WNBA Hoopers Hierarchy: No. 5 Jackie Young is an efficient, impactful two-way star (2024)

Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of stories ranking the top 30 players in the WNBA as part of Quickbooks’ “WNBA Hoopers Hierarchy.” Check out the rest of the rankings here.

Jackie Young emerged in the 2022 WNBA season, her fourth-year in the league, displaying a reliable midrange jumper and insane upper-body strength. Those attributes, combined with continued improvement, put her at No. 5 in the WNBA Hoopers Hierarchy, Swish Appeal’s ranking of the top 30 players in the WNBA in 2024.

How Young’s rim pressure unlocks her efficient offensive game

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Listed at 6-foot-0 and 165 pounds with a 6-foot-4 wingspan, Young has very broad frame that allows her to lower the shoulder into taller defenders and absorb contact at the rim.

She shot an insane 74 percent at the rim (0-5 feet) last season, which was very easily the highest mark for any guard that attempted at least three shots per game in the restricted area. What’s even crazier about this stat is that Young’s 74 percent was also the highest mark for a guard in WNBA history under those stipulations.

Granted, the Las Vegas Aces are the most talented roster in the league, so one compelling data point is that Young maintained this rim efficiency regardless of whether A’ja Wilson or Kelsey Plum shared the court with her.

Now, Young was only ranked 74th in the league free throw rate last year, which is surprising given how proficient she is at the rim. However, this is in large part due to the abundance of talent on the Aces roster, as well as her tendency to take a lot of outside shots, which brings us to her prolific outside shooting ability.

Young’s incredible paint finishing has made her a tremendous threat offensively, so she has expanded her offensive game to beyond the arc in recent seasons. In 2021, she attempted less than one 3-pointer per game on 24 percent shooting; over the last two years, she is shooting 44 percent on four 3s per game—incredible efficiency.

And she is more than just a spot-up shooter. Even though she shot 47 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s—an unfathomable mark—Young shot over 40 percent on pull-up 3s. This 3-point shooting versatility is extremely valuable because it means Young can maintain her impact and complement stars in high-end lineups, which is an extremely valuable trait on a championship team like the Aces.

Young is actually fourth on this Aces team in offensive load (a metric that tracks how much a player contributes to a meaningful offensive possession), trailing Chelsea Gray, A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum, in that order. Young only ranks 33rd in the entire league in this metric, which is astonishing because of how incredibly efficient she is. Not only was Young the most efficient player on the Aces in 2023 with a 7.7 relative true shooting percentage, but she joined Brittney Sykes, Napheesa Collier and her teammate Chelsea Gray as the only players to average at least 15 points and maintain a true shooting percentage of at least 60 percent.

An efficient scorer from all three levels both on and off the dribble is an extremely rare skill set that only a handful of players can boast. But what about Young’s playmaking?

Young is an improving playmaker

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Young has always been a good connective passer, successful at finding cutters in transition.

In pick-and-roll actions, she has been very good at making the right decision, whether it is finding the screen-and-roller or the shooter in the opposite corner.

For most of her career though, her playmaking has been on relatively low volume. She hasn’t had to worry about a large playmaking load because that belonged to Chelsea Gray, arguably the best passer in the league, with Kelsey Plum serving as the secondary creator. However, with Gray missing the beginning of this season, Young has taken on a much larger playmaking load. Through the first three games of the season, her assist per game numbers have doubled, from just under four to over eight. Based on my evaluation, I don’t think her increased assist numbers are indicative of improved creation since a lot of her assists are idle or intermediate passes to shooters, something she’s always been capable of doing. But, I think this does show she’s more comfortable and can handle increased defensive attention, which is an amazing sign.

Complex decision making has been a struggle so far. On this play, she anticipates the cutter being open, but doesn’t see an open Alysha Clark in the corner when the Los Angeles Sparks’ Lexie Brown rotates early to prevent to pass to the cutter.

Young’s defensive, overall impact

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Defensively, Young is a good man and help defender. A lot of matchups require her to navigate screens, which does pretty well. Last season, she did not take the primary matchup most of the time, which may explain why impact metrics don’t favor her on that end. But watching her on film, she is a very cerebral defender with great instincts.

If there is one weakness to her defense, it would probably be staying in front of guards with a great change of pace. Hesitation moves often get her off balance and lead to easy drives, but I still think she is a borderline All-Defensive player.

Overall, Young ranks near the top of the league in most impact metrics. Last season, she was third in win shares and win shares per 40 minutes and fourth in BBall Index’s LEBRON, which attempts to measure a player’s impact per 100 possessions.

Now it’s important to note that some of these impact metrics are a projection of a player’s impact over a larger sample, which is hard to accurately gauge because the WNBA season is only 40 games and, in Young’s case, she is not a tremendously high-usage player. However, I think these stats, her film evaluation from previous seasons and an increased on-ball playmaking role in the future will give us a better understanding of how good Young is and how high her ceiling as a two-way star really is.