Nos. 25-211 of 13<\/p>\n
25. Carla Leite, Portland, PG<\/p>\n
Portland is off to a 7-9 start, and Leite has been the engine behind it. At just 21 years old, she’s already generating more points per game out of pick-and-roll than any player in WNBA history (19.5), per Synergy Sports.<\/p>\n
Leite gets downhill whenever she wants. Her burst puts constant pressure on the rim, forcing defenses into rotation and creating easy looks for everyone else. She’s also started knocking down threes at a more consistent rate, even if the volume is still fairly low.<\/p>\n
24. Sonia Citron, Washington, SG<\/p>\n
If you told me Citron would be averaging 16.6 points through the first 11 games of her second season, and that she’d be doing it largely because of her driving ability, I wouldn’t have believed you.<\/p>\n
She’s shooting 72.1 percent at the rim with a 57.8 percent free-throw rate, using her feel out of ball screens, timely cuts and ability to attack closeouts to constantly get downhill.<\/p>\n
Now that she’s at the top of opposing scouting reports, though, things have gotten tougher. With Washington’s point guard situation limiting the quality of her looks, Citron just hasn’t gotten as many clean catch-and-shoot opportunities.\u00a0Her usage rate hasn’t increased, either.<\/p>\n
23. Brittney Sykes, Toronto, SG<\/p>\n
Sykes is one of the most explosive athletes the WNBA has ever seen, and that burst makes her almost impossible to keep out of the paint. She’s still a positive defender, too, even if that work hasn’t been quite as consistent with her increased offensive workload.<\/p>\n
One thing worth watching is how her scoring style continues to look against the best teams. In three games against Minnesota, Atlanta and New York, her free-throw rate is just 10 percent. In her other 11 games, it’s 54 percent.<\/p>\n
22. Jonquel Jones, New York, C<\/p>\n
After a slow start that featured some inconsistent defensive effort, Jones has looked a lot better lately. Her combination of floor spacing, ball skills and passing has been impressive as always, combined with more energy on the other end.<\/p>\n
During New York’s six-game winning streak, Jones is averaging 15.3 points and 10.3 rebounds while shooting 46.9 percent from three.<\/p>\n
21. Kayla McBride, Minnesota, SF<\/p>\n
McBride’s shot hasn’t quite been at the 40 percent level we’ve seen the last couple of seasons, but her impact still feels just as important.<\/p>\n
Her value as a ghost screener and floor spacer is a huge part of what makes Minnesota’s offense work. McBride constantly creates driving lanes and opens up space for everyone else, regardless of whether she’s hitting threes or not. Defensively, she’s drawn the toughest wing assignment most nights and has been a big part of the league’s No. 1 defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nos. 25-211 of 13 25. Carla Leite, Portland, PG Portland is off to a 7-9 start, and Leite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-707663","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\/707663","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=707663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}