As the WNBA’s early Sixth Player of the Year conversation narrows, Chennedy Carter’s illness has slowed her momentum. Janelle Salaün of the Golden State Valkyries keeps a commanding bench scoring lead, and Sophie Cunningham has climbed back into contention aft
For much of the season, Chennedy Carter’s return felt like a certainty. Her debut with the Las Vegas Aces came as one of the most anticipated WNBA returns of the year after a one-year break from the league. The spark was real and immediate: Carter scored 20 or more points in four of her first six games in an Aces jersey and quickly established herself as one of the league’s best bench scorers.
But the Sixth Player of the Year story has never been one person’s race—especially not when Golden State’s Janelle Salaün was waiting in the shadows.
Salaün kicked the season off with two twenty-point games, shooting 45.5% and 80% from three across those early outings. That start did more than make noise. It effectively put her in control of the conversation. Even Carter had an obvious rival for the award within weeks.
Golden State’s rotation also made the bench role matter. After an outstanding rookie season as a starter, Natalie Nakase moved the French sharpshooter to the bench. Salaün’s bench minutes came alongside Gabby Williams. Cecilia Zandalasini. and Kayla Thornton. with point guard Veronica Burton and center Kiah Stokes in the group.
The production gap now reads like a scoreboard, and it belongs to Salaün. She leads the league in bench points with 220—76 more than Carter’s 144. Carter’s lead has tightened not because her talent vanished. but because she missed a few games with an illness. and that absence has heavily impacted the Sixth Player race.
That’s where Sophie Cunningham’s name started getting pulled closer—at the exact moment some of Indiana’s wins were doing the talking.
Cunningham is the kind of player who can change a standings argument without changing her role. She entered the conversation with four big games and hot 3-point shooting off the Fever’s bench. She didn’t start the season the same way. In May, she shot just 29.4% from three.
Then she revealed she got a PRP shot in her elbow to help with some pain she had been playing through. After that, the numbers shifted quickly. Over the last four games, Cunningham has made 19 of her 30 3-point attempts and scored between 11 and 24 points in each game.
The complication is that her personal heat hasn’t turned into a clean winning run for Indiana. Cunningham’s efforts have coincided with the Fever picking up only two wins—against the Connecticut Sun and Toronto Tempo—while Indiana then lost back-to-back games against the Atlanta Dream afterward.
Still, the Fever are not drifting out of contention. Indiana is a playoff team, seventh at the moment. If Cunningham continues to play as she has over the last few games and the Fever stay firmly established in the playoff picture, her case becomes harder to ignore.
Cunningham’s current standing shows how close the bench argument is getting. She ranks fourth in total bench points with 134. Salaün still has the scoring edge and the record side of the ledger right now, and the Valkyries have a slightly better record than the Fever.
There’s another reason voters may hesitate before declaring anyone finished: Carter’s illness isn’t a permanent change. When Carter returns, she will probably make another push.
For the people tracking this race like it’s a living thing, that “when” matters.
Satou Sabally is also making it harder to treat Sixth Player of the Year as a two-person battle.
In New York, Sabally’s early Liberty days were defined by injury and absences, but she is back now. She has played at least 14 minutes in seven consecutive games. coming off the bench to help untangle a logjam of talent in the Liberty’s rotation. Her scoring has matched the steadier minutes: she has scored in double digits in five of those seven games. and the Liberty won six of the seven.
Sabally’s numbers are beginning to stand out in the way Sixth Player votes often reward—consistent productivity from the reserve role. For June, she ranks second in total bench points with 90, trailing only Salaün.
That combination—double-digit scoring, frequent minutes, and wins—puts her in position to receive Sixth Player of the Year votes as one of the most productive bench players in the league, and one of the best reserves on one of the league’s top teams.
There are other names orbiting the conversation as well. Zia Cooke and Natasha Cloud could have cases, if the Storm and Sky weren’t struggling so much.
The sixth-player picture is shifting in real time: Salaün is pulling away in bench points even after moving back to the reserve role; Carter’s injury absence has slowed her momentum; Cunningham’s elbow treatment and late-season shooting surge have brought her back; and Sabally’s return has delivered steady impact for the Liberty.
And the race is still wide enough for a return to change the outcome—because in this season’s bench scoring story, timing has become its own kind of scoreboard.
WNBA Sixth Player of the Year Chennedy Carter Janelle Salaün Sophie Cunningham Satou Sabally Indiana Fever New York Liberty Las Vegas Aces Golden State Valkyries