The 2024 draft class has completely changed the outlook of the WNBA. Boasting names such as Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese, and Los Angeles Sparks forward Cameron Brink, the class’s arrival has coincided with record attendance numbers and television viewership, which in turn helped pave the way for the league’s new “transformational” collective bargaining agreement.
However, as the class enters its third season, some concerns have been raised about whether its stars are truly reaching their potential. Each of the three struggled in her own way in their 2026 season openers. Clark went just 2-for-9 from the three-point line, Reese was similarly inefficient from inside the arc, and Brink struggled to remain on the floor at all with foul trouble.
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After their slow starts to year three, No Cap Space WBB’s Andrew Giuntini-Haubner is raising concerns about how the class is developing.
“Is the 2024 draft class actually developing?” Giuntini-Haubner asked. “Caitlin Clark still has some trouble going left. The ball’s not as much on a string as I would like it to be. The turnovers are still an issue, even though, you know, it was five and not 10 in this one. And I think that matters when you are the player that we deign to be generational, transformational, and something different.
“We do expect to see little addendums. To your game every year. And some of the problems that Caitlin Clark has are still, still problems that she had day one. Angel Reese still is not holding that ball [high] in the post the way she needs to, possession into possession. She’s still going low and trying to bring it high, whether it be a shot, whether it be she gets the ball and collects it in the block. Um, that’s a day one problem. Cam Brink, fouling, day one problem.
Giuntini-Haubner did note that Chicago Sky center Kamila Cardoso was great in her debut, but wondered if she could be consistent when the offense wasn’t running through ehr pick and roll action.
“Kamilla Cardoso so far, is the only one that’s been able to kind of escape this. She had a great game with Chicago in this new look Sky, but the question for her is how active and involved are you when you are not the focal point of P&R? But if you really want to kind of go that distance and overreact to it, you can ask the question like, how much development has actually happened for these players going into year three?
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“Basically, like, there’s a lot of players that where it takes 3 to 4 years, mid-20s is when they finally make the leap. So I’m not out on the ’24 class in terms of their ceiling just yet, but I think if you want to start monitoring something to overreact to later, it might just be this thing of like, this was a class, a generational class, mind you, of high floor, high ceiling players.”
He isn’t ruling out that the class’s stars will develop into great players, but he needs to see how they improve.
“So it’s like, where is— where are you [improving] and what work are you doing to get there?”
The good news is the 2024 class won’t have to wait long to show what they have. Reese and the Dream take the floor on Tuesday night against the Dallas Wings. While Clark and Brink will face off against each other late on Wednesday on the West Coast.
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