2023 WNBA Draft Breakdown - Stephanie Soares
A big out of Iowa State who is currently battling an injury. What's her draft range looking like?
Unicorn.
That’s the term that often gets thrown around when talking about 6-foot-6 forward/center Stephanie Soares out of Iowa State. And for good reason.
Soares averaged 14.4 points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 3 blocks per game in 13 games as a freshman, hitting 63% of her two-pointers and 30.6% of her 2.8 attempts from downtown per game.
As Soares soars up the draft boards, it’s important to note that the base numbers, as impressive as they are, aren’t even breaching the surface of Soares’ awesome potential. The center’s ceiling is a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate and franchise cornerstone.
Soares’s footwork is what stands out right away. Using her length and size, Soares is always able to find a favorable angle in the paint and turns every assignment into a mismatch. Soares is also a double target, allowing her to serve as an anchor and kick back out to teammates — an underrated skill I think will translate nicely to the W.
Another underrated aspect of Soares’s offensive capabilities at the next level is her ability to be a second-chance expert. Soares averaged just under three offensive boards per game for Iowa State and though she didn’t take as many rim attempts as I think she should’ve, it’s something that is easily moldable at the next level.
On top of that, I think Soares has a smooth enough jump shot that could translate to the next level. While her touch isn’t the most perfect thing in the world, it’s encouraging to see her taking so many threes per game.
Any point guard in the league that gets paired with Soares is going to improve based solely on the fact that they get to operate pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop plays with an adaptable big on the offensive end.
Defensively, advanced metrics rave about Soares. I love prospects who can protect the rim and come out onto the perimeter a bit and Soares does that with ease. Soares is such an efficient rim protector that she ranks first among all D1 players in block percentage but isn’t anywhere close to league average in personal foul percentage.
The film backs this up. Soares is excellent at making defensive reads, moves with great anticipation and doesn’t ever have to chase blocks. Soares is also able to use her wingspan to disrupt passing lanes, which makes her an appealing, and amusing, inbound defender.
Soares singlehandedly improved Iowa State’s defensive rating by 50 percentile points from last season to this season. Through early December, CBB Analytics had Iowa State’s opponents shooting 48.5% at the rim compared to 62.6% from last season.
Other 2023/24 WNBA Draft prospects are also looked upon favorably in terms of defensive metrics. In this draft class, Saint Louis’s Brooke Flowers ranks in the 98th percentile in block percentage but Flowers is poor at generating steals.
Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair, who just announced she is staying with the Orange for next season, ranks in the 100th percentile in steal percentage but is just 5-foot-5.
UConn’s Dorka Juhasz is in the 99th percentile for Hakeem percentage, a metric that combines steal and block percentage, but she is far behind Soares in each individual stat.
USC’s Koi Love… okay, you get the point.
Soares, meanwhile, ranks in the 100th percentile for Hakeem percentage, 99th percentile for personal foul efficiency, 99th percentile for block percentage and 86th percentile for steal percentage.
Counting stats look just as favorable. Soares had 39 blocks compared to 28 fouls in 13 games. That’s a pace of 105 blocks on the season, which would have ranked third in the country.
Of course, Soares’ elite statistics and tape are limited to 13 games at a high level. Soares played the first three years of her career at The Master’s University in Santa Clara.
Critics of Soares will cite injury risk as a reason to not select her in the lottery. Soares sat out the 2020-21 season at The Master’s University and of course was limited to just 13 games this season.
However, as my colleague and WNBA Draft expert Rachel Galligan pointed out, Tamika Catchings sat out her first season after being drafted due to an injury and we all know how that turned out.
Whatever team selects Soares will of course have to be patient. Soares likely would have used the summer to rehab and return in the middle of the 2023-24 college season, but the NCAA denied her medical waiver request and thus, she is in the 2023 class.
Still, Soares is essentially a prospect for 2024 as she rehabs her ACL injury. A team that is short on roster spots could gather Soares’s draft rights, rehab her in team facilities and then unleash a defensive menace on the rest of the league.
Soares is in my upper echelon of prospects for the 2023 class. Though it may take her a while to prove that draft status is worth it, I feel it will be. I have a lottery grade on Soares.