The Survey Said: WNBA General Managers Have Already Moved On From Making Caitlin Clark Their Top Franchise Cornerstone

One year ago, she got 50% of the franchise-cornerstone vote. This year she got 20%. She played 13 games. The league kept moving. And now, with Paige Bueckers sitting at the top of the ballot and the GM world rotating around A'ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark is — impossibly, infuriatingly, predictably — being underestimated again.

The WNBA released its annual general manager survey on Tuesday ahead of opening night of the league's 30th season, and the results told a specific story about how the league's front office class sees the current balance of power — and where Caitlin Clark fits within it. The survey, answered by all 15 of the WNBA's general managers across 42 questions, is the sport's most honest available document about what the people who build rosters and negotiate contracts actually think, stripped of the talking points and media obligations that shape most public statements. What this year's survey revealed about Clark is, on the surface, a significant downward shift from last year. Just below that surface, however, is the same pattern that has defined every stage of Clark's professional career — the pattern of being underestimated at exactly the moment she is about to prove everyone wrong again.

The Numbers: What the GMs Actually Said

Last year's survey produced one of the most emphatic endorsements any individual player had received in the document's 21-year history. When GMs were asked which player they would choose to start a franchise around, 50% said Caitlin Clark — a figure that reflected both her record-breaking rookie campaign and the genuine belief within the league's front offices that she represented the most transformative individual talent available. This year, that number dropped to 20%. Paige Bueckers, the reigning Rookie of the Year, took the top spot at 33%. Clark and A'ja Wilson tied for second. Dominique Malonga of the Seattle Storm came in fourth at 13%. Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier also received votes.

The best point guard category shifted as well. Last year, Clark and Chelsea Gray split the vote at 50% apiece. This year, Gray jumped to 73% while Clark fell to 20%, with Bueckers picking up the remaining 7%. Clark appeared in the MVP voting — 7%, alongside Atlanta's Allisha Gray — but ranked significantly behind the frontrunner in that race, four-time MVP A'ja Wilson (60%) and Breanna Stewart (27%). She was omitted entirely from the best basketball IQ category, where Chelsea Gray collected a staggering 93% of votes. She received no votes as the best leader, where Wilson dominated at 79%. And in the clutch — which player would you want taking a shot with the game on the line — Clark's name does not appear in the top of the results, where Wilson and Chelsea Gray each drew 36%.

The Rookie of the Year picture for 2026 was equally revealing in its omission of the No. 1 pick. Despite Azzi Fudd going first overall to Dallas, 73% of GMs projected Minnesota's No. 2 pick Olivia Miles to win Rookie of the Year, while Fudd received 20% and no other player earned significant votes. Two-thirds of GMs named Seattle's No. 3 pick Awa Fam Thiam as the rookie most likely to be the best player from the class in five years.

The Context: Why the Shift Makes Statistical Sense — and Misses the Larger Point

The explanation for Clark's decline in the franchise cornerstone vote is not complicated. She played 13 regular-season games in 2025 due to nagging groin and quad injuries that sidelined her for the final 22 games of the regular season and the entire playoff run. In the context of a survey asking general managers to evaluate current and future franchise value, 13 games creates genuine uncertainty. Bueckers played a full rookie season, won Rookie of the Year, and demonstrated exactly the kind of sustained, healthy, production-every-night excellence that franchise-building decisions are made around. The shift from Clark to Bueckers in the franchise cornerstone poll reflects a rational, data-driven evaluation of availability and consistency.

What it doesn't account for is the dimension of Clark's value that transcends basketball statistics. When the Indiana Fever played a home game last season before Clark's injury, the building was sold out at historically unprecedented margins. When she appeared on a broadcast as an NBC Sports analyst during the NBA playoffs this offseason — the first active WNBA player to do sideline commentary for NBA coverage — the segment generated more discussion than most full quarters of basketball. The "Caitlin Clark effect" is not a media invention. It is a measurable, documented, audited phenomenon — the single most significant increase in women's sports viewership in American television history, concentrated in the two seasons since Clark arrived in Indianapolis. The GMs who build basketball rosters are not responsible for tracking television ratings. But the league whose financial health depends on those ratings is watching a very different set of numbers than the ones in Tuesday's survey.

The most telling historical parallel: in 2024, before Clark's rookie season, the WNBA's own ecosystem of analysts, veterans, and media figures were openly skeptical that her college production would translate to the professional level. Diana Taurasi told her "reality is coming." She was left off the Paris Olympics roster. Then she put together arguably the greatest rookie season in WNBA history. The pattern — underestimation followed by overperformance followed by underestimation again — has repeated itself with clockwork consistency. Clark herself responded to the survey results with characteristic composure: the Fever's season opener against Bueckers and the Dallas Wings is May 9. That game, and every game after it, is where Clark's actual answer to Tuesday's survey will be delivered.

2026 WNBA GM Survey — Franchise cornerstone vote: Paige Bueckers 33%, Caitlin Clark 20%, A'ja Wilson 20%, Dominique Malonga 13%. Clark in 2025: 50%. Best point guard: Chelsea Gray 73%, Clark 20%, Bueckers 7%. Projected 2026 MVP: A'ja Wilson 60%, Stewart 27%, Clark 7%. Projected Rookie of the Year: Olivia Miles 73%, Azzi Fudd 20%. Best player from 2026 class in five years: Awa Fam Thiam 67%, Miles 33%. WNBA 30th season opens May 8. Clark's regular season debut: May 9 vs. Dallas Wings.