WNBA Rookie Watch: Azzi Fudd Soars As Wings Starter, Olivia Miles Keeps on Rolling

Near the 10-game mark of the WNBA’s 30th season, the Lynx are at the top of the standings just as they were a season ago.

What’s scary is this is before superstar forward Napheesa Collier has made her season debut after offseason ankle surgery. Minnesota’s early success is in big part due to the masterful trade that landed it the second pick in the 2026 draft from the Sky, which the Lynx used to select its guard of the future in Olivia Miles.

She was long heralded as a premier WNBA prospect, but the start of her professional career has absolutely exceeded expectations as she commandeers the league’s best team. Minnesota’s current net rating of 13.8 is nearly five points better than any other team (Valkyries, 8.9) with a flowing offense and lockdown defense (plenty thanks to Miles’s pressure as a perimeter defender).

Miles sits atop a fairly loaded rookie class with plenty of her fellow draftees stepping into increased roles as the season chugs along and excelling in the process. Here’s a look at our biggest takeaways and notes from this year’s group of WNBA rookies from the past week of action:

Azzi Fudd’s debut as a starter went exactly to plan

After Wings coach Jose Fernandez hinted that the top pick would enter the Wings’ starting lineup in very noncommittal fashion, Fudd entered the first five for the next game. Her debut as a starter was outstanding with 22 points in 37 minutes as she knocked down nine of her 15 shots and went 3-for-5 from three-point range. Fudd’s 22 piece tied Jessica Shepard for a team high (on a night where Shepard had an unbelievable 22-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist triple-double) in a win over the defending champion Aces.

Dallas invested in Fudd with the No. 1 pick to ease the workload of Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale and to create more space on the floor for the star guards to operate. Fudd did that and then some against the Aces, especially on a night where Ogunbowale was off the mark with just one point in 18 minutes. Fudd remained in the starting lineup for Dallas’s next game and had nine points in 23 minutes as the Wings blew out the Storm for their third straight win and fifth in six games.

In addition to what she brings on offense, Fudd is extremely active defensively and has made plays with 13 stocks (steals plus blocks) in her past four games.

Watch Azzi Fudd on this defensive possession. 👀 pic.twitter.com/tQ1ThL7Q2T
— WNBA on NBC and Peacock (@WNBAonNBC) June 3, 2026

She was eased in to start the season, but Fudd has shined as she’s become a greater part of Fernandez’s game plan.

Forget Rookie of the Year, Olivia Miles is coming for All-WNBA

Miles has continued to ball over the past week with an early stranglehold on the Rookie of the Year race. Without Collier, Miles has helped lead the Lynx to a league-best 7–2 start as Minnesota looks to contend this year after it was upset by the Mercury in last year’s semifinals.

The do-it-all guard has played well beyond her years from the jump, but she’s turned it up a notch as of late. She had 19 points, nine assists and three steals in the Lynx’s beatdown of Phoenix on Monday for Minnesota’s fifth win in a row. At this point, we need to start including Miles in All-WNBA talks in addition to Rookie of the Year.

She’s top 10 in steals and assists per game, and her current average of 15.8 points per game ranks 17th across the W. More importantly, however, is how she’s helped keep Minnesota at the top of the standings without Collier to start the year. Courtney Williams, Kayla McBride and Natasha Howard have been great, too, but the addition of Miles is a complete game-changer as the Lynx’s guard of the future.

Olivia Miles is special. She's gonna play in this league for a long, long time pic.twitter.com/ssuyv4o1Er
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) June 2, 2026

The Fever need to lean more on Raven Johnson

Johnson isn’t and won’t be in the Rookie of the Year race, but she can help the Fever patch a hole right now. Thus far through her rookie year, she’s playing 13.3 minutes per game, which should grow even further as a defense-first guard who can help limit Indiana’s opponents targeting Caitlin Clark. Johnson doesn’t need to start, but if head coach Stephanie White increases her minutes up toward 20 per game, it could raise the Fever’s floor on defense immediately as the team has struggled with a 4–4 start.

At South Carolina, she was named to the SEC’s All-Defense team twice and won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award last year, all as a 5’8" guard. Adding her defensive prowess next to or in relief of Clark and Kelsey Mitchell was the plan all along when the Fever made Johnson their first-round draft pick. While giving Johnson an additional workload this soon likely wasn’t the plan for the franchise, it’s time.

Kiki Rice leaves Tempo’s game vs. Liberty with leg injury

Rice put herself in Rookie of the Year conversations with her recent heater for Toronto. In the Tempo’s loss to the Liberty on Wednesday, she unfortunately went down with what appeared to be a leg injury on a drive to the hoop late in the fourth quarter as New York was up by 18 points.

She limped off the floor and back to the locker room and was seen on crutches after the game, according to WNBA insiders Khristina Williams and Terrika Foster-Brasby.

Kiki Rice lands awkwardly and was helped off the court to the locker room.#WNBA pic.twitter.com/038m9J19eY
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) June 4, 2026

There’s no official update yet on the extent of Rice’s injury and whether she’ll have to miss any time. “No update on Kiki, hopefully she’s O.K.,” Tempo coach Sandy Brondello said via TSN’s Chelsea Leite. “She’s a tough kid, but yeah, unfortunate.”

The UCLA product has been a consistent force for the expansion Tempo as one of the WNBA’s most impactful rookies. You have to hope the injury is nothing serious in what’s already a remarkable first season for Rice.

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