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The Most Underrated Player on Each WNBA Team (Eastern Conference)

Geoff Magliocchetti August 10, 2026Fact checked by: Sara Jane Gamelli Be First

Many crown Caitlin Clark, hail Natasha Howard, or salute Breanna Stewart, but these players have made their mark in the WNBA's Eastern Conference.

The WNBA's 30th season has been a star-spangled affair. Diamonds in the rough, however, have proven to be equally shiny.

Jordin Canada Atlanta Dream WNBA. 2026
Photo credit: Arielle Holloway | Ballislife

After spending most of their offseason in the boardroom, the league's finest stars have proven themselves equally talented on the floor. But basketball, of course, is a team sport and the greatest teams only go as far as their buried names take them despite the spotlight shining elsewhere.

With that in mind, Ballislife takes a look at every team's most underrated player as the final throes of the regular season get underway. The postseason, of course, is a realm where role players have been fully capable of stealing the show at the most opportune times. For the damned, such players may provide hope for the future, setting the table for better times on the road ahead.

We tip things off with the seven squads of the Eastern Conference ...

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Atlanta Dream: Jordin Canada

When your teammates are three All-Stars (Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard, Angel Reese) and the league's reigning top sixth woman (Naz Hillmon, who has since leaped into the opening five), it's hard to separate yourself, especially as a veteran. The sensation of Madina Okot establishing a residency in the top rebounding metrics may be shocking, but her on-floor time is limited knowing she's a rookie behind Reese.

But Canada could've well created a Dreamy scenario where four Georgians reached the All-Star Game: she's shooting a career-best 42.8% from the field, part of an offensive effort that has generated the best rating of her career. Working with sharpshooters like Gray, Hillmon, and Howard certainly helps, but Canada has upped her facilitation game to the tune of over seven a game. 

Acknowledging Canada's traditional defensive work with her offensive breakout makes her All-Star snub even more egregious: should she keep her current pace, Canada would be the first player in WNBA history to average double-figures in scoring next to at least seven assists and two steals.

Chicago Sky: Jacy Sheldon

With Chicago seeking clearer skies after a series of core departures, they've turned to different brands of acquired talent to get back on track: undrafted rookie Sydney Taylor appears to be the future face of the franchise alongside Rickea Jackson and her escape from LA.

A top-five pick in 2024, Sheldon has had to have a go-bag ready, as she has already spent time with four different teams. Finally granted some form of transactional assurance (she's still on the Sky's roster after the deadline and has a club option for the 2027 season), Sheldon has done well for herself in a larger role, especially after an ankle injury canceled last year's showcase in Washington before it could get started.

Entering this week, Sheldon is in the top 15 in both defensive rating and assist/turnover ratio among women with at least 30 games and an average of 20 minutes to her seasonal name. Sheldon's scoring has also been a barometer for the Sky, which held a 7-3 record when she reached double-figures prior to Saturday's tilt against Indiana.

Connecticut Sun: Olivia Nelson-Ododa

It's hard to harbor lasting enthusiasm for the Sun's affairs considering the squad's lame duck status, but what Nelson-Ododa is working on has the potential to leave a mark on both Uncasville and Houston. 

Nelson-Ododa's development into a reliable interior force has perhaps been buried by the unfortunate happenings on the Sun's timeline. She's posting career-bests in all major categories (including more than double her career assist average) and has kept up a sterling pace since play resumed after the break: much to the presumed delight of a Connecticut crowd that previously took in her work as a collegiate Husky, Nelson-Ododa is one of five players averaging at least 10 points, eight rebounds, and a block and steal each, a sisterhood that also includes DeWanna Bonner, Breanna Stewart, and A'ja Wilson. 

Unlike her adoring public in the Constitution State, Nelson-Ododa does have an assured future, as she's one of several members of the "Sunset Season" squad under contract for next year's re-brand into the Comets. If she keeps up this pace, the post should be well-spoken for the Comets' re-birth, especially if the team is able to get Brittney Griner to stay as well.

Indiana Fever: Tyasha Harris

With its headliners capable of generating historic headlines, the Fever embarked on a quest to become a fully armed and operational basketball station with a search for depth stars. It already had Makayla Timpson, re-upped with Sophie Cunningham, and drafted Raven Johnson next to veteran additions Myisha Hines-Allen and Monique Billings, the latter of whom has fulfilled two-way expectations in a starting spot.

All those names and more make it hard for Harris to establish herself but perhaps that's just what she needed: following a breakout campaign with a Connecticut group that fell one win short of the Finals, the 2020 first-rounder endured a knee injury during a brief sojourn to Dallas. Her stats off the bench are relatively pedestrian and some would say she lacks the flair of Cunningham and the tenacity of Timpson. But the proof of Harris' value has appeared in the most important metric of all: the win column.

With Harris taking on a larger role when Caitlin Clark endured a painful July, the Fever are 10-3 when she plays at least 13 minutes. In terms of Harris' contributions, the record improves to 9-1 when she dishes out at least three assists and 5-1 when she earns at least 10 points. Among players that averaged at least 19 minutes and played at least four games in July, Harris was sixth in net rating, just behind Aliyah Boston and ahead of both Clark and Kelsey Mitchell.

New York Liberty: Rebecca Allen

The Liberty have been fully enveloped by the Brooklyn beat, forming its own identity on Atlantic Avenue after two decades playing between 7th and 8th Avenues. But Allen, one of the team's Manhattan remnants, has come through big in a metropolitan season frequently interrupted by medical calamities.

Allen's third tour with the team (2015-19, 2021-22) had her stuck on the bench in the early going but her promotion to the starting lineup since Leonie Fiebich went down has partly fueled a 6-1 stretch that has had the Liberty playing a more familiar brand of contending basketball. Since entering the opening/closing five, Allen's offensive rating ranks in the top 15 among starters averaging at least 20 minutes a game.

Allen has made sure to save the best for last: in the strong seven, Allen has posted a plus-4.8 in clutch situations, best among any player that has been in such a scenario at least twice in that span. Liberty fans would be wise to take in Allen's antics while they can: the 11-year WNBA veteran announced her intentions to retire from stateside play over the weekend.

Toronto Tempo: Laura Juškaitė

The Tempo has lost its tempo as the season rolls on, as they're well-removed from a playoff spot with September looming. Injuries have no doubt played a role in the swoon of The 6ix. The fact that the team fell out of the playoff race following the medically-induced departure of Brittney Sykes is hardly a coincidence, after all.

Such ailments have allowed the Tempo's backup singers a wider opportunity and no one's taken better advantage than Juškaitė, one of the many rookies in name only that have created seismic waves in the race for the most fantastic freshmen. The Lithuanian-born Juškaitė has reached double-figures in each of her last five games and is shooting 50% from the field in that span, giving Marina Mabrey a scoring assistant while Sykes heals.

Time will tell exactly what role Juškaitė holds on a fully realized Tempo team, especially with Aneesah Morrow now in tow. Sykes' injury shows that depth scoring will be one of the primary needs on the road ahead and Juskaite could well make herself indispensable in that regard.

Washington Mystics: Lauren Betts

An exercise like this is downright excruciating when it comes to capital analysis: the modern Mystics, the young squad playing with the healthiest sense of reckless abandon, are basically built around the concept of being underrated, to the point where they're officially in the hunt for the homecourt privilege in the opening round.

Going to Betts feels like a cop-out: it feels downright ludicrous to label the lasting top high school recruit, the decorated, All-American national champion, and the fourth pick of the most recent draft any form of "underrated." But those awaiting the professional Betts breakout had to be a little patient amidst Shakira Austin's ongoing rise. The bettering of Betts has been one the buried subplots of the Mystics' seven-game winning streak: she hauled in an infantile career-best 11 rebounds against the nightmare pairing of Okot and Reese in Friday's win over the Atlanta Dream, giving her 39 over the last five games in just 89 minutes of relief (all others in the top 24 have at least 100 to their name).

The 17.5 she earned when adjusted to per 40 minutes would tops among all women that partook in each of her team's last five games. Betts might be too late to adjust the Rookie of the Year conversation but the Mystics would no doubt be pleased with a Dominique Malonga-style rookie coda that carried into her sophomore tour.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags

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