Fansided

Paige Bueckers may have already lost her spot as ROY frontrunner

Hailey Van Lith is already making a huge difference for the Chicago Sky and making a statement in the WNBA Rookie of the Year race.
ByMat Rutkowski|
May 6, 2025; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Sky guard Hailey Van Lith (2) drives to the basket against the Minnesota Lynx during the second half of a WNBA pre-season game at Wintrust Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
May 6, 2025; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Sky guard Hailey Van Lith (2) drives to the basket against the Minnesota Lynx during the second half of a WNBA pre-season game at Wintrust Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

I am so happy. I am so happy all the time. My partner plays World of Warcraft. She called this time of the year my equivalent to her raid season. The NBA season is being brought to a crescendo. It’s constant. Baseball is going, and for some reason I care this year. The MLB.tv free games rule.

And, maybe most importantly, we’re seeing WNBA games again. Preseason, but still. The Brazilian National Team has been hanging out a lot. I wonder how they find the country nowadays.

We’ve seen a little bit of Paige Bueckers so far. She has had one game, a 112-78 loss to the Las Vegas Aces. Ten points. Good shooting, if not on volume. Got her feet wet. I guess there weren’t any red flags.

And then there’s this

I would like you to look at this highlight from Hailey Van Lith. It is important to me. This also makes me happy.

HVL has been maligned quite a bit during her college career despite, you know, being extremely good. A Kim Mulkey association doesn’t help, especially when your year at LSU was a bit of a down year. And while she claimed some of her aura back after a strong final season at TCU (and after some important 3x3 appearances), somehow she just was like … there. Not in a bad way, but it was just so hard to parse her career.

She is in the WNBA now. The Chicago Sky took her. HVL has rewarded their risk. Through two games in the preseason, Haily Van Lith does not have a turnover in 30:06 of play time. That includes 17 minutes against the Minnesota Lynx. You know, a really good defense. She also has 10 assists in comparison.

The Sky are averaging 106.8 points per 100 possessions when she’s on the court. Last season, that would have ranked second in the league, behind only the Liberty’s 107.0. Granted, if you picked this kind of stats for the best offensive players they would almost always look good, but she is a half hour into her WNBA career. This is pretty dang cool.

So if this was a race where Paige and HVL were starting from the same place, HVL would probably have the lead over Paige and the entire pack. However, Paige comes in with a head start in talent, narrative, and general personal brand awareness. It’ll probably take more games like this from HVL (and in the regular season) to truly start eating away at that lead for some people.

We will see! Hailey is performing well. The Sky have one more preseason game on Saturday, and after that the season begins in earnest. I just hope everyone has fun.

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