As the Seattle Storm season comes to the end, the team’s entry into the offseason gives room for reflection, rest and restoration. The sentiment in the team’s final exit interview was the need for more time to grow and build a championship foundation with the key pieces already here.
A team that only won 11 games the previous year went through a lot of changes last offseason. The addition of All-Star players like Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith on top of the all-defensive play of Ezi Magabor, and scoring of franchise player Jewell Loyd, helped the team win 25 games and earned the fifth seed in the WNBA playoffs.
The natural leadership of veteran players Diggins-Smith and Ogwumike was felt throughout the season. Ogwumike, who is the president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBA) and spent 12 years with the Los Angeles Sparks, winning a title in 2016, touched rookie guard Nika Mühl during a team meeting.
“Nneka actually had like this speech about you know what each of us needs to do and when Nneka starts talking you can listen to her for hours. She’s such a great speaker and she translates her thoughts into words so well,” Mühl said. “She just said something about me. It was just like a small little thing… I was like you know just hearing that from such a successful player, a vet and All-Star and everything, it just meant so much even though maybe she didn’t realize it at the moment.”
The Storm’s fifth seed earned them a first-round matchup against the reigning champions Las Vegas Aces, an unfavorable matchup against the three-time League MVP A’ja Wilson and co. Eventually losing the series 2-0. The Storm had their opportunities, though ultimately fell short with a tough two-point fourth quarter in game one and crucial free throw misses down the stretch in game two.
The continuity and core pieces of players of the Aces have become a model for success in the WNBA. Loyd, a three-time champion, acknowledged how important it is in basketball to be able to have that foundation to be successful.
“There’s no miscommunication (for the Aces), it’s quick because you kind of have a vibe. I’ve been a part of a team like that where we’ve been together long and you didn’t have to say anything, we kind of just did it,” she said.
Though for a team that “had enough to be in the finals,” as stated by head coach Noelle Quinn, the quick turnaround from 11 win-team to championship contention is something to be proud of for Loyd.
“Having different personnel, different style of play and then having to realize what’s a good shot, what’s a bad shot, like even just like where people want the ball, knowing how to pass it and catch it around their shooting pocket. Those things take some time so I’m happy with how our players really just came together,” she said.
Loyd’s optimism extended beyond the court. “I definitely had growth so it’s different, it’s like maybe the basketball wasn’t there but my leadership and the person I am has grown. Basketball is only 10% of my life.” The basketball part Loyd is referring to is her 36% from the field, and 27.4% on three-pointers, both the lowest averages of her 10-year career. Yet the 10-year veteran still led the team in PPG (19.7).
Evolution seemed to be a theme not only for the 2024 Storm but for the WNBA as a whole. The league saw record-breaking TV ratings and attendance with the arrival of a star-loaded 2024 draft class headlined by rookie Caitlin Clark. It also gave players an opportunity to advocate for better treatment of the league, including pay which has been an issue for multiple years.
Forward Gabby Williams touched on the lack of transparency and honesty about player wages in her exit interview.
“(The WNBA) commissioner talked about us being able to, you know, make $700,000. That’s actually not true at all; there’s not one player who makes that,” Williams said. “We were promised you know the marketing agreements and legal marketing agreements but they’ve fallen quite short so it’s still not enough for us international players to want to stay here and that’s a choice of the players.”
Soon after, Williams announced that she would be leaving the Storm to play overseas for Turkish club Fenerbahçe.
While the Storm lose out on Williams to Europe, the focus turns to retaining the remaining free agents, including Ogwumike, who is set to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent.
The team will also be without Nika Mühl for the foreseeable future. Mühl tore her ACL this past week in her first game with her European team Besiktas. While Mühl did not play a lot of minutes in her first year, the 15th overall pick has become a fan favorite and showed a lot of promise on the defensive end, playing under accomplished coach Geno Auriemma at the University of Connecticut.
