nice first WNBA game for Jordan and she will be one of the rookies to watch for this season.
5. Dorka Juhász – Minnesota Lynx
Whenever Dorka Juhász has been given minutes from the Minnesota Lynx, she has responded. In her first two WNBA games, in just under 14.5 minutes per game, she’s averaging 2.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1.5 steals per game. She’s been efficient on the floor, shooting 40%. As the season continues, it will be interesting to see what she can do and with the minutes she’s given on the floor. Can she respond to them? Will she be still be able to be as efficient? There’s still plenty of unanswered questions.
Finally, there’s another rookie who we shall see on here once she is given more minutes. Haley Jones of the Atlanta Dream. I think she will be just as capable as all of the other rookies shown on here and she will have plenty of chances to prove herself in this year’s rookie class. The next rookie watch will come out on Thursday, June 15th and it will be fun to see which other rookies have stepped up or which rookies have dropped out.
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