I’m a basketball fan first. Before the Hawkeyes, before the Fever and before any particular player, I love the game itself. So any serious conversation about the 2026 WNBA Most Valuable Player award should begin with something that probably isn’t controversial: A’ja Wilson is the favorite, and she has earned that distinction.
Wilson is one of the best basketball players in the world. She dominates on both ends of the floor, and making a case for Caitlin Clark doesn’t require diminishing anything Wilson has accomplished. If I had an MVP ballot today, Wilson would still be at the top of it.
There is another player in Indiana who deserves recognition here, too. Kelsey Mitchell is having a historic season of her own. Her scoring production has been remarkable, and on many teams a season like hers would completely dominate the conversation.
But Caitlin Clark presents a different question.
I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the traditional statistics we use to evaluate basketball players don’t adequately measure her impact on a game.
And the funny thing is, the traditional numbers are becoming pretty ridiculous anyway.
Clark is averaging 22.5 points and 8.4 assists per game this season while making 2.9 three-pointers per game. Friday night against Connecticut, she finished with 34 points, 12 assists, five rebounds and three steals while making six threes.
That came after 37 points and 10 assists against Chicago, making Clark the first player in WNBA history with consecutive games of at least 30 points and 10 assists.
Those are MVP numbers.
But they still don't tell the whole story.
Watch where an opposing defense begins guarding Clark. A defender can meet her 30 feet from the basket, and bringing a screen can immediately attract a second defender. Help defenders shade toward her. Passing lanes change. Driving lanes open somewhere else. The geometry of the entire half court changes because of where Clark is standing and what a defense believes she might do next.
None of that appears in a traditional box score.
An assist gets recorded when Clark makes the final pass before a teammate scores. There is no assist when two defenders commit to her, the ball moves and another Fever player attacks the space she created. There is no statistical category for forcing a defense to extend farther from the basket than it wants to play.
Yet all of those things have value.
Stephen Curry is the obvious comparison because his shooting range has forced NBA defenses to behave differently for more than a decade. I don't have tracking data that proves Clark gets double-teamed more frequently than Curry or anyone else in basketball.
But I have eyes.
Watch where the defense stands when Clark has the ball. Watch what happens when a screen arrives. Watch the second defender. Then watch what becomes available to everyone else.
What makes Clark’s case particularly fascinating is that she creates all of that attention while still producing like an elite scorer herself. She can score 34 points while handing out 12 assists, simultaneously functioning as Indiana’s most dangerous scoring threat and the player responsible for creating offense for everyone around her.
That distinction matters.
Clark isn’t simply a great scorer playing point guard, nor is she simply a distributor surrounded by great scorers. She is the floor general of one of the best teams in basketball while also being one of the players defenses fear most with the ball in her hands.
And maybe that's the distinction that matters most when we're talking about value.
An MVP doesn't simply accumulate statistics. An MVP changes the conditions under which everyone else plays. Clark changes where defenders stand, how aggressively they help, how Indiana spaces the floor and, ultimately, the opportunities available to the four teammates standing beside her.
That is why I think the MVP conversation has changed.
This isn't an argument that Clark should win the award today. Wilson's complete body of work deserves enormous respect, and there is still basketball left to play. It isn't an argument based on popularity, television ratings, shoe sales or anything else happening away from the court.
It is an argument about the word valuable.
Statistics are essential, and Clark's numbers already make a compelling case. But basketball has never been completely explainable by a box score. Sometimes a player's greatest impact is visible in what the other five players on the floor are forced to do because she is there.
Maybe A'ja Wilson ultimately wins the MVP. If the vote happened today, she'd have mine.
But Caitlin Clark has reached the point where the question is no longer whether she belongs in the conversation.
The numbers don't lie.
Neither do my eyes.
The Hawkeye State
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