2023-06-12 22:30:00
M.A. Voepel | ESPNReading: 9 min.
Legends Jerseys Retired by Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm Sylvia Fowles y Sue Bird on Sunday. It was a good moment to reflect on the glorious past of him. But how do franchise futures look like? When this WNBA regular season ends in three months on September 10, will both teams be in the 2024 draft lottery?
The Lynx and Storm are still at the bottom of ESPN’s WNBA Power Rankings this week. Seattle, grappling with the loss of Breanna Stewart to free agency as well as Bird’s retirement, beat the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday for their first win of the season. Meanwhile, the Lynx saw a potential win slip away on Friday once morest the Indiana Fever, but a late rally on Sunday gave them their first home win this season, also once morest the Sparks.
Minnesota added a lottery pick this season in No. 2 Diamond Miller, who is injured. That was Minnesota’s first top-four draft pick since 2012, though Napheesa Collier has played so well for the Lynx that it’s easy to forget she was the No. 6 pick in 2019. That was like getting lottery-level talent without having a top four pick.
Minnesota’s more than a decade without a lottery pick was due to the tremendous success of the franchise during that time, plus the coach’s strategy Cheryl Reeve, even as the dynasty’s years began to wane and rebuilding was on the horizon. Reeve wanted to do that more through free agency than the draft, but he also had in mind when the draft might get really strong. Suffice to say, that seems to be the case for years to come.
“Unfortunately, sometimes you go back before you go forward,” Reeve said following Friday’s loss. “We’re just going to keep trying. It doesn’t feel good; I know [las jugadoras están] frustrated.
“How do you try to get that [éxito] once more? Sometimes you have to fail first. That might be next for us. We’re certainly trying to be successful, and it may not be our time.”
The Storm have had back-to-back No. 1 selections twice, and all four players became championship-winning stars. Three of them were at the Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday, with Bird (No. 1 in 2002) being honored while Lauren Jackson (2001) and current Storm guard Jewell Loyd (2015) were part of the devoted audience at the ceremony. Stewart (No. 1 in 2016) sent her best wishes in a television interview following the New York Liberty’s victory.
Stewart is Seattle’s newest lottery pick. But Ezi Magbegor, the 12th overall pick in 2019 at age 19, currently ranks second on the Storm in scoring and first in rebounding. Like Minnesota’s Collier, Magbegor seems to outperform his draft spot.
The four teams that finish out of the playoffs will be in the 2024 lottery, but their odds are determined by their combined records over the past two years. Minnesota went 14-22 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010. Seattle went 22-14 and played in the 2022 postseason. The Storm has missed the playoffs just three times since Bird was drafted, most recently in 2015. Both organizations say they are committed to doing the best they can this season.
Deliberately losing out on a draft position hasn’t been an issue in the WNBA like it has been in other professional leagues, especially the NBA. But Reeve made a joking reference Sunday to the most controversial alleged flop in WNBA history: the Phoenix Mercury’s 7-27 season in 2012, which put them in the lottery that nabbed first pick Brittney Griner in 2013. Mercury dealt with a lot of injuries in 2012 and has always vehemently denied having any idea of deliberately losing.
It’s too early in 2023 to say that any team is 100% destined for the lottery. Sunday was to present flowers to two former lottery picks sure to be Hall of Famers. But where Minnesota and Seattle go from here is where the uncertainty comes in.
1.Vegas Aces
The Aces ultimately lost, and coach Becky Hammon thought her defense in that loss was atrocious. To be fair, the loss made sense: it came in the Aces’ second game in three days in Connecticut. So the teams in the 2022 WNBA Finals split their meetings and then both won their subsequent game. The Aces are no longer perfect, but they are still number 1.
2. Connecticut Sun
The Sun continues to stick to the Aces. For now, they are clearly the two best teams. Three different players were the leading scorers for Connecticut last week, with the biggest performance being DeWanna Bonner’s 41 points in beating Las Vegas on Thursday. Bonner reached a personal best at age 35 and in her 14th WNBA season. How’s that for not slowing down?
3. New York Liberty
The only thing the Liberty mightn’t overcome last week was poor air quality that caused Wednesday’s scheduled game once morest Minnesota to be postponed. Then they won in Atlanta on Friday behind Sabrina Ionescu’s career-high 37 points and had a great third quarter to take control en route to beating Dallas on Sunday in Brooklyn. It marks the first time in franchise history — dating back to the league’s inception in 1997 — that the Liberty have scored 100 or more points in consecutive games.
4. Washington Mystics
The Mystics spent a few days in the Pacific Northwest, defeating the Storm twice by almost identical scores. Elena Delle Donne played the first game on Friday, but she missed the second on Sunday due to = neck strain. Without EDD, Natasha Cloud and Ariel Atkins took over with a combined 31 points as Washington outlasted a 23-8 Storm lead in the fourth quarter. Now, all eyes will be on how soon Delle Donne plays once more.
5. Dallas Wings
After back-to-back wins once morest Phoenix on Brittney Griner’s homecoming visit to Texas, the Wings kept pace with the Liberty through the first half in Brooklyn before falling on Sunday. There were several positives last week for Dallas beyond the expected big numbers from Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally.
Veteran Odyssey Sims, signed as a substitute player, had 21 assists in her first three games. Another replacement player, Kalani Brown, had 33 points and 25 rebounds in that stretch. Rookie Maddy Siegrist, the third overall pick, had her best game yet with 14 points and eight rebounds in the opener once morest the Mercury.
6. Chicago Sky
After beating Indiana at home in overtime, the Sky traveled west and lost in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. But Marina Mabrey’s combined 56 points in those three games stood out for Chicago, as did the performance of Alanna Smith, who is averaging 11.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in her best WNBA season yet.
7. Phoenix Mercury
Why is the Mercury moving up following two losses in Dallas and a narrow win in Indiana? A couple of reasons: Brittney Griner’s excellent scoring all week (71 combined points) and the resilience of the entire team in Indianapolis on Sunday following Griner’s bullying at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Saturday. Griner was 9-for-13 from the field and 11-for-12 from the line once morest the Fever, which shows just how focused he was.
8. Indiana Fever
The Fever came close to winning back-to-back games for the first time since May 2022. After losing in Chicago, they won in Minnesota but then fell at home to Phoenix by three points. The Fever are still trying to put all the pieces together, but they are succeeding. NaLyssa Smith’s career-high 29 points, plus 12 rebounds and four assists, once morest the Mercury on Sunday marked her fifth double-double this season.
9. Los Angeles Sparks
Maybe we’re punishing the Sparks too much by sinking them this low, considering they’re still at .500 and have two more wins than either the Mercury or the Fever. But there had to be some consequence for losing to the bottom two teams in the Power Rankings, representing Seattle’s only win, even if both games were on the road and they beat Chicago in between those losses.
The Sparks have been the most “mobile” team in the Power Rankings thus far: 8, 6, 7, 5 and now 9. Tune in next week, because they’ll be somewhere else. Nneka Ogwumike is sticking out — he tied his season high with 27 points Sunday at Minnesota — but the Sparks are still trying to achieve consistency, particularly in finishing games.
10. Atlanta Dream
We gave the Dream the benefit of the doubt this week, as their losses came to top teams, New York and Connecticut. Neither loss was close, however, and the Dream plays those same road teams this week. The loss of shooting guard Aari McDonald for probably at least three weeks due to a torn labrum suffered on June 2 is a blow. Atlanta might “battle” for the bottom of the Power Rankings if the Dream suffers another winless week.
11. Minnesota Lynx
It may not be Minnesota’s “time” as Reeve said, at least in terms of being a championship contender now. But there are enough good pieces on this team that things might still come together for a playoff berth. Erasing an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Sparks on Sunday made things even brighter for Fowles’ retirement celebration, but it also showed how the Lynx have strengths to show off. But they’ll also face that same Sparks team twice on the road in the next eight days, along with a trip to face defending champion Las Vegas.
12. Seattle Storm
Other than Loyd, which players will consistently score for the Storm? Ezi Magbegor is the only other player to average in double figures. After that, it’s mostly role players and youngsters. Loyd has stepped into the leadership vacuum. The Storm picked up their first win last week, 66-63 over the Sparks, and rallied to avoid a blowout once morest the Mystics on Sue Bird Day; both were good signs. But Seattle, which will now play three straight on the road, faces a talent and experience deficit in a league where every game is hard to win.
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