Evaluating the 2018 WNBA Rookie Class
This year’s WNBA rookie class has been making headlines left and right. With players like A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Mitchell contributing 21.0 and 14.4 points per game respectively, Sue Favor of Women’s Hoops World inquired about how the 2018 draft class compares to previous ones.
Ask, and ye shall receive. If you have other questions, please post them in our mentions on Twitter. For Sue, here’s a statistical look at how draft classes performed during their first year in the WNBA. We’ve charted minutes, points scored, rebounds, and assists per game to try and understand how the rookie class stacks up. Of course, the 2018 rookies have only played about half a season so we’ll continue to monitor their performance as the season continues.
A’ja Wilson leads the way for this year’s rookies by logging 31.0 minutes per game. That’s impressive, but not quite as high as Breanna Stewart’s 34.7 in 2016 or Odyssey Sims’ 34.6 in 2014. This year, five rookies (A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Mitchell, Diamond DeShields, Victoria Vivians, and Gabby Williams) are averaging more than 23 minutes per game. Still, the depth was even stronger in 2014, with six players (Odyssey Sims, Chiney Ogwumike, Alyssa Thomas, Anna Cruz, Bria Hartley, and Kayla McBride) over a remarkable 26 minutes per game.
Scoring is where Wilson stands out. At 21.0 PPG, no rookie in the last eight years has matched her scoring this season. The 2018 class is the highest of the group; Kelsey Mitchell and Diamond DeShields round out the top three in scoring this year, all with thirteen or more points per game. Collectively, they are just ahead of the top-end scoring by the 2014 rookies at this stage in their career.
As a rebounding class, the current rookies have been good but not better than past years. A’ja Wilson, who averages 8.7 rebounds per game, is one of just five players since 2010 to have at least eight rebounds per game. Only Tina Charles in 2010 and Breanna Stewart in 2016 have ever put up higher numbers, at 11.7 and 9.3 rebounds per game respectively.
The 2018 class most resembles 2014, which boasted Chiney Ogwumike as its leading rebounder at 8.5 per game. After A’ja and Chiney, there were notable dropoffs to the second leading rebounders of their respective classes.
The 2018 rookies have been doing well tallying up the assists, but no single player truly stands out as a rookie dropping dimes. Jordin Canada is having a nice rookie campaign with 3.4 assists per game, which does put her in the upper echelon for rookies. However, her stats don’t quite match those of Samantha Prahalis, Odyssey Sims, Celine Dumerc, or Moriah Jefferson, who are the only players to have at least four assists per game in their debut seasons. Even though the 2014 class didn’t have the best player overall in assists (that would be Samantha Prahalis in 2012), it easily had the highest number of players averaging over three assists per game.
What can we say about the 2018 rookies as a whole? They have shown a diverse set of skills, with A’ja Wilson having an amazing first season. Despite her unusually high impact, the current crop doesn’t boast as many top performers as previous draft classes have. As a result, we can point to the 2014 group as having the most statistically successful rookie season by a slim margin over 2018. Nonetheless, the 2018 class is well on its way to leaving an important mark on the WNBA.
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