In her own words: As you listen to this, Moriah Jefferson is becoming an elite point guard

The San Antonio Stars knew it was going to be a rebuilding year.

When they lost Sophia Young-Malcolm to retirement, Jia Perkins requested a trade, Danielle Robinson suffered a season-ending injury, and Danielle Adams was released, they were without 41 points per game from a 2015 team that only averaged 68 to begin with.

Injuries have acerbated the problem, with Kayla McBride breaking her foot and various other miscellaneous ailments sidelining other key players. The result is a 6-23 team; not exactly the way coach Dan Hughes hoped to end his career.

One of the bright spots though has been the play and development of the Stars’ number one draft choice, Moriah Jefferson. In a perfect world you don’t throw a rookie point guard out there and say here you go run the team, but with Robinson out, that’s exactly what Hughes had to do.

Jefferson has not disappointed.

Sure there have been some lessons learned, but assistant coach Vickie Johnson was quick to point out recently that Jefferson is not making the same mistakes she made at the start of the season, when she relied on some of the successful athleticism plays that worked at UConn, but don’t work against veteran WNBA guards.

There is no denying her success though, as she currently sits second among rookies in scoring with 12.6 points per game, behind only her ex-Husky teammate Breanna Stewart. That is also second to McBride on the Stars.

Jefferson leads all rookies in assists at 4.0 per game, good enough for eighth in the league.  Perhaps most notable though, is she only has committed five turnovers or more once this season, an impressive stat, especially for a rookie point guard. As a comparison, Sue Bird has committed five turnovers four times this season.

With a role in a new Adidas commercial hitting television tonight, which you can see here, Jefferson will be getting more a