With the different types of stats made available now, there are more ways to try to dissect player performance than ever before.  Let’s take a look at several non-traditional stats and which players lead in those categories.  We included players who played in more than half of the regular season and averaged at least 5 minutes per game.

Usage:

Usage measures the percentage of a team’s possessions that a player terminates when she is on the court and there were 10 players who did so for at least a quarter of the possessions when they were on the floor.  It is no surprise that Tina Charles leads this category by a wide margin as the Mystics needed her to do a lot on the offensive end this season.  Myisha Hines-Allen did also make the list, but she did miss nearly half of the season.  Arike Ogunbowale was also high this list as expected with Marina Mabrey also being active in a variety of spots in the rotation.  Seattle was expected to be primarily a two-threat offense and that was apparent with Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd checking in at third and fourth.  One of the surprises was a lack of low-minutes players sneaking on to this list since this measure does not bias against playing time and in fact often highlights players who carry the load by playing minutes without their team’s starters.  Crystal Bradford ranks the highest among players who played less than half of the game on average, using 21.6% of Atlanta’s possessions and Dana Evans was the leader for those playing less than a quarter of the game on average, terminating 20.9% of possessions while on the court.

Effective Field Goal Percentage:

Effective field goal percentage awards a bonus to three-pointers made so that it is easier to compare players across all positions and not just have those who shoot closer to the basket lead field goal percentage.  The effect is pretty clear as Sylvia Fowles leads in this category as she would in the traditional format while Sami Whitcomb gets a boost from all the shots that she makes from distance.  Kiah Stokes checks in at fourth despite not shooting very much when she plays.  While post players still dominate the list, there is a good spread among different positions and there is solid representation from players who do not play that large a percentage of available minutes with 17 players overall achieving a mark above 55%.

Rebounding Percentage:

Rebounding percentage measures the amount of available rebounds that a player grabs when she is on the floor, which helps measure the rebounding effectiveness of players who play less minutes.  Splitting it into offensive and defensive categories removes any penalty from players on teams that strategically do not pursue offensive rebounds as aggressively.  17 players grabbed at least 8% of their own team’s misses while on the court and 16 players grabbed at least 20% of their opponent’s misses while playing.  Teaira McCowan had a healthy lead on the offensive end followed by a sister act in Brionna and Stephanie Jones.  Jonquel Jones had a clear lead on the defensive end and was the only Connecticut player even with the Sun being the team leader in the category.  Chicago may have been on the lower end of teams in defensive rebounding, but it would be hard to blame Candace Parker’s work on that end.  With the Sparks being terrible at both ends, Lauren Cox appearing on the defensive list may show that she has value in changing that in the future.  Splitting the categories has a clear benefit as only four players appear on both lists in Teaira McCowan, Jonquel Jones, Brianna Turner, and Kiah Stokes.

Miscellaneous Stats:

Lexie Brown launched a whopping 86.8% of her field goal attempts from behind the arc, followed by some other players known for making that their primary method of scoring as Leilani Mitchell did so 78.7% of her shots just ahead of Shekinna Stricklen at 77.6%.  Danielle Robinson scoring 24.5% of her points on the fast break is not that surprising, but Sue Bird checking in at 22.4% might not have been expected.  The least surprising stat is that Courtney Williams scored nearly half of her points from mid-range at 48.4%.  There was some positional variety among players who scored over 30% of their points from the free throw line with Tiffany Mitchell, Natalie Achonwa, Jordin Canada, and Park Ji-Su reaching that mark.  Layshia Clarendon got no assist on a made field goal three-quarters of the time followed by Erica Wheeler at 73.1% as guards dominated this category as would be expected.

Lineups:

33 different 5-player lineups played together for at least 64 minutes this season.  Las Vegas is known for their strong bench and having a variety of rotation options.  The top lineup in net rating was their Gray-Williams-Young-Hamby-Wilson group at 34.6 over 78 minutes fueled by an impressive defensive rating.  New York had player availability issues all season long, but they can take heart in their Ionescu-Whitcomb-Laney-Allen-Howard lineup checking in at second with a 24.9 net rating despite only being fielded in 8 games, having the highest offensive rating.  Minnesota also benefited from being able to field a Clarendon-McBride-Carleton-Collier-Fowles lineup followed by Seattle’s lineup when Stephanie Talbot joined the group of Bird-Loyd-Stewart-Russell.  No lineup played longer together than Connecticut’s starting lineup, but there was no drop-off when Natisha Hiedeman replaced Jasmine Thomas with the rest of that group.

On/Off Ratings:

Besides measuring the effectiveness of various lineups, focusing individually on how a team played with a player on or off the court can provide additional insight.  The player whose team had the highest offensive rating when she was on the court may be a surprise since she is not known for offense, but Jackie Young leads by nearly a whole point over Jonquel Jones.  Dearica Hamby checks in at third having played just under 55% of her team’s minutes followed by Breanna Stewart.  In terms of the largest difference, Connecticut had a great offense when Jonquel Jones was on the court, but was nearly 20 points per 100 possessions worse when she off the court.  The next highest disparity came in the 20% or so of Phoenix’s minutes that Skylar Diggins-Smith did not play.  While those two along with Breanna Stewart in fourth place are no surprise, Indiana’s offense was at least functional with Teaira McCowan on the floor, but was absolutely dreadful with her off the court, only surpassed by the Fever’s offense without Kelsey Mitchell.  Among players playing below what would be considered starter’s minutes, Allie Quigley and Isabelle Harrison were notable in their team’s offense being more efficient with them on the court.

Having the strongest defense overall, it is no surprise that many of the players with the best on-court defensive ratings come from Connecticut, but it is a surprise that Kaila Charles was the one at the top of the list.  Liz Cambage is the first non-Sun player on the list followed by Bella Alarie who leads the list in terms of biggest on-off difference as Dallas played great defense during the minutes she played while being much worse the rest of the time.  There are some other surprising names on that list as she is followed by Kylee Shook, Lexie Brown, Stefanie Dolson, and Emma Cannon before Brittney Sykes, the first player listed who played at least half of available minutes.  In the case of Cannon, the Fever were especially terrible in the minutes that she was not on the court after she joined the roster, only surpassed by how bad their defense was when Tiffany Mitchell was on the bench.

Combining into a net rating, Connecticut was outscoring their opponent by 20 points per 100 possessions with Jonquel Jones on the court.  Breanna Stewart and Layshia Clarendon helped break the Sun and Aces monopoly on the top of the list since those two teams had the best net rating overall.  Indiana still had a very negative net rating with Kelsey Mitchell on the floor, but without her were outscored by nearly 26 points per 100 possessions.  In terms of difference, Skylar Diggins-Smith had the largest as Phoenix outscored opponents by 7.6 points per 100 possessions with her on the court, but were outscored by nearly 17 points per 100 possessions without her.  Jonquel Jones was next on that list, but Connecticut nearly played opponents even during her minutes on the bench.  Breanna Stewart was next on the list followed by some players who would generally not be considered their team’s key players in Jackie Young, Brianna Turner, and Jasmine Thomas.  Making the list at a lower level of minutes played is Isabelle Harrison as Dallas outscored their opponents by a reasonable margin with her on the court, but were outscored by a significant margin without her.

With another regular season in the books, let’s take a look at how players moved up the all-time rankings for individual stats.  Highlighted players appeared in at least one game this year.  11 players are on the lists for all 5 statistical categories including active players DeWanna Bonner, Candice Dupree, Angel McCoughtry, Candace Parker, and Diana Taurasi.

Points:

Diana Taurasi crossed the 9,000 point mark along with other milestones this season.  There had been some expectation that Candice Dupree would cross the 7,000 point barrier, but her team situation changed drastically this season and now is looking behind her at Tina Charles, whose return had her move from 11th to 6th with no signs of slowing down.  Candace Parker and Sylvia Fowles will be looking at the next year when they battle to reach 6,000 points first.  DeWanna Bonner should also reach that mark next year with Angel McCoughtry hoping to get there with a return to full health.  Tiffany Hayes and Skylar Diggins-Smith are the two newest players to this list.

Rebounds:

Sylvia Fowles continues to lead this list, but Tina Charles reached second in her return and Candace Parker reached the 3,000 mark.  DeWanna Bonner figures to move into the top 10 next season with Brittney Griner poised to jump up the chart more as she approaches 2,000 rebounds.  Jessica Breland and Jantel Lavender are the two new additions and there are a lot of players that they can pass next year.

Assists:

Sue Bird cracked the 3,000 assist mark as the leader in this category, but Courtney Vandersloot is still on a torrid pace as she and Diana Taurasi made it past 2,000 dimes.  Candace Parker narrowly missed out on reaching 9th this year.  Skylar Diggins-Smith is the latest player to reach 1,000 with Chelsea Gray ready to join her next year.  Odyssey Sims and DeWanna Bonner are the newest members of this list with the latter making it to all five lists this season.

Blocks:

It will still be a few seasons before anyone can challenge Margo Dydek, but Brittney Griner continued her pursuit.  While there will be lots of move outside of the top portion of this list, the top numbers will be hard to chase.  There was only one newcomer to the list as A’ja Wilson made it.

Steals:

Tamika Catchings remains so far ahead of everyone that it looks unlikely that anyone can steal the top spot from her anytime soon.  Sue Bird could reach 700 with another season while Angel McCoughtry’s injury prevented her from making a significant move up this list.  In the middle of the list, there is a lot of room for movement next year.  Teammates Jasmine Thomas and Briann January joined this list this season.

With the regular season over, let’s take a look at the final team stats in a variety of categories before the playoffs.

Net Rating:

The blue bars represent points scored per 100 possessions and the orange bars represent points given up per 100 possessions.  The net rating is the difference between the two.  Teams are sorted by offensive rating.

Las Vegas had the best offense before the Olympic break and that did not change after it, but there was a change in leader in net rating as Connecticut improved their offensive efficiency while becoming even stingier on defense to finish more than 4 points per 100 possessions better in that metric.  Phoenix also improved in both categories, changing from a negative net rating to a positive.  Seattle declined in both as their place in the standings also dropped.  Chicago’s offensive efficiency improved, but their defensive also slid after the break.  Indiana’s defense ended up being the worst by some margin while Los Angeles actually improved their moribund offense and got even tougher on defense, but still fell short of the playoffs.

Rebounding Percentage:

The x-axis represents the percentage of a team’s own misses that it grabs while the y-axis represents the percentage of its opponent’s misses that a team grabs.  Splitting rebounding into two categories and using percentage instead of raw numbers due to the difference in shooting percentages involved can provide different insight than traditional methods.  In this season, Connecticut is a fantastic rebounding team regardless of the methodology with a lead on both ends of the court.  Splitting offensive and defensive rebounding does show that Las Vegas does clean up their opponent’s misses while not pursuing their own misses as much, which may represent a strategic decision.  Regardless of how counting is done, Los Angeles ended up dead last in both categories and their overall defensive efficiency is pretty impressive given how many extra possessions that they handed their opponents by not rebounding.  Dallas and Indiana were pretty aggressive with offensive rebounding, but were more in the middle of the pack on the defensive end.

Changes from 2020:

The blue bar represents change in offensive rating with a positive representing improvement.  The orange bar represents change in defensive rating with a negative indicating improvement.  The difference is the gray bar, representing change in net rating with a positive meaning improvement.  Teams are sorted by improvement in net rating.  There was no surprise with the top two teams.  Connecticut had the second largest improvement on offense and the best improvement on defense to become the top seed after finishing in the middle of the pack last season.  New York had a marked offensive improvement and it moved them from the worst team in the league to the last playoff spot.  Los Angeles had their offense turn into the worst in the league, which helped precipitate their fall down the standings.  Seattle had decreases in both categories, but that was falling from the top marks in both categories last year.  Washington was the only other team to have worse defensive efficiency as teams generally saw improvement on defense and a decline in offensive efficiency with exactly half the league improving net rating.

There were notable changes in other categories as well.  Connecticut and Dallas made big strides in rebounding on both ends while Seattle and Minnesota grabbed more defensive rebounds, but less offensive rebounds.  While Los Angeles was already at the bottom of the league in offensive rebounding, their defensive rebounding went from above average to the bottom.  Atlanta had an impressive reduction in turnover percentage while also improving the rate at which they turned their opponents over to rank second in both categories.  Connecticut and Dallas were the only two teams to turn it over at a higher rate.  Los Angeles already was the best at turning their opponents over, but increased that margin further.  Only Washington and Minnesota played at a faster pace this season with Phoenix and Connecticut seeing their pace drop by over 4 possessions.

Home vs. Road:

Much was made of the wubble home-road splits given that all of the games were at a neutral site.  Home court advantage returned this season with the home team having a 103-89 record in the regular season.  Atlanta and Dallas had the same records home and away.  Phoenix and Chicago were the only two teams with worse home records and they happen to be hosting the first two playoff games while trying to avoid upsets.  Connecticut, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Washington all had four more wins at home than on the road.  Phoenix’s biggest difference at home was offensive efficiency as they had the league’s strongest road offense, but Chicago’s defended at elite efficiency on the road.  Even though Dallas had the same record, they had significantly better efficiency on the road.  Washington had the largest net rating increase at home because of their poor defense on the road, a problem that also affected Indiana.  Connecticut was by no means poor on the road, but was even better at home while Minnesota defended particularly well at home and Las Vegas had the largest positive difference in offensive efficiency at home.  New York and Seattle had better offensive efficiency at home, but that was offset on the defensive end.  Phoenix rebounded less at home, but were far from the only team to do so with Washington, Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas, and Seattle in that boat.  New York was a much better defensive rebounding team at home even though they crashed the boards less effectively at the offensive end and also took care of the ball better.

With the long break this year, let’s take a look at various team stats from the first portion of the season and see if there can be any insights for the rest of the season.

Net Rating:

The blue bars represent team’s offensive ratings and the orange bars represent team’s defensive ratings with teams sorted by offensive efficiency.  With four teams having a gap between them and the rest of the league, they make up four of the top five on each end of the court.  Dallas has the third most efficient offense, but their porous defense has hurt them despite having a positive net rating.  Chicago’s defense has been the big concern in recent seasons, but they have the third most efficient defense and are trying to get their offense closer to the average.  At the bottom of the standings, Indiana is the second worst on both ends of the court.  Above them, Los Angeles has struggled mightily offensively while Atlanta’s concern is their defense.  Seattle currently sits in the lead in the standings, but Las Vegas has superior efficiency ratings at this point.

Rebounding:

Breaking rebounding into offensive and defensive percentages gives a better view of how teams are crashing the boards.  The x-axis shows what percentage of its own misses that a team is rebounding while the y-axis shows what percentage of its opponent’s misses that a team is rebounding.  Even with the split, the teams at the top and bottom are pretty clear.  Connecticut is the leader in both categories with a lead of nearly three percentage points on the offensive end.  Los Angeles is last at both ends, handing opponents lots of extra possessions by grabbing over three and a half percentage points less defensive rebounds than the next worst team.  Strategy changes over the years mean that not every team is crashing the glass on the offensive end as much.  Las Vegas is not rebounding many of their own misses, but is second in defensive rebounding.

Changes from 2020:

Teams are sorted by improvement in net rating, which is represented by the gray bar.  The change in offensive rating is represented by the blue bar and the change in defensive rating is represented by the orange bar with a negative number in that category representing an improvement.  The change with New York moving from the worst team in the league by some margin to one in the middle of the pack is clear here.  Even though their offense is still not that potent, the improvement from last year’s dismal showing is clear.  Three other teams have improved on both ends as Connecticut returned to contender level play while Dallas has had a smaller improvement in record so far.  Atlanta still has the worst defense in the league, but did improve slightly from last season.  No team had a larger defensive improvement than Chicago, but they also regressed nearly as much on the offensive end for minimal net benefit.  Indiana was second in defensive improvement, but their offensive efficiency declined even more for a net negative effect.  Los Angeles had the worst change with offense as the main culprit.  Seattle and Phoenix also had their numbers fall in both categories, but Seattle continues to lead in the standings despite having the worst defensive change.

There have been some notable changes in other categories as well.  Phoenix and Connecticut are playing at a slower pace, but with differing impacts on their place in the standings.  Atlanta is taking much better care of basketball, but turning it over more often has not hurt Connecticut’s offense.  Atlanta is also turning their opponents over more often, but that has not moved their defensive efficiency much while Chicago has improved in both categories.  Los Angeles was already the league leader in the category, but has managed to force turnovers at an even higher rate.  Seattle and Phoenix are forcing turnovers at a much lower rate.  Minnesota and Seattle improved their defensive rebounding by the largest margins, but both also happen to have the largest decreases in offensive rebounding.  Dallas had strong increases in both while New York saw decreases in both.

Ever since last year, the WNBA website has provided additional statistical information besides the traditional categories.  Courtney Williams and Seimone Augustus, the mid-range experts of their generations, scored more than half of their points from mid-range.  Sugar Rodgers scored 80% of her points from beyond the arc with Shekinna Stricklen and Julie Allemand each exceeding 70%.  Diamond DeShields and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough each scored more than 20% of their points from the fast break.  6 players score more than 30% of their points from the free throw line led by Tierra Ruffin-Pratt.  Paris Kea was remarkably only assisted on 6.7% of her made two-pointers while Brianna Turner and Mercedes Russell were helped on more than 87% of their makes.  Kea also took matters into her own hands beyond the arc, only being assisted on 30.8% of her makes there while a third of Chennedy Carter’s long-range makes came without an assist.

Usage:

15 players terminated at least a quarter of their team’s possessions when they were on the court.  It is no surprise that Chennedy Carter and Arike Ogunbowale top the list given their roles.  Phoenix’s absences mean that their usage mix will continue to change for the postseason.  There are usually a few unexpected names on this list because the metric does a good job of capturing players who look for the their shot off the bench or in limited minutes.  Paris Kea does stand out as a player who signed with her team late, but made sure that she showed what she could do once she arrived.

Effective Field Goal Percentage:

Using effective field goal percentage allows for better comparison of field goal percentage by taking into account the extra point from a made three-pointer so that post players are not the only ones at the top of the ranking.  9 players exceeded 60% using this measure and it was a good mix as Ruthy Hebard was expected to do most of her damage close to the basket, while Alysha Clark uses shots from all over the court, and Julie Allemand shoots about 70% of her shots from beyond the arc.

Rebounding Percentage:

Separating rebounding by end of the court is always useful because different teams place different levels of emphasis on offensive rebounding.  15 players grabbed at least 8% of their own team’s misses when they were on the court and 15 players grabbed at least 20% of the other team’s misses when they were on the court.  Connecticut is one of the top offensive rebounding teams and Beatrice Mompremier was the individual leader while also doing a good job at the other end.  Teaira McCowan, Natasha Howard, Monique Billings, Brianna Turner are on both lists with the last two being the exact same rank on each.  Amanda Zahui B is the clear leader on the defensive end, but only grabs 2.8% of New York’s misses so the separation of the statistics better measures her impact.  Candace Parker also does not crash the glass as much on the offensive end as Los Angeles had the lowest offensive rebounding percentage in the league.

On/Off Rating:

121 players played more than 10 minutes for their team including Essence Carson and Shey Peddy for two teams.  Napheesa Collier played 85.5% of Minnesota’s minutes with Arike Ogunbowale following at 84.0% and Betnijah Laney, DeWanna Bonner, Julie Allemand, and Kelsey Mitchell also playing over 80.0% of available minutes.  Let’s look at how the teams played with those players on the court compared to when they were on the bench.

Offense:

16 players had their teams average at least 107 points per 100 possessions when they were on the court.  Seattle’s offense was great, but it was particularly efficient when Sue Bird was available.  In a playoff scenario, Las Vegas will be hoping that limiting Angel McCoughtry’s minutes to half of the available minutes will leave her fresh for the big moments.  Chicago was certainly happy to have Stefanie Dolson available again and Minnesota also benefits from having Odyssey Sims.  Erica McCall’s inclusion may be surprising, but she joined the Lynx at the right time as their offense hummed about equally with or without her on the court since her signing.  That is the weakness of only using this figure as players who play on great offensive teams get a boost regardless of their individual impact.

Measuring the difference in offensive rating between when a player is on or off the court instead, provides a different picture of how players impact their teams.  When Chicago has Courtney Vandersloot on the court, they play like the best offense in the league, but when she is on the bench, they are more than 5 points worse per 100 possessions than the worst offense in the league or a 29 points per 100 possessions difference.  16 players have their teams play 10 points per 100 possessions better on offense when they are on the court, including Napheesa Collier at 25.4 points and Myisha Hines-Allen at 23.5 points.  Using this metric is important for players on the worse offensive teams as 7 players on this list were on bottom half offenses and improving on offense includes figuring out the right combinations going forward.

Defense:

17 players had their teams give up fewer than 94 points per 100 possessions when they were on the court.  Half of them play for Seattle, which had the best defense overall, but there are other interesting results.  Connecticut played better defense since Briann January was available and Kiki Herbert-Harrigan also stands out as a player whose team performed well defensively in her limited minutes.  Remarkably, Shey Peddy made the list for her minutes on both of her teams.

17 players had their team give up at least 7 fewer points per 100 possessions when they were on the court than when they were on the bench as Shey Peddy again makes the list twice.  Given how dreadful Indiana was on defense, they may want to examine why they performed so much better as Lauren Cox got minutes later in the season as Kathleen Doyle was the next person on the list and Tiffany Mitchell’s absence for part of the season did not help.

Net:

Simply using the raw net rating for on court time obviously is biased towards the players on the top teams as Seattle and Las Vegas account for 15 of the 19 players whose teams outscored by their opponents by at least 10 points per 100 possessions when they were on the court.  The 4 players who are not are of particular interest given that all of them have missed portions of the season due to injury.

Using the difference in net rating between on and off court time is more instructive as 20 players had their teams perform more than 10 points per 100 possessions better when they were on the court when they were on the bench.  Courtney Vandersloot tops the list with her impact on the offensive end as her team is outscored by almost 19 points per 100 possessions when she is on the bench.  Behind her, Seattle is actually outscored when Alysha Clark is not on the court.  Using this metric can provide helpful information for struggling teams as Indiana outscored their opposition when Lauren Cox was on the court and New York was particularly outgunned when Leaonna Odom and Amanda Zahui B, who just missed this list, were not on the court.

Lineups:

24 different full lineups played at least 66 minutes.  Unfortunately, the one with the highest net rating is no longer viable due to injuries for Washington.  Las Vegas’s bench heavy lineup of Danielle Robinson, Sugar Rodgers, Jackie Young, Dearica Hamby, and A’ja Wilson is the surprise next most effective due to their success on defense.  Connecticut relied on their starters heavily last year and if they can get their preferred lineup on the court for the playoffs could be dangerous as they were strong as well.  Phoenix is missing players, but they can still field a strong lineup of Skylar Diggins-Smith, Diana Taurasi, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, Brianna Turner, and Kia Vaughn, which has had the best offensive output of currently possible lineups.  Seattle will also looking to get their preferred starters back to playing as many minutes as possible as they were the second most played unit behind Washington’s current lineup, although their lineup with Jordin Canada replacing Sue Bird was the third most common combination.

After an unusual regular season, let’s look at how teams fared in a variety of statistical categories, especially compared to last season, which had more games and was not played at a single site.

Net Rating:

Teams are sorted by their offensive efficiency with the green bar representing offensive rating and the blue bar representing defensive rating.  The net rating is the difference between them.  Seattle had the best figures in both categories while Las Vegas, which won the tiebreaker for the top seed, was second in both.  The other two teams that earned a bye have the third place marks with Minnesota having the stronger offense and Los Angeles possessing the stronger defense.  The four non-playoff teams had the four worst defenses while New York’s offense was especially poor.

Changes from 2019:

The green column represents the change in offensive rating from last season with a positive number indicating improvement.  The blue column represents the change in defensive rating from last season and a negative number represents improvement.  The yellow bar combines them and shows the change in net rating and a positive number shows improvement.  Of note, Seattle was the only team to have an improved defense.  They also had the largest improvement in offensive rating to have a substantial overall improvement.  After Washington had such an impressive offense last season, it is no surprise to see the impact of missing players on their ratings this year.  For the teams with new coaches, Indiana improved on offense, but that was offset by the worst change on defense while New York’s defense was a little worse than last year’s league worst, but saw a bigger drop on the offensive end.  Also of note, offensive rebounding generally decreased this season and pace increased.

Rebounding:

The x-axis represents the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabbed and the y-axis represented the percentage of available offensive rebounds that a team grabbed.  It is no surprise that Las Vegas had the best defensive rebounding again and the two teams behind them were the same as last year as well with Washington pushing ahead of Connecticut this year.    Phoenix had the poorest defensive rebounding, which they also struggled with last year, and Seattle’s overall defense is impressive given their rebounding.  Minnesota had the best offensive rebounding just ahead of Connecticut, which led last year.

Home Team Designation:

Much had been made of the apparent difference in performance for the team designated as the home team even though teams have all been playing in the same location.  It only got more bizarre at the end of the season as the final record for home teams was 66-66.  Las Vegas, Minnesota, Chicago, and Dallas had the same amount of wins regardless of the designated home team.  Indiana had four more wins for their home games while Connecticut had four more wins when they were not the home team.  Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington had slightly more wins as home teams while Phoenix and Atlanta had one more win as the away team and neither of New York’s wins came when they were the home team.

Diving into the differences in various statistical categories, there may not be an easy explanation.  Atlanta had a better offense and defense at home and rebounded better, but still ended up winning one fewer game when they were the home team.  They and Las Vegas play faster at home and turn the ball over more often, a problem that also plagued Connecticut in their games as the home team.  Las Vegas played substantially worse on offense in home games, but they were incredibly stingy on defense, nearly allowing 10 fewer points per 100 possessions while also rebounding better on both ends, all for a net total of the same wins at home as away.  Indiana was 8 points better on offense and 2 points better on defense per 100 possessions as the home team, which certainly explains why they won five games as the home team while only one away.  Connecticut’s offensive rating was only marginally worse at home, but their defense played much worse as the home team, explaining their discrepancy.  Seattle had the second biggest improvement on both offense and defense as the home team.  The most interesting data will be if the final three series go four or five games as there will be more data between the same teams and same players.  The chart below shows net rating changes for home teams sorted by biggest improvement at home.  The green bar represents offense and positive means better at home while blue represents defense and negative means better at home with the yellow being the combined total representing the difference in net rating as the home team.

Shot Selection:

Las Vegas has been singled out for their decision to not shoot from distance and their final totals for the season have them shooting about five times as many shots from inside the arc as beyond it.  Atlanta was the next most likely to attempt field goals from two-point range doing so slightly more than three times more than from distance.  New York’s new offensive philosophy was  evident as they shot 41.5% of their attempts from beyond the arc, with Dallas behind them at 38.9%.  That philosophy becomes even more clear when you look at where their points come from as they only have a league low 8% of their points come from mid-range two-pointers.  Interestingly, despite the difference in opinion on three-pointers, Las Vegas and New York lead the league in percentage of points scored at the free throw line at over 21% while Chicago gets 86% of their points from field goals.  Indiana does not get many points from turnovers or the fast break, lagging greatly in both categories compared to the rest of the league.  A rather unusual statistic is Phoenix’s assist percentage as they lead the league in assisted two-pointers, but have the lowest percentage of their three-pointers assisted.  Las Vegas has the third best percentage in both categories.  Dallas, Atlanta, and, by a slim margin, New York scored more than half of their two-pointers without an assist.

In the past few years, the WNBA has made more statistics available to the public on its website.  While these statistics have been available in the past and some of them have been released, the ability for anyone to access it and use it for their own work allows for new levels of insight.  This season, several new options are available.  In addition to some of the individual statistics made available in the past few years, statistics can be searched for on specific two, three, four, and five player lineups.  Also widely released for the first time are teams’ on/off ratings, which are a quick way of measuring how teams perform when certain players are on or off the court.

On/Off Rating:

With on/off rating, it is possible to see a team’s efficiency when a player is on or off the court, making it possible to tell the difference in efficiency when a player is off the court.  It is not a perfect measure of a player’s impact because it is reliant on many other factors, including the other players on the court, but it can provide unexpected observations.  The 107 players who played at least 340 minutes with a single team are included in this sample with stints with different teams not combined in these statistics.

Offense:

25 players had their team score 6 or more points per 100 possessions more when they were on the court than when they were not on the court and they are shown in the image above in order of the size of the difference in offensive efficiency.  It is no surprise that Chicago’s offense was much better with Courtney Vandersloot on the floor as both a facilitator and scorer as they tried many solutions to deal with the minutes that she was not on the court, but she was not the top player on the list.  That honor goes to Natasha Howard as Seattle’s offense was absolutely dreadful when she was off the court, but 22.4 points per 100 possessions better when she was on the court.  This type of statistic is also useful for trying to figure out whether a player might deserve more playing time.  Some of the players with lower minutes percentages played less due to working their way back from injury, but one name that stands out on this list is Marine Johannes, an offensive spark for New York in a number of games.  After joining the team late, it took her a little bit of time to settle in her role, but in 45% of available minutes, the Liberty’s offensive was scoring over 8 points more per 100 possessions.

The first measure penalizes players on teams with strong offenses overall so here are the top 25 players in terms of how efficiently the offense was with them on the court without comparing it to the offense without them.  Washington’s dominance is clear here as they hold the top eight places and Courtney Vandersloot prevented them from being the top nine.  The Los Angeles Sparks should be excited about having Candace Parker available for full minutes in the playoff as they have played well with her on the court.

Defense:

The 20 players above were the ones whose teams played better defense by the most with them on the court than with them off the court.  The surprise players at the top of the list did not play that many minutes overall, but New York’s defense was better with them playing, giving up 12.6 points per 100 possessions less with Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe on the court.  Right behind Rebecca Allen was a more expected name in Natasha Howard as Seattle would have been the league’s best defense by several points if they played the way they did while she was on the court, but played like the worst defense in the the league when she was not on the floor.  Right behind her was Ariel Atkins as she helped Washington defense and their offense when she was playing.

The 23 players above had their teams give up less than 94 points per possession when they were on the court.  Many of the players at the top of the list were not playing starters’ minutes over the course of the season.  Las Vegas had the league’s toughest defense and they were particularly stingy during the minutes that Sydney Colson played as she beat the next player on the list by three and a half points per 100 possessions.  Not surprisingly, she was not the only player from the team on the list with four teammates joining her.  While their teams played poor defense overall, Camille Little, Maite Cazorla, and Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe all made the overall list and it may be worth trying to figure out what those teams did differently with them on the court for the future.

Net:

20 players had their teams have higher net ratings by at least 10 points per 100 possessions with them on the court.  No player had a higher difference than Natasha Howard as Seattle outscored their opponents by 7.4 points per 100 possessions when she was on the court, but were outscored by 26.6 points per 100 possessions with her off the court, a total swing of 34 points per 100 possessions.  While the players on the top half of this list played heavy minutes, there are a number of players below them with lower minutes totals, especially on struggling teams that could merit additional study for additional playing time.

24 players had their teams outscore their opponents by at least 6 points per 100 possessions while they were on the court.  Washington dominated this category with the top seven places.  Connecticut was the next team to get on the list as they played well with the players in their starting lineup.  30 players had their teams play better both on offense and defense when they were on the court.

Lineups:

Not only is it now possible to easily find out how a team performs with a particular player on the court, detailed lineup data is also available.  The information is only one tool in the process of evaluating player performance, but it can be useful, especially in finding combinations that teams should try more often.

Five:

57 different lineups have been on the court together for at least 40 minutes.  Given their play as a team, it is no surprise that a Washington lineup had the best net rating as the combination of Ariel Atkins, Aerial Powers, Natasha Cloud, Elena Delle Donne, and LaToya Sanders played 91 minutes together in 9 different games and outscored their opponents by 35.6 points per 100 possessions during that time.  The same Mystics lineup with Emma Meesseman instead of Powers played 82 minutes together in 7 games and also bettered their opponents by over 30 points per 100 possessions.  The only other lineup to reach that mark was a fairly surprising Las Vegas lineup that plays very few minutes together, but has been played in many games as Dearica Hamby, Sugar Rodgers, Sydney Colson, Liz Cambage, and Tamera Young have been very strong in 60 minutes of play over 20 games.  In terms of continuity, no lineup can beat Connecticut’s starters, appearing in all but one game and playing 558 minutes, 225 minutes more than the next lineup.  Courtney Williams, Jonquel Jones, Alyssa Thomas, Shekinna Stricklen, and Jasmine Thomas have outscored their opponents by 8.7 points per possession during that time.

On the offensive end, the lineup that has had the best efficiency is a Chicago group that could see more time together in a playoff setting as Diamond DeShields, Cheyenne Parker, Astou Ndour, Courtney Vandersloot, and Allie Quigley had an efficiency of 132.7 points per 100 possessions in 65 minutes together in 10 games.  The Mystics had four of the next five most potent offensive combinations.  On defense, the Aces lineup mentioned above was the stingiest, allowing only 73.8 points per 100 possessions.  Seattle’s lineup of Mercedes Russell, Jewell Loyd, Natasha Howard, Alysha Clark, and Shavonte Zellous was next at 78.4 points given up per 100 possessions in 51 minutes over 10 games.

Four:

195 different 4 player groupings have spent at least 80 minutes on the court together.  Again, with Washington’s overall statistical domination, it is no surprise that nine of the top ten combinations are from their team.  Ariel Atkins, Emma Meesseman, Elena Delle Donne, and Latoya Sanders have been on the court at the same time for 90 minutes in 8 games, outscoring their opponents by a whopping 42.8 points per 100 possessions during that time.  The only non-Mystics groupings that broke the 120 points per 100 possessions barrier were Chicago’s Diamond DeShields, Cheyenne Parker, Astou Ndour, and Courtney Vandersloot, who only played 80 minute together over 13 games, and Phoenix’s Brianna Turner, Brittney Griner, Yvonne Turner, and Leilani Mitchell, who featured in 12 games for 96 minutes.  The Las Vegas combination of Dearica Hamby, Sydney Colson, Liz Cambage, and Tamera Young was the only group to allow less than 80 points per 100 possessions, doing so in 86 minutes over 23 games.  They were followed by Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, Lexie Brown, Danielle Robinson, and Sylvia Fowles, a group that played 115 minutes together in 26 games.  Odyssey Sims replacing Brown in that lineup was the only combination that appeared in all 34 games with Chicago’s most frequent starters playing 33 games and five different Connecticut combinations also played all but one game, being the top five sets in minutes played.

Three:

Team building these days often revolves around star trios.  194 different trios played at least 200 minutes together this season.  Washington again had the strongest combinations, boasting ten of the top eleven groupings in overall efficiency, led by Ariel Atkins, Elena Delle Donne, and LaToya Sanders, who outscored opponents by 31.3 points per 100 possessions in 496 minutes over 30 games.  The only trio to break up the Mystics party was Sydney Wiese, Chelsea Gray, and Candace Parker, who played 206 minutes together in 19 games for Los Angeles.  Washington’s lineups were particularly potent on offense, but Chicago groupings featuring Astou Ndour and two of Diamond DeShields, Courtney Vandersloot, and Allie Quigley were also quite efficient.  There was much more variety on defense with different teams occupying the top three spots.  Dearica Hamby, Sydney Colson, and Tamera Young were on the court for 211 minutes together over 29 games and gave up fewer points than any other trio per possession.  The Sparks had the next entry with a trio of Tierra Ruffin-Pratt and the Ogwumike sisters and the Phoenix’s trio of DeWanna Bonner, Leilani Mitchell, and Camille Little also gave up very few points when they were on the court together.  No trio played more together than Napheesa Collier, Odyssey Sims, and Sylvia Fowles of Minnesota, featuring in every game for a total of 754 minutes.  Connecticut’s starting lineup showed their continuity again, being ten of the next fourteen most played groupings in various combinations.  Chicago’s starting backcourt played 712 minutes together in 33 minutes while Seattle’s starting frontcourt played 663 minutes together in 31 games.

Two:

Lineup data can also be stretched out to duos as 166 pairings played at least 340 minutes together this season.  Washington pairs made up the entire top ten in net rating, led by Elena Delle Donne and Ariel Atkins, who outscored opponents by 28.7 points per 100 possessions on the court together in 622 minutes over 30 games.  A number of Connecticut pairings were efficient, led by Shekinna Stricklen and Jonquel Jones, but after them were two surprises as completely different Sparks lineups, Nneka Ogwumike and Riquna Williams and then Tierra Ruffin-Pratt and Sydney Wiese, featured.  Delle Donne and Atkins topped the charts when it came to offensive efficiency, followed by eleven other combinations of Mystics players before the Chicago couple of Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley checked in with 829 minutes played together in 33 games.  The Ogwumike sisters were reunited this season and played on the court together for 363 minutes in 29 games, outscoring opponents by more than 10 points per 100 possessions during that time, which was fueled by their defensive rating being the strongest of any pairing.  They were followed by the Delle Donne-Atkins duo and then the Minnesota newcomers Napheesa Collier and Lexie Brown.  The other new duo that was considered worth watching before the season was the twin towers in Las Vegas and they ended up playing 429 minutes together in 25 games, outscoring opponents by nearly 3 points per 100 possessions during that time behind solid defense.  The Minnesota combinations revolving around Napheessa Collier, Odyssey Sims, and Sylvia Fowles played in all the games with the one featuring Collier and Sims averaging over 27 minutes a game together for a leading total of 934 minutes.

A number of big name absences from the league this year led to fewer milestones being reached than was expected at this time last year.  Nevertheless, new players have found their way on these lists and others have climbed since last last year.  Highlighted players were in at least one game in 2019.

Points:

This is a list that was strongly affected by player absences.  Diana Taurasi was expected to extend her lead and approach the 9,000 point mark, but only ended up adding a handful of points from the total that she finished at last season.  Cappie Pondexter ended up retiring earlier than she planned and Sue Bird, Angel McCoughtry, and Maya Moore also did not add any points to their career totals.  Candice Dupree did manage to climb into the top 5 and Tina Charles jumped past a number of players into the top 10.  Sylvia Fowles is the newest player in the 5,000 point club, racing past her teammate to do so.  There are two new players on the list as DeWanna Bonner will again be in position to surge past a number of players next season and Crystal Langhorne also makes an appearance.

Rebounds:

There was almost a second consecutive season with a new rebounding leader, but Sylvia Fowles will have to wait until next season to pass Rebekkah Brunson.  She will need to continue to crash the boards as Tina Charles could follow her right into second place soon too.  There is one new player on this list as Nneka Ogwumike will approach 2,000 rebounds soon.

Assists:

Unfortunately, Sue Bird was not able to add to her total and chase the 3,000 assist mark, but there was plenty of movement on the rest of the list.  Courtney Vandersloot continued her impressive pace from recent seasons and could be chasing 2,000 assists by the end of next season.  Tanisha Wright retires in the top 10.  The two newest players on the list are Jasmine Thomas, who is already challenging the top 20, and Leilani Mitchell, who just made it to the 1,000 assist club.

Steals:

Nobody is in position to catch Tamika Catchings in this category and this is the list with the fewest number of players active this season on it.  Tanisha Wright managed to make the list before retirement.  The other new player is Candace Parker, making her the only player to be in the top 30 in all 5 of the main counting stats.

Blocks:

Brittney Griner continued her quest for the all-time record with another strong season, but she is still a number of seasons away.  The newest players on the list are DeWanna Bonner and Sancho Lyttle.

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.