WNBA Rookies Tried By Fire Opening Week

The WNBA schedule makers spared none of the big name rookies as each faced some stiff competition opening week.

WNBA opening week is officially in the books and contrary to popular belief, each of the big name rookies from this year’s draft class were thrown into the fire. As a whole, the youngins held their own and proved some people, including myself, wrong about certain deficiencies as well as the heavily debated rookie learning curve. Let’s dive in to what we saw. 

ANGEL REESE 

Her biggest matchup might be work-life balance and she won that making it to Glorilla’s show in Chicago after business was handled in Dallas. She took on the Wings in two games facing a TOUGH frontcourt that included Teaira McGowan, Kalani Brown, Natasha Howard and Stephanie Soares. Game one was a little rough as Reese was held scoreless in the first half and Soares was cookin her a bit, but she corrected course in the second half and finished her debut with 12 points, 8 rebounds and one assist. 

Game two saw the Sky get Teresa Witherspoon the very first win in her coaching career and Reese finished with 11 points on 3-9 shooting to go with 9 rebounds. She also tallied nine fouls this week, but she already tweeted she’s going to get that under control and honestly that’s good enough for me! No Cap Space had boots on the ground for her second game and she assessed her performance in week 1. 

CAITLIN CLARK 

If you’re even remotely online you’ve seen pretty much every one of her three games discussed ad nauseam with one key detail missing; this kid is the real deal. Clark is as good as advertised and teams know it, hence their rigorous and publicly documented defensive scheming for her and her alone. Her worst game was still almost a triple double as New York’s Betnijah Laney-Hamilton held her to 9-7-6 with just three turnovers as the Fever got thumped by 36 points. Clark locked in and showed that she might be figuring this thang out sooner rather than later as she dropped 22-6-8 and threw some hits of her own on Laney-Hamilton. Clark had six turnovers in the first half but then had just two the remainder of the game. She showed she can handle not just the physicality this level brings, but can dictate the pace as well and really leave her fingerprints on the game. Game one she faced Dijonai Carrington and the Suns, but still came out with a cool 20 points and 6 assists. Twenty-one turnovers in three games, but a lot of them came with her playing with pace and trying to find folks in different situations. As the game slows down for her and the team’s chemistry builds, that number will come down. 

CAMERON BRINK 

Cam Brink brought the defense and swagger used to terrorize the now defunct Pac-12 to the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and went toe to toe with A’ja Wilson in her second WNBA game. While the reigning DPOY got the best of the rook, holding her to just three points and eight rebounds, Brink showed why she is going to be a piece you can build around in the future as she also had five blocks in that contest. Game one wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either as she faced Tina Charles, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus and the Atlanta Dream. Brink finished with 11-2-4 in her debut and showed the long ball is in her arsenal as she finished 2-for-3 from deep. Bad news is she had nine fouls in two games. Good news is she didn’t have 12? I don’t know at this point I think fouls are just part of her game. 

RICKEA JACKSON 

Rodeo Drive Rickea was thrown into the same fire as Brink facing a team that has Jackie Young, Alysha Clark and Kelsey Plum all coming at you at any given time. That game two against the defending champs saw Jackson score 13 points off the bench on an incredibly efficient 5-of-6 shooting night and 2-for-2 from deep. She was able to show some improvement from game one against the Dream when she scored seven points and grabbled three rebounds in 18 minutes of action. I expect the minutes and the production to keep going up and hopefully we’ll see her crack the starting lineup sooner rather than later. 

ALISSA PILI 

So the whole world found out around the same time that Alissa Pili is not actually 6’0 and that led to some questions, but she showed flashes in limited minutes that let me know she’s going to carve out a place for herself in this league. The Lynx faced the recently assembled superteam Storm their first two games and Pili was held scoreless with just one rebound in her debut, but game two is where we got a glimpse of the bag. In just 10 minutes of action we saw a corner three and a nifty finish at the cup as Pili finished with five points and two rebounds. 

ALIYAH EDWARDS 

Aliyah Edwards has just as tough a week as Caitlin Clark primarily because she played the same teams as Caitlin Clark. The Mystics started the season with the Liberty and then the Sun as Edwards scored six points of the bench in both contests. Game three saw Edwards get the starter nod against perpetual DPOY candidate Ezi Magbegor and the Seattle Storm where she finished with a solid nine points and 11 rebounds. Like the previously mentioned rookies, she had some foul trouble in game three with five, BUT didn’t foul out so silver lining. 

In conclusion, the new girls are here. The new girls are Her and as soon as they put it all together, the wire hangers of the league are in danger, word to Alexis Morrison.