Getty Image / Justin Casterline
Caitlin Clark‘s Indiana Fever have struggled out of the gate, managing only 2 wins in 11 games played while the Connecticut Sun are dominating the East and have gone undefeated through 9 games.
Those 9 losses have certainly not been the fault of superstar Caitlin Clark who is averaging 15.6 points/game, 5.1 rebounds, and 6.4 assists. With numbers like that she’s had an immediate impact on the Indiana Fever but evidently it wasn’t enough to crack the top 5 of ESPN’s WNBA Rookie rankings where Cameron Brink came in at #1 overall followed by Angel Reese at #2.
ESPN’s Neil Payne published ‘Ranking the WNBA‘s top 2024 rookies, by the stats’ on ESPN+ so it’s behind a paywall for non-subscribers. The rankings, based on advanced stats, use ” Basketball-Reference’s Win Shares, Estimated Wins Added from Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and wins generated via the Simple Player Rating (SPR).”
Furthermore, each rookie is graded “on a percentile scale (0 to 100) relative to all WNBA players this season in their scoring (based on points per 100 possessions), true shooting percentage, passing (based on assist rate), rebounding rate and defensive impact (based on both SPR and defensive rating).” With all of the advanced stats in play, is it possible that ball don’t lie or are they simply devaluing Caitlin Clark’s impact on the Indiana Fever?
The rankings go:
- Cameron Brink
- Angel Reese
- Kate Martin
- Rickea Jackson
- Julie Vanloo
- Caitlin Clark
- Aaliyah Edwards
- Sevgi Uzun
- Leonie Fiebich
In 6th place of ESPN’s WNBA Rookies Rankings, Caitlin Clark received scores of 73 for Scoring, 48 for True Shooting, 94 for Passing, 52 for Rebounding, and 5 for Defense. ESPN says Caitlin Clark’s per-minute percentile ranking is 14/100.
Conversely, Cameron Brink at #1 has a per-minute percentile ranking of 49/100. She received scores of 43 in Scoring, 76 in True Shooting, 56 in Passing, 74 in Rebounding, and 80 in Defense.
Angel Reese at #2 had a per-minute percentile ranking of 48/100. Her scores were 52 for Scoring, 11 for True Shooting, 25 for Passing, 90 for Rebounding, and 39 for Defense.
While Caitlin Clark isn’t putting up the same numbers she averaged at Iowa, to find her as the 6th best WNBA rookie with every veteran gunning for her, players unnecessarily bullying her, and her to still shine seems insane. She’s definitely better than 6th.
Under ‘where she can improve,’ ESPN says that Caitlin Clark is averaging 35.7% from the field and 29.7% from 3pt range. They note that it’s because Caitlin Clark has no qualms with pulling up from the logo and that shooting from that range is hurting her percentages. They suggest she improves on those percentages and also claim she needs to stop turning the ball over as frequently.
At some point, WNBA veterans will stop gunning for Caitlin Clark in every game and her rankings across the board will skyrocket. The season will get into its rhythm and the shooting percentages now will be irrelevant soon. But to rank her 6th? Really?