A common refrain about the 2025 WNBA season has been how much more parity exists across the league than in recent years. There’s an argument to be made that potentially five out of the eight teams currently in the playoffs have a fair shot to contend for the WNBA championship due to how rosters are constructed and the coaches for those teams.
Because of that parity and due to some unfortunate injuries to key players around the league throughout the season, determining season-ending awards has been more difficult than in recent memory. This was the fourth season that I cast my vote across the variety of awards that the league gives out to those who performed exceptionally during the 2025 regular season.
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Ballots were officially due from voters by noon ET on Friday, September 12. The league will roll out the winners of these awards as the WNBA playoffs continue. Who probably will win and who should win? In this article, I’ll reveal my ballot as well as who I expect will actually take home the various awards.
WNBA Most Valuable Player Award
Who should win: Napheesa Collier — F, Minnesota Lynx
My vote went to Collier simply because she was incredibly consistent throughout the entire season. She was the best player on the most consistent team all season long. But also Collier made league history in a really meaningful way and became the first player in WNBA history to record a 50-40-90 (overall field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage) while averaging over 20 points per game. A 50-40-90 has only been accomplished one other time in league history when Elena Delle Donne did the same in 2019 while averaging 19.5 points per game. She won her second MVP award that very season.
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Who will win: A’ja Wilson — C, Las Vegas Aces
Wilson will win because of how recency bias has often swayed WNBA voters. Wilson’s ability alongside her head coach Becky Hammon to rally the troops to start performing at their potential after the Aces fell 111-58 to Collier’s Minnesota Lynx has made a significant impression on voters. The Aces haven’t lost a game since that August 2 blowout game.
Also, Collier missed a bit over three weeks following that blowout. She sprained her right ankle in the third quarter of that game and for a while the Lynx kept their head above water and didn’t endure a huge amount of drop off. Since the Aces’ entire way of playing is based upon Wilson and her strengths, her team is much less capable and performs a lot worse without her. The on-off numbers don’t lie here.
WNBA Defensive Player of the Year
Who should win: Alanna Smith — F, Minnesota Lynx
Being a great defender isn’t incumbent on just how many blocks and steals a player has or if they lead the league in defensive rebounding. Those are worthwhile numbers to consider, but those aren’t the be-all and end-all to determine who has been the most impactful defender in the league. I voted for Smith because of how much she anchors the Lynx’s defense and style of play even while Napheesa Collier was out with an ankle injury.
“I think [Smith] does more for us that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet than probably any other player in the league,” Kayla McBride said on August 10 during the three weeks Collier was out with her ankle sprain. “Her ability to put her body on the line and just the awareness and the competition level that she has on a nightly basis for us is priceless. We can put her on anybody.”
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Smith has been the anchor of the team that was the top defense all season long. She’s an undersized center that often takes a lot of contact and uses her competitive nature in addition to her high basketball instincts to make some of the most dominant players in the league feel uncomfortable.
Who will win: A’ja Wilson — C, Las Vegas Aces
Defensive player of the year is one of the most difficult awards to assess simply because defensive aptitude is really difficult to determine just by box score stats like blocks, steals and defensive rebounds. Wilson averaged the most blocks this season with 2.3 and she averaged the second most defensive rebounds (7.9) to just Angel Reese with 8.5. Without her on the floor, the Aces’ defensive rating drops around 10 points.
The case for Wilson as DPOY is really quite similar to hers for MVP. While the Aces’ defense finished the regular season ranked eighth overall, along the last 15 games of the season it was ranked second led by Wilson. If recency bias prevails, I wouldn’t be shocked if Wilson wins her third DPOY.
WNBA Most Improved Player
Who should win: Veronica Burton — G, Golden State Valkyries
Who will win: Veronica Burton
Note: Burton was announced as the winner in overwhelming fashion on Monday afternoon, taking 68 out of the 74 votes.
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Burton took such a huge jump as a player who got waived by the Wings a season ago, to a backup point guard on a veteran heavy Connecticut Sun team during the second half of the 2024 season to now the starting point guard on a playoff team in the Golden State Valkyries.
Burton has not only the narrative on her side but also the numbers. Her minutes have gone up year over year by over 131%, her scoring increased year or year by over 283% and her average assists also went up year over year by over 215%
While candidates like Azura Stevens, Allisha Gray, and Aliyah Boston all made fair cases when it came to their improved ceilings as players, there wasn’t a more dramatic year over year jump that overcame Burton’s. She earned my vote for that very reason and it is fair to assume that she earned the majority of the voting pool’s votes for that reason as well.
WNBA Sixth Player of the Year
Who should win: Natisha Hiedeman — G, Minnesota Lynx
The only rule the WNBA has to qualify for this award is that the player must come off the bench in more games than she has started. While Naz Hillmon only started in 17 games out of the 44 games she played, Hiedeman has only come off the bench this season. Hideman’s role all season long has been about providing a lot of energy off the bench when Courtney Williams isn’t playing her best. To me that’s a textbook definition of a sixth player of the year.
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Although, Hiedeman definitely had some recency bias on her side when it came to getting my vote. In her last ten games of the season including the Lynx’s first playoff win against the Valkyries, Hiedeman has averaged 12.8 points, 52.3% shooting and 48.6% shooting from three-point range.
Who will win: Naz Hillmon — F, Atlanta Dream
The sixth player of the year and most improved awards can sometimes overlap. Is this an award about who is the best player coming off the bench or is this about which player has stood out the most in their role coming off the bench? Hillmon’s case as sixth player of the year is confusing to me simply because she was elevated off the bench with over a month left of the season. Once Brittney Griner injured her neck, Dream head coach Karl Smesko moved Hillmon to the starting lineup and didn’t really look back. Hillmon is starting in the playoffs.
Hillmon is such an important connector for the Dream and her development starting off as a back-to-the-basket post in college and then completely transforming her game so that she’s a tweener who can do a little bit of everything is incredibly impressive. There might be a desire to award a player on the Dream especially with Smesko most likely losing out on coach of the year and Allisha Gray not being in top contention for MVP.
WNBA Rookie of the Year
Who should win: Paige Bueckers — G, Dallas Wings
Who will win: Paige Bueckers
Bueckers proved to be exactly who many thought she would be while a star in college at Uconn. She’s a generational talent who plays on both sides of the ball who can create at a high level for herself and others. She’s someone who coaches and GMs build a team around and that’s exactly what I expect to be in the future of the Wings all things being equal.
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Bueckers’ ability to take over a game was put on display on August 20 against the Sparks when she set a WNBA rookie record for points scored in a game with 44. She recorded the most points by player during the 2025 regular season in addition to becoming the first player in WNBA history to score over 40 points while shooting at least 80% from the field.
While Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen had impressive rookie seasons, they didn’t have to carry the load that Bueckers did when it came to scoring and distributing the basketball. Bueckers still managed a super high level of play all the while her team had 28 total injuries and 121 games lost to injury, some of the highest margins in the league.
WNBA Coach of the Year
Who should win: Natalie Nakase — Golden State Valkyries
Who will win: Natalie Nakase
While I voted for Nakase and believe she’s the front runner, Karl Smekso achieved a huge feat. Not only did he transform one of the most inconsistent offenses in 2024 into a powerhouse in 2025, but he did so with players that didn’t fit his vision for how he likes to play. General Manager Dan Padover signed two back-to-the-basket centers for a team that was expected to play at a high pace and get up a ton of three-pointers. Smesko made lemonade out of lemons.
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But the reason I voted for Nakase and why this is a relatively simple pick to make is because she took an expansion team without any top end talent to the postseason and coached that team to have the third-best defense in the league. No other expansion in league history has ever reached the playoffs. That’s a story in itself that reflects the buy-in that Nakase got from her players. Also, the Valkyries had some of the most injuries this season in the WNBA and the team still performed well enough to make the playoffs.
2025 All-WNBA Teams
I truly believe that Collier, Wilson, Thomas, Mitchell and Gray were the most consistently great players this season and that’s what All-WNBA ought to be about. The second team, however, is so difficult to judge just because Stewart and Ionescu both had moments where they were brilliant and had to uplift their heavily injured stricken team. Boston took a massive leap this year as a scorer and facilitator but also struggled when the Fever were absolutely decimated by injuries.
Nneka Ogwumike’s efficiency and consistency and the fact that she shot 51.9% from the field this season on a team that really struggled to create open looks on offense in the Storm is part of why she earned my second team vote here. While Young started out less efficient and potent than she’s expected to be just like the majority of that Las Vegas Aces team to start the season, she embraced her new role as the Aces’ primary ball handler and facilitator. Her pick-and-roll chemistry with A’ja Wilson has been untenable at points during the regular season.
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My votes
First Team:
Napheesa Collier, A’ja Wilson, Alyssa Thomas, Kelsey Mitchell, Allisha Gray
Second Team:
Nneka Ogwumike, Jackie Young, Aliyah Boston, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu
Projected honorees
First Team:
A’ja Wilison, Napheesa Collier, Alyssa Thomas, Kelsey Mitchell, Allisha Gray
Second Team:
Nneka Ogwumike, Jackie Young, Aliyah Boston, Sabrina Ionescu, Kelsey Plum
WNBA All-Defensive Teams
The Lynx, the Dream, and the Valkyries all had the top three defenses in the league during the regular season. And as a result, my ballot reflected that. My first team included two Lynx players in Smith and Collier, two of the best defenders on the best defensive team in the league.
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My second team was littered with players from the Dream and the Valkyries for that very reason. Brionna Jones anchored the Dream’s paint defense while Rhyne Howard took a step forward defensively proving she could competently defend forwards and guards. Burton was an excellent point of attack defender this year and Fágbénlé made it so difficult for centers like Aliyah Boston, Brionna Jones and Jonquel Jones to play well. Gabby Williams made my ballot because of how she averaged 2.3 steals a game while the Storm’s defensive rating drops 7 points without her on the floor.
Breanna Stewart earned my vote simply because of how much the Liberty’s defense suffered without her on the floor. Her ability to roam everywhere, help her teammates and then recover to hold her assignment which can be any player type of the floor, was something that stood out in particular this year.
Also, I expect that players like Ezi Magbegor and rookie Saniya Rivers are going to get votes simply because of their defensive reputation. Magbegor is known for her defensive excellence while Rivers also had a ton of stocks (steals and blocks combined) and became the second rookie in league history to have 100 steals and 100 blocks in a season.
My votes
First Team
Alanna Smith, A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Gabby Williams, Breanna Stewart
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Second Team
Alyssa Thomas, Brionna Jones, Temi Fágbénlé, Veronica Burton, Rhyne Howard
Projected honorees
First Team:
A’ja Wilson, Alanna Smith, Alyssa Thomas, Gabby Williams, Veronica Burton
Second Team:
Rhyne Howard, Breanna Stewart, Allisha Gray, Ezi Magbegor, Saniya Rivers
2025 WNBA All-Rookie Team
The 2025 rookie class will be one remembered for how deep it truly was. There are some years when it’s difficult to fill out an All-Rookie team just because so few rookies registered meaningful impacts, see 2021 and 2022. But 2025’s rookie class was not only highlighted by college draftees, but it also was highlighted by some international players who came over as a result of smart front office scouting.
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The first three in Bueckers, Citron, and Iriafen are a given, but the final two spots were much more difficult. My decision came down to how Monique Akoa Makani and Te-Hina Paopao impacted their teams during critical moments rather than the rookies that scored the most points. Ako Makani has burst onto the scene as a really solid two-way presence able to lock-down an opponent’s best offensive threat. Paopao filled in at backup point guard multiple times when Dream starting point guard Jordin Canada dealt with multiple injuries during the regular season.
My votes
Paige Bueckers, Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen, Monique Akoa Makani, Te-Hina Paopao
Projected honorees
Paige Bueckers, Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen, Janelle Salaün, Dominique Malonga
