​Veronica Burton races up the court against Breanna Stewart and Marine Johannès. | Getty Images Imagine telling someone six years ago that Breanna Stewart, who then would have been fresh off her second WNBA title within the first five seasons of her pro career after winning four national championships in four college seasons at UConn, along with garnering a slew of collegiate and professional individuals accolades, would be underrated. Yet, I think that’s where we are. In a WNBA, like the larger sports world, that obsesses over who is new and next, the steady, lowkey consistency of Stewie is passé. Stewie is Stewie, and that’s it. Just a 🐐 bein’ a 🐐 pic.twitter.com/lhYEYYN6fz— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) August 19, 2026A few years ago, Zack Ward wrote about Stewart settling in as the second-best women’s basketball player world, permanently behind A’ja Wilson. Now, a healthy Napheesa Collier occupies that second spot, with Stewart pushed down, or even out, of the top five. I’d argue she still has a pretty solid case for No. 3. I expect her greatness to be quite clear at next month’s FIBA World Cup, when she will reprise her role alongside Wilson as the present-day foundation of the Team USA dynasty. This season, the floundering state of the New York Liberty has somewhat sullied a stellar season, even though New York certainly would have sunk without her superstar services. STEW-S-A 👏🫡🇺🇸 #USABWNT 🔟 @breannastewartpic.twitter.com/xgltVF8Nyo— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) August 25, 2026Help the Helper’s wRAPM (regularized adjusted plus-minus) metric has consistently rated Stewart as the most impactful player in the WNBA during the 2026, as she sports a +6.6 wRAPM valuation. That metric, aimed at capturing a player’s contextualized impact on her team’s performance, indicates Stewie’s excellence exceeds her still-superb traditional stats: 20.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. And, she’s achieved all the production and impact even with her persisting and puzzling troubles from behind the arc, as she’s barely hitting over 25 percent of her 3-point attempts. Maybe a potential playoff run, where Stewie leads the Liberty out of the first, or even the second, round would inspire an appreciation of her still-towering talent. On Thursday, Stewart and the Liberty host the visiting Golden State Valkyries, the type of team, and possibly the exact team, New York projects to have to beat in order to go on an underdog playoff run (8 p.m. ET, Prime Video). The Valkyries themselves also feature a player who could credibly challenge Stewie for the WNBA’s most-underrated crown, as do the combatants in Thursday night’s second game: the Washington Mystics and Phoenix Mercury (10 p.m. ET, Prime Video). In the comments, let us know if you consider Stewie, as well as these three other candidates, some of the most-underrated players in the W. Also be sure to share the names of