{"id":644686,"date":"2026-05-15T12:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/644686\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T12:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:47:09","slug":"azzi-fudd-already-seems-too-far-behind-to-keep-recent-rookie-streak-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/644686\/","title":{"rendered":"Azzi Fudd already seems too far behind to keep recent rookie streak alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s start this the right way: Azzi Fudd is a great player. She deserved to be the number-one pick after a great UConn career, and she has a bright future in the WNBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the moment, however, that future doesn\u2019t look like it will include a Rookie of the Year award. Just three games in, Olivia Miles has sprinted so far ahead in the Rookie of the Year race that she can\u2019t even see her competition anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Fudd isn\u2019t named Rookie of the Year at the end of the season\u2014there\u2019s still plenty of time for her to make this interesting, but it will be a tall task\u2014it will be the first time since 2021 that the number-one pick isn\u2019t named Rookie of the Year. Rhyne Howard, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark, and Paige Bueckers all ran away with the award in the last four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Olivia Miles and Azzi Fudd are in very different positions<\/p>\n

Fudd doesn\u2019t have the same opportunities that Howard, Boston, Clark, and Bueckers had when they entered the league as the top pick in their respective draft. Instead of joining a rebuilding team as the new face of the franchise, she came to a Dallas team that already has its young star and went all-in on veteran talent in the offseason.<\/p>\n

As a result, she is coming off the bench and isn\u2019t as involved as you might expect from a number-one pick. Fudd only took two shots in her debut<\/a> and finished with 3 points, 1 rebound, and 1 steal. Her second game was much better\u2014she recorded 8 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and 1 block against the Minnesota Lynx\u2014but still rather quiet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Olivia Miles, meanwhile, came to Minnesota, and Cheryl Reeve immediately handed her the keys to the offense<\/a>. She is the Lynx\u2019s starting point guard and has the ball in her hands a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miles has lived up to the Lynx\u2019s high expectations for anyone who joins the team. She has scored in double figures in three consecutive games, including a 21-point debut, on very efficient shooting. She has also shown out as a playmaker, recording 21 assists already.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miles\u2019s transition from TCU to the Lynx\u2019s system was seamless, and she has already set herself apart from the other top draft picks.<\/p>\n

How are the other top picks doing?<\/p>\n

Flau\u2019jae Johnson is perhaps the closest draft pick to giving Miles some trouble in the Rookie of the Year race. She\u2019s averaging 11.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.7 steals three games into the season. However, she is also shooting only 27.6% from the field, and isn\u2019t driving winning nearly as much as Miles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gabriela Jaquez has been solid for the Chicago Sky. She put up 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in her debut and 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists against the Golden State Valkyries. She has been a reliable option for the Sky, but not nearly as flashy as Miles.<\/p>\n

The other two UCLA players who were selected in the top half of the draft didn\u2019t impress in their debuts. Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice both didn\u2019t score in their debuts. Rice put up 12 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist in her second game, and Betts followed up with 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block as the Mystics pushed the Liberty into overtime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s start this the right way: Azzi Fudd is a great player. She deserved to be the number-one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-644686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644686","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=644686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}