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MINNEAPOLIS — There are many ways in which the Women’s National Basketball Association is different from other American pro sports leagues. A glaring example is the time and opportunities that incoming rookies get to adjust.
On April 6, Paige Bueckers played in her final collegiate game, leading the UConn Huskies to a national championship in Tampa, Florida. Eight days later, she was selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings. Within a month of the draft, she was playing in her first professional regular season game.
By contrast, Cooper Flagg played in his final collegiate game on April 5, when his Duke Blue Devils lost to the Houston Cougars in the Final Four. The NBA Draft won’t be held until June 25, and the NBA regular season won’t begin until Oct. 21.
Bueckers had 40 days between her final college game and her first professional game to rest from a five-month-long college season, prepare to face an elevated pool of talent, move to a new city and familiarize herself with a new team, teammates, coaches and terminology. Flagg will get 200 days to accomplish those same tasks.
“I think it would be important for the health and safety of the players, especially coming from college, that there was a larger break, but I’m not going to sit here and complain about it,” Bueckers said before the Wings played the Lynx last week. “You just got to do the best with it. Prepare your bodies, rest, recover, do all the things to help prevent (injuries). You wish for something different, but then again, it is what it is.”
This is the sink-or-swim environment that WNBA rookies have to endure. There’s no other league in major American pro sports where first-year players have such a limited amount of type to acclimate themselves.
And it’s one of the major reasons why — limited roster sizes being another — that it is not uncommon for third, second and even late-first round picks to be cut or waived by their teams before the start of the regular season.
Of the 38 players selected in April’s draft, only 20 are still on active WNBA rosters. Last season, six second round picks were waived. In 2023, the Wings waived first round pick Abby Meyers during training camp. In 2022, the Aces waived No. 8 overall pick Mya Hollingshed three weeks after drafting her. In 2021, the Sparks traded Stephanie Watts, the 10th overall pick, to the Chicago Sky a few weeks after drafting her, only for the Sky to waive her less than a month later.
The problem the WNBA has with retaining and molding young talent could be twofold: It could be that players don’t have enough time to adjust to the professional ranks and prove themselves, and it could also be that coaches and staff aren’t given enough opportunities to evaluate the skill of prospects in a professional environment. Of course, this is all compounded by the fact that roster sizes are limited to 12 spots and the WNBA does not have the equivalent of the NBA’s G-League or Major League Baseball’s Triple-A. This makes developing unproven talent or stashing away a project player very difficult.
So, how can the WNBA improve circumstances for rookies, talent evaluation and the retention of young players? One idea is to push back the start of the WNBA season, giving it a bit more breathing room from the end of the NCAA Tournament, and allowing more adjustment time for all parties.
And it’s an idea that Cheryl Reeve, the longtime head coach and President of Basketball Operations for the Minnesota Lynx, is not entertaining.
“I understand it, but that’s not our reality,” Reeve said when asked about adjusting the start of the WNBA season. “For a long time in the WNBA, the footprint of our season drives everything. When the league started in 1997, it was a good idea not to pit ourselves against the NBA, if we wanted to carve out space and have media coverage and (have) windows on TV. As we know, there’s an overseas season, trying to fit in, we know there’s national team commitments.
“The footprint of the WNBA season has always been our greatest challenge in trying to find the sweet spot. I think we’re pretty darn close to that sweet spot right now. As we have an increased number of games, obviously, that gets a little more challenging.”
Another problem that incoming rookies are facing is a constant level of wear-and-tear on their bodies. If they played in the NCAA Tournament in the year they are drafted, rookies essentially play for an entire year — from the start of college training camp in October, through the finish of the WNBA Playoffs the following October.
A year ago, Rookie of the Year and phenom Caitlin Clark called the turnaround between the end of the college season and the start of the WNBA season “obviously not ideal.” WNBA legend Candace Parker recalled being “tired” and “exhausted” as a rookie and hitting a “mid-season wall.”
That lack of rest from the end of the college season to the start of the WNBA campaign could be a contributing factor to some rookies suffering devastating injuries early in the season. This year, less than a week into training camp, No. 6 overall pick Georgia Amoore suffered a season-ending right ACL injury. A month into last season, No. 2 overall pick Cameron Brink suffered an ACL injury that sidelined her for the rest of the year.
“It’s just an unfortunate thing. I don’t know that the rookie schedule, the rookies coming in, ranks anywhere close to consideration,” Reeve said. “It’s just an unfortunate thing for them. I hope the injuries aren’t a thing, but I think more than anything, there’s just a limited time to prepare yourself… You know, you get two weeks to figure it out.”
