The 6’6 center is in her eighth season in the league, and undoubtedly her best. She’s averaging 13 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 1.1 blocks, 2.1 assists, while shooting 48.8% from the floor and 39.8% from three on 4.3 attempts per game. All but the blocks number are career bests for her. Stevens is also fifth in the league in defensive rebounds per game.
Last year she had four double-doubles. On Sunday night, she recorded her ninth of 2025.
But most notably is Stevens’ impact on the Sparks’ ability to win games. She’s scored in double figures in only 11 of the team’s 22 losses (which also includes three of the Sparks’ 19 wins). It’s evident that when Stevens scores, the Sparks win.
Earlier in August, Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts told media, “If she is not the top vote-getter for Most Improved [Player], something’s wrong, right? When you talk about most improved, a lot of times, players will change rosters. So it’s a different opportunity, right? If you’re coming off the bench, and then you go to another team, and now you’re starting– that doesn’t really necessarily show improvement, that just shows bigger opportunity.”
She went on to speak about Stevens’ Effective Field Goal percentage, which is 57.5% this year compared to last year (47.8%), as well as her True Shooting Percentage—which has improved from 50.6% in 2024 to 60.4% this year. She currently ranks 11th in the league amongst players playing more than 20 minutes.
“She came in here ready to roll, and she’s completely bought into what we’re doing,” added Coach Roberts. “I think the system has helped her improve in terms of the numbers, as shown. There’s so many great players and improvement across the league, [but] there’s nobody in the league that’s more improved than Azurá Stevens, for sure.”
When Roberts refers to the “system,” she’s speaking to her preferred style of basketball: a fast-paced, offensive-minded, three-point heavy game. For a versatile center like Stevens who has spent her career spreading the floor rather than finding the block and posting up, it’s an ideal match.
Prior to the Sparks’ loss against the Atlanta Dream, Roberts told reporters that she still believed that Stevens deserved to be the Most Improved Player this season, despite a recent slump she’d found herself in, shooting just 7-27 from the floor over the course of four games.
Stevens appeared to break her slump in her 13 point, 11 rebound performance over Dallas on Sunday. After the game, when asked about what in the offseason contributed to her major jump this season, she said: “Offensively, Unrivaled really helped me just to be aggressive. 3-on-3, naturally, you have to be aggressive. Can’t really pass up on shots. So it was really perfect prep for coming here and being in this new system. […] I tried to spend a little more time in the weight room and really focus on that.” She added that she attributes some of that growth to not having to go overseas, working on her game and on her fitness in a place that was comfortable, and she “knew what she was getting into.”
The Sparks’ PR team has doubled down on her campaign with a series of posts on X touting her accomplishments this season, including a roundup of stats on September 5th that noted that as the pick-and roll-ball handler, she’s gone from second-lowest at points-per-direct (a somewhat uncommon statistic that indicates “the number of points a player generates over the course of a season, divided by the number of direct instances used to generate those plays,” per ESPN), to first in the league this year.
“To me, improvement doesn’t mean a different opportunity. If you’re in one place and you go to another place, and then you’re playing more and you have a different opportunity, that doesn’t necessarily show improvement, right? It just shows opportunity,” Roberts said, a differentiation that sets Stevens apart from contenders like Burton. “The numbers speak for themselves.[…] She’s just playing at a really high level and there’s significant improvement, and it’s a huge reason as to why we’ve won more games this year.”
The Sparks will face the Mercury and Aces this week to determine whether they will gain a berth into the 2025 WNBA playoffs.
