With the regular season done, let’s take a look at how players fared in some of the less traditional statistical categories. Players included averaged at least 10 minutes per game and appeared in at least 17 games, a total of 112 players. Teams listed are the current team for players who played for more than one team this season.
Usage:
Usage measures what percentage of offensive possessions a player terminates while she is on the court. It has many uses, including helping understand the impact of bench players or those who play fewer minutes who carry a big offensive load when they are on the court as a few players on this list would not be considered immediate guesses in this category. 15 players terminated more than 24% of their team’s possessions this season. Tina Charles was the main focus on offense again for New York, ending up with the highest usage of any player. The Rookie of the Year award race has been revealing how people feel about different factors for the award. Arike Ogunbowale is in the conversation because of her scoring and having the second highest usage helps show the scale of scoring opportunities available to her when she was on the court. Natasha Howard was given a much larger role than last year due to injuries and she ended up third on this list. The two highest usage players from last season ended up being teammates and it was unclear how that would impact each player. While both saw declines in usage, especially A’ja Wilson, they did both continue to have big roles in the offense. There were several cases of high usage trios last season becoming high usage duos to injury as Brittney Griner and DeWanna Bonner for Phoenix and Tiffany Hayes and Alex Bentley for Atlanta saw their percentages climb.
Effective Field Goal Percentage:
Effective field goal percentage gives players more credit for three point field goals than the traditional percentage, which counts all field goals as the same, regardless of location. 14 players hit the 55% threshold in this category. It is no surprise that a known long range bomber like Allie Quigley benefits from this measure, being the only player to exceed 60% this season. Washington’s powerful offense is explained quite clearly with this list as they had four players in the top nine. The way that this measure still accommodates players with different approaches to scoring is shown by teammates Brittney Griner and Leilani Mitchell being next to each other on the list.
Rebound Percentage:
Rebound percentage measures the percent of available rebounds a player grabs when she is on the court. It can also be separated into offensive and defensive rebounding, which helps considering different rebounding strategies that different teams employ. 25 players grabbed at least 7% of their own team’s misses when they were on the court and 25 players grabbed at least 16.0% of the other team’s misses when they were on the court. Even with the separation of the two categories, fourteen players appear on both lists.
Separating the lists did not change one fact. When Teaira McCowan was on the court, she was a force on the glass, grabbing a quarter of her opponents’ misses and grabbing more than two percentage points more of her team’s misses than any other player. Having two lists does showcase Jessica Breland, the second best defensive rebounder, but a player who is not as active on the other end of the floor. Atlanta had the worst defensive rebounding percentage overall, but Breland and Monique Billings certainly should not be blamed as they did their part. Rebounding at the top end is certainly a team effort though Liz Cambage and Dearica Hamby did help Las Vegas have the best mark on the defensive end. Connecticut’s combination of Jonquel Jones and Alyssa Thomas helped them on both ends and the addition of Theresa Plaisance late in the season could help them corral their opponents’ misses when either is off the court.
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