Olivia Miles Is on Pace for One of the Best Rookie Seasons in WNBA History

From where her start stacks up against the league’s best rookies to how it’s shaping the Lynx’s run for a title, let’s dive into the numbers.

Olivia Miles (left) is averaging 17.8 points, 6.3 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game so far this season. | Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images)

Just 12 games into her rookie season, Olivia Miles has taken the WNBA by storm.

The Lynx made Miles the second pick in the draft, which Minnesota acquired from Chicago in a 2024 trade the Sky used to go star hunting with Angel Reese. Two years later, Reese is with the Dream and the Lynx had some lottery luck after a league-best 34–10 record last season thanks to owning Chicago’s pick.

That trade pays a handsome dividend each time the Lynx step onto the floor—Minnesota currently sits atop the WNBA at 10–2 even without superstar forward Napheesa Collier. Courtney Williams, Natasha Howard and Kayla McBride have been critical in Minnesota’s hot start, but it’s Miles who’s conducted the offense, making the right play whether it’s for herself or one of her teammates.

She’s more than the WNBA’s top rookie this season—she’s one of the best rookies in league history. Sports Illustrated has kept track of the WNBA’s newest faces in our weekly rookie watch column. While the goal is typically to give you a snapshot of notable happenings across this year’s class, we felt now’s the time to go a bit deeper into Miles because what she’s doing each night is downright special.

Olivia Miles is the key to the Lynx’s early success

Last week, we covered Miles’s case for All-WNBA in addition to the Rookie of the Year talks. I felt like I was going out on a limb somewhat with that early claim, but I’m feeling pretty good about it only a week later.

On Tuesday, she was named the Western Conference Player of the Week with an eye-popping 22.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game over the stretch. Breanna Stewart received honors in the Eastern Conference for her huge performances during the Liberty’s recent hot stretch; not too bad of company to be in.

Later that night, Miles dropped 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists as the Lynx dismantled the Wings for their eighth win in a row. That was another battle between the top two picks in the draft as No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd had a forgettable night with six points on 2-for-12 shooting. It wasn’t about that for Miles, however, who’s all business.

Miles had 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists against Azzi Fudd (right) and the Wings on Tuesday. | Matt Blewett-Imagn Images

“Azzi’s a great player, she fully deserved to go No. 1,” Miles said flatly after the win. “She’s a brilliant shooter, one of the best we’ve ever seen in the game. … It’s always fun to play against who’s in your class, we’ve been competing since we were young against each other. So it’s cool to see where we are now basically. I always acknowledge that before the game, just ask her how she’s doing and stuff.”

When the Wings went with Fudd over Miles and Seattle’s Awa Fam with the top pick, it was to add an elite floor spacer to complement the star guard duo of Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale. That put Miles right into Cheryl Reeve’s lap, as the Lynx coach and president of basketball operations was given her franchise’s guard of the future.

Once the calendar turned to June, Miles began a scoring barrage that catapulted her near the top 10 in scoring across the WNBA, currently at 11th with 17.8 points per game, just behind Rhyne Howard and Marina Mabrey (17.9). The standout performance came on June 4 in a three-point win over the Valkyries when Miles had 28 points and seven assists as she made eight of her 11 three-point attempts, the most threes in a game by a rookie in WNBA history.

OLIVIA MILES TONIGHT 🔥

• 28 POINTS
• 7 ASSISTS
• 4 REBOUNDS
• 3 BLOCKS
• 8/11 3PM (!!!!)
• 9/16 FG
• 28 MINUTES PLAYED pic.twitter.com/TOvIzcmxhu

— Women’s Hoops Network (@WomensHoops_USA) June 5, 2026

The product of Miles’s impressive performance after impressive performance, though, is her impeccable consistency. Her vision and feel for the game jumps out to anyone who happens to flip on a Lynx game. She does it all. She passes, she scores, she defends, all at an elite level. A level that’s way beyond her status as a rookie. Already one of the best players in the WNBA, she’s on pace to become one of the best rookies ever.

How Miles stacks up against the WNBA’s best rookies in history

Fever superstar Caitlin Clark set the rookie record for points in 2024—the same season Minnesota traded for the pick that eventually became Miles. Clark scored 769 points in her first season, which broke Lynx legend and Hall of Famer Seimone Augustus’s record of 744 points set in 2006. Paige Bueckers got close last year with 692 total points, but Clark and Augustus are the only rookies to score 700 or more points in WNBA history.

If Miles continues her pace of 17.8 points per night for the rest of the season, she’d pass Clark with 783 points. The caveat to that is Clark played in a 40-game season, while Augustus played just 34. The WNBA began playing a 44-game season last year, so Miles would benefit from four additional games on Clark. That’s considering Miles would play in each game this season, which is a big if this early on, but she can comfortably become the first rookie to hit 800 points in a season if her scoring continues its current upward trend.

And all that’s before we even get into Miles’s standout skill as a facilitator. Clark holds the rookie assists record, too, as she dished a staggering 334 dimes two seasons ago. Currently averaging 6.3 assists per game, Miles would be at 276 should she continue her current pace. That’d be well below Clark, but it would blow past No. 2 in Ticha Penicheiro—one of the W’s greatest and flashiest passers ever.

Beyond the records, though, what’s impressive is how Miles takes care of the ball as such a ball-dominant player. She’s averaging 3.0 turnovers per night for a 2.11 assist to turnover ratio (much better than Clark’s 1.51 as a rookie).

That’s important for a first-year player who was thrust into such a critical role on a team that’s contending for a title this season. Not only is she the Lynx’s offensive maestro, but she also sets the tone defensively with her on-ball pressure on the perimeter. Her defensive rating of 91.6 is the best of any player in the WNBA who plays at least 20 minutes per game. That’s a huge leap in her game compared to college, which Reeve says was a focus from day one.

The only player in the WNBA who has a better net rating than Miles who plays at least 20 minutes per game is Natasha Howard (right), her teammate. | Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

“I told her we would not have drafted her if we didn’t think she had the physical ability to [defend], because that’s a whole other set of challenges,” Reeve said Thursday via Andrew Dukowitz of Zone Coverage. “She’s smart, she’s physically gifted, so why not? Everybody can play defense.”

Coupled with her exceptional offensive talent, the defensive jump has led to an astronomical net rating of 20.8. The only player who has a better net rating who plays at least 20 minutes per game is Natasha Howard, her teammate.

It’s still early and we’ll see what happens when Collier comes back from injury, but Miles has shown no signs of wavering any time soon. Once Collier’s back, we’re in store for the WNBA’s next great superstar duo. 

Miles’s rookie season is on pace to put her up next to names like Cynthia Cooper, Cappie Pondexter and Candace Parker. And it’s also making the Lynx a top contender for the title.

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