A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Breanna Stewart, Olivia Miles, and Kelsey Mitchell: these are the players who have dominated MVP conversations throughout the 2026 WNBA season. For Sue Bird, her pick had always been Olivia Miles. The logic was straightforward: Miles is the best player on the best team in the league, so she earns the nod by default.
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However, Bird’s latest comments on Friday’s episode of her Bird’s Eye View podcast suggest her stance is no longer quite so clear-cut. While she continues to praise Miles and acknowledge the historic nature of her rookie season, Bird admitted that a slight dip in form has made it increasingly difficult to look past A’ja Wilson’s remarkable and relentless consistency.
“I have gone on record saying that I thought Olivia Miles was not just in the running but was leading in terms of MVP. I thought being the best player on the best team, to me, is the MVP, right? But I can also acknowledge that there’s been a little bit of a falloff.”
“Just enough where it’s hard to ignore A’ja Wilson’s consistency in her numbers,” Bird said on her podcast. “Arguments for Kelsey Mitchell for sure, right behind them. Arguments for Stewie, for Caitlin, right behind. They’re all up there.
“But I think A’ja has started to run away with it. So, if I had to pick, I’d probably pick A’ja Wilson right now,” she added.
Olivia Miles has produced a standout rookie season, averaging 19.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game while shooting 49.2 percent from the floor. A’ja Wilson, who is contending for her third consecutive MVP award, has been relentlessly dominant.
She has averaged 26.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.9 blocks per game on 52.7 percent shooting, while leading the league in scoring from wire to wire.
On the other hand, Caitlin Clark has orchestrated the league’s best offence for the Indiana Fever, averaging 22.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, a league-leading 8.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game, shooting 44.5 percent from the floor. However, Clark’s impact even within the Fever can’t be counted in a vacuum.
Running alongside her all season has been Kelsey Mitchell, putting together a historically significant scoring campaign, averaging 24.7 points per game on 50.9 percent shooting while breaking the WNBA single-season scoring record.
Breanna Stewart has also anchored the New York Liberty with 20.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game on 47.4 percent shooting. Although it won’t have an effect in the WNBA, earning the FIBA Women’s World Cup MVP award has been another highlight for Stewart this year.
With all of these players now heading into the playoffs, there is definitely still considerable ground to cover before any individual MVP case is truly settled.
Notably, the Caitlin Clark- and Mitchell-led Indiana Fever will square off against A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces in the first round, meaning two prominent MVP candidates will go head-to-head immediately. Whoever is eliminated in that matchup may inevitably see their case weaken in the eyes of voters, although the Finals MVP award is a different discussion entirely.
Meanwhile, Olivia Miles is still in the MVP conversation, in Sue Bird’s assessment and more broadly across the league. Miles is already the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year, and if she does end up winning the MVP, she becomes only the second player after Candace Parker to win both ROTY and MVP in the same season.
Before that, however, she will lead the Minnesota Lynx against Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty in their own playoff series. There too, whoever falls short will find their MVP argument significantly diminished.
The regular season has laid the foundation. The playoffs may have the final word.