The 2026 Hoop Hub Regular Season Awards

The first award goes to a team that is flat-out dreadful. For an organization in its last year in Connecticut (and unfortunately moving to Houston, which means I now have to root for them), they seem to be ending the season with literally nothing to be happy about. Their young talent has looked okay, and they have a few capable building blocks, but I’d argue none of that matters if Saniya Rivers and Leila Lacan aren’t taking big enough leaps. Neither has played in a single meaningful game in the WNBA, which is a shame because, out of all the young talent on the roster, their development is the one thing that could help this team escape the bottom tier of the league.

Brittney Griner has come and gone as she pleases, like an alcoholic tenured professor. Aaliyah Edwards looks good one out of every three games, and Diamond Miller, for all the potential she has, is a prime candidate for Double Agent Player of the Year. So there’s not much to celebrate. I tried to like Mezziane, but the regression from Rivers and stagnation from Lacan (who I’m very high on) should be fireable offenses, in my humble opinion.

The good parts of the season consist of Olivia Nelson-Ododa taking a semi-leap and Charlisse Leger-Walker looking like a steal in the draft. However, it’s not like they hit the lottery with her. It’s more like they stole a Kit Kat from a gas station. From everything I’ve seen since the All-Star break, they play uninspired basketball with zero intensity and no attention to detail. I think even Connecticut is excited to cast this group out of the state and never have to root for them again. I confidently give the Sun this first award because, unlike some of the other bottom-tier teams, no one on this roster seems to care that much about basketball. They probably already have their vacations planned.

This award is always one of my favorites to think about, but it was actually pretty difficult this year. Several teams will have a lot to look forward to next season, regardless of whether they finish strongly. Some very solid cores are already established, and those teams can now focus on building around them rather than being forced to drastically reconfigure their overall direction. However, the team I think will both stack a few wins here and have a lot of hope going into next season is the Chicago Sky.

They dealt with a gut punch when Rickea Jackson got hurt so early in the season, but if there were any silver lining, it’s that the development of the rest of the team has been more than apparent. I think Tyler Marsh, who I’ve always been a closeted fan of, probably saved his job because of the production from Taylor and Cardoso. Outside of those two, other players have also started to look capable and promising. With that said, I wish they would let Sheldon and Jaquez off the leash a little more often. Both can become really solid role players and capable starters, maybe with room to go beyond that.

Jaquez, in particular, just looks like a natural basketball player. Usually that means someone scores easily, but I mean it in other ways. She has great anticipation on defense and is always hustling. If anything, her offense seems to be the remaining piece she needs to figure out because she already does everything else exceptionally well.

She also seems like a great teammate because of her enthusiasm and emphasis on hyping everyone up. When you watch the games, you always see her stand up and clap or wave a towel from the bench after every big basket. It seems like nothing, but that energy can alter the morale of a team.

Going into next year, Chicago has found a potential star at guard, given Cardoso a lot more reps, learned the most effective ways to use its very deep bench and embraced a lot of the veterans who I hope stick around. Overall, this season should be marked as a success despite how bleak it looked at times. I’m hoping Marsh keeps his job because he finally seems to be figuring it all out, but most WNBA organizations are pretty stupid, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to bring in someone else.

We all know who’s going to win Rookie of the Year. If you have any other name, please never speak to me because you probably have to wear a helmet in public. Olivia Miles is going to win ROY and has a decent claim to MVP as well, which we’ll cover in a full article about the actual WNBA awards in the near future. As exciting as Miles is, she made the ROY race pretty boring. Despite the colossal gap, I wanted to throw some flowers at two other rookies.

One was a top-tier prospect on that magical UCLA team. The other went undrafted and somehow found herself carrying a superteam with four of the top 15 players in the league. Both have become personal favorites of mine, and both have nothing but bright futures ahead. In the spirit of Cathy Engelbert resigning (or however the league phrased it), I’ll be a coward, give the same award to two players and call them co-winners. So the co-winners of Rookie of the Year Not Named Olivia Miles are Kiki Rice and Pauline Astier.

Coincidentally, they’ve had similar roles on teams in very different positions. Both are essentially the first player off the bench, but they spend a lot of games being among the most productive and impactful players on their teams. Rice, who the country is a little more familiar with, reminds me of Dylan Harper. Simply put, she’s very polished for a rookie. She had much more success than Harper in college, but they shine in similar ways. They’re great at driving down the lane and making good basketball decisions. Both are strong and sturdy, with the foundation to become good shooters and isolation-scoring guards. Their shots come and go a little, but they’re still capable and will undoubtedly become more consistent as they grow into the league.

I’ve been very impressed with Rice’s poise and command of a team with so many moving parts, especially after an injury kept her out for a decent part of the year. As one of this year’s expansion teams, the Tempo have had to build a culture while their stars and other foundational pieces like Allemand and Harrison dealt with injuries. But whenever Kiki is in, she makes the right basketball play, whether it’s against the Aces or the stinky Sun.

Before the break, she had an amazing take in the lane straight at Dominique Malonga. She had to readjust in midair and put a lot of spin on the ball, one of many impressive yet seemingly casual finishes she’s had this year. We’ve talked about her in another article, where I said I’m buying all the Rice stock they’ll let me.

The other co-winner is Pauline Astier, another potentially elite foreign player who somehow found her way onto the Liberty. I don’t know who runs their scouting department or how on Earth they find all these players, but they can’t keep getting away with this. She has become my favorite player this year and reminds me of Carla Leite last season. Whenever her team needed a bucket or a spark, Leite was the person who provided it.

I know Sabrina is still playing her way back from an injury, but I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that, in the games Ionescu has played, Astier has simply been more impactful and efficient. Every once in a while, Astier will do something a little goofy that brings her back down to Earth, like smoking an easy layup, but for someone who’s technically a rookie, you have to let it slide. For the most part, though, she touches the paint with ease and can ignite the kind of runs we’re conditioned to seeing from the Liberty. When she’s running up and down the court, spraying the ball out to Johannes and the other shooters, and wiggling her way to easy layups, they look like the Liberty of old.

I haven’t been the biggest fan of Chris DeMarco, but I’ll admit he has the hardest easy job in the league. I’m a little worried he’ll mess up the lineups as we get into the playoffs and cut Astier’s minutes to give them to the older superstars, which I think would be a huge mistake. Regardless, Astier is really good. I’m forever going to be a big fan of her career, and if the Liberty make a run, I expect her to be one of the unsung reasons why.

These next two awards both go to the same team, one of my personal sleepers for the playoffs. Usually a sleeper isn’t seeded fourth or fifth in the league, but I think the WNBA community has disregarded this team a little. I was beginning to lose some of my initial optimism in the current regime until they made a very savvy move on the margins by getting DeWanna Bonner. I’m still not sure how that transaction was legal. One day, DB is on one of the most depressing teams in basketball; the next, she’s signing with a playoff contender.

I like the addition because she’s a smart veteran who is purely additive to what the Dream need. Their rotation is now a solid eight players, with Paopao, Borlase and Bonner coming off the bench and Brionna Jones soon to return from injury. They needed one more player who could help space the floor, which should allow Angel to feast in the paint and take some of the offensive workload off Howard and Gray.

DB obviously isn’t going to swing an entire postseason, but she can contribute a lot in one series, especially in what looks like a set matchup between the Fever and Dream. If she gets hot for one or two games, I could see an upset in the making against any team. People have begun to disregard the Dream because they haven’t been that great against the top-end teams, but neither were the Knicks going into the playoffs.

I don’t want to hyperbolically compare the Dream to the Knicks, but Atlanta has a bona fide superstar in Rhyne Howard and a solid starting five filled with players who know their roles and have no problem doing the dirty work that wins basketball games. On top of that, the roster is made up of adults in their prime, and that competitive fire runs all the way through it.

They have a few players who can singlehandedly win them a game, but longer series allow for less variance. Depending on the matchup, Atlanta will also usually be at a coaching disadvantage. They still need a few more things to click into place, but I’d keep an eye on them. I don’t expect them to go quietly into the night against the Fever in Round 1.

I wrote a full article about how confused I was watching the Aces go on the run of all runs. They began last season looking very old and average. Until that 16-game winning streak to end the year, there was not a single game that indicated that level of execution was still in them. Then they seemingly flipped a switch.

Their run felt 2022 Warriors-esque, with everyone knowing their role and executing it to perfection on the back of one of the greatest players ever. The Warriors got some lucky breaks by avoiding the Suns, catching the Celtics a little early and having Jordan Poole play the best basketball he’ll ever play in his life. The Aces got a little lucky, too, with the Fever missing Caitlin Clark and Collier getting hurt during their series. I don’t want to force the full comparison because, truthfully, it isn’t all the way there. But I did learn a lot from those Aces and Warriors runs. For starters, general experience and experience playing together really matter. The sixth player off the bench really matters. In-game coaching really matters. Duh, we all know those things are important, but I think they’re why both teams won the championship. That’s enough rambling about prior postseason runs. Now onto the team I’m reluctantly predicting will make a surprising run out of nowhere after a pretty underwhelming start to the season.

The New York Liberty, which the world somehow does not realize is a literal superteam, have a chance to flip a switch. They’ve had to work around a lot of injuries, including substantial time missed by two perennial superstars and someone I like to call a “superstar role player” in Fiebich. There has been a lot of coming and going in the lineup, and even when most of the team has been healthy, they’ve still been trying to ramp themselves up.

I just read that Sabally is out for the remainder of the year, but if Sabrina returns to her peak form, or anything close to it, they can overcome that injury. If anything, I had been wondering whether they should start Sabally because sometimes a player like Fiebich, who is more of a connector and traditional role player, is better for the overall flow of the team. Regardless, that decision has been made for them.

My main point is that I wouldn’t be all that surprised if the Liberty come back from the FIBA break and flip a switch into the juggernaut they’ve been in years past. They’re already a very good team, but they have the pieces and the ceiling to be the best matchup for the Minnesota Lynx, who seem like the clear-cut best team in the league. If Sabrina is healthy, it changes the entire dynamic of how defenses have to guard them, which is something I pray will happen.

How do you make an entertaining list without one completely idiotic projection? For the Titanic Team of the WNBA, and yes, I’m referring to the boat that crashed into an iceberg, I’m awarding the Las Vegas Aces. Despite always showing up when it matters most and having the ability to reach another level every single postseason, I think the Aces could be on upset alert early in the playoffs.

I just moved out of Las Vegas, which means I’ve been an Aces fan for my entire time following the WNBA. I loved them, went to multiple playoff games last year and am avoiding eye contact with my Becky Hammon bobblehead as I type this. Going back-to-back is hard, even though they’ve literally done it before. I just think the WNBA has gotten much better as a whole, and they won’t be able to win on talent disparity alone.

They still have one of the best coaches in the league, play with the kind of connectivity any basketball team would love to resemble and potentially have the greatest WNBA player ever. I should also note that I was skeptical of them going into last year’s playoffs, and then they completely annihilated everyone they played without ever really having their backs against the wall. However, and maybe this is just the type of person I am, I will always project regression. I have a hard time seeing them do it again, especially with such a thin roster.

They have one of the best starting fives in the league and a top three that has been there and done that, but they really need someone like Dana Evans to be effective and Stephanie Talbot to hit her shots. I’m not sure that is sustainable against some of these teams. Truthfully, I’m hesitant to say they’ll beat the winner of the 2025 Las Vegas Aces Award, whom they’re projected to face in the first round.

Historically, I don’t think playoff discourse has valued depth enough. The usual argument is that starters play more minutes in the postseason, so what’s the point of having a roster that can go nine deep? I’m not saying you need to be the Valkyries, who can run out 11 different players and seem just as strong. But I think you need at least seven quality players, with eight making you seriously dangerous.

Playoff series are usually won on the margins, and Mai Yamamoto and Kierstan Bell, who are passable in the regular season and fun stories, don’t seem close to enough when you’re talking about going head-to-head with the Lynx, Fever or Liberty. I know for a fact Wilson, Young and Gray are going to deliver. NaLyssa Smith is also very good, and Parker-Tyus is solid. Still, the roster does not scream championship caliber to me.

It reminds me of those Bucks teams with Giannis, Middleton and Holiday. They were good for one championship, but for most of their time together, they came up short. They relied heavily on Pat Connaughton or Bobby Portis to swing games. I’d be cautious betting on the Aces as we get into the playoffs. Then again, they’re the Las Vegas Aces, the WNBA version of the early 2000s Lakers.

The last award goes to a team I loved coming into the year. I loved their potential and the young talent they had, but I was beginning to get impatient waiting for it all to click. For a while, the Mystics looked a little dreadful, and I started to lose hope. Eventually, though, they figured out how to maneuver around their constant spacing issues.

They made a great move to get Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, whom I’ve been a fan of since her amazing playoff performances during the Liberty’s championship run. It’s no secret that I’m very high on Sonia Citron, and Shakira Austin has always been dangerous. But the change in play style, along with Georgia Amoore taking an in-season leap, has pushed them not only into the playoffs but into seventh place.

It used to be infuriating watching them slowly feed the ball into the paint while Onyenwere and Iriafen took turns taking bad, contested shots, preventing Citron from becoming the star of the team. Citron seems more passive and stoic, which allowed a lot of bad basketball to take place around her. It felt like someone needed to tell the rest of the team, using a famous Westbrook quote during a Wizards practice:

Do y’all know who the fuck that is right there. Bradley motherfucking Beal right there. All-star, all- NBA. Best player on this team. Y’all went up seven times, he didn’t get the ball. Who the fuck do y’all think y’all are? … He’s supposed to get the ball all seven times. He’s gonna give it to y’all…

Sonia Citron is the bus driver. The only player she could passably defer to is Shakira Austin, and even that’s still a maybe. I digress.

Amoore, who is technically a rookie, was having a hard time figuring out how to score, but her shot has come around nicely. That is very important. They obviously need to figure something out at the three, and maybe Laney-Hamilton is the fix, but this is a very uniquely constructed team.

If you’re unfamiliar with Kiki Iriafen, who is a very good player, she’s similar to Angel Reese in a lot of ways. She’s dominant on the glass, and once she gets to her spot in the paint, she becomes basically unstoppable. Then Shakira Austin, who has all the tools in the world, plays the five. They’re essentially running two centers with a power forward at the three, which creates some of the worst spacing issues I’ve ever seen.

However, they’ve picked up the pace, and the ball has begun to fly around in the half court. That has opened up so much for them and forced defenses to think twice about doubling. I’m giving them the Team Morale Champions award because it wasn’t long ago that the Mystics looked like a 15-year-old dog you hadn’t put down yet out of sentimentality. Like the Sun and Storm, they had almost nothing to be excited about.

You wondered whether, despite all the talent on the roster, they could overcome organizational incompetence and recent basketball history. This year has gone a long way toward changing the narrative and turning a bunch of losers into women who can play serious, winning basketball. I couldn’t care less if they get bounced in two games, as I think they will. This season has been a massive step toward becoming one of the top organizations in the league. It has also gone a long way toward proving their organizational competence and infrastructure. They have some interesting young players who need way more reps, but those players can develop without being asked to do more than they’re capable of.