Sixth Player of the Year often is one of the hardest awards to project. Not only can coaches’ rotations be fickle, but injuries, unfortunately, can foist expected reserves into starting roles.
Since the WNBA introduced the award in 2007, it often has gone to players who best can be described as “sixth starters. Players who, if they were on any other team, would almost be guaranteed to be in the first five. Names like DeWanna Bonner, Jonquel Jones, Kelsey Plum and Brionna Jones—all players who would become All-Stars, if not All-WNBA selections and a MVP—dot the list the of past winners.
Last season, the Las Vegas Aces’ Alysha Clark claimed the award over the Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington and the Chicago Sky’s Dana Evans. Her victory suggests a slight shift into the adjudication of the award. Rather than a rising star stuck coming off the bench for a strong team like prior winners, Clark is championship-proven vet who chose to assume a smaller role for the defending champs. She proved a perfect fit for the Aces, expertly filling a defined 3-and-D role for the W’s best team. Her quiet-but-impactful contributions to a winner, rather than the accumulation of counting stats, earned her the honor.
This year, will that archetype again prevail? Or, will…
