2026 WNBA Standout Players: The Best Performers Through Two Weeks

Kelsey Plum, Los Angeles Sparks — The scoring leader nobody saw coming

Kelsey Plum left Las Vegas after winning three championships and signed with Los Angeles to be the franchise player. Through two weeks she is the league's leading scorer at 26.8 points per game, shooting 48.8 percent from three. She dropped 38 points against her former team — the Aces — in a road win that announced the Sparks as something real. In their last four games after starting 0-2, Los Angeles went 3-1 while averaging 96 or more points per game, with Plum pacing the offense in every one. This is not what anyone expected from LA in week two. Plum is the reason it's happening.

Paige Bueckers, Dallas Wings — The sophomore leap is real

Through the first two weeks Bueckers is averaging 20.8 points, 5.2 assists, and 2.8 rebounds while shooting 57.6 percent from the field and 57.9 percent from three. Those are not normal shooting numbers. Those are historically efficient numbers for a guard averaging that kind of usage. She has put on muscle, she's attacking downhill more, and she has made every mid-range shot off screens look automatic. Arike Ogunbowale is averaging 17.4 points alongside her. Dallas is 4-3. The Wings are not just a playoff team — they are a team that can beat anyone on any night, and Bueckers is why.

A'ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces — Still the standard

Wilson scored 45 points in a single game during the first two weeks — the highest individual total of the young season. She remains the MVP frontrunner, the best player in the league, and the reason Las Vegas is 4-2 despite losing both games in which they raised hardware. The Aces are 4-0 when not celebrating their title. Wilson is averaging what Wilson averages, which is to say numbers that would be the best on any other roster in the league. The 45-point game was a statement. She has been making them for eight years.

Angel Reese, Atlanta Dream — History on the glass

The concerns were real early. Through three games Reese was averaging five turnovers per game — nearly double her career rate — while shooting inefficiently from the field. The Dream were winning anyway, which said something about how good the roster around her is. Then Sunday happened.

Against Phoenix on May 24, Reese posted 17 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, four steals, and one block in an 82-80 win — her most complete performance of the season. In doing so she became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 950 points and 850 rebounds, accomplishing the feat in 69 games and surpassing the record set by Tina Charles in 75 games. The WNBA announced it officially. She is averaging 11.8 points and 11.8 rebounds through five games — a double-double pace — and Atlanta is 4-1.

She is also already the second-youngest player in WNBA history to reach 50 career double-doubles, trailing only Tina Charles. At 24 years old. In her third season. The efficiency questions are real and they haven't gone away — but the production, the wins, and the milestones are piling up faster than the criticism can keep pace with.

Azzi Fudd, Dallas Wings — From worst debut to best breakout

The arc of Fudd's first two weeks deserves its own story. She scored three points in her debut — the fewest ever by a No. 1 overall pick in WNBA history. She came off the bench while Odyssey Sims started ahead of her. The discourse was immediate and loud. Then she had one of the best individual performances of the season.

Against the New York Liberty she scored 24 points and hit six three-pointers — tying for second most threes in a game by a rookie in WNBA history. She shot 12 from three, hit six, and went perfect at the rim. Her postgame assessment cut through everything: "My goal today was just to play a little bit slower. I felt like I was rushing every time I caught the ball." She is averaging 8.8 points on 42.9 percent from three in four games. The 24-point game is the version of Fudd everyone was waiting to see. It arrived two weeks in.

Olivia Miles, Minnesota Lynx — The rookie who is already a star

Miles is one of only two players in the entire league averaging at least 15 points, five rebounds, and five assists — the other is Alyssa Thomas, a veteran in her ninth season. Miles is a rookie. She has been Minnesota's starting point guard since tip-off and the Lynx are 4-2 without Napheesa Collier, who won't return until early June. Miles is why they haven't fallen apart. She's running the offense, creating for teammates, and scoring when she needs to. The Rookie of the Year race looked like Fudd's before the season started. Right now it belongs to Miles.

Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever — Records even in a slow start

Clark tied Tamika Catchings for the most points scored through 54 career games with 1,000 — and set a new record for the most career games with 20 or more points and 10 or more assists. She is doing this while the Fever are 0-1 at the start of their season and while her shooting numbers are still finding their groove. The efficiency will come. The production, even at something less than her best, is already historic. When Clark is healthy and locked in, these numbers get bigger.

Brittney Sykes, Toronto Tempo — The expansion team's best player

Sykes dropped 38 points in a single game during the first two weeks — matching Plum for the second-highest individual total of the season. She is doing this for an expansion team that was supposed to be building for the future. Toronto is 3-4 and playing competitive basketball against established rosters every night. Sykes is the reason the Tempo are not losing every game by 20. She is also making the case that the expansion draft gave Toronto more than people recognized.

Nneka Ogwumike, Los Angeles Sparks — A milestone and a mission

Ogwumike passed Tamika Catchings for fifth on the all-time WNBA scoring list during the first two weeks. She did it as a Spark — back in LA where she won her MVP — in the middle of the team's best stretch of basketball in years. She is averaging 17-plus points and doing it efficiently alongside Plum in a Sparks offense that has finally found its identity. This is the Ogwumike who left Seattle to prove she still had this level left in her. Two weeks in, she's proving it.