Our WNBA Tuesday piece today takes on a season where the Las Vegas Aces won the first of two consecutive league championships. It was a long journey for the Aces, who started out as the Utah Starzz in 1997 before migrating to San Antonio (2003-2017) and then arriving in Sin City after yet another rebranding. But hey, we think this one might stick. Although with the WNBA, you never know, do you? It’s always a crapshoot.

2022 WNBA MVP: A’ja Wilson, C, Las Vegas (original); Breanna Stewart, F, Seattle (revised)

Aces center A’ja Wilson (28.2 PER, 6.5 WS) won the MVP vote, although Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart topped the WNBA in both sabermetric categories (28.5 PER, 7.4 WS). They were, by far, the two best players in the league. So, what happened in the standings? Well, the Aces finished higher by four wins, and in the Top 8 for Win Shares, Wilson had two teammates while Stewart had none. That makes this easy, truly.

We like Wilson, but Stewart was doing more valuable work in Seattle, for sure. Oddly, this is the second time we’ve taken a vote win away from Wilson here and given it to Stewart. We know that doesn’t seem fair, but again, we know these issues have a way of working themselves out in time. Be patient, A’ja fans. After all, we did take away Stewart’s MVP vote win in 2018, too, and we still have two more years to analyze yet.

2022 WNBA ROTY: Rhyne Howard, G, Atlanta (original); Shakira Austin, C/F, Washington (revised)

There are only two rookies here worth discussing: Washington Mystics C/F Shakira Austin (3.1 WS) and Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard (2.9). The latter won the vote overwhelmingly, so let’s see if the mediots were right this time: the Mystics finished eight games ahead of the Dream in the standings, making the playoffs, while Atlanta finished well under .500 and stayed home. So, no: mediot fail again.

Austin’s WS mark is higher than the one Caitlin Clark put up as a rookie in 2024, too. But we digress: what were the voters thinking here? It’s like they just look at the shiny counting stats alone, as if it’s still 1985 or something. It’s amazing to us how these people stay employed as “journalists” when they ignore the most advanced data available. Then again, maybe the sporting audience doesn’t have the capacity to understand?

2022 WNBA DPOY: Wilson (original, confirmed)

With 2.4 DWS, Wilson won the vote for this award, too, even though that sabermetric mark was third best. However, the top two players on this list—Connecticut Sun F Alyssa Thomas (2.7) and Stewart (2.5)—each had multiple teammates in the DWS Top 10 for the year. Wilson was a solo artist in terms of being a defensive stalwart for her team. Therefore, we confirm this award, as the voters managed to do it right here.

2022 WNBA FINALS MVP: Chelsea Gray, G, Las Vegas (original, confirmed)

The Aces went 8-2 in the postseason on their way to their first-ever franchise crown, and G Chelsea Gray (2.5 WS) was named the playoff MVP. But guess what? Wilson also posted 2.5 WS along the way, so we have some splitting of hairs to do here: Gray had a higher PER mark, and she also had a higher WS/40 mark. Therefore, we will confirm the vote award, which—again—is no knock on Wilson at all: just circumstance.