Just 12 weeks after returning to the WNBA and signing with the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces, Chennedy Carter was cut from the team, and her future in the W seems uncertain. The guard came off the bench for the Aces, backing up Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young. She brought speed and scoring in the minutes she touched the court, and found herself an early favorite for the Sixth Player of the Year award after averaging 19.1 points on 63.6% shooting in her first seven games.
Carter's play gradually slowed down as the season progressed, and with her now not being on a roster—with a decent chance of things staying that way—some of the league's other bench stars have a chance to shine.
Janelle Salaün is inching closer to the top
The Golden State Valkyries are exceeding expectations, and the star duo of Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton aren't the only reason why. The team's bench has been phenomenal to begin the season, helping carry the team to third place in league standings by picking up the slack when the starters can't get hot from beyond the arc.
Janelle Salaün in particular has been special: the French forward is the Valkyries' second-leading scorer (12.9 points per game on 57.7% true shooting) and is also grabbing four rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench. She's a sniper from deep, and has hit multiple big shots to either spark or cap off runs for the Valkyries in close game situations.
On Wednesday against the Toronto Tempo, Salaün finished with a career-high 26 points on 5-6 shooting from downtown. With Gabby Williams out due to an earlier sustained injury and Veronica Burton struggling to score, the forward absolutely took over alongside the Valkyries' other bench staple, Kaitlyn Chen, to deliver the team its sixth straight win. Any time it seemed like the Tempo could crawl back, another Salaün triple hit the back of the net and quieted the crowd.
The Valkyries are very much an "everybody eats" type of team, and Burton and Williams aren't typical offensive powerhouses, setting the stage beautifully for someone like Salaün to be so impactful for the bench unit.
Williams herself credits her ability to produce on both ends of the floor on being "lucky enough to have a team where [her] bench is so productive and [her] coaches are really great in those rotations."
In that case, the Salaün for Sixth Player of the Year campaign has strong legs: she's a force that not only puts points on the board, but lightens the load for her stars to do their jobs.
Satou Sabally, Aneesah Morrow could make last-minute pushes
The big challenge with trying to determine the 6POTY so early in the season is that, for many teams, lineups aren't anywhere near being finalized.
On Tuesday, New York Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said, "We gotta be flexible...Every game is gonna be different, and especially with players coming in and out of the lineup. It just makes it difficult, but at this point, we're almost used to it."
The Liberty especially have dealt with unfortunate injury luck to start the 2026 season, so the team's lineups have varied greatly as Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally are slotted in and out.
Although it's very unlikely due to her skill and reputation as a player, if Sabally were to continue coming off the bench like she did for eight of her 13 games for New York so far, she'd be an easy candidate for the 6POTY honor. The star forward is averaging 10.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.9 assists, and that's after coming back from not playing since the 2025 Finals. Those numbers are only bound to go up–the problem is that, as they do rise, she will most likely be moved back to the starting lineup.
Aneesah Morrow is also in an interesting position. Through 17 games, the LSU alum is averaging 10.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game in 22.7 minutes on the floor: impressive numbers, let alone for someone not starting. Since Olivia Nelson-Ododa returned to the Connecticut Sun, however, Morrow has struggled to see the floor, scoring a combined 4 points in 13 minutes in her last two games against the Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings. She's now missed two games due to personal reasons, and it's unfortunate to see how things have played out after her dreamlike start to the season.
If Morrow gets back to consistently playing like she did to start the season, she will 100% be a frontrunner for 6POTY.
Guards Zia Cooke, Kennedy Burke, and Sophie Cunningham could also run away with being named the W's best bench player for the season.
As the W wraps up its guaranteed contract deadline and the trade deadline looms, things are bound to continue to be shaken up the ways things just were for the Aces. Sometimes, a new team or a refreshing All-Star weekend vacation is what a player needs to play their best basketball, so this list could look completely different in just a month's time.
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