Sue had the MVP on her team (who should tremendous growth in her third year), as well as the MIP in Natasha Howard and a fourth-year pro in Jewell Loyd who made tremendous strides with career highs in rebounding (4.6 rpg), assists (3.7 apg), and steals (1.2 spg) to go with her 15.5 ppg (and a career low in turnovers per game).
While Sue was the glue that held the team together, let us not forget that this is an award for the most valuable player in the entire WNBA. Four votes seems quite right.
Liz Cambage joined a team that went 16-18 last year and finished 7th in the league and helped lead the Wings...
...to a record of 15-19 and an 8th place finish in the league.
Now, obviously, a lot has to do with coaching and personnel. And Cambage has had an outstanding season. But may be difficult fro some voters to get past the fact that a 16-18 team that added Cambage (and Azura Stevens), lost virtually no one (except Chrismas-Kelly), finished not just with a losing record, but a worse record. People have their own definition of what constitutes the MVP, and the NBA/WNBA has always resisted defining it, but I could easily see that leading some votes to question "value"/"valuable" with Cambage.
Remember that a huge percentage of votes/voting comes from fans.
-- 8.3 points, 3.6 assists, 37.4 percent shooting (2014)
-- 7.6 points, 3.2 assists, 37.8 percent shooting (2015)
Those were the numbers of Shoni Schimmel in her first two WNBA seasons. In BOTH seasons she was voted by the fans as a starter for each year's WNBA All Star game (she won the 2014 All Star MVP award).
Or, at the time of the All Star Game, there was a teammate whose return after missing last year was being credited with a lot of Atlanta's success and its turnaround from last year.
Angel McCoughtry - Atlanta's career leader leader in games, points, field goals, assists and steals - was voted in as an All Star for 2018 (and ended up starting for the fifth time in as many ASG appearances). At the time of the first returns from All Star voting,
Hayes was 32nd overall in voting - and well behind McCoughtry (who was 23rd).
Also, after 25 games last year (without Angel McCoughtry, but WITH Hayes), Atlanta was 10-15. This year, with McCoughtry (and a new coaching change), Atlanta was 16-9 after 25 games (at the time of the All Star game). At the time of the All Star Game, it was perfectly reasonable to see Atlanta's turnaround and attribute it to McCoughtry. Another fact - Hayes averaged 16.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, and 2.4 apg in 2017, while averaging 17.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg, and 2.7 apg in 2018. If the numbers look relatively similar, but the overall record is vastly different, a teammate can overshadow her.
But with McCoughtry going down and Atlanta not only went 4-1 to close the regular season, but also secured the #2 seed (and double bye) in the playoffs. Since the MVP award is for the entire regular season, people may now be looking at Atlanta's success in a different way and starting to see what Hayes did for the team this year.
Parker is the only player in the WNBA to rank in the top ten of points, rebounds, and assists (technically, 11th in points, but her ppg average - 17.9 - was the same as the player in 10th place). She is the only player in the WNBA to finish in the top twenty in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.
In the last 12 games of the year – when LA was fighting for a playoff spot – Parker averaged 19.8, points, 10.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. This is while Alana Beard missed four of the final 12 games, while Nneka Ogwumike also missed four of those games.
