Pop Base’s 2026 WNBA awards picks

It’s awards season!

Awards season is heating up. The Emmys were just last week, the MTV awards and the Grammys are coming up… and oh yeah, the WNBA end-of-season awards! Back from the FIBA break, we are staring down the postseason. And since the W’s eight playoff teams are set, chatter has turned to the end-of-season award picks. It’s time to give a little credit where credit is due. 

Here are our picks for this season’s awards:

Most Valuable Player: A’ja Wilson

Do we have to say anything more? A’ja is on the largest contract in WNBA history for good reason. This award would make her not only this year’s MVP, but the first 5-time MVP in league history.

Averaging 26 points per game in her 9th season, nearly 4 points higher than her career average, it kind of seems like A’ja might keep getting better forever… she led the Aces to yet another top-3 playoff seeding. She’s only 43 points away from breaking the single-season scoring record she held until this week, when Kelsey Mitchell overtook it. 

While others in MVP contention have certainly surged close to the end of the season, the name of A’ja’s game is consistency. 

That’s why she’s our MVP.

Rookie of the Year: Olivia Miles

All respect to Azzi, Flau’jae, Astier, Lauren Betts, Sydney Taylor, and all the other fabulous rookies this year. But this one’s been sewn up for months. She’s so solid that her name’s even in MVP conversations. 

O-Miles just became the highest-scoring rookie in league history. She’s broken record after record: fastest player to reach 300 points and 100 assists, the first rookie guard to reach 200 assists with fewer than 200 turnovers, and the list goes on. 

Beyond records, she is insane in the clutch, and has filled her leadership role on and off the court with surprising maturity for a rookie. 

And so smooth with it too.. 

Gah-damn… That’s why she’s our pick for Rookie of the Year.

Defensive Player of the Year - Angel Reese

In Angel Reese’s first season with the Dream, she’s averaging 16/12/3. She just surpassed 30 double-doubles this season—giving her the WNBA record. She’s valuable on D and contributes when she’s on the ball, too. 

Her defensive differential is the best in the entire WNBA. She’s third in the WNBA in steals per game. But it’s watching her that makes it clear she has a real effect on the court. No matter what the team, offensive playmaking struggles when Angel defends. 

6th Player of the Year: Janelle Salaün

The Valkyries are the only team besides Minnesota that have a shot at the #1 seed in the playoffs. And for good reason. Their starters are stacked: Veronica Burton, Gabby Williams, Cecilia Zandalasini, Tiff Hayes. But Janelle Salaün is making her mark off the bench: she’s the Valkyries second leading scorer, a 6’3” forward shooting nearly 40% from 3, and averaging 12/4/1. 

She has the most points off the bench in a single season in WNBA history. No one else in the 6POY conversation even comes close. What a beast. She’s our pick! 

Most Improved Player(s): Jessica Shepard & Shakira Austin

The quality of the basketball in the league this season has been so high, it’s impossible to choose just one Most Improved Player. It could be Marina Mabrey, who’s now out for the season with an injury. It could be Dom Malonga, who’s been averaging 16 points and 9 assists in just her second season in the league. It could be Bridget Carleton, who’s shooting double digits per game for the first time in her 8 year career. 

However, we’ve chosen to split the award between Shakira Austin, the Mystics star Center, and the Dallas Wings’ Jess Shepard. 

Austin is having her best shooting season ever, shooting 4 more points per game than last year and 8 more per game than her rookie season. She holds the record for most points in a single season in Mystics history. She’s also added a nice rebound and assist game. The Mystics went from finishing without a playoff spot last year, to jockeying for the middle of the playoff pack this year with teams like the 2024 champion Liberty. 

After being traded from Minnesota to Dallas during the offseason, Shepard had to adjust to a team that didn’t have an established frontcourt, and establish that frontcourt herself, alongside Awak Kuier, Alanna Smith, Alyssa Clark, Li Yueru, and Maddy Siegrist. And she has. She’s shooting double digits for the first time in her career and just put up her sixth triple double. She’s the only player in league history besides AT who’s had a 20+ point and 20+ rebound triple double. Though her defense can leave something to be desired for Wings fans, it’s impossible to deny her presence on the team has paid off: the Wings could climb as high as a 5 seed in the playoffs, after finishing dead last last season.

Coach of the Year: Cheryl Reeve

Cheryl Reeve coached the Lynx to the #1 seed with a rookie leading on the court and their star player out with an injury. Must I go on? Sure, it helps that the rookie is the best in the league, but that’s no easy task for anyone. As President of Basketball Operations, she also led the team’s off-season strategy that enabled such success this year. 

And off the court, she stood firm in her convictions that the W is for everybody —that inclusion and justice are taken seriously while she’s on the sideline. She not only brought an amazingly high level of basketball to the league this season, but also worked hard to maintain the truly special culture of the league. 

Hats off, Cheryl.

— Jules Yaeger

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