Milestone watch: WNBA player stats to watch in 2019

TEMPE, AZ - SEPTEMBER 6: Sue Bird #10 of the Seattle Storm and Diana Taurasi #3 of the Phoenix Mercury look on in Round One of the 2017 WNBA Playoffs on September 6, 2017 at Arizona State University Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)
TEMPE, AZ - SEPTEMBER 6: Sue Bird #10 of the Seattle Storm and Diana Taurasi #3 of the Phoenix Mercury look on in Round One of the 2017 WNBA Playoffs on September 6, 2017 at Arizona State University Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Points

By pure production, the WNBA has never seen a scorer with numbers like Diana Taurasi. After becoming the first player to score 8,000 points last season, she has a shot at reaching 9,000 this year. Though she’ll miss the first several weeks of the season to recover from back surgery, she is just 451 points from that mark. If she came close to her 20.7 points per game from last season after she returns, she would need a little over 20 games to get there.

WNBA Active Point Totals
WNBA Active Point Totals /

Other scorers on the rise:

Within the first handful of games, Sylvia Fowles is likely to cross the 5,000-point mark. She would be the 21st player to reach the mark, entering the season with 4,921 points.

Early in the season Epiphanny Prince and Tiffany Hayes could reach 3,000 career points each. Prince (2,989) averaged 8.4 points last year, while Hayes (2,915) had a career year with 17.2 per game.

Odyssey Sims enters the season with 1,992 points, so be ready for her to cross 2,000 points soon after she steps on the court this year.

This season could see three players reach 6,000 points, likely each of them after the All Star break: Seimone Augustus (5,836), Angel McCoughtry (5,468), and Tina Charles (5,423) are all nearing that milestone.

  • A’ja Wilson had 682 points last season with one fewer game than expected (33) in her rookie year. If she keeps up that production, she will likely hit 1,000 points in the first half of this upcoming season and could compete with Cynthia Cooper’s record of 1,000 points in just 45 games. She could also become the sixth player to score 1,000 points before age 23 as her birthday is on August 8:Youngest WNBA Players with 1,000 Points
  • On the other end, Sue Bird and Candice Dupree continue their climb near the top of the leader board. Separated by fewer than 100 points, Bird (6,154) and Dupree (6,057) both could pass scoring legends like Lisa Leslie (6,253) and Katie Smith (6,452) and one could enter the top 5 this year.