Olivia Miles had a big impact on the Minnesota Lynx, finishing the regular season at the top of the standings. The Rookie of the Year helped lead her team in Naphees Collier’s absence and secure the top seed with a 33-11 record. However, in the playoffs, Miles’ performance flipped, as the Lynx made a surprising early exit in the first round to the New York Liberty.
Before the playoffs, Miles’ perfromances had even put her in the MVP conversation with the likes of A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchel, and Breanna Stewart. However, with Miles under a microscope after her short-lived debut postseason, The Linda Cohn Show co-host Maurice Drake Jr. is critical.
“Olivia Miles, the Rookie of the Year who people were pushing as the MVP. And I think Miles had an excellent season. But Olivia Miles also had a disastrous experience in the playoffs. In two playoff games, she had 16 points total, two assists total, five turnovers. She shot four for 20 and two of eight in a first-round exit.”
“That is a disastrous performance for an MVP candidate at the point guard position.” Maurice Drake Jr. said on the latest episode of The Linda Cohn Show on YouTube.
For Drake Jr., a candidate for the “Most Valuable Player” of the season should’ve shown better resilience when her team’s backs were against the wall.
However, against the highly experienced New York Liberty side led by FIBA Women’s World Cup MVP Breanna Stewart, Miles suffered in both scoring and playmaking. As the WNBA analyst said, Miles managed to produce only 16 points in her two playoff outings.
On the contrary, Lynx veterans Napheesa Collier, Courtney Williams, and Kayla McBride had a much better showcase than Miles, which, for KTV’s Drake Jr., suggested that she is yet to become the best player for head coach Cheryl Reeve’s side.
Fortunately for Olivia Miles, the league only takes the regular season into account when selecting the MVP. A national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters votes after the regular season ends.
During the regular season, the rookie averaged 19.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists on almost 50% shooting. She earned All-Star starter honors, the Western Conference Player of the Week award, and also swept all four Rookie of the Month awards.
Olivia Miles even topped Caitlin Clark’s single-season rookie scoring record of 769, which now stands at 790. Miles did all of this while holding the fort for Reeve during a time when veteran star Napheesa Collier was out with an ankle injury she suffered last playoffs.
Such accolades put Miles right into MVP territory. The main difference between Miles and them is that both Wilson and Clark have proved they can perform at the biggest stage in the WNBA as well, as the Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces are currently in a 1-1 series in the first round of the playoffs, with Wilson and Clark being the anchors of their respective sides.
On paper, A’ja Wilson also remains the frontrunner in regular season stats that truly matter. Besides leading the Aces to yet another postseason, she led the league in scoring with 26.2 points per game. She also averaged 9.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.4 steals.
Regardless, if Olivia Miles does end up winning, she will become the first player since Candace Parker in 2008 to win both the league MVP and the Rookie of the Year award in the same season, another feather in her cap.
But it will be tough. The Associated Press has awarded Olivia Miles Rookie of the Year and honored A’ja Wilson as Player of the Year. If the pattern follows in the WNBA, the Aces star will soon lift her fifth MVP award.
As for a player of Miles’ caliber, failure in the playoffs will only bring about further motivation, and we might see an even better version of the 23-year-old next season.