Dallas Wings forward Jessica Shepard has won the 2026 Most Improved Player award, the WNBA announced on Wednesday.
Shepard narrowly beat out the Washington Mystics' Shakira Austin with 29 of 74 votes from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters, while Austin received 25. The Portland Fire's Carla Leite came in third with 11, while Toronto's Marina Mabrey (4), Seattle's Dominique Malonga (3) and Los Angeles' Rae Burrell (2) also earned votes.
In her first season in Dallas and sixth in the WNBA, Shepard averaged career-highs of 14.5 points, 11.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, becoming the second player in league history to average 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a season. (Candace Parker in 2015 was the other, though she did so in just 16 games.)
Shepard and the Atlanta Dream's Angel Reese were the only players this season to average a double-double, recording 25 in all, and the Wings standout notched a season-high six triple-doubles on the year.
The 6-foot-4 Notre Dame product helped guide the Wings to a 27-17 regular season and No. 7 seed in the playoffs. They face elimination Wednesday night when they look to even their best-of-three first-round series against the No. 2 seed Golden State Valkyries.
Shepard, a second-round pick by the Minnesota Lynx in 2019, played her first five WNBA seasons in Minnesota, where she never averaged more than 8.1 points and 26.9 minutes per game in a season. She will be awarded $15,000 and a trophy designed to commemorate the achievement.
