There's no use stringing you along here, Reader. I'm not going to be like "this WNBA Rookie of the Year race is going down to the wire," because it's not, and to pretend otherwise would be intellectually dishonest. Olivia Miles is the winner of this award and has had it wrapped up for months now. She will win unanimously and, if she doesn't, anyone who doesn't vote for her should have their voting privileges revoked and given to me next season.
With that said, Miles hasn't been the only good rookie! She's overshadowed the rest, but other players have gone out and played good basketball. Let's take one more chance to recognize the top rookies. Honorable mention here to the hardest player to leave off: Kiki Rice, who you could easily argue could rank as high as fourth on this list.
5. Azzi Fudd, Dallas Wings
That Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd has dropped all the way down to No. 5 on this list shouldn't be viewed as some indictment of her game. It's simply that because of injury, she's going to end up playing 10-14 fewer games than the rest of the Rookie of the Year contenders, and that has to factor in to how the award race shakes out.
Still, the Wings should be encouraged by what they saw from Fudd this season. Sure, she didn't really help with the team's creation issues, but Fudd's ability to shoot from deep is something that Dallas really needed. She knocked down 39.7 percent of her looks from deep as a rookie.
Sure, you can still argue that Dallas should have selected Miles with the No. 1 overall pick, but that doesn't mean Fudd had a bad rookie season. Talent-wise, you can make an argument for her as the second-best rookie. It's just a shame that injury limited her overall impact.
4. Awa Fam, Seattle Storm
The leading rookie rebounder, Seattle Storm forward Awa Fam, definitely still has work to do to hit her potential, but her debut WNBA season showcased why she was such a fascinating prospect.
Fam's mix of size, agility and shooting ability gives her the upside to eventually be the No. 2 player in this class behind Miles, though there are clearly times when Fam still needs to work on harnessing things effectively. She hasn't been as assertive as a scorer as she perhaps should be, and her defensive impact isn't showing up quite as much as it eventually should.
The 20-year-old big has a bright future in this league, and the Storm have to feel good about pairing her with Dominique Malonga long-term. The scoring and playmaking will come along. For now, Fam ranks fourth in this (very unscientific) ranking of rookies.
3. Sydney Taylor, Chicago Sky
It's been a long season for the Chicago Sky, but Sydney Taylor stands out as one of the few bright spots on this team, a player who didn't even enter camp with a secure roster spot but managed to quickly leap up the depth chart until she was arguably the team's most important player.
Taylor, an undrafted 25-year-old out of Louisville, is third in scoring among all rookies, and she's had a major impact when she's on the floor. The Sky have a net rating of +1.0 when Taylor is out there, which plummets to -9.1 when she sits. In other words, the Sky play like a legitimately decent team with Taylor on the court, but the struggles when she isn't playing are why the team is missing the postseason once again.
Taylor's probably the most interesting rookie to discuss because she's the one who we really don't know what the upside is. Are we already seeing Taylor play her best basketball, or is there more room to grow? As is, she projects to be a very good role player who should hopefully have lower usage on a future, more talented Sky team, but what if she can make a leap in terms of shooting efficiency? She might be in the All-Star conversation if that happens.
2. Flau'jae Johnson, Seattle Storm
Look: Efficiency has been an issue for Seattle Storm wing Flau'jae Johnson and I'm not going to pretend it hasn't been. She's shooting just 40 percent overall and 30.3 percent from 3-point land, and the Storm are going to need that to improve if the team is going to win basketball games with Johnson as one of the three main scoring threats.
There is reason to think Johnson can improve, though. In August, for example, she shot 44.8 percent overall and 36.4 percent from 3-point range over seven games. It's a small sample, and her post-FIBA break stats have been too weird to really mention (a 3-point percentage higher than her overall field goal percentage, which just seems noisy), but there's evidence that something is changing as far as her efficiency goes now that she's more comfortable on a WNBA court.
Overall, Johnson ranks second among rookies in scoring, rebounds and steals. The efficiency discussion matters when projecting forward, but in the context of the Rookie of the Year race, the raw numbers win out and put Johnson firmly in second place.
1. Olivia Miles, Minnesota Lynx
Congratulations to Oliva Miles for winning the WNBA Rookie of the Year award. There is zero question that it will happen. In fact, the only real question about Miles and award voting is where she'll finish in the MVP voting.
Miles is just lapping the field of rookie contenders. She averages 19.8 points per game, five more than anyone else. She's leading rookie in assists with 6.0 per game, while no other rookie even averages four of them. She's third among rookies in rebounds despite being 5-foot-10. She's proven that she figured out how to shoot from deep, something that was a question mark across her college career.
What else is there to say here? We've all known for months that Miles is winning this award. There's never really been a question about it. She took a team that was missing its best player for much of the season and has them first in the standings. She had 21 points and eight assists in her very first WNBA game and has scored in double figures 38 times in 40 games. Just an insanely good rookie season for Miles.
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