𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The WNBA MVP race is quite often a closed case. It might also be this season, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to debate.

As the season has progressed, two players have been most often discussed by fans and media as the main contenders for the prestigious award.

But should there be a third player in contention? Looking at the stats, it’s odd that this star player isn’t mentioned in those talks.

Players B and C both pale in comparison to Player A. But their stats show they both belong.

Have you figured out the players yet?

Player A is the near-incomparable forward A’ja Wilson, who appears to be headed for her record fifth MVP award as she leads the Las Vegas Aces in their quest for a repeat championship.

Player B: Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles. She’s been such a rookie revelation that she’s entered the debate about who, if anyone, can dethrone Wilson. She’d be the first rookie to win the award — and second in league history — since Candace Parker in 2008.

Then there’s Player C. She is hardly an anonymous up-and-comer, which makes the omission of Caitlin Clark from these conversations all the more curious. Particularly when accounting for her recent hot streak.

Through their 10-2 stretch, Clark and the Indiana Fever have been on a tear. Seemingly hampered by a back injury earlier this season, Clark appears to be humming, now putting up historic numbers and career-high marks. In her third season, she became the fastest WNBA player to reach 700 assists, doing so in 83 games. The Fever’s win over the Dallas Wings on Aug. 14 was Clark’s 20th career game with 20 or more points and 10 or more assists. She is third in scoring average behind Wilson and her backcourt running mate Kelsey Mitchell.

As the face of the league, she is often subject to intense critique from non-Fever fans and national media. Her own colleagues curiously ranked her 11th among guards in All-Star starter voting.

Of course, there are legitimate counterpoints to Clark’s case.

Through the first half of the Fever season, Indiana was .500 when Clark played. She was struggling from beyond the arc (33.4 percent on 3s), was regularly subbed out for late-game defensive possessions and was making too many headlines for her technical fouls and turnovers.

The Fever didn’t take a top-four seed in the standings until the end of July, and a top seed has historically been imperative for any MVP candidate. Of the last nine awards, only three times has the MVP not been from the league’s best team. In 2023, when Breanna Stewart won her second MVP award, the Liberty finished second in league standings. Then in 2024 and 2025, when Wilson won her third and fourth nods, the Aces were fourth and second in league standings, respectively, at the end of the regular season.

Two weeks before the FIBA World Cup break, Clark’s Fever are third in league standings, behind the Lynx and Golden State Valkyries as of Wednesday morning. The Aces, unlike the Fever, have clinched a playoff spot already.

Clark’s own teammate has, in some ways, outshined her. Mitchell is more efficient than Clark, shooting just over 50 percent from the field and 44.3 percent from behind the arc. Mitchell has the best on-off differential for Indiana, while the Fever have a better net rating when Clark is off the court.

But Clark generates more offense overall. She accounts for roughly 37 percent of the Fever’s points per game compared to Mitchell’s 31 percent, and Clark ranks second in the league in usage rate (31.9 percent) behind Wilson (32.9 percent).

Stewart and Wilson both won their first MVP awards in their third season, so Clark winning would be right on schedule with those all-time greats. But she’d need a campaign to heat up around her case.

Miles has received the secondary buzz instead of Clark in the MVP conversation in part because of the Fever’s slower start to the season.

Miles has provided loads of highlights this season and has exceeded expectations; by extension, so have the Lynx. She is averaging 19.9 points and 6.1 assists while making 40 percent of her 3s, keeping the Lynx atop the standings. She has delivered two standout performances in victories against Wilson’s Aces as well.

She leads a talented roster, but it’s clear she has amplified the skill sets of everyone around her, which is particularly impressive considering Napheesa Collier has been out for most of the season. Natasha Howard was reborn as a pick-and-roll partner, Nia Coffey was having her best offensive season before stepping back to the bench for Collier, and Kayla McBride is shooting the ball better than ever. Courtney Williams is also having her most efficient shooting season now that Miles has moved her back to her preferred shooting guard position.

Miles makes life easier for all her teammates and makes every Lynx game a can’t-miss show — an element that certainly has boosted MVP chatter around her.

Of course, an MVP conversation is juicier when more names are included. Let’s call the following players our honorable mentions.

The Liberty entered 2026 with title expectations, and Stewart looked poised to contend for her third MVP award after a 2025 season riddled with nagging injuries.

She has held up her end of the bargain, averaging 20.7 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game for the Liberty this season. Undoubtedly a top-five player in the league, this is Stewart’s best scoring output since her MVP season in 2023. But the Liberty are struggling, and she has work to do to strengthen her case.

Paige Bueckers’ sophomore season has been a sight to behold in Dallas. Alongside Jessica Shepard and Arike Ogunbowale, Bueckers has propelled the Wings from the bottom of the league standings to playoff contention in one season. The Wings jumped as high as fourth thanks to a hot July in which they went 7-3, including a five-game winning streak. But since the All-Star break they’ve hit a bit of a skid.

Bueckers is tied for seventh in the league in points per game, averaging 20.5. Coming out of the break, her average has dipped just slightly to 19.8 points per game. With eight games left, Bueckers can certainly make a last-ditch effort to re-insert herself into the conversation, but at this point others have surpassed her.

Mitchell is another Fever player overlooked in this MVP race, and she’s got a stronger case than Bueckers or Stewart. She ranks second in scoring behind Wilson, averaging 24.3 points per game and is close to achieving a 50-40-90 season. Mitchell is shooting 50.7 percent from the field, 44.3 percent from three and 85 percent on free throws. Mitchell has recorded 20 consecutive games scoring 20 or more points, tying Wilson for the longest 20-plus point scoring streak in WNBA history.

But history is on track to repeat this season.

For the last five years, every MVP discussion has begun with Wilson — and for good reason.

Wilson is again a dominant force on both ends of the floor, stuffs the box score with points, rebounds and blocks, and has improved every season while keeping the Aces as a perennial contender. Wilson leads the league this season in scoring (26.1 points per game), blocks (2.1 per game), usage and win shares. The Aces have a plus-11.0 net rating with her on the court and crater without her.

Then again, a year ago, Collier was the heavy favorite to capture her first MVP — she won the first three Player of the Month awards — until Wilson and the Aces’ late surge.

Wilson’s lead in the race is only insurmountable until it isn’t.