The Best Playmakers in the WNBA

Having a player that can reliably handle the ball and limit turnovers is something every coach longs for. Without an efficient playmaker, your offense is all but guaranteed to struggle.

To dig into who the top playmakers are in the WNBA, we need to look back over the course of the past few seasons. Who are the players in the league that consistently and reliably dish out the most assists without turning the ball over?

With data from the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons, we identified the top 15 players in Assist/Turnover ratio. Each individual must have played in at least 40 games in that span to qualify for the list.

Related: Who are the best 3-Point Shooters in the WNBA?

The WNBA’s Best Playmakers

Player	Total Assists	A/T Ratio 19-21
Sue Bird	377	3.37
Lindsay Allen	243	3.12
Courtney Vandersloot	769	3.10
Natasha Cloud	348	2.95
Jordin Canada	285	2.79
Tyasha Harris	226	2.76
Leilani Mitchell	273	2.53
Shey Peddy	218	2.37
Danielle Robinson	249	2.22
Riquna Williams	133	2.18
Kelsey Plum	186	2.16
Odyssey Sims	261	2.12
Jackie Young	273	2.12
Jessica Shepard	76	2.11
Chelsea Gray	494	2.09

Who is the Best Playmaker in the WNBA?

Courtney Vandersloot is unequivocally the best playmaker in the league. Despite having a slightly lower A/T ratio than Bird over the past few seasons, the volume of assists that Vandersloot puts out per year is in a tier of it’s own. Not only has she lead the league in assists per game for the past five seasons, she has completely re-written the record books – those five seasons are now the top five biggest assist per game numbers the WNBA has ever seen.

When laid out graphically, the gap between Vandersloot and the rest of the league is quite jarring:

Who has the most Assists in WNBA History?

Sue Bird has the most assists in WNBA regular season history, with 3048 total assists heading into her final season in 2022.

1. Sue Bird* (3,048)
2. Ticha Penicheiro (2,600)
3. Lindsay Whalen (2,345)
4. Courtney Vandersloot* (2,178)
5. Diana Taurasi* (2,032)

*Active Player

If Courtney Vandersloot can keep up her recent pace of assists per game and stays healthy for a few more years, it is entirely possible that she’ll eventually pass Sue Bird to become the league’s all-time leader in assists.