Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers are two names synonymous with dominant backcourt play. However, a recent assessment between the two has sparked growing dissent far from the hardwood. It began with the WNBA GM Survey, which asked GMs to choose a player they would want to build a franchise around. Surprisingly, Bueckers got around 33% of the votes while Clark trailed at just 20% (down from 50% last season), resulting in a major backlash from the community, and in turn prompting a WNBA analyst to react.

Sports show host Rachel A. DeMita decoded these survey results on her YouTube channel, clearly stating that she isn’t buying into the full assessment. “It’s quite interesting that she dropped from 50% of the votes last year to now 20% this year,” DeMita said. “Do GM’s think Paige Bueckers is going to make this crazy leap in the WNBA? Because even if we look at rookie seasons between CC and Bueckers, Paige had an amazing rookie season, but it wasn’t better than Caitlin’s rookie season.”

“So, you’re telling me one season of injuries for Caitlin where she was injured before the season even started dropped her now to 20% on starting a franchise. Like what are you thinking about when building a franchise? All of things Clark is the one,” she added further. “From a basketball standpoint and also from a marketing ticket sales standpoint, I don’t get why she fell. The only thing that I could think of that makes logical sense is that GM’s somehow think that she’s going to be injury-prone, which I don’t subscribe to that way of thinking.”

DeMita’s assessment looks immensely comprehensive when the broader spectrum is taken into consideration. For instance, in Bueckers’ Rookie of the Year-winning season, she had 19.2 points and 5.4 assists. quite an impressive number. But Clark had slightly better with 19.2 points and 8.4 assists. This, from a basketball stat perspective, so far, Clark and Bueckers stand out slightly.

But a franchise isn’t built solely on on-court performances. In the current era of the sport, marketing and business matter immensely for a franchise’s exponential growth. And who better than Clark can you rope in to tick off all these boxes? For instance, during her rookie season in 2024, Clark led a massive surge in the league’s viewership, increasing by 300%.

In fact, nearly 17 of the 21 WNBA games that drew over 1 M viewers in the season featured Clark. Furthermore, when CC was injured last season, the league’s average viewership dropped, and the All-Star game saw lower viewership than in 2024, falling from 3.44 to 2.2. On the other hand, from a financial standpoint, Clark alone drove more than 26% of the financial endeavors in 2024, which speaks volumes about her fandom and impact.

Bueckers, too, had certain silver linings in this regard, driving attendance at Dallas Wings games and generating major merchandise sales. But all of it combined doesn’t measure up to the impact Clark has had on a single franchise or the league. Clark’s injury last season, where Clark missed most of the games for the Fever due to a groin injury and bone bruise, can be one of the main reasons behind this huge drop in CC’s percentages in the survey from last season, as DeMita mentioned.

Even in the injury regard, Caitlin Clark hasn’t been an injury-prone player. And the 2025 season was one of the only times in her hoops career that CC had to miss so many games. Even during her four-year collegiate career with the Iowa Hawkeyes, Clark didn’t miss a single game, indicating her fitness.

Thus, with all these assessments, it’s quite hard to identify the main reason for the dip in voting percentages. Rachel A DeMita has clearly resented these survey results. And to be honest, she isn’t alone, as a section of fans isn’t quite content with these results either.

For instance, a fan questioned the GM’s ball-knowledge due to these survey results, clearly expressing their disappointment. “Either the GMs are total m*****, OR they are blowing political smoke up everyone’s back sides Those answers were total bovine excreta…and we all know it,” the fan wrote in the comments. While dissent against this GM survey fiasco is growing, another analyst has shared his opinion.

Notable Basketball Analyst Makes His Feelings Known on Caitlin Clark’s Ratings Dip in WNBA GM Survey

Robin Lundberg, a basketball journalist and analyst for Sports Illustrated, has some interesting takes regarding the GM Survey. In a video, Lundberg claims that this phenomenon of underrating Clark’s impact has persisted for years, noting that her absence last season and certain technical aspects might also lead GMs to avoid CC.

“It’s been a theme throughout Clark’s career to be quite frank,” he said. “I don’t know how much this serves as motivation or not. I know there’s been a push back to her popularity but these are general managers who are tasked to putting together teams. So, there’s certainly reasonable skepticism about last year where she didn’t play, so show me again this year or maybe they are seeing other flaws in her game.”

Recency bias has played a factor, it seems, in the GM’s answers. For instance, in the last survey, Caitlin Clark and Chelsea Gray split the votes evenly for the best point guard in the league. But this season, Clark’s votes suddenly dropped to just 20%, while Gray’s went up by 73%. Now, of course, it isn’t that Clark’s skill set as a point guard dropped off all of a sudden. We saw her score and assist with ease for Team USA.

So, it all points to the fact that the GMs have taken a strong note of Clark’s injury-laden 2025 season while voting in the survey. Now, as Lundberg mentioned, Clark can use this uncertainty about her performance as motivation to improve in the coming season. Her initial performances in the preseason stretch have been quite impressive, totaling 33 points and 8 assists across the final two games against the Dallas Wings and the Nigerian national team.

Now, it will be interesting to see how convincingly she can materialize these performances in the regular season, when the stakes will rise and the pressure will be immense on her.