The 2025 WNBA season is winding down and a number of the league's top rookies won't be playing postseason basketball, so it seems like a good time to talk about those rookies.
Specifically, it seems like a good chance to discuss what those rookies can improve on next season. Some of these players have had great years, but that doesn't mean they can rest on their laurels. They've got to hit the gym and work on some things that can help them make another leap into the next tier of great players.
Here is one thing that each of the top WNBA rookies can improve on in 2026.
Paige Bueckers: 3-point shooting
It's hard to nitpick Paige Bueckers' game, as she's been placed in a pretty impossible situation in Dallas. The roster around her is a disjointed mess and the player who was supposed to help her out the most, Arike Ogunbowale, just had the worst season of her career.
But if we have to pick something that Bueckers could work on, it's her 3-point shooting, as she's currently connecting on 33.0 percent of her looks from deep. Considering she shot over 40 percent from deep in three of her four seasons at UConn, there's clearly room for growth here.
Some of these shooting issues are just randomness. She's 28th in the league in midrange field goal percentage at 45.1 percent, but just 72nd in 3-point field goal percentage. That she's shooting so well from the midrange and also ranks 11th in the league in field goal percentage are two strong signs that Bueckers can fix her 3-point shooting with relative ease.
Dominique Malonga: Drawing fouls
It's hard to critique Dominique Malonga. As an international player, she's younger than the other rookies, and she was brought along very slowly by the Storm.
But one thing stands out: Malonga can't draw contact and get to the free throw line. It's pretty astonishing when you look at the numbers.
Despite playing just 14.0 minutes per game, Malonga ranks 21st in field goal attempts in the restricted area. She's done a really good job finishing at the basket, but she isn't drawing fouls down there. If you watch her play, you see a lot of finesse when she's got the ball down low — she'll step back when a defender comes up or she'll throw up a smooth little floater, and since she's currently making those shots, great! But the easiest way to get points is to be aggressive and get to the line, and Malonga ranks 129th in the league in free throw rate.
Now, some of this might be as simple as Malonga trusting her ability to score over people more than she trusts her ability to connect at the stripe, so she avoids seeking fouls, considering she's only shooting 60.9 percent from the line. That's also something to work on.
Sonia Citron: Turnovers
Sonia Citron has been great this season. In basically any other year, Citron walks away with a unanimous Rookie of the Year award, but being a first-year player at the same time as Bueckers is just unfair.
Citron is shooting the ball very well, but she can be a bit of a liability as a ball handler because of turnovers, as she's giving the ball away 2.0 times per contest.
Ideally, though, this won't matter because the Mystics will bring in more ball-handlers this offseason, allowing Citron to return to her more natural wing role. You ideally want her as the third ball-handler on the floor, but since the Brittney Sykes trade, she's been more of a secondary ball-handler with either Sug Sutton or Jade Melbourne at the point.
Kiki Iriafen: Stocks
Kiki Iriafen's offensive game has translated pretty well to the league, but her defensive numbers are paltry. She ranks 88th in steals and 99th in blocks, and he numbers get worse when looking at per 40 numbers, as she's 119th in steals per 40 minutes and 110th in blocks per 40 minutes.
Let's just put this in perspective. Just six players this year average under 0.7 steals and 0.5 blocks while playing at least 25 minutes per game. Of those players, only Janelle Salaun and Tiffany Hayes average fewer combined stocks (steals plus blocks).
One big issue is that instead of recording these stats, Iriafen just records fouls instead. Her 5.0 foul rate ranks 113th in the league. Those fouls need to be transformed into clean steals and blocks.
Saniya Rivers: Rebounding
Saniya Rivers was a really good rebounding wing in college, but she's been one of the league's worst rebounders as a rookie. Her rebounding rate of 6.3 percent ranks 99th in the league.
Her other defensive contributions have helped make up for the lack of boards, but it's something you'd like to see her work on.
You'd probably also like her to focus more on getting to the basket. Rivers had 96 midrange field goal attempts this season and just 57 attempts in the restricted area. Only five players — Rivers, plus Courtney Williams, Arike Ogunbowale, Ariel Atkins and Chelsea Gray — have 90 or more midrange attempts with under 60 attempts in the restricted area. Rivers isn't the same type of player as the others on that list, so it'd probably be better if she was more aggressive about getting inside.