Caitlin Clark

It's true that no one player is completely responsible for the surge in popularity and enthusiasm the WNBA saw this season but Caitlin Clark was clearly the catalyst. Within the 2024 calendar year, she carried Iowa to the National Championship Game, leading the nation in scoring and assists for the fourth consecutive year and breaking the all-time college scoring record for men or women's players. She then went No. 1 in the WNBA Draft and directly into her rookie season all within a matter of weeks. After a rocky start, she bounced back to break a slew of rookie records, lead the league in assists and 3-pointers and help the Indiana Fever reach the playoffs for the first time since 2016. That's about as impressive a 12 months of basketball as any player has ever had.

As incredible as Clark's rookie season was, it was also clear that she's nowhere close to her ceiling. She got better and better as the season went along and all the other trappings of greatness — championships, MVPs, career records. 50/40/90 seasons — are all well within her reach. That’s his wasn't just one of the most impressive rookie seasons in WNBA history, this was the beginning of the Caitlin Clark era.

Clark's production makes it easy to get lost in the numbers but I think her progression toward the 3-point record is going to be one of the most fascinating storylines to follow. After just one season she's already in the top 200 all-time. Duplicate that production across two seasons and she's in the top-100. Three seasons at that pace and she's in the top-50. Four and she's in the top-25. By her fifth season, she could be in the top-10 all-time and before she turns 30, she could already be challenging Diana Taurasi's record — one has her more than 400 3s ahead of any other player a lead that took her 20 seasons to build.