Since the WNBA returned from the Olympic break, Caitlin Clark is averaging 24.6 points, 9.0 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 38.6 from behind the arc.
Her Indiana Fever is 6-1, giving them a 17-16 overall record. A team that finished last in the league last year has already secured a spot in the playoffs and is trying to secure a fifth place finish.
Clark plays like a top 10, if not top 5, player in the league.
No, she’s not Las Vegas’ A’Ja Wilson, who should be the undisputed, unanimous choice for league MVP, but it’s a lot closer than anyone could have imagined back in May. That’s when Clark began adjusting to the pro game.
You’d think that by now, with Clark taking her already excellent game to the next level with one brilliant performance after another, the debate over who should be the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year would be over.
If there was a reasonable conversation between Clark and Chicago’s Angel Reese earlier in the season, that’s not the case now. Clark, especially after a month off, is a completely different player.
And yet, from former players to media commentators to a large portion of the fan base, there are still those who resist. The only movement seems to be that where Reese once earned Rookie of the Year on her own, there is now at least a nod to make her and Clark co-Rookie of the Years.
Everyone’s motivation is different, and trying to figure out what that motivation is on all sides of this year’s WNBA season has been a fascinating cultural subplot. It’s made the league very interesting. Whatever someone’s reason is, that’s their reason. They can vary.
But when it comes to basketball, this isn’t really an argument. The person likely to be most negatively affected by the ongoing debate isn’t Clark, it’s Angel Reese.
Reese, the LSU product, is coming off an incredible, historic freshman season and is poised for a monster career. She’s averaging 13.3 points and a league-best 13.2 rebounds per season. Yes, there’s been some late-game stat hunting, mostly to keep a steak of double-doubles going, but so what?
Anyone who doesn’t recognize Reese’s rebounding ability, defensive toughness and the fact that Chicago is better when she’s on the court is being unfair. Every team in the league would love to have her.
Reese’s 434 rebounds are the most in WNBA history by any player — rookie or veteran — and Chicago has seven games left.
In almost any other year, she would be a worthy Rookie of the Year. She should be celebrated.
Instead, she’s being dragged into a can’t-win comparison situation because as great as Reese is at rebounding and defending, Clark is even better as an all-around player. Instead of being praised for what she’s done and what she does, Reese is being criticized for what she can’t do in relation to what Clark does.
Yet few people can do what Clark can.
Basketball is basketball, and while defense and rebounding are big parts of the game, it all runs through Caitlin Clark. The passing. The aggressiveness. The double teams. The creativity. The stretching of defenses with deep three-pointers. And she plays defense and rebounds well, especially for a guard.
In the NBA, no matter how great Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman were — and we’re talking Hall of Fame greats here — nobody picked them over Kobe Bryant or LeBron James or Michael Jordan, who had a greater impact on the game simply by virtue of their positions and responsibilities. If Reese can — and we suspect she will — develop a consistent low-post scoring presence, look back.
Clark is doing it all now, and she’s continuing to do it at an ever-higher level. Her season stats — 18.7 points, 8.4 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals — are climbing. She’s the focal point of every defense Indiana faces, but she’s not quitting yet. Nobody wants to play the Fever in the playoffs.
From last to first? Who knows? Indiana started 1-8 and is now 16-8.
Clark is in a category of her own. That much is clear. It is not only foolish to pretend otherwise, it leaves Reese, who deserves to be praised, dealing with what she is not, rather than being praised for what she is.
Any honest Rookie of the Year debate is over. The entrenchment helps no one.
