Stewie WNBA MVP

[visitingcock]

You can say that it is an annual award rather than a lifetime award and that two other players were as good, if not better, than her this year.

Controversy in opinion in sports is a wonderful thing. It helps make it fun.

Now, who (if any of the 3) will end up adding a championhip to her list of this year's accomplishments? A MOP of the playoffs recognition? All 3 are still alive. It could further deepen the controversy - or solidify the choice?

 

[nwhoopfan]

A MOP of the playoffs recognition? All 3 are still alive. It could further deepen the controversy - or solidify the choice?

Stewie's shooting has been so miserable so far I don't see how she could recover enough to be named MOP if New York wins.

 

[The deacon]

I believe your premise is open to question... hence, this thread.

 

[visitingcock]

I believe your premise is open to question... hence, this thread.

his use of the word "probably" leaves the whole thing open to further question.

 

[CL82]

Love this.

Kudos to the organization for putting that together. It put a big smile on my face.

 

[JellyBean]

You can say that it is an annual award rather than a lifetime award and that two other players were as good, if not better, than her this year.

Controversy in opinion in sports is a wonderful thing. It helps make it fun.

Now, who (if any of the 3) will end up adding a championhip to her list of this year's accomplishments? A MOP of the playoffs recognition? All 3 are still alive. It could further deepen the controversy - or solidify the choice?

Well said.

 

[nwhoopfan]

To win, you have to score more points than your opponent. Somebody has to put the ball in the bucket. JJ, Laney, Ionescu and Sloot have all contributed a lot as well.

 

[bballnut90]

I know this is thread drift, but I was thinking about it before and seeing her name on the chart, might as well mention it. Plum finished 3rd last year, didn't receive a single vote this year. It's not like she fell of a cliff. Scoring, assists and made 3 pointers down slightly, but FG% was up. Maybe a tribute to how many really good guards there were this season, but also probably an indication of just how fickle the voters can be, and how they change their criteria every year maybe?

Plum had a strong year but was the 4th best player on her own team. Hard to corral top 5 MVP votes when there are 3 others ahead of you on the same team. I don't think any voter was going to put Aces in 4 of the 5 spots.

 

[bballnut90]

Stewart is now tied for third with most Top 3 finishes in MVP voting with 5.

Alyssa Thomas becomes the 29th player to finish in the Top 3 in MVP voting (she finished fourth last season).

Historically your chances of winning an MVP drop after age 31 (shown in red for active players), even though 4 MVP's have be won after this age (Leslie age 33, Swoopes age 33 and Cooper age 33 & 34).

View attachment 91709

Really cool list, thanks for sharing. Pretty amazing that Cooper had 4 top 5 finishes in her 4 years in the league. Same with Moore having 5 in 8 years and Stewart now with 5/7.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Plum had a strong year but was the 4th best player on her own team. Hard to corral top 5 MVP votes when there are 3 others ahead of you on the same team. I don't think any voter was going to put Aces in 4 of the 5 spots.

4th best on her team this year but second best last year? It's all the same players. Hard to see much difference from one season to the other. Anyway I see all the other guards who received at least 1 vote and she got none, and I just shake my head.

 

[bballnut90]

4th best on her team this year but second best last year? It's all the same players. Hard to see much difference from one season to the other. Anyway I see all the other guards who received at least 1 vote and she got none, and I just shake my head.

Margin is slim, but yes 4th best this year and she was 2nd last year. Plum's numbers are slightly lower this year while Young's stats and overall efficiency are higher this year. Chelsea Gray's numbers are phenomenal for a PG, plus she's finally getting the recognition she deserves after her insane playoff run last year. Plum winds up as the odd woman out of the group of 3 even though she'd likely get votes if she played on a different team.

In regards to the other guards, Sloot/Ionescu got single rogue votes, Loyd has huge scoring despite being very inefficient, and Arike likely got votes for being a top 2 player on Dallas. You could make a case for Plum over any of the 4 but my guess is no one had the balls to put 4 Aces in their top 5 in MVP candidates.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Margin is slim, but yes 4th best this year and she was 2nd last year. Plum's numbers are slightly lower this year while Young's stats and overall efficiency are higher this year. Chelsea Gray's numbers are phenomenal for a PG, plus she's finally getting the recognition she deserves after her insane playoff run last year. Plum winds up as the odd woman out of the group of 3 even though she'd likely get votes if she played on a different team.

In regards to the other guards, Sloot/Ionescu got single rogue votes, Loyd has huge scoring despite being very inefficient, and Arike likely got votes for being a top 2 player on Dallas. You could make a case for Plum over any of the 4 but my guess is no one had the balls to put 4 Aces in their top 5 in MVP candidates.

All good points. It's just insane to me that a player goes from 3rd one year to not netting a single vote the next year, without an appreciable drop off in her production.

It's interesting trying to evaluate Gray. I think she had a career high in scoring this year. She was good all year. Last year she was a bit ho hum before the All Star Game, got mad she wasn't voted on the team, then declared war on everybody and wrecked the entire league the second half of the season (and the playoffs). While she's been better overall this year, I don't think you can say she's reached the level she was at post ASG last year.

 

[Zarathustra]

Thomas deserved it. She led a team with a ton of question marks coming into the year to the highest win total in franchise history. The other two are part of superteams.

They "all " deserved it, depending how you cut the pie!

 

[bballnut90]

All good points. It's just insane to me that a player goes from 3rd one year to not netting a single vote the next year, without an appreciable drop off in her production.

It's interesting trying to evaluate Gray. I think she had a career high in scoring this year. She was good all year. Last year she was a bit ho hum before the All Star Game, got mad she wasn't voted on the team, then declared war on everybody and wrecked the entire league the second half of the season (and the playoffs). While she's been better overall this year, I don't think you can say she's reached the level she was at post ASG last year.

To be fair I don't know if any point guard has ever played as well as Gray did the 2nd half of last year and especially in the playoffs. Her playoff numbers were insane (21.7 ppg, 7.0 assists, 61% FG, 54% 3pt). This year she's been great, IMO she's cemented herself as the best PG by a wide margin.

 

[Cuango]

To win, you have to score more points than your opponent. Somebody has to put the ball in the bucket. JJ, Laney, Ionescu and Sloot have all contributed a lot as well.

As has every contributing player on every MVP’s team ever! I don’t get your point. It’s an individual award! I think Stewie built up a big lead earlier in the season and barely hung on to win. I also think we are about to see a changing of the guard with Wilson moving ahead of Stewie as the best in the world. She (Wilson) is just in the early part of her prime and Stewie, much as I love her, is heading for the end of hers. It will be close for another year or so but the writing is on the wall. Wilson, and Boston for that matter have never shown themselves to be anything but first class people and while I naturally root for my UConn favorites over them (and any other team) I’m certainly not blind to what a credit they are to Women’s Basketball!

 

[nwhoopfan]

As has every contributing player on every MVP’s team ever! I don’t get your point. It’s an individual award! I think Stewie built up a big lead earlier in the season and barely hung on to win. I also think we are about to see a changing of the guard with Wilson moving ahead of Stewie as the best in the world. She (Wilson) is just in the early part of her prime and Stewie, much as I love her, is heading for the end of hers. It will be close for another year or so but the writing is on the wall. Wilson, and Boston for that matter have never shown themselves to be anything but first class people and while I naturally root for my UConn favorites over them (and any other team) I’m certainly not blind to what a credit they are to Women’s Basketball!

Was referring to playoffs. Someone brought up MOP, a different award than MVP.

 

[maccca3232]

You could make a case for Plum over any of the 4 but my guess is no one had the balls to put 4 Aces in their top 5 in MVP candidates.

I thought this would be the reason but 4 players from the same team have received MVP votes in the same season on three previous occasions including most recently last year with Chicago (Parker, Vandersloot, Copper and Meesseman).

The other two were Cleveland in 1998 (McConnell-Serio, Fijalkowski, Nemcova and Braxton) and Minnesota in 2011 (Whalen, Augustus, Brunson and Moore).

Note: You don't need a single voter to vote for all four players for this to occur, as you say that would be extremely unlikely.

 

[bballnut90]

I thought this would be the reason but 4 players from the same team have received MVP votes in the same season on three previous occasions including most recently last year with Chicago (Parker, Vandersloot, Copper and Meesseman).

The other two were Cleveland in 1998 (McConnell-Serio, Fijalkowski, Nemcova and Braxton) and Minnesota in 2011 (Whalen, Augustus, Brunson and Moore).

Note: You don't need a single voter to vote for all four players for this to occur, as you say that would be extremely unlikely.

Good point and thanks for sharing. Random tangent, but looking at last year's voting someone inexplicably voted Emma Meesseman 3rd in last year's MVP race. On the season she averaged 12.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists. I hope whoever cast that vote was stripped of their duties this year.

 

[diggerfoot]

As has every contributing player on every MVP’s team ever! I don’t get your point. It’s an individual award! I think Stewie built up a big lead earlier in the season and barely hung on to win. I also think we are about to see a changing of the guard with Wilson moving ahead of Stewie as the best in the world. She (Wilson) is just in the early part of her prime and Stewie, much as I love her, is heading for the end of hers. It will be close for another year or so but the writing is on the wall. Wilson, and Boston for that matter have never shown themselves to be anything but first class people and while I naturally root for my UConn favorites over them (and any other team) I’m certainly not blind to what a credit they are to Women’s Basketball!

? Wilson is 27, Stewart is 29. For Wilson to be near the start and Stewart near the end the window for prime years would have to be very short. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Cooper got most, if not all, her MVP accolades in her thirties.