{"id":882356,"date":"2026-10-14T19:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T19:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882356\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T19:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T19:50:16","slug":"olivia-miles-azzi-fudd-flaujae-johnson-headline-2026-wnba-all-rookie-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882356\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Miles, Azzi Fudd, Flau&#8217;jae Johnson Headline 2026 WNBA All-Rookie Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">The Minnesota Lynx&#8217;s Olivia Miles and Dallas Wings&#8217; Azzi Fudd led the way for the WNBA&#8217;s 2026 All-Rookie team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Chicago Sky guard Sydney Taylor, Seattle Storm guard Flau&#8217;jae Johnson, New York Liberty guard Pauline Astier and Toronto Tempo guard Kiki Rice rounded out the list of honorees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">2026 WNBA All-Rookie Team<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Miles had a rookie season for the record books, surpassing Caitlin Clark&#8217;s mark for the most points by a first-year player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">The 5&#8217;10&#8221; playmaker averaged 19.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.3 steals. She was also an efficient scorer, shooting 49.2 percent overall and 38.8 percent from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Miles&#8217; biggest achievement is the leadership and poise she displayed while the Lynx were waiting for Napheesa Collier to return from ankle surgery. Minnesota hardly missed a beat despite missing the five-time All-Star. Rookies typically don&#8217;t impact winning in the way Miles did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">As the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, Fudd will have the misfortune of being intertwined with Miles for the duration of her career. Her production was contrasted with that of the player who went second overall in April.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Fudd averaged 13.1 points and shot 39.7 percent from the perimeter. Her season came to a premature end thanks to knee surgery, which played into one of the <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong mui-mlpnpn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ncaaw\/2025\/04\/04\/azzi-fudd-injury-history-uconn-final-four\/82800173007\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">bigger concerns<\/a> about her long-term outlook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">When healthy, Fudd at least displayed the shooting prowess that will help her carve out a productive career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">The Storm fully embraced their rebuild status, finishing with the WNBA&#8217;s worst record (8-36). Johnson and fellow rookie Awa Fam at least helped to provide some excitement about the organization&#8217;s future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Johnson averaged 14.9 points and 2.9 assists. She had three double-doubles and finished with a season-high 29 points in a September loss to the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Taylor was similarly a bright spot in a frustrating season for the Sky. The 25-year-old also served as a success story for college standouts who don&#8217;t immediately find a place in the WNBA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">After playing two years overseas, Taylor signed a training camp contract with Chicago. She earned a spot on the opening-night roster and eventually assuming a bigger scoring burden than expected with Skylar Diggins and Rickea Jackson out injured. In 37 games, she averaged 13.6 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Miles figures to cast a big shadow over her peers in the 2026 class. Over time, she shouldn&#8217;t be the only star to emerge from this past draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Lynx&#8217;s Olivia Miles and Dallas Wings&#8217; Azzi Fudd led the way for the WNBA&#8217;s 2026 All-Rookie&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-882356","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\/882356","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=882356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}