Let’s start this the right way: Azzi Fudd is a great player. She deserved to be the number-one pick after a great UConn career, and she has a bright future in the WNBA.
At the moment, however, that future doesn’t look like it will include a Rookie of the Year award. Just three games in, Olivia Miles has sprinted so far ahead in the Rookie of the Year race that she can’t even see her competition anymore.
If Fudd isn’t named Rookie of the Year at the end of the season—there’s still plenty of time for her to make this interesting, but it will be a tall task—it will be the first time since 2021 that the number-one pick isn’t named Rookie of the Year. Rhyne Howard, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark, and Paige Bueckers all ran away with the award in the last four years.
Olivia Miles and Azzi Fudd are in very different positions
Fudd doesn’t have the same opportunities that Howard, Boston, Clark, and Bueckers had when they entered the league as the top pick in their respective draft. Instead of joining a rebuilding team as the new face of the franchise, she came to a Dallas team that already has its young star and went all-in on veteran talent in the offseason.
As a result, she is coming off the bench and isn’t as involved as you might expect from a number-one pick. Fudd only took two shots in her debut and finished with 3 points, 1 rebound, and 1 steal. Her second game was much better—she recorded 8 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and 1 block against the Minnesota Lynx—but still rather quiet.
Olivia Miles, meanwhile, came to Minnesota, and Cheryl Reeve immediately handed her the keys to the offense. She is the Lynx’s starting point guard and has the ball in her hands a lot.
Miles has lived up to the Lynx’s high expectations for anyone who joins the team. She has scored in double figures in three consecutive games, including a 21-point debut, on very efficient shooting. She has also shown out as a playmaker, recording 21 assists already.
Miles’s transition from TCU to the Lynx’s system was seamless, and she has already set herself apart from the other top draft picks.
How are the other top picks doing?
Flau’jae Johnson is perhaps the closest draft pick to giving Miles some trouble in the Rookie of the Year race. She’s averaging 11.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.7 steals three games into the season. However, she is also shooting only 27.6% from the field, and isn’t driving winning nearly as much as Miles.
Gabriela Jaquez has been solid for the Chicago Sky. She put up 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in her debut and 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists against the Golden State Valkyries. She has been a reliable option for the Sky, but not nearly as flashy as Miles.
The other two UCLA players who were selected in the top half of the draft didn’t impress in their debuts. Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice both didn’t score in their debuts. Rice put up 12 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist in her second game, and Betts followed up with 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block as the Mystics pushed the Liberty into overtime.
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