The 2024 WNBA regular season concluded on Thursday, September 19th. The postseason began this weekend.

Tickets for the Indiana Fever Round 1 series are more expensive than the total cost of attending every game in the 2023 WNBA Finals between the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty.

Caitlin Clark continues to bring spectators to the league and looks to beat the Connecticut Sun in the first series.

Last week I predicted three end-of-season awards and this week I’ll predict the other three.

Defensive Player of the Year

Napheesa Collier, Minnesota Lynx

A’ja Wilson has won this award two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023. This season, Collier deserves the recognition.

Defensively, she led the Lynx in steals and defensive rebounds with 1.9 and 7.5 per game, respectively.

She is also the best defensive player in the league this season.

Sixth Player of the Year

Leonie Fiebich, New York Liberty

Fiebech is a rookie for the Liberty from Landsberg am Lech, Germany. She was drafted with the 22nd pick of the 2020 draft and made her debut for the Liberty in May of this year.

She averages 20 minutes per game and makes her presence felt on the hardwood. Shooting 47.8% from the field and 43.3% from beyond the arc, Fiebich is averaging 6.7 points per game.

The Liberty needed a stronger bench presence this season. Last season, when they were defeated by the Las Vegas Aces in the finals, the Liberty bench scored just 39 of the 314 points in the series. That’s just 12% of the team’s total points.

To win the title and win all the time, the Liberty will rely on their bench and Fiebich as a leader.

The Most Improved Player

DiJonai Carrington, Connecticut Sun

The Sun defeated the Fever in Game 1 of the first round of their playoff matchup. Carrington caught Clark’s eye early in the game and shut her down defensively.

Carrington held Clark to just 11 points on 4-for-17 shooting from the field.

In her fourth season in the league and her first as a starter, Carrington’s impact was felt on the Sun’s court.

She leads the team in steals with an average of 1.6 per game and also averages 12.7 points per game.

She averaged 8.3 points and 0.6 steals per game last season.

Their improvement is significant and their playing time reflects this, as it has almost doubled from 17 minutes in 2022 and 2023 to 29 minutes in the 2024 season.

The WNBA End of Year Awards will continue to be presented throughout the postseason. Time will tell who will receive which awards and who will win the league championship.

Julia Henry is a second-year student studying broadcast journalism and labor and human resources. To contact her, please email [email protected].