After a thrilling conclusion to the regular season, which saw the Golden State Valkyries secure the No. 2 seed thanks to a 13-point fourth-quarter comeback against the Los Angeles Sparks, all eight playoff seeds and all four first-round matchups are set. The action will begin Sunday with a quadruple header featuring Game 1 from all four series. Before the playoffs get underway, it's time to honor this season's best performers with our end-of-season awards picks.
A'ja Wilson is the heavy favorite to win MVP for a fifth time and a third consecutive season, while Olivia Miles is expected to be the unanimous Rookie of the Year. But what about Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player and Coach of the Year? There are real dilemmas there.
Likewise, the All-WNBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie Teams are never easy to determine. Below, we've made picks for every major award, as well as All-WNBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie Teams. The official deadline for awards voting was Friday at Noon ET, and CBS Sports' Jack Maloney was once again an official awards voter.
His picks below were the same as those he submitted to the league. Without further ado, here are our selections and explanations: Gibbs: Three of these picks here are pretty much consensus ones -- A'ja Wilson, Olivia Miles and Janelle Salaün. I was open to someone coming out of the woodwork to take the MVP mantle from Wilson after the All-Star break, but for that to have happened, Wilson would have had to slow down.
But even though she was battling back soreness, her stats only decreased by a fraction -- Wilson averaged 26.1 points and 9.5 rebounds pre-All Star, and 25.8 points and 9.1 rebounds after spending time with President Obama in Chicago. The other three awards were much more difficult to pick. Defensively, I almost went with Angel Reese -- a very deserving recipient -- but ended up giving the nod to Williams, who leads the league in steal percentage at 3.5 and, in my opinion, is the most valuable defender on the best defense in the league.
As rules are making it harder for perimeter defenders to get stops, Williams is finding a way. I personally wouldn't hate if we ended up with co-DPOY like last year. My picks for Coach of the Year and Most Improved both went to the Washington Mystics, the team that exceeded my expectations the most this season.
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