Eric Nemchock has been writing about women's basketball since 2014 and has been a Chicago Sky season ticket holder since 2012.
Drafting first-year players in fantasy basketball is usually a risky proposition. Unless it's a big-name rookie, like the Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, or someone whose situation calls for plenty of playing time right away, like the Washington Mystics' Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, the WNBA's steep learning curve often makes rookies poor fantasy investments -- at least until you get a good idea of how their games will translate to the pros.
We're two weeks into the 2025 WNBA season now, and as it turns out, that's been enough time for some under-the-radar rookies to establish themselves on their respective teams. Here are a few who have seized the moment and who are worthy of being added to your fantasy rosters.
Rivers missed the beginning of her rookie season due to personal reasons, which probably factored into her going undrafted in the vast majority of fantasy leagues. It hasn't taken her long to get into the swing of things, though, averaging 8.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists in her first five games -- good for 19.4 fantasy points in standard scoring formats.
That's not a massive number, but consider the situation Rivers is in. The Sun recently lost their entire core of players in free agency, forcing them to fill their roster with stop-gap signings as they enter a rebuilding phase. For now, many of those signings, such as Tina Charles and Bria Hartley, are playing large roles for Connecticut, but at 1-5, the Sun are going nowhere fast and are eventually going to want to lean into developing the younger talent on their roster.
Rivers stands to benefit from this. She's raw offensively, but her game is fantasy-friendly: She can both rebound and pass the ball, and she has the ability to stuff the stat sheet defensively, as evidenced by the eight "stocks" (steals plus blocks) she recorded in her first two games. Players like Charles and Hartley probably won't be in Connecticut for very long, but Rivers will be, and as one of their first-round picks in the 2025 draft, the Sun are going to give her plenty of playing time -- especially if Marina Mabrey, who previously requested a trade from the team in February, decides that she's done in Connecticut. Right now, Rivers is rostered in only 13.3 percent of ESPN leagues; make sure she's on your watch list, and be prepared to make a move if she shows signs of breaking out.
The Valkyries being an expansion team makes for a volatile situation from a fantasy basketball perspective, and the fact that none of their 2025 draftees are on their roster means that they aren't as invested in developing any particular young player as a team like the Sun or Mystics might be.
That being said, Salaün has quickly emerged as a go-to player for Golden State, and though the Valkyries will probably look much, much different in 2026 than they do now, she's someone who they're going to want to keep around for the long haul. The 23-year old is leading the team in scoring (13.8 points per game) and rebounding (7.8 rebounds per game), and she's been given a green light offensively, getting up an average of 6.3 3-pointers.
Granted, Salaün hasn't been the most efficient scorer, shooting just 35.8 percent from the field, so she won't be as valuable in leagues that penalize missed shots. In standard leagues, though, she's averaging 28.3 fantasy points per game, which is the most of any Valkyries player, and there's a good chance she maintains that level of production. Golden State doesn't have many players who can get shots as easily as Salaün does, and if the franchise spends this season evaluating what it has in terms of building blocks instead of playing its veterans heavy minutes just to squeeze out a couple more wins, she'll continue to be one of its primary offensive options.
Phoenix entered the 2025 season with an almost entirely new roster, investing heavily in a core of Kahleah Copper, Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally and surrounding them with mostly unproven complementary talent. It was a given that the Mercury's trio of stars would produce, but the rest of the team's roster was more or less an unknown entity, making preseason fantasy rankings a tough endeavor.
So far, we've seen the Mercury go fairly deep into their bench, and while part of this is surely due to Copper's absence (she'll miss the first four to six weeks of the season after undergoing a knee procedure), several of Phoenix's rookies have shown that they belong in the team's rotation. Akoa Makani has been arguably the most impressive of those players, averaging 9.7 points, 2.3 assists and 1.2 steals (18.8 fantasy points) in six games while starting at point guard. While other guards such as Sami Whitcomb (25.6 minutes per game) and Kitija Laksa (20.2 minutes per game) have played roughly as much as Akoa Makani (21.7 minutes per game), a hot start from beyond the arc has made her the most productive of the group.
Most fantasy basketball enthusiasts will tell you that an even minutes split like the one in Phoenix's backcourt is a recipe for headaches, and the Mercury's situation probably won't be any different. Akoa Makani probably won't shoot 46.4 percent on 3-pointers for the season, and she's not taking enough shots per game (7.7) to make her a must-roster player. She's the best defender in the Mercury's backcourt, though, and as long as she's playing alongside an elite distributor like Thomas, she'll get enough opportunities to keep her relevant in deeper fantasy leagues.