Breanna Stewart is carrying the Liberty this season — and her teammates feel that the superstar’s performances are being “overlooked.”
Stewart’s latest impactful performance came Wednesday night in an effort to successfully stave off a Seattle Storm comeback: 28 points on an efficient 12-of-22 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, two assists and a block.
It was another Stewie performance that her teammates have gotten used to seeing all season. Yet, the eight-time All-Star entered Thursday not as one of the frontrunners for WNBA MVP, but with the fifth-best odds (+6600) to win the award, according to BetMGM.
A fellow MVP winner said Stewart should be more involved in MVP chatter across the league.
“No questions asked. I think she deserves it,” Jonquel Jones, the 2024 WNBA Finals MVP and 2021 MVP award winner, said. “She’s been our leader. She’s been out there just playing tremendously, and picking us up when some of us have had down games. But I think she’s just had that level of consistency, and I think she deserves to be in that conversation.”
Stewart, a two-time MVP award winner, is averaging 21.6 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals through 31 games. Her 47.6% shooting from the field entering Thursday is second-best to her 52.9% mark from the 2018 title-winning season with the Storm. She won her first MVP award that year, too.
And her 2026 averages are not too far off from her numbers in 2023, when she secured her second MVP award: 23.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.5 steals. She shot 46.5% from the field and 35.5% from downtown.
“I do think that sometimes when you have a level of, I guess, success for so long in your career, sometimes it can be overlooked. I feel like it’s our job as a team, organization … everybody to just continue to highlight what Stewie is doing because it is a really great job she’s doing. It’s something superb,” Jones said.
“I don’t know how she couldn’t be part of those conversations,” Rebecca Allen added. “That shocks me.”
Despite the support, Stewart’s efforts this season likely isn’t enough to win the award for the third time.
Make no mistake, Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja WIlson is the clear-cut favorite (-500) to win the award for the fifth time in her career.
In her ninth season, she is averaging 26.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 2.0 blocks through 28 games. Wilson is averaging a career-high in three-point percentage (44.6% on 2.3 attempts) while anchoring the defense of the second-seeded Aces.
The Liberty entering Thursday seventh in standings (6.5 games back of No. 1 seed Lynx) potentially hurts Stewart’s case in any MVP discussion.
Still, Jones feels Stewart has a case to be mentioned as a frontrunner despite Wilson’s otherworldly results.
“I feel like the conversation is about your consistency. It’s about your numbers. It’s about how much you mean to your team. I don’t think it’s like a direct comparison between A’ja and Stewie,” Jones said. “I think it’s about the most valuable player to their team, and I think that’s what [Stewart] is for us. And that level of consistency within itself should have her in those conversations.”
BetMGM has Minnesota Lynx rookie standout Olivia Miles (19.7 points, 5.8 assists and 4.7 rebounds) with the second-best odds (+900) for MVP. Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (+1300) and Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers (+1700) are listed third and fourth, respectively, by the sportsbook.
Stewart’s fingerprints are all over Liberty games.
She’s been the most important Liberty cog on both sides of the floor. She entered Thursday 10th in usage rate (27.0) among players with at least 15 games played. Wilson leads the WNBA with 32.2.
Even with such a high involvement in the Liberty’s offense, the ball doesn’t tend to stick to Stewart for long stretches without opportunities to get teammates involved.
And she’s constantly tasked with slowing down some of the best opposing players in the WNBA on some nights, and playing a free safety role to help her teammates on the defensive end.