Welcome to the first edition of WNBA Notebook, where I will be breaking down, analyzing and sometimes over-analyzing some of the trends and unique happenings on and off the court during the 2026 WNBA season.
Put plain and simple: I will be diving into a lot of what makes the WNBA the WNBA.
RELATED: Check out this week’s WNBA Power Rankings!
When I asked Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase about what early trends she has seen emerging across the league in just under two weeks of regular season, there wasn’t a specific one that came to mind. Instead she alluded to how these first couple of weeks have been an incubation period where teams are still trying to figure out what they do best and what their weaknesses are.
This is the period of time where coaches around the league are observing the identities of their opponents. Or in other words, everyone is trying to figure each other out, and according to Nakase, the five new head coaches across the league are already making an impact on their teams.
Nakase has noticed everything from how Sandy Brondello is running the expansion franchise the Toronto Tempo to how Jose Fernandez’s candor has made headlines as coach of the Dallas Wings.
“I like that everyone’s kind of taking onus of like, this is how I see this team succeed, and then this is what I’m going to do,” she said. “Granted, every team is changing too. So, no team, I don’t think, stayed exactly the same. So, giving that time to get to know your team, but also build in their strengths.”
While most teams have played around five games in the first couple of weeks of the season, this is what has stood out in the early going.
Offense is Trending Up
It’s hard to ignore the fact that scoring is up across the league. After less than two weeks, offenses are clearly better than what they were last year after the first five or so games of the season.
Beginning with the best offensive team in the league to start this season and last, the New York Liberty’s points per game (PPG) and offensive rating have increased in this approximate 12-day time frame. Year over year, New York’s PPG has increased by over 6.3 percent from 94 to 100 and their offensive rating has increased by over 4.5 percent from 112.2 to 117.3
On the other end of the spectrum, the 2025 numbers including PPG and offensive rating registered by the weakest offenses in the league have also increased in 2026. So far this year’s worst offenses are still better than last year’s worst offenses.
Case in point: the league’s lowest PPG total at the start of last season was 71.8, posted by the Connecticut Sun. This season, the lowest scoring average is up 10.3 percent to 79.6 points per game, set by the Seattle Storm. The Sun have the league’s worst offense so far with a 97.2 rating, but that’s 10.8 percent up from the 87.7 offensive rating the Valkyries had at this moment in the season last year.
| Season | Highest PPG | Lowest PPG | Highest offensive rating | Lowest offensive rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
There’s a myriad of reasons for these percent increases. Could it be because of the change in officiating where freedom of movement is being stressed and as a result more fouls and free throws are being called? That’s possible.
Let’s take a look at the average free throws and personal fouls across this small sample size and compare it to what the numbers were last year 12 days into the 2025 regular season. Just like with PPG and offensive rating, teams with the highest and lowest free throw attempts and fouls per game have increased year over year.
The team with the highest free throws attempted has increased by 15.2 percent from 24.3 to 28, and so has the team with the lowest free throws attempted. Those numbers increased 12.56 percent from 16.6 to 18.7.
And the same pattern exists when it comes to personal foul counts for teams. The Washington Mystics, the team with the highest personal foul count during this small sample size year over year, have increased a bit over 5 percent from 23.8 to 25 personal fouls per game. The Las Vegas Aces have registered a league low 18.2 personal fouls per game this season to start, and that’s still over 15 percent higher than the Storm’s 15.8 fouls per game from last season.
| Season | Highest free throws attempted per game | Lowest free throws attempted per game | Highest personal fouls per game | Lowest personal fouls per game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
But how much of a statement should these early numbers make? Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco explained that while the higher octane offenses overall have been impressive, it’s too early to tell if this is going to be something that defines the 2026 season.
“It could be we haven’t seen these teams play a ton of games,” he said. “I think once you see a team play 15 to 20 games, maybe you can scout a little better and take away some things. That could be it.”
While officials and players continue to adjust to the new rules of the road, it will be worth keeping an eye on if defenses improve or if offenses will continue to skyrocket.
Success of the “Pro Rookies”
While it still is incredibly early, there could be two rookies that weren’t even drafted this past April’s draft that could end up on the WNBA All-Rookie team. The two that come to mind are the Liberty’s Pauline Astier and the Mercury’s Jovana Nogić who both have averaged over 15 PPG and over 25 minutes per game in their first bunch of games as WNBA players.
Astier and Nogić are both WNBA rookies that have years of professional playing experience in Europe.
Astier has played either on a EuroLeague or EuroCup team since the 2017-2018 European season. The French guard has played on teams in her home country in addition to this past overseas season in the Czech Republic for USK Praha.
Serbian guard Nogić played in the United States for liberal arts school Providence College before playing seven seasons overseas in Spain, Turkey and then her final two in Russia for former EuroLeague powerhouse UMMC Ekaterinburg.
Astier’s game has been defined by her incredibly efficient and quick drives that add a level of rim pressure to the Liberty’s offense. Nogić, however, has been lighting it up from deep, hitting 51.7 percent of her three-pointers while averaging just under six per game.
32 players have attempted at least 10 layups in the half-court so far this season.
— Nekias (Nuh-KAI-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) May 16, 2026
Of those 32, only six have converted those layups at an 80% clip or higher.
Of those six, only one of them is a rookie.
Pauline Astier, I am impressed and have enjoyed your drives so far. pic.twitter.com/IMdoQ1fJiY
Why are WNBA teams welcoming these types of players? Why are these players so willing to come, especially after long overseas seasons? And why are players like Astier and Nogić experiencing so much success?
Let’s address each question one by one. First of all, the WNBA has been clamoring for years to expand its global footprint. But the advantage on the team side in signing these undrafted long time pros that technically are WNBA rookies is that these players come into the league on a league minimum $270,000 contract. That’s a huge boon when it comes to managing a salary cap in the era of the 2026 collective bargaining agreement that introduced million dollar salaries.
As to why more players are coming, Breanna Stewart explained that very fact to reporters on Wednesday. She told the story of when her wife, Spanish player Marta Xargay Casademont, who is now retired, would consider playing in the WNBA. It often wasn’t worth the grind playing year round. “It wasn’t worth it for her to come here for her to spend her summer, because it just wasn’t enough money,” Stewart said. “The dreams are getting bigger. The WNBA is obviously growing globally, and people want to be a part of it.”
The early success of Astier and Nogić is mostly because they’ve played professionally already in situations where the stakes are high just like in the WNBA. Also, these types of players are used to playing against opponents who are faster and stronger than most college players. Astier and Nogić are lower on the scouting report, for now.
Injury Reports, ACL Tears Making Headlines Again
A new wrinkle for the 2026 season is the fact that the WNBA has adopted a league-wide reporting system for all injuries and illnesses. That means there will be one place where all of the status reports for each team will be listed. This is a common practice on the NBA side.
This came into question on Wednesday evening when Caitlin Clark, who wasn’t featured on the Fever’s injury report the day before, was scratched just hours before tipoff. This has been a recurring issue in the WNBA space where teams are reluctant to share not just information about injuries, but specific information about injuries. This is just the latest chapter in that saga.
But aside from the injury reports themselves, the injury epidemic in the WNBA continues with ACLs taking center stage. In less than a week, the seasons of two promising young players ended. The Sky’s two-way wing Rickea Jackson and the Lynx’s “pro rookie” center Emma Čechová both tore their ACLs as a result of non-contact injuries during live game action.
Per Lucas Seehafer of The IX Sports, 174 games have been lost to ACL injuries this season. This doesn’t just include Čechová and Jackson, but also a bunch of other ACL injuries that happened either last season or during the offseason.
Check that. It's actually the sixth. Missed Courtney Vandersloot. Total games lost to ACL: 174 Total games to all injuries: 299 @theixsports.bsky.social
— Lucas Seehafer (@seehafer.bsky.social) 2026-05-19T14:54:04.634Z
Why has this trend emerged? I asked Stewart. She said the answer to that question was above her pay grade, but she also provided a reminder about how much of a hot button issue this is right now for the women’s sports world writ large.
“I think that there’s a lot of stats and analytics onto why women are more susceptible to ACL tears than men,” Stewart said. “Whether you’re on your cycle or just coming off, you’re like more prone or susceptible to have an injury.”
