We have a second Friday Funday piece today, which is intended as a sticky piece of WNBA content for future reference. It involves looking at the sabermetric realities of Caitlin Clark, Veronica Burton, and Paige Bueckers. It is here to make it plain and simple for those who do not understand sabermetrics in regards to measuring actual value in sports performance, relative to team success. Please refer to this often, if needed:

  • Caitlin Clark (2024): 40 games, 3.0 Win Shares, .103 WS/48, .500 team winning percentage
  • Veronica Burton (2025 so far): 41 games, 6.2 Win Shares, .250 WS/48, .561 team winning percentage
  • Paige Bueckers (2025 so far): 34 games, 3.8 Win Shares, .159 WS/48, .214 team winning percentage

There you have it. Clark was tremendously overrated on a .500 team with another No. 1 overall draft pick on the roster and plenty of talent already in place (Kelsey Mitchell, Lexie Hull, etc.). Burton played on an expansion team with a roster constantly in flux, and Bueckers joined the worst team in the league that didn’t have a lot of talent on it (like no prior No. 1 overall pick, for example). It’s easy to see what is what here.

If Clark was an MVP candidate in 2024, then Burton should be the MVP in 2025. If Clark was hailed as a revelation in 2024, then Bueckers should be anointed even more so in 2025. Also remember Clark was third on her own team in Win Shares last year, while Burton leads her next-best teammate by 4.0 Win Shares—and Bueckers leads her next-best teammate by 2.1 Win Shares, despite missing eight games to injury. Yeah.

Case closed, people. Please study sabermetrics to learn as this is how modern-day stat evaluation happens. Thank you.