MINNEAPOLIS — It took Cheryl Reeve all of two April practices to truly believe it could be done. The new pieces she acquired through the WNBA this offseason — not through high-profile signings or super-team appointments — and the remaining players developed in Minneapolis over the last few years may actually be playing in a manner reminiscent of previous seasons.
During two practices, players and coaches looked around the gym and realized that the chemistry they felt and how quickly the players and staff got along was a rare feeling. Outside expectations for Minnesota, which failed to make the 2022 playoffs and was eliminated in the first round of the 2023 playoffs, were not very high. But in the gym, Ryś saw, heard and felt something completely different. Sometimes it takes weeks to build this type of foundation, which over the course of a three-month season often means the team has to dig itself out of a hole and fight its way back to the bottom. But for Ryś it was clear in practice no. 2.
“The way we played for each other on the field,” Reeve said. “I didn't know all these personalities, I didn't know how we would get through this journey, road trips and so on, victories and defeats. But the way we had it on the second day of training camp was that we played for ourselves. … I didn’t necessarily know what it would translate into, but it was day two for me.”
THIS IS OUR TRAINER. 💪
Cheryl Reeve is the 2024 WNBA Coach of the Year. pic.twitter.com/9qSrFPpNn5
— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) September 29, 2024
It's been seven years since Minnesota won the WNBA championship, which in Lynx years (slightly longer than dog years) is practically a lifetime. From 2011 to 2017, Minnesota won four championships and reached the WNBA Finals twice. The core players on these teams were iconic stars in their own right (and in the WNBA All-Star sense of the word). As the 2024 WNBA season came to an end, all but one of the most important players on this legendary franchise – Maya Moore – had their jerseys hanging from the rafters. In August, Moore's was there as well, joining Lindsay Whalen, Rebekkah Brunson, Sylvia Fowles and Seimone August. There were always naysayers and whispers. Sure, Reeve won titles while coaching four Olympians and five retired athletes, but who couldn't?
A year after Minnesota won its last title in 2017, Moore, Whalen and Brunson retired. Fowles and Augustus remained, but the Lynx were passed into the hands of a younger generation. In 2019, Minnesota drafted Napheesa Collier from Connecticut. Brunson, who is now an assistant at Minnesota, said: “No one shouted, 'Draft Phee!' But the potential was there.”
One of the greatest events in the history of professional sports was the return to conversations about potential and development – within 12 months of the fourth title banner being raised. But that's how dynasties work. They have a lifespan of ups and downs; fast, gradual or other.
There was no going back to those times, and in some ways it was simply impossible. The league was changing, and with it, free agency became drastically different.
Free agency has really opened up for the 2021 cycle, with the Lynx making big moves bringing in Kayla McBrideNatalie Achonwa and Aerial Powers. Super teams were formed throughout the WNBA as players gained more power to choose their destinations. The Las Vegas Aces added point guard Chelsea Gray to an already stacked 2022 team that won the franchise's first title, then added Candace Parker ahead of the 2023 season. At the same time, the New York Liberty were courting two-time MVP Breanna Stewart, MVP Jonquel Jones and All-Stars Bethany Laney-Hamilton and Courtney Vandersloot.
Minnesota threw its hat into the ring for some of these high-profile players, but came out of free agency empty-handed.
Enter 2024: Other franchises followed Liberty and Aces' lead as Seattle signed All-Stars Ms. Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins Smith to join Jewell Loyd and Good Magbegorze and Mercury brought in Kahleah Copper to join Diana Taurasi and Brittney Grinner. However, Minnesota decided to choose a slightly less traveled (read: less heralded) path.
“Everyone's goal is to improve year after year,” said Lynx CEO Clare Duwelius. “We were very specific in what we wanted. It's like a basketball game where you take the ball one possession at a time.
With this mindset, Minnesota opted for independent agency to avoid signing the biggest names and stealing headlines. The Lynx wanted to address a few core areas: players who could add offensive firepower around Collier and McBride, who were already signed to multi-year deals, and defensive stalwarts who would thrive in Reeve's system. Equally important, Reeve emphasized that any player joining the franchise must fit the culture and be someone who believes in the goal of exceeding expectations.
The franchise's first move was a January trade with Connecticut that generated minimal interest until the addition of Natisha Hiedeman as a defender and 3-point threat.
A day later, Lynx announced that they had re-signed Bridget Carleton. Its 2023 numbers were good but unremarkable. She was considered a rotational depth player, but coaches believed she was close to a breakout if only they could give her more confidence on her outside shots (Spoiler: they were right. This season, with more minutes, she's shooting 44 percent from long range with high volume).
On February 1, the first day that WNBA free agents could sign, Minnesota announced the signing of guard Courtney Williams and forward Alanna Smith, responding to offensive and defensive inquiries about the Lynx.
Smith, like Carleton, once assumed her WNBA days might be over. after Fever cut her back in 2022 (a season in which they won just five games), she thought she would focus on the Australian national team and playing professionally overseas. Williams, who played for three teams in three seasons, was brought to Minnesota as a quarterback.
In April, with a chance to bring in another three-point shooter, Reeve and Duwelius followed in the footsteps of Cecilia Zandalasini, who had been under contract with the franchise since 2017 but whose schedule didn't regularly adjust to come from Italy to play in the U.S.
Heading into the 2024 season, Minnesota's free agency period was largely rated as decent — good enough for a team looking to keep pace, but not as impressive as what other teams around the league have accomplished. Swish Appeal ranked the Lynx eighth in free agency success. ESPN ranked them ninth in their preseason power rankings. “If everything works out, the Lynx could make the playoffs again,” the article said.
In Los Angeles, former Sparks coach Curt Miller considered Minnesota dangerous. “It may not be obvious on free agent signing days, but they had an incredible free agent offseason,” he said.
Midway through the season, as the Lynx's outside playoff potential became increasingly clear, Reeve decided he needed to make one more move to solve some paint problems: bring in undersized post Myisha Hines-Allen from Washington.
In previous championship-level lineups, Reeve's job was to pick superstars and shape them into fit pieces. In the 2024 season, working with the Olympic team, her task was the same: to recruit the best players in the world and create the best team in the world. This often included asking players to minimize aspects of their own games to make them smaller than in any other basketball environment.
But in Minneapolis it was almost the opposite. Take Collier's exceptional star and players who have made careers of complementing each other and turn them into the best team in the league. This, Brunson said, was where Reeve's ability to find the right cultural fit was most highlighted.
She was a part of all four of the Lynx WNBA titles and felt the unselfish nature of those locker rooms. She knew what those second practices during championship seasons were like, and when the 2024 squad – with question marks and a lot of new faces – took to the floor, she felt something familiar.
“You have a feeling whether the team is going to break down or not,” Brunson said. “As soon as this team came into training camp, you could tell we had an opportunity to be special.”
.@minnesotalynx Coach Cheryl Reeve on her mindset heading into Game 3 of the WNBA Finals:
“They understand it's 2 home games, but we're locked in in the first 5 minutes of Game 3. How we approach our business will dictate everything.” @FOX9 pic.twitter.com/JdPkUhW5i0
— Jeff Wald (@JeffWaldFox9) October 15, 2024
The road from Practice 2 to Game 3 of the WNBA Finals was a long one, and despite its ups and downs, it didn't need as much runway as many assumed. But now the Lynx are two wins away from returning to the familiar place where it seemed like the franchise once existed. This version of Minnesota is canonized in the rafters. Is this the starting five? It's hard to say how many players outside of Collier really have a chance of making those five jerseys.
Over the next three days in Minnesota, the current players – underrated signees and need-filling, unheralded Lynx – have a chance to accomplish what few outside the locker room thought possible this year in the Twin Cities: become a championship team that beats a super-team.
“Personally, after all these championships, I think this is her best year coaching in the WNBA,” Miller said of Reeve, who won WNBA Coach and Executive of the Year awards this season. “I think she did her best coaching job this year in her historic and award-winning career, assembling a high-IQ basketball team that plays with great energy, but most importantly, plays the most unselfish basketball our league has seen. “
This article originally appeared on The Sportsman.
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