Underrated WNBA Stars You Need to Know

She’s been a steady force for Chicago in the turbulent times since her signing.

Wade abruptly left the Sky in the middle of the 2023 season. He took an assistant coaching job for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors. Williams started all 40 regular season games plus the two playoff games.

Williams led a solid roster in win shares with 3.7. Alanna Smith (3.5 win shares), Marina Mabrey (2.6), Courtney Williams (2.4) and Kahleah Copper (2.1) rounded out the starting five.

Willams made the All-Defensive team for the second time in her career by averaging 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals. She was of only nine players in the league (along with teammate Smith) in 2023 to average at least one block and one steal per game.

She made a big impact on Smith, one of the most improved players in the WNBA in 2023.

“She’s one of the most consistently calm players that I’ve ever played with,” Smith said. “She never gets too low, she never gets too high. […] That’s something that I really appreciate because I’m a high-emotion, high-passion player. And that’s something I’ve learnt from [Williams], is to ride it out a bit more rather than get swooped up in highs and lows.”

Mabrey and Williams were the only returning starters in 2024 under first-year head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. Phoenix traded a draft pick for Copper that allowed Chicago to draft 6-foot-7 center Kamilla Cardoso. They also traded up to select Angel Reese.

Williams started nine games and was having a second successful season in Chicago before her season-ending injury. Cardoso replaced Williams in the starting lineup for the rest of the season. Chicago traded Mabrey halfway through the season to Connecticut. The Sky fell to 13-27 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018.

Chicago fired Weatherspoon, hired Aces assistant coach Tyler Marsh, and went through another roster reboot that has potential in 2025.

Chicago went 2-1 in the preseason with their only loss coming to Minnesota by five points on May 10. Williams, playing behind Cardoso, came off the bench all three games.

Williams was 9-11 from the field (including 1-1 from three – Williams is 0-2 in her career) with seven rebounds and five steals. Only two players finished with a positive +/- in all three games. Williams was a plus-34 in 42 minutes; Cardoso was a minus-9 in 61 minutes.

The Sky will be more competitive this season, especially if they stay healthy. Williams will continue to be a consistent veteran force in the lineup as she pushes for starting minutes.

4. Teaira McCowan (Dallas)

Teaira McCowan is consistently good. One might expect her to be more than that, and that’s understandable.

She’s a 6-foot-7 center who was a two-time All-American at Mississippi State. She averaged 18.3 points on 62.8% from the field and collected 13.7 rebounds per game over her last two seasons in college. McCowan helped the Bulldogs get to the National Championship game twice in her career – the only two times the school has made it in its 44-year history.

Indiana drafted her third overall in 2019. They selected her in front of current teammate Arike Ogunbowale, Napheesa Collier, and Ezi Magbegor.

Perhaps that’s why more is expected of her.

McCowan’s highest scoring average in the WNBA was 11.9 in 2023; her lowest was 10.0. Her highest rebound average was 9.6 in 2021. Her lowest was 7.0. She’s shot from 51.7% to 60.2% from the field.

She’s consistently good, just not consistently great.

In her six-year career, McCowan is averaging 11.2 points on 55.4% from the field and 8.4 rebounds per game. Only six players in history have hit those marks in any single season, let alone averaged over the course of a six-year stretch. Those 15 seasons (A’ja Wilson, Brittney Griner, Crystal Langhorne, Liz Cambage, and Nneka Ogwumike have all done it once in their careers; Hall of Famer Sylvia Fowles did it an astonishing ten times in her career) have produced 13 All-WNBA selections, nine top five finishes in MVP voting, and two MVPs (Ogwumike in 2016 and Fowles in 2017).

McCowan hasn’t even made an All-Star team, leaving fans wanting more.

McCowan can be a source of frustration due to her limitations. She struggles with ball screen defense, doesn’t run the floor well, and her lack of three-point shooting clogs the paint. Yet despite those shortcomings, her strengths have quietly made her one of the WNBA’s most underrated players since entering the league.

She holds the highest career offensive rebounding percentage (15.6%) and total rebound percentage (21.0%) in league history. Her teams have ranked fifth, third, third, second, first, and first in offensive rebounding percentage. She’s recorded four top ten finishes in rebounds per game, and her 8.4 RPG ranks ninth all-time.

Furthermore, McCowan has ranked in the top ten for field goal percentage every season of her six-year career and currently sits sixth all-time. She has also been among the top ten in blocks per game three times. Her career player efficiency rating of 21.6 ranks in the top 25 in WNBA history.

Only three players return to Dallas from last season’s roster. They also have a new coach and general manager. Whether McCowan is starting like she’s done most of her career or coming off the bench like she did in the final preseason game, the Wings know exactly what they are going to get. She’s a force inside and an efficient double-double machine.

Without 6-foot-7 center Kalani Brown (Phoenix), Natasha Howard (Indiana), and Satou Sabally (Phoenix), Dallas will need her presence if they want to get the most out of the new backcourt pairing of Paige Bueckers and Arika Ogunbowale.

3. Alanna Smith (Minnesota)

Alanna Smith was done with the WNBA.

She had spent three pedestrian seasons in Phoenix, then was waived by Indiana after playing in only nine games in her fourth year in the league. In 64 career games up until that point, Smith only averaged 10.4 minutes, 3.0 points on 33.3% shooting, and 2.4 rebounds.

After regrouping in her native Australia, Smith decided to give the WNBA one more chance. She signed with Chicago before the 2023 season. The coaching staff expected her to come off the bench with energy and do the little things.

Injuries in the Sky’s frontcourt early in the season opened an opportunity for her to start, and she never looked back.

Smith enjoyed a career-year in 2023 with 35 starts in 38 games while playing 26.5 minutes per game. She averaged 9.2 points on 49.8% from the field, 6.6 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, and 1.3 steals. Smith joined an exclusive club of players to average at least one block and one steal per game.

Smith and Sky point guard Courtney Williams signed as free agents with Minnesota after the 2023 season. Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve was excited about what Smith was bringing to her new team.

“Alanna is coming off her best season yet in the WNBA where she was a finalist for Most Improved Player. Her impressive 2FG%, potential as a 3-point shooter, along with her rebounding and shot blocking, make her a valuable addition to our team,” Reeve said.

The Lynx, and Smith, got a lot more than what they could’ve ever hoped for.

Smith teamed up with the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier to lead the Lynx to the fourth best defensive rating (96.5) in the league in the last seven seasons. The Lynx made it to the doorstep of the franchise’s fifth WNBA championship, but New York denied them.

It was a crushing loss for the Lynx, especially for Smith who showed her grit and toughness by making an impact throughout the series despite a back injury sustained in Game 3.

In 2024, Smith started all 51 games (including playoffs) that she played in and averaged a career high of 1.5 blocks and 1.4 steals for the season. This time, she was one of only five players in the league to average at least one block and one steal per game. All five, which included Collier, earned All-Defense honors.

It was the first WNBA award of Smith’s career.

“I’m really lucky in that Phee and I play really well off of each other defensively. That was kind of something that happened from the very start with us. It was just like, we read each other really well and worked together really well on the defensive end, without having to do much,” expressed Smith in an interview with SB Nation.

Smith was also an asset offensively – a perfect complimentary player to the versatile Collier. Smith averaged a career high in points (10.1), three-pointers made (1.2), three-point percentage (39.8%), free throw percentage (75.0%), and assists (3.2).

Her player efficiency rating of 18.1 was also a career-high, eclipsing her 2023 mark of 17.1.

The Lynx enter the 2025 season with most of their 2024 roster intact. Smith and Collier will be a nightmare once again for opponents on both ends of the floor.

2. Brittney Sykes (Washington)

Brittney Sykes headlines the list of most accomplished players in today’s WNBA who have never made an All-Star team. A tenacious defender who has led the league in steals twice in her career (and finished second in 2023), Sykes made the All-Defensive team every season from 2020 to 2023.

Her 2023 season, her first in Washington after three-year stints in both Atlanta and Los Angeles, was the best year of her eight-year career.

She achieved career highs in minutes, points, field goals, three-pointers, three-point percentage, free throws, rebounds, assists, steals, player efficiency rating, and win shares. She finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting and fourth for the Most Improved Player award.

Unfortunately, injuries hampered Sykes in 2024. An ankle injury kept her out of 22 of Washington’s 40 games. Her history with injuries, however, helps define her mindset.

In an interview for WNBA.com, Sykes reflected on her back-to-back ACL tears in college and how they helped shape her career moving forward.

“I probably wouldn’t play as hard as I play. I’ll tell you that for a fact. I promised myself, and I promised God after my ACL tears like nobody can ever come to me or to anybody else to say, ‘Man, why isn’t Slim (Sykes’s nickname) playing hard?’ Nope. I promise you I put money that I didn’t even have yet down that nobody will ever say that I don’t play the game hard,” declared Sykes.

Besides her injuries at Syracuse University and with the Mystics in 2024, Sykes has been extremely reliable and healthy throughout career. She only missed 10 total games from her rookie season in 2017 to her first year in Washington in 2023.

If the offseason was any indication of whether she’s fully recovered from her ankle injury last season, Sykes made it known. She drained the game-winning free throw to help Rose Basketball Club win the inaugural Unrivaled championship despite two of its stars, Angel Reese and Kahleah Copper, out due to injury.

Former Mystics teammate Shatori Walker-Kimbrough said of Sykes in 2023: “I always knew she was a scorer, but I feel like this year, the way she’s added in her 3-point attempts and her 3-point makes and percentage, it’s been the most impressive to me, along with everything else. Because before you would kind of sag off her when she was on other teams. Now, I don’t know how you guard her. She’s getting to the rim, she’s getting to her pull-ups, she’s shooting great from the 3-point line, getting to the free-throw line, like she’s literally doing it all. So, I’m glad she’s on our team now.”

This season, expect Sykes to continue what she started in Washington in 2023.

1. Ezi Magbegor (Seattle)

Ezi Magbegor is an absolute star in the making.

She’s a five-year pro, all with Seattle, who has consistently been a defensive stalwart throughout her career.

Magbegor made the All-Defensive team the last three seasons and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year last season. The versatile forward defends multiple positions, blocks shots, creates turnovers, rebounds, and runs the floor well.

Magbegor uses her athleticism to create opportunities offensively as well. She has averaged 10.1 points on 52.4% from the field, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in her career. She’s learned to stretch the floor – going 43-131 (32.8%) from three the past two seasons. She attempted only 41 threes her first three seasons combined.

This added dimension allows teammate and future Hall-of-Famer Nneka Ogwumike the necessary space to go to work in the low post.

The athletic 6-foot-4 forward helped the Storm win the WNBA Championship in her rookie season. In 2023, she made her first and only All-Star team.

And she’s only 25 years old.

Her offensive volume will have to increase for her to be mentioned among the elite in the league. It is something she can certainly do as her game and role continue to evolve. However, it’s her defense that is already among the league’s best.

A’ja Wilson was the only other player in the league in 2024 who averaged at least two blocks and one steal per game. Magbegor has finished in the top three in the WNBA in blocks per game for each of the past three seasons.

Her career average of 1.6 blocks is currently seventh all-time, just behind legends Sylvia Fowles and fellow Australian Lauren Jackson.

“[Magbegor is] just kind of like the closer in our defense, she’s everywhere. She’s instinctual. I think that she’s also very fearless on the defensive end, and she’s our defensive anchor,” Ogwumike told The Next.

Teammate Gabby Williams agrees.

“I think it’s her energy and her aggressiveness, especially on the ball… her defensive activity, the way she has her hands, that changes everything. It makes things so difficult when you have someone like that who’s equally tall, equally athletic, equally smart defensively, who’s hounding you on the ball… because you know you can’t do anything when Ezi traps you.

“So not only just her presence at the rim, but her ball pressure, I think. And also, when you — if she’s not blocking shots, you’re scared to drive because you know that you have a shot blocker behind. So just her presence makes it a lot easier for us,” Williams said after a game in 2024.

Seattle was one of only four teams to have a defensive rating of under 100.0 last season. The Storm’s 98.6 defensive rating is the ninth best rating in the league since Magbegor’s rookie season in 2020.

In her five seasons, Seattle has been in the top five in defensive rating four times.

Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith are entering the final phase of their careers. The Storm are already positioned for their next chapter with Magbegor and 6-foot-6 rookie Dominique Malonga.

alonga, from France, was drafted second overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft. She is only 19 years old and has been compared to another foreign teenage prospect picked in the first round from the 2019 draft… new teammate Magbegor.

Be on the lookout for these players to succeed this season.