Most WNBA fans have deemed the Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard, the 2022 No. 1 draft pick, the runaway favorite to win WNBA Rookie of the Year. But the race shouldn’t be as lopsided as it might appear because of the stellar, yet somewhat subdued in comparison, play of the Washington Mystics’ Shakira Austin.
Howard is understandably the front-runner. The 6-foot-2 guard leads a standout rookie group in scoring (15.1 points per game), assists (2.7) and steals (1.5), and is second in minutes (30.6 per game) for an Atlanta team poised to make the playoffs for the first time since 2018. Though her numbers fell back down to earth as the summer went on, Howard became just the seventh WNBA rookie to score at least 100 points in her first five games (averaging 20.4 PPG in that span), and was the only first-year player to be named a 2022 All-Star.
We saw the impact on the Dream, too, when Howard was removed from the equation: Atlanta went 1-1 when she missed two games with a shoulder injury and suffered its worst loss of the season, by 25 to the Connecticut Sun.
The box score stats for Austin, a 6-3 forward/center who was the No. 3 overall pick in April’s draft, aren’t particularly eye-popping: She’s averaging 8.0 points (fifth-best on the Mystics) and 6.1 rebounds per game (second-best). She isn’t a focal point offensively for Washington, but coach Mike Thibault says he appreciates that even though he doesn’t run plays for her, Austin still finds ways to score by setting good screens and crashing the glass. Her finishing has been impressive for a rookie: Her 53.8 field goal percentage ranks ninth in the league for players averaging at least five shots per game and appearing in at least…
Source : espn
