Veronica Burton is my selection for the WNBA’s Most Improved Player — and it was an easy choice. She’s actually the most improved player we’ve seen in a while. And, she’s one of the WNBA’s most impactful two-way guards.
To put it plainly: in one season, the Golden State Valkyries guard went from a borderline WNBA player (who was waived from the Dallas Wings last June) to a borderline WNBA All-Star.
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Last season, playing for the Connecticut Sun, Burton averaged 3.1 points, 1.9 assists, and 1.4 rebounds. She shot 36% from the field and finished the season with a 54.4 true shooting percentage (TS%). After the season, she wasn’t one of the six players the Sun protected from being selected in the Valkyries’ expansion draft, and as such, she began her fourth WNBA season in Golden State.
This season, as the Valkyries’ starting point guard, Burton has averaged 12 points, 6 assists, and 4.4 rebounds. Typically, as shot attempts increase, players’ efficiency goes down, but Burton’s efficiency has actually improved — she shot 39.3% from the field (a 3.3% increase) and finished with a 56.8 TS% (a 2.4% increase). And, Burton has done this while leading a brand-new team to the playoffs and often being responsible for guarding opposing teams’ top guards.
All of my WNBA award decisions required lots of reflection, but this was ultimately the easiest decision on my ballot.
Other WNBA Most Improved Player candidates I considered
The Valkyries actually had several Most Improved Player candidates, which makes sense when you consider the fact that the entire roster is comprised of former bench players, many of whom were thrust into starting roles.
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Kayla Thornton, who was named an All-Star for the first time at 32, actually made a compelling case herself. The former New York Liberty bench player increased her averages from 5.5 points and 2.6 rebounds per game to 14 points and 7 rebounds per game. But Thornton’s case was weaker than Burton’s for two primary reasons.
For one, she injured her knee midseason and therefore only appeared in half of the team’s games. There is no minimum number of games played requirement for WNBA awards, but the rule of thumb I adhered to throughout the awards process was that all award-winning players must appear in more than half of their team’s 44 games.
Additionally, as Thornton’s role expanded in Golden State, her efficiency actually declined. Last season, she shot 35.7% from three-point range, but this season, that number decreased to 28.2%. Her TS% decreased from 51.5% to 49.3%.
Los Angeles Sparks forward Azura Stevens made a strong case for herself. Stevens is a good candidate in the sense that her growth wasn’t the product of substantially increased opportunity, the way Burton’s is — she basically has just been much better and more efficient in a similar role.
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Last season, Stevens averaged 9.6 points and 7 rebounds, shooting 39.9% from the field and finishing with a 50.6 TS%. This season, she’s averaged 12.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, shooting 48% from the field with a 59.6 TS%. On its own, that improvement builds a compelling Most Improved Player case.
But the reality is that while Stevens experienced a substantial leap between the 2024 and 2025 seasons, she’s had seasons in the past that have more closely rivaled her 2025 campaign. For example, in 2022, her TS% was close to this year’s — she finished with a 56.1 TS%. And, she’s previously averaged double-digits three times in her 8-year WNBA career (in 2020, 2022, and 2023). This past season has undoubtedly been Stevens’ best yet, but looking at her holistic career production weakens her case.
Liberty guard Kennedy Burke also has a Most Improved Player case; just like Burton, her production has increased as her opportunities have. Last year, she averaged 3.4 points and 1.5 rebounds per game, shooting 40.9% from the field and finishing with a 47.7 TS%. This season, Burke has averaged 8.2 points and 2.4 rebounds, and seen her efficiency skyrocket to 46.7 FG% and 60.4 TS%.
But, it’s hard to give Burke the edge over Burton when taking into consideration their relative importance to their respective rosters — Burton is the engine and leader that’s powered the Valkyries to a postseason berth, while Burke is probably the 7th-most important player on a Liberty team that has underachieved.
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In addition to those three candidates, I examined the cases of lots of other players across the WNBA, including:
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Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray, who has seen her efficiency and production grow in a similar role en route to an MVP campaign (TS% jump from 52.6% to 59.4%, points per game jump from 15.6 to 18.6, net rating increase from -1.1 to +9.1)
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Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas, who was already one of the best players in the league, has somehow gotten better across the board (+5.1 points per game, +1.4 assists per game, +1.3 rebounds per game, +2.6 TS% increase)
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Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams, who had an All-Star season en route to an awesome Lynx regular season (+2.2 points per game, +0.7 assists per game, +1.4 TS%).
Veronica Burton has the edge
But, at the end of the day, all three of these players are former All-Stars. They might be better than they were last season, but they were already all really damn good — though special shoutout to Gray, who I actually think makes a sneaky good case. She’ll get her recognition in other places in my awards ballot.
The biggest knock on Burton’s campaign was that her growth was the result of her on-court opportunities ballooning, as her minutes increased from 12.7 to 29.3 per night. But that’s typically a hallmark characteristic of a Most Improved Player campaign — DiJonai Carrington, who won the award with the Sun last year, saw her minutes increase from 17.2 minutes in 2023 to 29.6 in 2024. Satou Sabally, who won the award with the Dallas Wings in 2023, saw her minutes increase from 21.7 in 2022 to 33.1 in 2023.
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Not only did Burton up her production in all major statistical categories, but she also assumed a leadership role for a team that far exceeded expectations and became the first expansion team ever to make the playoffs in their first season.
She set a WNBA record for the most 10-assist, 0-turnover games in a single season (3), and she’s put together some ridiculous stat lines this season. Last month, she tallied 25 points, 3 assists, 4 blocks, and 5 rebounds in a win against the Wings, becoming the first player to ever record those numbers. She also tied the WNBA record for most assists in a game (14) without a single turnover.
She plays both ends of the floor, makes great decisions with the ball in her hand, and comes up big in huge moments for the Valkyries organization. I mulled over all of my awards decisions way too long, but this was probably the least doubt I had about a single selection.
