WNBA Quarter-Season Awards: MVP, Rookie Favorites, and a Wings Surprise Standout Announced

The 2026 WNBA season has reached the quarter mark, which is the perfect time to take a step back and assess the situation across the league. Earlier this week, we handed out quarter-season grades for all 15 teams. Now, it's time to make some picks for quarter-season awards.

As expected, four-time MVP A'ja Wilson , the best player in the world, features heavily, and No. 2 pick Olivia Miles is running away with Rookie of the Year. But what about some of the other major honors?

Let's take a look at which players have made an early case to take home some hardware this year.

WNBA quarter-season grades: Olivia Miles, Lynx acing the test, Fever face huge questions, Sparks fizzle out Jack Maloney

MVP: A'ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces

A'ja Wilson LVA • C • #22

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Wilson has won four of the last six MVP awards, and it doesn't look like anyone is going to knock her off her spot this season. She got off to a somewhat slow start, at least by her standards, but has been incredible since then to help the Aces open the season 8-3, which has them in second place.

Her 45-point game against the Sun was the second-highest scoring performance of her career, made her the only player with multiple 45-point games and gave her the most 40-point games in WNBA history (five). In the Aces' win over the Dream a few nights later, she passed coach Becky Hammon for the most points in Aces history, and on June 8 against the Storm , she became the fastest player to 6,000 career points.

Wilson is currently on a run of four consecutive 20-point, 10-rebound double-doubles -- tied for the second-longest such streak, behind herself -- and is leading the league in scoring and blocks, while checking in fourth in rebounds. Her 25.9 points per game would be the second-highest scoring season in WNBA history, behind her own 26.9 points per game in 2024. The only other player to average 25 points for an entire season is Diana Taurasi .

Highest-scoring WNBA seasons ever

Player Year PPG

A'ja Wilson

2024

26.9

A'ja Wilson

2026

25.9

Diana Taurasi

2006

25.3

Additionally, the Aces have a +8.1 net rating with Wilson on the floor and a -6.8 net rating when she sits. She remains the best player in the world by a wide margin, and as long as she's around, the Aces will be a threat to win it all.

Rookie of the Year: Olivia Miles, Minnesota Lynx

Olivia Miles MIN • G • #5

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Miles, the No. 2 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, entered the league as one of the best playmaking prospects ever, and there was little doubt that she would succeed in the pros with better spacing and better teammates. But no one expected this .

Forget rookies, Miles has been one of the best players in the league. If not for Wilson, she would be the MVP frontrunner, which obviously makes her the clear leader in the Rookie of the Year race.

Miles broke Caitlin Clark's WNBA rookie record for 3-pointers in a game with eight in their win over the Valkyries , joined Clark as the fastest players to reach 200 points and 75 assists (12 games) and is on pace to become the sixth player -- and second rookie (along with Clark) -- to average at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists for a season.

Players to average 15/5/5

Player Season(s)

Olivia Miles

2026

Alyssa Thomas

2023, 2025, 2026

Caitlin Clark

2024, 2025

Satou Sabally

2024

Sabrina Ionescu

2022, 2023

Candace Parker

2016

Miles leads all rookies in scoring and assists, and is 11th and sixth in the league, respectively, in those categories. She was named Rookie of the Month for May, Western Conference Player of the Week in the first week of June and has been the architect of the league's best offense and the driving force behind the Lynx's surprise success.

Defensive Player of the Year: A'ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces

Wilson's offensive prowess gets most of the attention, and for good reason. It's far more exciting to watch her pour in bucket after bucket than to watch her patiently direct the Aces' defense from the back line and put herself in the right spot time and time again.

It is fun to watch Wilson block shots, however, and she's once again doing so at an extremely high level. She's averaging 2.4 blocks per game, which would be the second-highest mark of her career, and puts her on pace to lead the league in blocks for the fifth consecutive season. The only players in WNBA history to have led the league in blocks for at least five consecutive seasons are Brittney Griner (seven) and Margo Dydek (five).

Wilson's presence completely changes how other teams operate. Per databallr, opponents' rim frequency -- the percentage of shots they take at the rim -- and rim efficiency are significantly worse with Wilson on the floor than when she sits, which is not a surprise given her ability and the Aces' lack of frontcourt depth.

Wilson's status Opp. rim rate Opp. rim FG%

On

23.4%

54.4%

Off

29.8%

62%

Most Improved Player: Jessica Shepard, Dallas Wings

Jessica Shepard DAL • F • #32

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The Wings raided the Lynx's frontcourt during the offseason and signed both 2025 co-Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith and Shepard to million-dollar deals in free agency. No one would have predicted a few months ago that Shepard would be by far the best signing of the two.

Shepard, who put up 22 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in a win over the Aces to join Alyssa Thomas as the only players in WNBA history with a 20/20/10 game, is averaging career highs in scoring, rebounds and assists. She's second in the league in rebounding and 10th in assists, and is the only player in the top 10 in both categories.

> Jessica Shepard was on the grill today🍴 She dropped her second triple-double of the szn to help the @DallasWings defeat Vegas! 22 PTS | 20 REB (career-high) | 10 AST She also joined Alyssa Thomas as the second player in league history to have a 20+ PT and 20+ REB triple… pic.twitter.com/5KbabKLVmj — WNBA (@WNBA) May 29, 2026

Shepard's playmaking ability as a point-forward has opened up so much for the Wings' offense, which was the best in the league until a blowout loss to the Lynx on Tuesday. Even so, the Wings' 110.6 offensive rating ranks third. They're also first in assist rate (71.4%) and second in turnover rate (14.8%), thanks in large part to Shepard.

Shepard's play has helped the Wings get off to a 7-4 start after a disastrous 10-34 campaign in 2025. Dallas is on track to make the playoffs for the first time since 2023, and Shepard is on track to make her first All-Star appearance.

6th Player of the Year: Chennedy Carter, Las Vegas Aces

Chennedy Carter LVA • G • #23

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Carter, the No. 4 pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, has always been one of the most talented scoring guards around, but has struggled to stay in the league due to concerns about her conduct, both on and off the court. She went unsigned in two of the last three seasons and did not play in 2025, but the Aces decided to give her a chance and brought her into training camp.

She has been better than the Aces could have expected. Playing next to Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray in Becky Hammon's spaced-out offensive system has turned Carter, one of the quickest and most athletic guards alive, into a cheat code. No one can stay in front of her, and she's been getting to the rim at will and finishing at an extremely high rate. Her 4.5 attempts per game in the restricted area rank 13th in the league, and she's making 77.8% of them. No one taking at least that many such shots per game has been more efficient than Carter.

Carter has missed the last three games with a leg injury, but even so, she's the clear pick for this honor. She's given the Aces the reliable tertiary scorer they needed behind Wilson and Young -- she's actually second in the team in scoring due to Young's slow start -- and leads all bench players in scoring by a wide margin.

> Chennedy Carter put on a SHOW, contributing 27 PTS off the bench to power the @LVAces dominate win! 🤩 27 PTS | 8 REB | 4 AST | 2 STL | 13-16 FG #WNBASeason30 pic.twitter.com/4sZ7mjOv64 — WNBA (@WNBA) May 14, 2026

Coach of the Year: Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota Lynx

Reeve, the only dual coach and president of basketball operations left in the league, has been named Executive of the Year twice and Coach of the Year a record four times -- both most recently in 2024. There were plenty of questions about Reeve the executive after the Lynx's talent exodus during the offseason, though her decisions look much better in hindsight. There are no such questions about Reeve the coach after the first quarter of the season.

Most Coach of the Year honors

Coach Team(s) COYs

Cheryl Reeve

Lynx

4

Mike Thibault

Sun, Mystics

3

Van Chancellor

Comets

3

The Lynx lost six rotation players from last season's team that went 34-10, Napheesa Collier is still sidelined after undergoing surgery on both ankles in the offseason and they've played the fourth-hardest schedule in the league so far, yet they sit in first place at 10-2 and have won eight games in a row.

Minnesota's success is no fluke, either. Their two defeats are by a combined eight points, and they've won five games by at least 20 points and seven by double digits. They're first in offensive rating (111.6), defensive rating (96.5) and net rating (+15.1).

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/wnba-quarter-season-awards-mvp-rookie-most-improved-defensive-player-coach/)._