Imagine telling someone six years ago that Breanna Stewart, who then would have been fresh off her second WNBA title within the first five seasons of her pro career after winning four national championships in four college seasons at UConn, along with garnering a slew of collegiate and professional individuals accolades, would be underrated.
Yet, I think that’s where we are.
In a WNBA, like the larger sports world, that obsesses over who is new and next, the steady, lowkey consistency of Stewie is passé.
Stewie is Stewie, and that’s it.
A few years ago, Zack Ward wrote about Stewart settling in as the second-best women’s basketball player world, permanently behind A’ja Wilson. Now, a healthy Napheesa Collier occupies that second spot, with Stewart pushed down, or even out, of the top five.
I’d argue she still has a pretty solid case for No. 3.
I expect her greatness to be quite clear at next month’s FIBA World Cup, when she will reprise her role alongside Wilson as the present-day foundation of the Team USA dynasty. This season, the floundering state of the New York Liberty has somewhat sullied a stellar season, even though New York certainly would have sunk without her superstar services.
Help the Helper’s wRAPM (regularized adjusted plus-minus) metric has consistently rated Stewart as the most impactful player in the WNBA during the 2026, as she sports a +6.6 wRAPM valuation. That metric, aimed at capturing a player’s contextualized impact on her team’s performance, indicates Stewie’s excellence exceeds her still-superb traditional stats: 20.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game.
And, she’s achieved all the production and impact even with her persisting and puzzling troubles from behind the arc, as she’s barely hitting over 25 percent of her 3-point attempts.
Maybe a potential playoff run, where Stewie leads the Liberty out of the first, or even the second, round would inspire an appreciation of her still-towering talent. On Thursday, Stewart and the Liberty host the visiting Golden State Valkyries, the type of team, and possibly the exact team, New York projects to have to beat in order to go on an underdog playoff run (8 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
The Valkyries themselves also feature a player who could credibly challenge Stewie for the WNBA’s most-underrated crown, as do the combatants in Thursday night’s second game: the Washington Mystics and Phoenix Mercury (10 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
In the comments, let us know if you consider Stewie, as well as these three other candidates, some of the most-underrated players in the W. Also be sure to share the names of other players who you think deserve more love.
Veronica Burton (Golden State Valkyries)
Last season’s Most Improved Player and an All-Defense selection, who also won an Unrivaled championship with Stewart over the offseason, Veronica Burton seemed fated for an All-Star honor in fifth WNBA season.
Burton, instead, landed on a long list of snubs, with her inefficiency as a scorer, plus Golden State’s outstanding depth, keeping her out of the midseason festivities.
Her raw scoring statistics—12.3 points per game on 42.7 percent shooting—fail to capture how she makes good things happen for the Valkyries. She has the highest on-court plus-minus on the team, with Golden State outscoring opponents by an average of 6.2 points per game in her minutes. That’s also a top-15 mark in the league.
According to Help the Helper’s wRAPM, Burton rates even more highly, with +3.9 wRAPM estimate ranking seventh in the league. Databallr’s VPM (value plus-minus) metric, which incorporates lineup-adjusted plus-minus data with box-score stats to offer a valuation of player impact, gives even more credit to Burton, scoring her as +3.9, which is the fifth-best mark in the league.
Yes, a player’s scoring efficiently is important, but winning a player’s minutes—any way, any how—is more important, ultimately determining which team wins the game. And this season, Golden State just wins more with Burton.
That certainly happened on Wednesday night. Burton logged just 20 minutes, scoring 12 points and dishing seven assists as she was a game-best +24 in the Valkyries’ comfortable win over the Connecticut Sun.
Sonia Citron (Washington Mystics)
Soaring after her All-Star snub, Shakira Austin also belongs in the most-underrated conversation.
Sonia Citron, however, also is deserving of more appreciation. Advanced stats evaluate Citron as the Mystics’ most impactful player, with databallr rating her as the only positive offensive player on the Mystics with a +1.6 OVPM and a team-best +2.2 VPM. Help the Helper measures Citron, Austin and Kiki Iriafen as equally impactful, with all three of the Washington stars owning a wRAPM estimate of +0.7.
Similar to both Stewart and Burton, Citron is registering this impact in spite of some shooting struggles. Almost automatic from 3 as a rookie, Sonia’s 3-pointer has been off this season, with her percentage hovering in the low 30s. If she ascends back over 40 percent, look out!
Encouragingly, Citron made three of her six 3-point attempts in the first game of the two-game set between the Mystics and Mercury, with those triples, plus 6-for-7 work from the line, helping her score a team-best 19 points as she also was a team-high +18.
And although not an All-Star snub like Austin, she was, arguably, the most significant Team USA snub for the World Cup. The American guard room is a bit overstocked with primary ball handlers who are questionable defensively. Citron’s ability to function on and off the ball, all while bringing elite defense, could be missed in Berlin, especially if Team USA experiences more stress than anticipated.
Alyssa Thomas (Phoenix Mercury)
Both Zack and I have written extensively about the underrated Alyssa Thomas.
She still claims that status, even in this overall underwhelming Mercury season.
Per wRAPM, she is the fifth-most impactful player in the league, with a rating of +4.0. VPM similarly sees Thomas’ influence on winning, despite Phoenix’s lack of victories, with her +3.7 VPM tied for the sixth-highest estimate in the league.
With the most assists in the league, along with the 12th-most rebounds, no one is doing like AT. (Even if it is worth questioning what Phoenix is doing.) In Phoenix’s 10-point loss to Washington on Tuesday, Thomas tallied a classic AT stat with 16 points, 10 assists, six boards and three steals.
