The WNBA ROTY Race Shouldn't Even Be A Race
On Wednesday, Caitlin Clark went off for 29 points, 13 assists, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 3 blocks. On that same day, Angel Reese extended her record-breaking double-double streak to 14 games... thanks to some blatant stat-padding in the closing seconds.
These are not the same thing, and people need to stop trying to make them the same thing.
Clark is clearly having a more impressive season than Reese. She should be the runaway WNBA Rookie of the Year frontrunner, and yet she's not, because of today's media's fixation on turning everything into a debate -- even when there is no debate to be had.
This happens in the NFL whenever a quarterback not named Patrick Mahomes is having a great season. It's happened in the NBA when people tried for years (and still try) to put Kobe Bryant in the same historic tier as Michael Jordan and later LeBron James. Sometimes, someone is just in a different league from everybody else. Clark is that someone among WNBA rookies, and it's not just because of the unprecedented attention she's bringing the league.
Clark is currently averaging 16.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 7.6 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game. Reese is averaging 14.0 points, 11.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.4 blocks. Clark's team is 9-14 after being 13-27 a season ago while Reese's team is 9-12 after going 18-22. Clearly, only one of them has helped significantly improve their team.
It's also much harder to achieve the stats Clark is achieving, especially as a rookie. Point guard is the toughest position to play in basketball, where you're tasked with controlling the entire flow of the offense. It often takes young guards several years for the game to slow down for them, yet Clark is routinely putting up never-seen-before stat lines for a WNBA rookie.
Reese's numbers are also historic in that regard, but while still impressive, they don't require the same amount of skill as Clark's. Rebounding is a statistic heavily influenced by size, while passing is a pure talent, and it's much easier to achieve ten rebounds in a game than it is to have ten assists (four players currently average double-digit rebounds, while the league leader in assists is Alyssa Thomas at 7.9). It's worth noting that Clark can grab some boards too, and earlier this season became the first rookie to record a triple-double in WNBA history.
Simply put, Reese is doing things that are hard to do at her position. Clark is doing things that are hard to do at any position, let alone the hardest position to play in the game, and she's making it look easy. There should be no WNBA Rookie of the Year debate -- it's Clark's award, plain and simple.