After the Valkyries win in Indiana on July 15, Gabby Williams noted that the Valkyries might be the only team in the WNBA with multiple sixth player of the year candidates.
Janelle Salaun is certainly one, as the league’s leading scorer off the bench.
Williams said Kaitlyn Chen should be in that conversation too, but the second-year point guard might be up for another award: the WNBA’s most improved player.
“It’s not like she didn’t have it before,” Veronica Burton told Valkyries Beat. “I think opportunity is a huge thing, and I’ll continue to emphasize that. But it’s been really cool to see her mentality shift, too, and just the confidence in that, and her aggression. I think we’ll continue to see a lot of really great things from her. She for sure should be a front runner for most improved because it’s not easy what she’s doing.”
Statistically, Chen is the best scoring point guard off the bench in the league this season, with a 57.6% field goal percentage. She has been an energy shifter in several games this season.
“When she comes in, she doesn’t, she doesn’t mess around, she punches really quickly,” said Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase.
“One of the best things I’ve noticed with Kaitlyn, too, over these last couple games is that she really wants to make her teammates better when she’s on the floor, and then you could feel that energy kind of go up a level,” Nakase said later in the season. “I think that’s what’s really special about Kaitlyn, is she doesn’t have to start, that’s not important to her. It’s just the minutes that when she’s on the floor, she’s impacting her teammates.”
There have been 27 Most Improved Player winners in WNBA history. Among them, Chen is well within the average improvement margin, if not the quantity of results, quite yet.
Chen’s level of improvement is on par with past winners. Her points per game improvement is 263.5% year-over-year, and her field goals made are 39.7% more. For reference, last year’s winner, Veronica Burton’s production year-over year rose 284.84% in her MIP season on 303.57% more shots, giving Chen a more efficient production increase for her minutes.
The only players with a higher year-over-year improvement on scoring production by percentage are Burton, Coco Miller (2002), Kia Vaughn (2011) and Natasha Howard (2018).
The jump from an age 23 season to age 24 is one of the most common for most-improved players, too.
Chen has a point per game difference of 5.27, 0.69 more assists, 1.73 plus/minus per game and 2.13 more field goals made per contest in 4:05 more minutes.
But Chen is playing 14:21 minutes per game this season, which would be by far the fewest of a MIP winner (Erin Perperoglou played 19:34 in 2006). Her 2.92 field goals made her contest would also be the fewest (Leilani Mitchell made 3.02 per game in 2010), along with her 7.27 points per game (Wendy Palmer, 9.0 in 2004).
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But the rate of improvement matches, and all indications are that Chen’s quantity numbers will rise in the second half. She averaged 9.9 points over the last 10 games, which included a nine-game win streak.
Nakase said she thought Chen’s biggest leap this season was her finishing package as a scorer.
“I think she’s been really developing that just because last year I don’t think she was as sharp in terms of the angles,” Nakase told Valkyries Beat. “But with our spacing and people taking away their three, then there is not a lot of help if that’s what they’re willing to give up. So if they want to give up the rim because they’re taking away the three, then the rim’s going to be open, and she’s just going to make the right read.”
Chen has plenty of competition for most improved. In Dallas, Jesica Shephard has become a star after serving as a role player for the Lynx. Portland’s Megan Gustafson is averaging 9.21 more points per game than a season ago, and her teammate, Carla Leite, is also having a breakout season. Seattle’s Dominique Malonga has improved from her rookie year, and Marina Mabrey has catapulted into stardom in Toronto. Chen has the 14th largest increase in points per game among returning players.
But her name is going to keep being brought up as long as she keeps performing for the Valkyries.
