The WNBA is announcing their awards for the regular season as the playoffs begin and released the results for voting for Most Improved Player on Monday. Veronica Burton was an overwhelming winner after garnering 68 of the 72 votes cast and this league award comes after she also won the Associated Press version of this award too. It was certainly a deserved win for her after not even having a place in the league at the start of last season as she has been the starting point guard for the Valkyries all year long and been a key part of the team’s success.
Her Season
It has been quite a WNBA adventure for Burton in the last seventeen months. She was originally drafted by the Dallas Wings in 2022 and had been mostly an option off the bench for them in her first two years in the league. They opted to waive her at the end of training camp in her third season and no other team claimed her immediately. She was finally signed by the Connecticut Sun in June and continued to be a solid reserve guard for them. With teams getting to protect six players from being selected in the expansion draft by the Valkyries, she was likely the player that Connecticut least wanted to leave unprotected and it was probably an easy pick to make once Golden State got to choose from each team.
Burton has been ever-present for the Valkyries this year, starting every game and playing the 12th most minutes of any player in the league. She was asked to do more playmaking than at any other point in her career and responded with the 3rd highest number of assists and took care of the ball while doing so with the 3rd best assist-to-turnover ratio too. Even with all of the passing, she still also ended up being the team’s leading scorer, including being one of the league’s top free throw shooters. Known primarily as a defensive stopper at the start of her career, she took on a variety of assignments on the perimeter this year.
Her Improvement
Increased opportunities will certainly be cited as a reason for Burton to have improved in so many statistical categories this year, but she had to earn those opportunities and minutes on a team where everything was up for grabs. She demonstrated improvement in so many areas on offense that ended up making her the player that other teams needed to try to stop in order to contain the Valkyries. With other key players missing games, her consistent presence was critical and led to her taking on more of a leadership role than had been expected early. Her skillset and personality ended up being a good fit for the team and she went from solidifying a spot in the league to becoming a star player.
With long offseasons, WNBA players certainly also improve away from their teams over the course of the year. After her rookie season, Burton played in the Athletes Unlimited league in the United States, a good transition for players not looking to play for the entire offseason after also coming off of a college season. She played overseas for the first time in the following season, joining Lublin in Poland. Her next destination was Australia, which is where she was when the expansion draft happened. She helped the Bendigo Spirit win the championship there before heading to San Francisco, showing consistency on both ends of the floor.
While Burton was considered the favorite for the award, three other players did get votes for their jumps in productivity. Azura Stevens from the Los Angeles Sparks received two votes as she was fully healthy this year and recorded career highs in a number of categories. Natisha Hiedeman solidified her role as a backup guard with the Minnesota Lynx as they were the top team in the league, earning a vote. Allisha Gray got the other vote after coming off of two strong seasons with the Atlanta Dream and surpassing them further to get to another level.
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