I would love some additional thoughts on the offseason and how they could make running it back work. 2 weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought this as a possibility but now I’m thinking it could be where they go.
With unrivaled, we’re seeing players get better, but it’s also opportunity for injury and coming back into the season less rested. How does the offseason choices impact the core in the positive and negative.
I also think about Dom’s development. I believe the vets have greatly contributed to how she’s showed up through the season. Nneka’s excellence and work ethic, Skylar’s fight, and Erica’s unapologetic passion. Does another year under that leadership outweigh some of the downsides?
Keeping Nneka around is by no means the worst thing the Storm could do. I can make the argument for and against. Against is pretty easy. With her as the team's best player, they haven't been able to finish better than 5th in the standings; they got worse in her 2nd season, and they've been ousted from the first round of the playoffs two years in a row. Things aren't likely to get better as she turns 36 and 37. From an on-court experience, she is also blocking the development of Ezi and Dom. Because the team relies on her to be their primary post scorer instead of those two younger players.
The reason to keep Ogwumike around. She is still arguably a Top 10 to at least Top 15 player in the WNBA. She still put together an impressive season, averaging 18.0 PPG and 7.0 RPG. She is a good veteran for Malonga and, to a lesser extent, Magbegor, to learn from. If we want to have the most positive outlook, you can argue that they were one play, one rebound, etc., away from eliminating the Las Vegas Aces. And maybe if they had either better coaching or a more balanced roster, they might have been able to win the WNBA Championship with the talent on this current team.
This is why I wrote about a sunk-cost fallacy, though. I think they can trick themselves into thinking it can still work, centering around Nneka and Skylar, but the evidence has shown that it hasn't worked. As both of them get older, I'm not sure why anyone would expect better results.
Regarding Unrivaled. I'm wondering if that helped Skylar be better early on this season, but it may have also been why she started to wear down over the final 10 games or so. Betnijah Laney got injured and lost her WNBA season. It might also cost the New York Liberty their opportunity to repeat as Champions. But then you look at someone like Caitlin Clark, who didn't play in Unrivaled or overseas, is super young, and then still was plagued with injuries all season long.
Great write up. Loved your comment about Nneka stifling the development of Ezi and Dom. Good insight.
To me, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. With the new CBA and most of the team being UFA, it’s a great opportunity for the Storm to clean house and rebuild. Let’s make this team fun again and not take shortcuts with their failed win now mentality. There are so many young talented and athletic players in the draft now versus 10 years ago. Build the team the right way and reap the rewards. And there has to be a new coaching staff with a new voice!!
In my opinion, I just don’t see this core led by Nneka and Skylar winning a championship next year, even with a new coach. I’d still rank the Lynx, Aces (2 teams with MVP-caliber players reaching prime ages), Indiana (with Caitlin back, they could be a legit top-four team), Liberty (with better coaching and some roster fixes to bring back the versatile defensive role players they lost), and even the Dream (who will grow from this playoff experience), the Valkyries (I imagine they will add a couple of star pickups in free agency, and they already have a well-oiled system) ahead of them.
Nneka and Skylar will be 36, and while this core is older, they actually have the least playoff experience among the teams in the postseason this year. I saw people talking online that Nneka hasn’t won a playoff series since 2017 or 2018. Can she really lead this team to a championship at this stage in her career? I’m not convinced. A semifinal run feels like their ceiling in the best case scenario.
Jeff, you are scaring me. My only solace during the darkest days of the season was that the Storm would be different next season because they would finally be building through the draft.
Now you raise the possibility of running it back, and I think I need air.
I don't mean to alarm you. My mindset going into this season was that they needed to advance past the first round for Quinn's job to be safe. Because you can't have all this talent and continuously underperform. Whether we want to put that on Quinn or Nneka and Skylar. The blame has to go on someone. From a roster and talent standpoint, the Storm almost certainly have a Top 5 roster. Finishing 7th and being bounced in the 1st round was not a successful season in my eyes.
They could run it back, but I think, as others have said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Quinn hasn't won a playoff series since Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart were on the roster.
I’ve really wanted Quinn to succeed, but it just feels like the Storm have consistently underperformed the last few years. I’m a long time Nneka fan, from her Stanford days, but the Storm need to build around Malonga and Magbegor.
I would blow it up. Too your point, Ezi pretty much regressed this year with a lack of playing time and you can't have that. However Ezi needs to learn to consistently box out and not have lapses. Not sure who was supposed to box out young but 6-4 Ezi was right there. These players need to learn to fight for inside position and not just stare at the hoop. Look at the photo you provided as evidence. How did Young get inside position on 3 Storm players?
The perfect draft would be Oliva Miles and Serah Williams. A point guard of the future and a low post who can score and rebound. Someone who is physical.
If they do blow it up I think Quinn is gone. If they want to hire a female African American coach their are plenty of good options out there. Dawn Stanley or Kara Lawson comes to mind.
There is zero chance Dawn Staley is hired. But there are plenty of good coaches out there. I also agree that they should get one of the top guards whether that's Miles, Flau'jae, or Fudd with that first pick and then get a backup big with the 14th overall pick if the talent is still on the board. Possible options could include Serah Williams, Janiah Barker, or Madina Okot.
I plan to write a larger article on Ezi because I think it's a bigger story than what has been said or acknowledged.
Just a general comment that, as much as I would have preferred a different result for Seattle, it's really cool that all of the 1st round series are ending with tight games. I'm watching the NYL-PHX game 3 now and it looks like it might also go to the last minute.
Every team in the playoffs this year was/is legitimately good. Just some are better than the others. This feels much more entertaining than it has been in that past. I remember 10 or so years ago where sub-.500 teams in the playoffs was common.
100% agree. All Game 3’s went down to the wire. The new 1-1-1 format worked perfectly. Becky Hammon said she’d rather have the 1st round Best of 5 if they aren’t going to do 2-1 like it was from 2022-2024, but there is no denying that the 1-1-1 format worked out well for entertainment and hopefully viewership numbers.
The biggest of the big-time college coaches (Staley at SC, Lawson at Duke) are never going to leave major programs for a job in the W. You'd have to look at mid-majors like where Karl Smesko came from, or the ranks of assistant coaches in either the W or MNBA.
I'm still agnostic on whether Quinn is the problem. I'm still on Team Roster Construction.
Is Team Roster construction - Team Rebuild? (moving on from Nneka, Skylar, Slim, etc.)
I agree that there is no way they're getting Dawn Staley and probably not Kara Lawson either. There definitely are other head coaches out there, but as you mentioned, probably nothing at the big programs like Notre Dame, USC, UCLA, South Carolina, etc.
Assistants in the WNBA, NBA, or possibly G-League would all be options. I know Lisa Leslie is a name that gets brought up a lot. I'm not sure going with someone who has less coaching experience than Quinn would be a wise idea. Although I'm sure Leslie would be good at coaching up Ezi and Dom. I don't think Latricia Trammell got a fair shot in Dallas and things seemed to turn around for Los Angeles when she joined them. That could be an option. I believe Kristi Toliver has been praised a lot by Coach Tibbetts in Phoenix. Briann January is an assistant with Indiana under Stephanie White. Lindsay Whalen is under Cheryl Reeve in Minnesota, etc.
I should have put quotes around it to make myself clearer- what I mean by Team 'Roster Construction' is that I'm one of those who believe that this roster, talented as it was, was lacking something. Maybe that missing piece was embodied by Jordan Horston- a 6'2" mobile wing/forward? If only she was a threat from the 3 point line. I look around the league at a certain type of player that we didn't have that the more successful teams do.
(It's not KLS. the Fever paid her to go away. And I don't want to hear about Nika Muhl.)
Last year's team did better in the regular season, but this year's team competed better with the Aces in the playoffs. Imagine if we had Horston this year to go along with Malonga. The Clark signing and Sykes trade probably don't happen. There would be a lot less calling for Noey's head.
You still might not get out of the first round though in this small, tough, stacked league. I don't know how you tell a coach "beat the Aces and make it to the semi finals or you're fired because of all this talent we have." I've never bought that narrative.
Here's a sobering thought- Dom is only under team control for 3 more years. You have to do whatever it takes to keep her happy and wanting to play here, if that means keeping certain coaches or vets.
The game was heartbreaking to watch and I feel for the players who really, really wanted to beat this team (not sure where that team was game one).
I am, though, really mystified that there is even talk about bringing the coaching staff back this year. Literally every season under Quinn the team has underperformed w/r/t their talent and the ceiling seems to be 5th place and losing to Vegas in the playoffs. Is that the goal now? Every season ends with some kind of excuse. Year one: Stewie was hurt; year two: LV was really good; year three: Stewie and Bird were gone; year four: Jewell was unhappy and brought the team down with her; this year: Jordan Horston was injured. At this point I just feel gaslit by the entire organization.
The other day I got into an argument with someone on Reddit (I know.) who thought it was insane that I thought the coach might bear some responsibility for a team finishing 13th in rebounding.
I was just looking at my invoices for my season tickets and my seat was a little over $1100 the first year in Climate Pledge Arena and next year it's going to go up to almost $2100. I've also probably spent another $1000 on merch, getting to the games (I Lyft there and walk home), food at the arena, Storm Chasers Substack, etc... Over that time, the team's won exactly one playoff series. I'm at a loss. I'm ready to just give up.
Your complaints are valid. This is why I wrote about the sunk-cost fallacy. When Sue retired and Stewie left, they weren't good at all because they believed Stewie would re-sign and bring Courtney Vandersloot with her, but then Stewart signed with New York and took Sloot with her. They had the opportunity to go into a full rebuild at that point. But instead, they opted to bring in Skylar and Nneka.
I don't really fault them for going down that path. 2023 sucked because the team was awful. They saw the Liberty take great players from other teams and tried to replicate that success. A group that featured Nneka Ogwumike, Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins, and Ezi Magbegor (and later on Gabby) should have been a team that reached the semi-finals in the WNBA. Instead, they were swept by Las Vegas. They traded Jewell for the #2 pick (correct move) and tried again with the same core and some additions like Erica Wheeler. They were even worse in 2025 than they were in 2024, and I'd argue they had the better team this year (it is debatable).
2026 seems like a perfect time to do a franchise reset. New coaching staff and put together a young team without Nneka and Skylar. Build around Dominique Malonga, Jordan Horston, Ezi Magbegor, and the 2026 lottery pick (Olivia Miles, Azzi Fudd, etc.). Bring Gabby Williams back if she wants to stay, or do a sign-and-trade with her if she wants to go somewhere else. If they're bad in 2026 and miss the playoffs, they can add another lottery pick to the young group I wrote about above. Maybe they luck out and get JuJu Watkins or even someone like Madison Booker.
It just seems like this would be the smartest path forward for the franchise.
It's really unfortunate that we blew our opportunity to be in the semi-finals. There are so many things we could have done better to wrap up this series. It may be fitting that we lost the series by not getting a rebound that we should have had. Our rebounding has been awful all season and it has to get better. It should get better with Dom getting more minutes next year.
I really feel like just screaming my head off. I'm so pissed off at the Storm. They had this game won. They screwed up big time. You can't blame Coach Quinn for the players screwing up and allowing Jackie Young to beat them. Coach Quinn certainly has her faults. She seems way too passive most of the time. I think she needs to be much tougher and verbally louder and more expressive and definitive with her players. I'm way too upset now over what might have been and should have been. Becky Hammon even said that the Aces stole this game (and series) from the Storm.
That was a bad idea, but all our bigs should have kept Jackie Young off the boards by putting their bodies on her and blocking her out. I think Ezi was mostly to blame for the failure to box out. If they had done their jobs, we'd be in the semi-finals now and we'd have ended the reign of the Aces.
Incorrect. Ezi got switched at the top from the pick and roll and had to cover Chelsea Gray at the top of the arc, furthest from the rim. The blame mostly falls on two players. Gabby for leaving Jackie Young to help defend A’ja. I don’t mind that because sending two at A’ja is smart. But then Nneka needed to sag off Kierstan Bell and be in the paint so she could box Jackie out. Ogwumike was too high up on Bell who didn’t need to be defended at all because there is zero chance Kierstan Bell was going to take the shot with the game on the line. And unfortunately, Nneka didn’t rotate over in time.
With all that said. Jackie Young is a former #1 overall pick for a reason. She made an incredible play.
I wasn't sure who the players were who could have boxed Jackie Young out, but it appeared that there were at least 2 if not 3 players who were in position and should have boxed Jackie out but failed to. And why wasn't Dom in there? If Dom was in the game, I don't think Young gets that rebound and putback and we'd be having a different conversation and a celebration.
I would love some additional thoughts on the offseason and how they could make running it back work. 2 weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought this as a possibility but now I’m thinking it could be where they go.
With unrivaled, we’re seeing players get better, but it’s also opportunity for injury and coming back into the season less rested. How does the offseason choices impact the core in the positive and negative.
I also think about Dom’s development. I believe the vets have greatly contributed to how she’s showed up through the season. Nneka’s excellence and work ethic, Skylar’s fight, and Erica’s unapologetic passion. Does another year under that leadership outweigh some of the downsides?
Keeping Nneka around is by no means the worst thing the Storm could do. I can make the argument for and against. Against is pretty easy. With her as the team's best player, they haven't been able to finish better than 5th in the standings; they got worse in her 2nd season, and they've been ousted from the first round of the playoffs two years in a row. Things aren't likely to get better as she turns 36 and 37. From an on-court experience, she is also blocking the development of Ezi and Dom. Because the team relies on her to be their primary post scorer instead of those two younger players.
The reason to keep Ogwumike around. She is still arguably a Top 10 to at least Top 15 player in the WNBA. She still put together an impressive season, averaging 18.0 PPG and 7.0 RPG. She is a good veteran for Malonga and, to a lesser extent, Magbegor, to learn from. If we want to have the most positive outlook, you can argue that they were one play, one rebound, etc., away from eliminating the Las Vegas Aces. And maybe if they had either better coaching or a more balanced roster, they might have been able to win the WNBA Championship with the talent on this current team.
This is why I wrote about a sunk-cost fallacy, though. I think they can trick themselves into thinking it can still work, centering around Nneka and Skylar, but the evidence has shown that it hasn't worked. As both of them get older, I'm not sure why anyone would expect better results.
Regarding Unrivaled. I'm wondering if that helped Skylar be better early on this season, but it may have also been why she started to wear down over the final 10 games or so. Betnijah Laney got injured and lost her WNBA season. It might also cost the New York Liberty their opportunity to repeat as Champions. But then you look at someone like Caitlin Clark, who didn't play in Unrivaled or overseas, is super young, and then still was plagued with injuries all season long.
Great write up. Loved your comment about Nneka stifling the development of Ezi and Dom. Good insight.
To me, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. With the new CBA and most of the team being UFA, it’s a great opportunity for the Storm to clean house and rebuild. Let’s make this team fun again and not take shortcuts with their failed win now mentality. There are so many young talented and athletic players in the draft now versus 10 years ago. Build the team the right way and reap the rewards. And there has to be a new coaching staff with a new voice!!
Amen.
In my opinion, I just don’t see this core led by Nneka and Skylar winning a championship next year, even with a new coach. I’d still rank the Lynx, Aces (2 teams with MVP-caliber players reaching prime ages), Indiana (with Caitlin back, they could be a legit top-four team), Liberty (with better coaching and some roster fixes to bring back the versatile defensive role players they lost), and even the Dream (who will grow from this playoff experience), the Valkyries (I imagine they will add a couple of star pickups in free agency, and they already have a well-oiled system) ahead of them.
Nneka and Skylar will be 36, and while this core is older, they actually have the least playoff experience among the teams in the postseason this year. I saw people talking online that Nneka hasn’t won a playoff series since 2017 or 2018. Can she really lead this team to a championship at this stage in her career? I’m not convinced. A semifinal run feels like their ceiling in the best case scenario.
Jeff, you are scaring me. My only solace during the darkest days of the season was that the Storm would be different next season because they would finally be building through the draft.
Now you raise the possibility of running it back, and I think I need air.
I don't mean to alarm you. My mindset going into this season was that they needed to advance past the first round for Quinn's job to be safe. Because you can't have all this talent and continuously underperform. Whether we want to put that on Quinn or Nneka and Skylar. The blame has to go on someone. From a roster and talent standpoint, the Storm almost certainly have a Top 5 roster. Finishing 7th and being bounced in the 1st round was not a successful season in my eyes.
They could run it back, but I think, as others have said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Quinn hasn't won a playoff series since Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart were on the roster.
I’ve really wanted Quinn to succeed, but it just feels like the Storm have consistently underperformed the last few years. I’m a long time Nneka fan, from her Stanford days, but the Storm need to build around Malonga and Magbegor.
I would blow it up. Too your point, Ezi pretty much regressed this year with a lack of playing time and you can't have that. However Ezi needs to learn to consistently box out and not have lapses. Not sure who was supposed to box out young but 6-4 Ezi was right there. These players need to learn to fight for inside position and not just stare at the hoop. Look at the photo you provided as evidence. How did Young get inside position on 3 Storm players?
The perfect draft would be Oliva Miles and Serah Williams. A point guard of the future and a low post who can score and rebound. Someone who is physical.
If they do blow it up I think Quinn is gone. If they want to hire a female African American coach their are plenty of good options out there. Dawn Stanley or Kara Lawson comes to mind.
There is zero chance Dawn Staley is hired. But there are plenty of good coaches out there. I also agree that they should get one of the top guards whether that's Miles, Flau'jae, or Fudd with that first pick and then get a backup big with the 14th overall pick if the talent is still on the board. Possible options could include Serah Williams, Janiah Barker, or Madina Okot.
I plan to write a larger article on Ezi because I think it's a bigger story than what has been said or acknowledged.
Dawn Staley is probably unlikely to leave SC but my fantasy all year has been that they offer her Jon Gruden-type money to come here.
Just a general comment that, as much as I would have preferred a different result for Seattle, it's really cool that all of the 1st round series are ending with tight games. I'm watching the NYL-PHX game 3 now and it looks like it might also go to the last minute.
Every team in the playoffs this year was/is legitimately good. Just some are better than the others. This feels much more entertaining than it has been in that past. I remember 10 or so years ago where sub-.500 teams in the playoffs was common.
100% agree. All Game 3’s went down to the wire. The new 1-1-1 format worked perfectly. Becky Hammon said she’d rather have the 1st round Best of 5 if they aren’t going to do 2-1 like it was from 2022-2024, but there is no denying that the 1-1-1 format worked out well for entertainment and hopefully viewership numbers.
The playoff format Becky wants most is the one in which Las Vegas is anointed champion….
The biggest of the big-time college coaches (Staley at SC, Lawson at Duke) are never going to leave major programs for a job in the W. You'd have to look at mid-majors like where Karl Smesko came from, or the ranks of assistant coaches in either the W or MNBA.
I'm still agnostic on whether Quinn is the problem. I'm still on Team Roster Construction.
Is Team Roster construction - Team Rebuild? (moving on from Nneka, Skylar, Slim, etc.)
I agree that there is no way they're getting Dawn Staley and probably not Kara Lawson either. There definitely are other head coaches out there, but as you mentioned, probably nothing at the big programs like Notre Dame, USC, UCLA, South Carolina, etc.
Assistants in the WNBA, NBA, or possibly G-League would all be options. I know Lisa Leslie is a name that gets brought up a lot. I'm not sure going with someone who has less coaching experience than Quinn would be a wise idea. Although I'm sure Leslie would be good at coaching up Ezi and Dom. I don't think Latricia Trammell got a fair shot in Dallas and things seemed to turn around for Los Angeles when she joined them. That could be an option. I believe Kristi Toliver has been praised a lot by Coach Tibbetts in Phoenix. Briann January is an assistant with Indiana under Stephanie White. Lindsay Whalen is under Cheryl Reeve in Minnesota, etc.
I’m intrigued by Kristi Tolliver. She seems to have the right experience, reputation and skill set to be an impressive head coach
I should have put quotes around it to make myself clearer- what I mean by Team 'Roster Construction' is that I'm one of those who believe that this roster, talented as it was, was lacking something. Maybe that missing piece was embodied by Jordan Horston- a 6'2" mobile wing/forward? If only she was a threat from the 3 point line. I look around the league at a certain type of player that we didn't have that the more successful teams do.
(It's not KLS. the Fever paid her to go away. And I don't want to hear about Nika Muhl.)
Last year's team did better in the regular season, but this year's team competed better with the Aces in the playoffs. Imagine if we had Horston this year to go along with Malonga. The Clark signing and Sykes trade probably don't happen. There would be a lot less calling for Noey's head.
You still might not get out of the first round though in this small, tough, stacked league. I don't know how you tell a coach "beat the Aces and make it to the semi finals or you're fired because of all this talent we have." I've never bought that narrative.
Here's a sobering thought- Dom is only under team control for 3 more years. You have to do whatever it takes to keep her happy and wanting to play here, if that means keeping certain coaches or vets.
The game was heartbreaking to watch and I feel for the players who really, really wanted to beat this team (not sure where that team was game one).
I am, though, really mystified that there is even talk about bringing the coaching staff back this year. Literally every season under Quinn the team has underperformed w/r/t their talent and the ceiling seems to be 5th place and losing to Vegas in the playoffs. Is that the goal now? Every season ends with some kind of excuse. Year one: Stewie was hurt; year two: LV was really good; year three: Stewie and Bird were gone; year four: Jewell was unhappy and brought the team down with her; this year: Jordan Horston was injured. At this point I just feel gaslit by the entire organization.
The other day I got into an argument with someone on Reddit (I know.) who thought it was insane that I thought the coach might bear some responsibility for a team finishing 13th in rebounding.
I was just looking at my invoices for my season tickets and my seat was a little over $1100 the first year in Climate Pledge Arena and next year it's going to go up to almost $2100. I've also probably spent another $1000 on merch, getting to the games (I Lyft there and walk home), food at the arena, Storm Chasers Substack, etc... Over that time, the team's won exactly one playoff series. I'm at a loss. I'm ready to just give up.
Your complaints are valid. This is why I wrote about the sunk-cost fallacy. When Sue retired and Stewie left, they weren't good at all because they believed Stewie would re-sign and bring Courtney Vandersloot with her, but then Stewart signed with New York and took Sloot with her. They had the opportunity to go into a full rebuild at that point. But instead, they opted to bring in Skylar and Nneka.
I don't really fault them for going down that path. 2023 sucked because the team was awful. They saw the Liberty take great players from other teams and tried to replicate that success. A group that featured Nneka Ogwumike, Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins, and Ezi Magbegor (and later on Gabby) should have been a team that reached the semi-finals in the WNBA. Instead, they were swept by Las Vegas. They traded Jewell for the #2 pick (correct move) and tried again with the same core and some additions like Erica Wheeler. They were even worse in 2025 than they were in 2024, and I'd argue they had the better team this year (it is debatable).
2026 seems like a perfect time to do a franchise reset. New coaching staff and put together a young team without Nneka and Skylar. Build around Dominique Malonga, Jordan Horston, Ezi Magbegor, and the 2026 lottery pick (Olivia Miles, Azzi Fudd, etc.). Bring Gabby Williams back if she wants to stay, or do a sign-and-trade with her if she wants to go somewhere else. If they're bad in 2026 and miss the playoffs, they can add another lottery pick to the young group I wrote about above. Maybe they luck out and get JuJu Watkins or even someone like Madison Booker.
It just seems like this would be the smartest path forward for the franchise.
It's really unfortunate that we blew our opportunity to be in the semi-finals. There are so many things we could have done better to wrap up this series. It may be fitting that we lost the series by not getting a rebound that we should have had. Our rebounding has been awful all season and it has to get better. It should get better with Dom getting more minutes next year.
I really feel like just screaming my head off. I'm so pissed off at the Storm. They had this game won. They screwed up big time. You can't blame Coach Quinn for the players screwing up and allowing Jackie Young to beat them. Coach Quinn certainly has her faults. She seems way too passive most of the time. I think she needs to be much tougher and verbally louder and more expressive and definitive with her players. I'm way too upset now over what might have been and should have been. Becky Hammon even said that the Aces stole this game (and series) from the Storm.
Gabby was on Young. She left Young to go and sort-of-double Wilson.
That was a bad idea, but all our bigs should have kept Jackie Young off the boards by putting their bodies on her and blocking her out. I think Ezi was mostly to blame for the failure to box out. If they had done their jobs, we'd be in the semi-finals now and we'd have ended the reign of the Aces.
Incorrect. Ezi got switched at the top from the pick and roll and had to cover Chelsea Gray at the top of the arc, furthest from the rim. The blame mostly falls on two players. Gabby for leaving Jackie Young to help defend A’ja. I don’t mind that because sending two at A’ja is smart. But then Nneka needed to sag off Kierstan Bell and be in the paint so she could box Jackie out. Ogwumike was too high up on Bell who didn’t need to be defended at all because there is zero chance Kierstan Bell was going to take the shot with the game on the line. And unfortunately, Nneka didn’t rotate over in time.
With all that said. Jackie Young is a former #1 overall pick for a reason. She made an incredible play.
Jackie Young is the Storm-killer.
I wasn't sure who the players were who could have boxed Jackie Young out, but it appeared that there were at least 2 if not 3 players who were in position and should have boxed Jackie out but failed to. And why wasn't Dom in there? If Dom was in the game, I don't think Young gets that rebound and putback and we'd be having a different conversation and a celebration.