{"id":745926,"date":"2026-06-18T22:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/745926\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T22:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:29:09","slug":"wnba-rookie-rankings-sydney-taylor-makes-her-debut-azzi-fudd-rises-and-olivia-miles-solidifies-the-top-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/745926\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Rookie Rankings: Sydney Taylor makes her debut, Azzi Fudd rises and Olivia Miles solidifies the top spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Lynx<\/a> guard Olivia Miles<\/a> continues to separate herself from the competition and is once again the top player in the CBS Sports WNBA Rookie Rankings. Miles is in a tier of her own, but there are plenty of other impressive first-year players, including the Chicago Sky’s<\/a> Sydney Taylor<\/a>, who joined our list for the first time this week.<\/p>\n

Dallas Wings<\/a>‘ Azzi Fudd<\/a> has climbed up to No. 2, while New York’s Pauline Astier<\/a> and Seattle’s Flau’jae Johnson<\/a> are once again featured in the rankings. Kiki Rice was our No. 2 rookie two weeks ago,<\/a>\u00a0but the Toronto guard was left off this time around since she is still recovering from a Grade 2 ankle sprain and is expected to miss several weeks.<\/p>\n

Other players who did not make the rankings but are worth keeping an eye on include Phoenix’s Jovana Nogic<\/a>, Chicago’s Gabriela Jaquez<\/a> and Seattle Storm’s<\/a> Awa Fam<\/a>. Without further ado, here are the latest CBS Sports WNBA Rookie Rankings:<\/p>\n

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5. Flau’jae Johnson<\/p>\n

Johnson’s consistent high-level effort is evident on the stat sheet — she has 5.1 rebounds per contest, the most by all the rookies, top 25 across the league and top three among guards. She is also averaging 11.3 points per contest and is improving her decision-making while reading the game better and adjusting her pace. So far, Johnson is still the only rookie with multiple double-doubles this season.<\/p>\n

In her most recent outing, Johnson scored 8 points in 22 minutes while shooting 57.1% from the field in the 94-89 loss to Portland. The Storm are on a nine-game losing streak and have not won a game since May 24.\u00a0 However, Johnson and rookie teammate Awa Fam are two bright spots. Fam was also up for consideration for this list after an 18-point performance that included three 3-pointers against Portland.<\/p>\n

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4. Sydney Taylor<\/p>\n

Sydney Taylor missed the potential game-winner against the New York Liberty<\/a> on Wednesday night, but she has shown how impactful and productive she can be when given the opportunity. Taylor finished the night leading all scorers with 24 points in her first career start. The Sky lost 96-95, but with her help, the Sky were extremely close to getting a victory against one of the top teams in the league.<\/p>\n

The former UMass and Louisville guard has scored in double figures in each of the six games she has played at least 20 minutes. She was on the court for 21 minutes and scored 30 points on 10 of 14 shooting during the 114-106 overtime loss to the Indiana Fever<\/a> on June 11.<\/p>\n

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3. Pauline Astier<\/p>\n

Sabrina Ionescu<\/a> is back on the court and hit the game-winner for the dramatic 96-95 victory over the Sky on Wednesday. However, it seems Pauline Astier will continue to get some decent minutes as a valuable and efficient member of the roster despite Ionescu’s return. In 23 minutes against Chicago, she scored 9 points while going a perfect 7 of 7 from the free throw line. She also contributed with five rebounds, four assists, one steal and zero turnovers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of Astier’s most exciting highlights of this season happened on June 11 in the 104-90 win against the Atlanta Dream<\/a>. She hit a 3-point buzzer-beater from beyond half court to give the Liberty a 51-44 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n

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2. Azzi Fudd<\/p>\n

The Wings stunned the Aces<\/a> 96-66 on Monday while Fudd had the most efficient shooting night of her career by going 88.9% from the field (8 of 9) and registering 19 points in the process. Wednesday’s game wasn’t as productive offensively as she shot 4 of 13 for 10 points in a 91-80 loss to the Valkyries<\/a>. However, Fudd’s defense has continued to impress as she picked up five steals at Golden State, the most by any rookie this season.<\/p>\n

She hasn’t consistently been the offensive threat fans expected from her, at least not yet, but Fudd is still top 25 in 3-point shooting with 1.7 3-pointers per game while shooting almost 39% from beyond the arc. She is averaging 12.7 points, which is tied with Kiki Rice for second-most points per game by a rookie this season.<\/p>\n

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1. Olivia Miles<\/p>\n

Miles continues to be the clear candidate for Rookie of the Year. The No. 2 overall pick is leading all first-year players in scoring with 19 points per game, which is also top 10 overall in the WNBA. In addition, she leads all rookies in assists with 5.7 dimes per contest. Last week, Miles showed out against No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd and the rest of the Wings with 24 points on 7 of 10 shooting, seven rebounds and six assists in a lopsided 100-76 victory.<\/p>\n

She followed that performance by not backing down against four-time MVP A’ja Wilson<\/a> and the Las Vegas Aces. Despite the Lynx taking a 100-97 loss, Miles scored 29 points on 55% shooting, including some buckets while going against Wilson herself.<\/p>\n

That was a career high, but then she set a new one with 31 points in the 99-83 win against the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> on Wednesday night. She shot an impressive 12 of 15 from the field and set a new rookie record with 24 points in the first half.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles continues to separate herself from the competition and is once again the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[4662,732,136850,28454,49,48,726,3459,108955,159755,1612,2803,245437,62623,3460,632,736,3457,123521,245438,4644,1611,82,231185,630],"class_list":["post-745926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-aja-wilson","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-awa-fam","tag-azzi-fudd","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-sky","tag-dallas-wings","tag-flaujae-johnson","tag-gabriela-jaquez","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-indiana-fever","tag-jovana-nogic","tag-kiki-rice","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-olivia-miles","tag-pauline-astier","tag-sabrina-ionescu","tag-seattle-storm","tag-sports","tag-sydney-taylor","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}