WNBA Rookie Watch: Takeaways From Olivia Miles, Azzi Fudd and Flau’jae Johnson’s Debuts

With the first week of WNBA action behind us, here’s a look at how the league’s newest faces have started out. Is it too early to crown a Rookie of the Year?

Olivia Miles (center) had 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds as Minnesota got its first win of the season against the Mercury on Tuesday. | Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images

It was all a blur. If you blinked, you missed the WNBA draft, free agency and preseason with how fast it had to move after a new collective bargaining agreement was ratified. 

As if college players didn’t have a whirlwind of a few days pivoting from the NCAA tournament directly into draft festivities. Heck, we see impromptu graduation ceremonies staged right in the middle of WNBA team facilities every year, which was no different this season as top pick Azzi Fudd’s new Wings teammates gave her a cap and gown in the locker room.

There’s not enough hours in a day or days in the week for anyone, but especially if you’re a rookie in the WNBA. Just 33 days after UCLA cut down the nets in Phoenix to celebrate the program’s first title, the WNBA tipped off for its 30th season with six Bruins right back on the floor, just in new uniforms. The transition from college to the pros is as swift as any with a new normal already underway as the league’s 15 teams battle for a title with reworked rosters across the board.

With the new season underway, let’s take a look around the league at the early returns from some of the WNBA’s rookies to see what’s for real and what may need some more time to fall into place:

Olivia Miles is the way-too-early Rookie of the Year

Yes, the Lynx have played just two games, but the No. 2 pick has lived up to the hype thus far. In Miles’s WNBA debut, she dropped 21 points with eight rebounds, two assists and four stocks (steals plus blocks) in a one-point loss to the Dream. She followed that up with 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds as Minnesota got its first win of the season against the Mercury on Tuesday.

Opportunity has presented itself with Napheesa Collier’s absence coupled with a need in the backcourt. Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride remain in the fold, but the Lynx needed a true point guard and they got that with Miles in the draft. Should she continue on at her early pace, Miles, Collier and McBride will bring one of the more exciting scoring trios across the league as Minnesota looks to contend for a title after it fell to the Mercury in last year’s semifinals. A big question with Miles is the three ball and it’s way too early to draw any conclusions on how her deep shot will transition to the next level.

She’s 1-for-4 shooting from three-point range thus far and she improved in that sense over her collegiate career, shooting 40.6% from three in her last season at Notre Dame followed by 35.1% last season with TCU. We’ve seen the flashy passes already from Miles and how she can run an offense and get defenses to bite at any level is truly impressive as she’s looked like a veteran on the court over her first couple games.

CLUTCH. pic.twitter.com/GOmFk7lPT9

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) May 13, 2026

Flau’jae Johnson’s big role with the Storm is there, but waiting for shots to fall

Speaking of opportunity for a rookie, no one is in a better spot than Johnson after she surprisingly landed with Seattle on draft night. The Storm are stacked in the frontcourt with Dominique Malonga, Ezi Magbegor (who’s currently out with an injury) and Johnson’s fellow rookie Awa Fam once she joins the team following her overseas commitments. A mass exodus during the offseason puts the Storm in a full rebuild situation as they look for its next guard of the future and Johnson has the first crack at that.

Natisha Hiedeman conducts the offense, which gives Johnson room to hunt for the right looks without the burden of having the ball in her hands more often than not. The LSU product has been able to score over her first three games, just not as efficiently as she’d hope. She’s shooting below 30% from the floor thus far, but has been better from deep as she’s hit four of her 11 three-point attempts. Johnson’s quick and can change direction on a dime, which gives her the room she needs for clean looks. We’ve seen flashes of that over her first few WNBA games, there’s just an adjustment to do so consistently against more active and physical defenders.

Smooth like butta 🧈

Flau'jae Johnson knocks down the pull-up jumper

SEA-TOR | League Pass | #WNBASeason30
Tap to watch: https://t.co/hkHRfDtRZD pic.twitter.com/k3kxETzuIM

— WNBA (@WNBA) May 13, 2026

Let’s not jump to any conclusions with Azzi Fudd, please

Overreactions are the norm after rookie debuts and no player receives more scrutiny than the No. 1 pick. We haven’t seen much of Fudd yet—she played in just 18 minutes in one game as she was held out of the Wings’ home opener due to an abundance of caution with her right knee. Sure, keeping Fudd out this early for maintenance with her injury is slightly disconcerting, but her play and general place in the Dallas offense is not a concern.

She came off the bench and took just two shots—both three-pointers—in her debut and knocked down one. That’s no sample size to make any serious arguments over, one way or another, but what’s more interesting is how coach Jose Fernandez will use Fudd in his offense over her rookie season. In game one, she came off the bench in relief of one of Paige Bueckers or Arike Ogunbowale. That makes sense for easing Fudd into the next level, but the obvious ideal role for her is playing on the wing alongside Dallas’s lead scorers. She has the ability to become one of the WNBA’s best shooters as a career 42.2% shooter from three over her UConn tenure. That threat makes defenses work and subsequently gives Bueckers and Ogunbowale more room to operate and get the offense humming, whether that’s creating for themselves or kicking the ball to Fudd. 

In due time we’ll see the Bueckers, Ogunbowale and Fudd trio play next to each other, then we can really see how this whole thing might work. 

Jovana Nogic and Pauline Astier are pleasant early surprises

The overseas wave hits every year. Nogic, a 28-year-old rookie out of Serbia, shined in her first weekend of action with the Mercury. Phoenix opened its season with back-to-back games against the Aces and Valkyries and she walked away from the weekend with 35 points combined. Over those two games, she went 8-for-10 shooting from three-point range and helped Phoenix shockingly stomp the Aces on their ring night. She’s a knockdown shooter who’s an impactful defender on the perimeter that should continue in a big role for the Mercury while Sami Whitcomb recovers from a knee injury.

On the East Coast, undrafted free-agent rookie Astier has run with her opportunity as Sabrina Ionescu’s interim replacement while the star guard misses the beginning of the season with a foot injury. Astier, 24, is the latest French guard to join the fold in New York (I think that Marine Johannès has worked out pretty well) after she most recently played for USK Praha in Czechia. She played just 20 minutes and scored five points in the Liberty’s opener as they blew out the Sun, but followed that up with 42 points over the next two games. She dropped 24 points in New York’s loss to Portland and had a three-second violation blunder late that led to Sarah Ashlee Barker’s game winner for the Fire, but that doesn’t take away all that she’s brought to the Liberty in such a short period of time. Astier can score at all three levels, whip the ball around and make plays on defense. Although the role will decrease once Ionescu returns, it looks like the Liberty found another gem.

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