{"id":16368,"date":"2025-07-17T12:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/16368\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:45:12","slug":"is-paige-bueckers-a-rookie-of-the-year-lock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/16368\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Paige Bueckers a Rookie of the Year lock?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paige Bueckers, the preseason favorite to win Rookie of the Year, is comfortably holding her lead. Bueckers is in a bigger role than any other rookie, and she\u2019s outperforming the pack. <\/p>\n

There truly isn\u2019t much else to say about the state of the award, so instead, let\u2019s audit the performances of the preseason favorites.<\/p>\n

Paige Bueckers (Dallas Wings)<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Paige Bueckers leads rookies in points per game and assists per game.<\/p>\n

Photo by Michael Hickey\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In the first week of the season, both the Dallas Wings and No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers were struggling. Now, approaching All-Star break, the Dallas Wings are still struggling. Bueckers, however, isn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Through her first four games, Paige shot below 40 percent from the field three times. In the 14 games since, she\u2019s only done so on four occasions. Her averages of 18.4 points per game, 5.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds leave no doubt for her place in the ROTY standings. <\/p>\n

Truthfully, the one missing piece to the PB5 puzzle is winning more basketball games. It won\u2019t hurt her candidacy, but six wins in 23 games is bad. The Wings are bad. Splash moves in the offseason advertised a new Dallas roster that would be built around their incoming rookie, but, oftentimes, it seems like they\u2019re holding Bueckers back from winning. Arike Ogunbowale, Paige\u2019s backcourt co-star, is still fighting a career-long battle with efficiency, which hasn\u2019t improved despite a drop in shot attempts this season. Bueckers is on the fast track to a meaningful award, but Dallas is on a fast track to the bottom of the league standings. Sorry Wings fans, you can\u2019t have it all.<\/p>\n

Sonia Citron & Kiki Iriafen (Washington Mystics)<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen are the first rookie teammates to make the All-Star game since 1999.<\/p>\n

Photo by Jess Rapfogel\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Washington Mystics had three selections in the top six picks of the 2025 WNBA<\/a> draft. Given the fluctuant nature of young WNBA players, fans were hoping that maybe one of the new Mystics would look like a potential future star. Well, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen aren\u2019t just potential stars: they\u2019re leading the team to a playoff spot, and earning themselves selections to the All-Star game. <\/p>\n

If anyone has an argument to top Bueckers in the ROTY race, it\u2019s Citron. She\u2019s averaging 14.1 points and five rebounds per game, both second amongst rookies. While she\u2019s four points per game behind Bueckers, she shoots a higher percentage from both 3 and the free throw line, and only 0.6 percent worse from the floor as a whole. She also attempts four fewer shots than the No. 1 overall pick, explaining the discrepancy in scoring. Realistically, Citron probably will not have a real chance to win the award unless she can get within two points per game of Bueckers. However, that\u2019s not impossible. If Citron has a dominant second half to her season, she could still see her name on a trophy.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Iriafen has exceeded expectations but is facing an uphill battle to steal the crown from Bueckers. She leads rookies in rebounding, but her 12 points per game aren\u2019t enough to frame her as the league\u2019s best rookie. An All-Star appearance and All-Rookie selection, which is nearly guaranteed, are more then enough consolation.<\/p>\n

Dominique Malonga (Seattle Storm)<\/p>\n

\"Washington<\/p>\n

Dominique Malonga was picked second by the Seattle Storm after an impressive pro season in France.<\/p>\n

Photo by Alika Jenner\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine texted me \u201cDominique Malonga looks like she\u2019s two years away from being two years away,\u201d joking about the raw, often flat nature of the French center\u2019s impact on the game. Held to the high and harsh standard of being the No. 2 pick in a talented draft class, Malonga has debuted below the expectations of most. Criticisms of her game, isolated from her prospect profile, are fair. However, Malonga wasn\u2019t picked for her immediate impact\u2014and therefore shouldn\u2019t be judged by it.<\/p>\n

Malonga is four years and twenty-seven days younger than Bueckers, meaning when she\u2019s no longer \u201ctwo years away from being two years away,\u201d she\u2019ll still be younger than Paige currently is as a rookie. Malonga is a 19-year-old playing behind a 35-year-old former MVP on Seattle Storm\u2019s depth chart. Even if she isn\u2019t producing, she\u2019s learning. Given their talent, Seattle knew they could afford to spend a pick on a project and still win basketball games. Malonga deserves the grace of time, and her coaching staff is easing her into a bigger role as the season progresses. She\u2019s not a Rookie of the Year candidate, but that doesn\u2019t mean she was the wrong pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers, the preseason favorite to win Rookie of the Year, is comfortably holding her lead. Bueckers is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[571,1699,1698,15508,424,2850,15510,573,15507,15509,99,1697,1596,434,1700,2394],"class_list":["post-16368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-a","tag-all-womens-sports","tag-appeal","tag-bueckers","tag-front-page","tag-is","tag-lock","tag-of","tag-paige","tag-rookie","tag-sports","tag-swish","tag-the","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-content","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}