Last season, an expansion team produced the WNBA’s Most Improved Player, with Veronica Burton blossoming into a two-way star with the Golden State Valkyries.
In the fast-expanding WNBA, could this become a pattern, where expansion teams, offering opportunities to previously under-utilized players, pump out MIP winners by empowering players to show off the extend of their skills?
Zack Ward flagged this potential development when previewing potential Most Improved Players at the beginning of the season,
and he also might have pinpointed the winner: the Toronto Tempo’s Nyara Sabally. (Edwin Garcia sees another expansion team player, the Portland Fire’s Carla Leite, as the current leader in the MIP race.)
Admittedly, I was skeptical of Zack’s Sabally selection. Not only did I not trust her health, but, considering she played for Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello with the New York Liberty, and did not see consistent playing time, I did not expect her to be featured in new ways.
That was wrong!
Sabally is realizing all the promise she’s possessed throughout an injury-riddled career. There was a reason that some believed she could, in fact, be the better Sabally sister—and that might be happening (although, in part, due to Satou’s own battles with injuries and ailments).
Surely, Satou would be thrilled if Nyara matched her by winning her own MIP award, as Satou secured the honor in 2023 with the Dallas Wings.
Health permitting, Nyara is on pace to power past her previous career highs across the board. But more important than her raw numbers is how she has maintained, or improved, her efficiency. Her career-high 12.1 points per game is coming on 56 percent shooting, which includes a career-best 35.7 percent from 3.
She’s also upped her activity in other areas of the game, particularly getting after it on the offensive glass. Sabally’s career-best 2.4 offensive rebounds have helped her produced top-10 value on putbacks, according to ESPN Analytics. Defensively, she totaling 2.5 stocks per game; offensively, she’s tapped into her passing chops with almost two assists per game.
She also really like playing against the Chicago Sky.
When Toronto won in Chicago, she dropped a career-high 29 points on almost 80 percent shooting, adding on six boards, two blocks and two steals. In the Tempo’s recent home win over the Sky, she scored 15 points, her second-highest output of the season, with her fast scoring start helping the Tempo cruise to the comfortable home win.
Does she like playing the Connecticut Sun?
On Wednesday, Sabally and Tempo welcome the Sun to Toronto (7 p.m. ET, WNBA League Pass). She’ll face off with another MIP candidate identified by Zack who also is making a strong case: Aneesah Morrow.
Who do you see coming out ahead in this battle of ascendant post talents?
Will Sabally again produce efficient contributions for the Tempo? Can Morrow make her life difficult? And overall, which of the two do you favor as the W’s Most Improved Player? Or, do you have your eyes on someone else?
Take to the comments to share you analysis.
