The night of April 2, 2023, was a significant milestone for women’s basketball in the USA. It marked the start of a rivalry that will be remembered for ages: the rivalry between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. After that infamous or famous ring taunt, depending on perspective, Reese and Clark made national headlines, and the attention has continued into July 2024.

The scene has changed, the prize has changed, but the rivalry is still living up to its billing, making it the top story of the WNBA. With both of them vying for a playoff spot, the battle for the Rookie of the Year (ROTY) award has intensified. With the WNBA regular season in its second stretch, many have already picked their ROTY winner, and Heat guard Duncan Robinson is one of them.

During hislatest appearance on the ThreeFourTwo podcast, Robinson pushed Angel Reese’s name as the WNBA ROTY when asked about his opinion. “I got Angel Reese as a rookie of the year. For sure. She’s got a double-double record. It’s good basketball. Good very close range. I just gotta give it a nod,” the sharpshooter said. In response, podcast host, Ryen Russillo went on to fire a shot and said “One’s a role player.” This take was initially unclear as his intended target could’ve been either of the two women but soon it was clarified.

“Well, there was one point where a former WNBA player said she’s like, I’m gonna go with Angel Reese because of the standings. And I went, oh, okay. Well, I don’t think standings really should dictate rookie of the year because usually they are on terrible teams…I’ve been super locked in every day. The sky were 7-11 and the fever were 8-13. I went, well, this doesn’t seem as strong of a point,” Russillo explained.

Currently, Caitlin Clark’s Fever is in 7th place with an 11-15 record, and Reese’s Sky is just below them with a 10-14 record. That take was off the mark, and Russillo expressed his dissatisfaction with such odd criteria. Some have even speculated if there is a possibility of both of them sharing the award, but Van Lathan has a clear winner in Angel Reese. Despite his self-proclaimed loyalty to Reese, the Ringer producer had some massive predictions for Caitlin Clark.

Caitlin Clark tipped for introducing new style of play in WNBA

Caitlin Clark has set her bar so high that even her 17.1 PPG looks like a struggle. The former Iowa guard had a tough start to her career in the big leagues, but now she’s posting historical numbers left and right. Keeping that in mind, Van Lathan predicted, “I love this, what people don’t understand I’m not gonna be long-winded about it. This is the these are the good times. And what I mean, these are the good times, these are the times when she’s struggling a little bit. She hasn’t found her game yet. Very soon, it’s gonna be the bad times…But very soon she’s gonna be shooting 45, 46% from the field. Her past season’s gonna start. Terrific. All of that, the turnovers are gonna come down, and she’s gonna introduce a whole new style of play to the league, and it’s gonna be crazy.”

In the 26 regular season games she played so far, Clark has a shooting split of 40.5-32.7-89.1 (percentage digits). Her 8.2 assists and 5.8 rebounds also show her hustle on both sides of the court but we’re yet to see the best of Caitlin Clark, especially the one we saw in the NCAA. Caitlin Clark is currently leading the race with a 9-5 lead from votes given by the Associated Press members. This voting is updated weekly so there is still hope for Reese as a lot hangs on who gets a better seeding in the playoff picture.

And to absorb more interesting stories, watch the Dual Threat Show hosted by BG12 where the prodigy puts Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr under the pump with loaded NBA questions and more in this video below.