Best of luck to Quinn wherever she goes. I wish she had developed relationships with the refs…and had developed her bench AND not boxed Ezi into a defensive only player…. I have other notes but these are my first. There are things we did well, but with the talent we had, we underperformed IMO.
I think assistant coaches in the NBA or WNBA will likely be on their list of candidates. Kristi Toliver, Lindsey Harding, Briann January, etc. But they should also be open to college coaches.
I'm not sure Kara Lawson would be an option. I'm not sure if she makes too much money at Duke or not. They should definitely make an attempt to recruit her if she expresses any interest. I know the Mercury's Coach Tibbetts has praised Kristi Toliver and mentioned he doesn't think she'll be an assistant long before she gets a Head Coaching opportunity.
Ideally, I'd like the Storm to bring someone who might have more experience or have a stronger basketball system. Seattle's half-court offense has been bad. They need more moving without the basketball.
I hope the Storm are aggressive in their pursuit of a new coach. I also hope they are open to any and all candidates, man, woman, white, black, etc. Karl Smesko and Nate Tibbetts have proven to be very good coaches for their teams. Natalie Nakase, I believe, is the first Asian American Head Coach in the WNBA, and she won Coach of the Year.
T-Spoon has a good gig where she is. She's done wonders. The Sky was absolutely crazy to let her go and crazy to let Copper go, and more. Worse ownership ever.
I appreciated Coach Quinn’s attitude and quiet determination but she wasn’t going to ever get “over the hump”. I feel she squandered a LOT of talent, especially Ezi and Gabby, and I’m still puzzled as to why Muhl was never given much in mop up time. Best of luck to her wherever she lands.
Thank you Jeff for a very fair and gracious account of Quinn’s tenure as coach. I wish her well and think she will be an excellent assistant coach in the WNBA. It was definitely past time to move on. I will say I don’t agree with your take of Stewie leaving the team “high and dry”. She was an UFA and was under no obligation to stay with the Storm. She gave us 2 championships. It’s on the GM for “believing “ she would re sign and doing nothing pro actively to entice her to stay. I love Stewie as a player, teammate, and role model for the league. Just watching her carry the Liberty in the 4th quarter of their elimination game with a sprained MCL and defend Sandy to the media, shows what a true champion she is.
Stewie obviously has every right to go sign with New York. It’s back in her home state. Closer to her home and a closer to Europe for Marta. None of that I have a problem with. But it’s the fact that the Storm organization went above and beyond for her, and she wasn’t up front about her decision. They literally thought they were signing Courtney Vandersloot and re-signing Stewie, to the point where Sloot or her social media handler posted that she was signing with the Storm and then deleted that after Stewie announced she was joining the Liberty.
The Storm should have been better prepared if Stewie was leaving. But Stewart also could have been way more honest and upfront and she wasn’t.
Stewart will always have a lasting legacy for the Storm. And she’s still an incredible talent. Her Game 3 performance was pretty amazing all things considered with the knee injury.
Jeff- 💯 agree on this. To your point, I still have a bad taste in my mouth regarding Stewie because IMO she forfeited our (Storm fans’) relationship for click bait and it felt (to me) misleading that she might come back when it looked like NYL was her landing spot all along. I understood why she would go to NYL and had made peace with it, but she toyed with us (fans) and (it seems) the organization..and that is why I can’t root for her.
Also, you recently wrote that Stewie was (I believe) the best player in the league, and this is where I have to beg to differ. A’ja IMHO is this player. She is absolutely ridiculously amazing. She and Stewie were neck and neck for a year or so, but she has left (definitely Stewie) her competition in the dust…and I have a sense that she wouldn’t toy with LVA fans the way Stewie did with us…and for the record I loathe LVA—-but A’ja is next level. Deserved 4x MVP——and I’m a big Phee fan. Stats don’t lie
I'm not sure I ever said Stewie was the best player still. I might have said she's still one of the best players. Or I could have said something like, she's still arguably the most talented player. Stewie's skillset is still probably the best in the league. She can literally do everything. Even though her three-point shooting has dropped a lot in recent seasons, I still think she's a more versatile player than A'ja Wilson due to her dribbling, outside shooting, ability to get to the rim, etc.
But yes, A'ja Wilson is clearly the best. A'ja is just so dominant and a much more physical force than Stewart is. I also agree that she deserved to earn her 4th MVP award. Especially after Collier ended up missing 25% of the season (11 games) due to her injuries. Meanwhile, A'ja led her team to a 16-game win streak and the #2 seed.
You've always been too generous to Quinn, IMO, but now we move on. Yes, we need to have an entirely new coaching staff.
Lisa Lelsie? Who else?
I hope we can keep our core players.
Best of luck to Quinn wherever she goes. I wish she had developed relationships with the refs…and had developed her bench AND not boxed Ezi into a defensive only player…. I have other notes but these are my first. There are things we did well, but with the talent we had, we underperformed IMO.
Thank you for this, Jeff! What do you think about these names as potential coaches?
1. Kristi Toliver
2. Lindsey Harding
3. Kara Lawson
4. T-Spoon
I think assistant coaches in the NBA or WNBA will likely be on their list of candidates. Kristi Toliver, Lindsey Harding, Briann January, etc. But they should also be open to college coaches.
I'm not sure Kara Lawson would be an option. I'm not sure if she makes too much money at Duke or not. They should definitely make an attempt to recruit her if she expresses any interest. I know the Mercury's Coach Tibbetts has praised Kristi Toliver and mentioned he doesn't think she'll be an assistant long before she gets a Head Coaching opportunity.
Ideally, I'd like the Storm to bring someone who might have more experience or have a stronger basketball system. Seattle's half-court offense has been bad. They need more moving without the basketball.
I hope the Storm are aggressive in their pursuit of a new coach. I also hope they are open to any and all candidates, man, woman, white, black, etc. Karl Smesko and Nate Tibbetts have proven to be very good coaches for their teams. Natalie Nakase, I believe, is the first Asian American Head Coach in the WNBA, and she won Coach of the Year.
T-Spoon has a good gig where she is. She's done wonders. The Sky was absolutely crazy to let her go and crazy to let Copper go, and more. Worse ownership ever.
I appreciated Coach Quinn’s attitude and quiet determination but she wasn’t going to ever get “over the hump”. I feel she squandered a LOT of talent, especially Ezi and Gabby, and I’m still puzzled as to why Muhl was never given much in mop up time. Best of luck to her wherever she lands.
Thank you Jeff for a very fair and gracious account of Quinn’s tenure as coach. I wish her well and think she will be an excellent assistant coach in the WNBA. It was definitely past time to move on. I will say I don’t agree with your take of Stewie leaving the team “high and dry”. She was an UFA and was under no obligation to stay with the Storm. She gave us 2 championships. It’s on the GM for “believing “ she would re sign and doing nothing pro actively to entice her to stay. I love Stewie as a player, teammate, and role model for the league. Just watching her carry the Liberty in the 4th quarter of their elimination game with a sprained MCL and defend Sandy to the media, shows what a true champion she is.
Stewie obviously has every right to go sign with New York. It’s back in her home state. Closer to her home and a closer to Europe for Marta. None of that I have a problem with. But it’s the fact that the Storm organization went above and beyond for her, and she wasn’t up front about her decision. They literally thought they were signing Courtney Vandersloot and re-signing Stewie, to the point where Sloot or her social media handler posted that she was signing with the Storm and then deleted that after Stewie announced she was joining the Liberty.
The Storm should have been better prepared if Stewie was leaving. But Stewart also could have been way more honest and upfront and she wasn’t.
Stewart will always have a lasting legacy for the Storm. And she’s still an incredible talent. Her Game 3 performance was pretty amazing all things considered with the knee injury.
Thanks Jeff . I was not aware of the Sloot signing scenario. Good to know.
Jeff- 💯 agree on this. To your point, I still have a bad taste in my mouth regarding Stewie because IMO she forfeited our (Storm fans’) relationship for click bait and it felt (to me) misleading that she might come back when it looked like NYL was her landing spot all along. I understood why she would go to NYL and had made peace with it, but she toyed with us (fans) and (it seems) the organization..and that is why I can’t root for her.
Also, you recently wrote that Stewie was (I believe) the best player in the league, and this is where I have to beg to differ. A’ja IMHO is this player. She is absolutely ridiculously amazing. She and Stewie were neck and neck for a year or so, but she has left (definitely Stewie) her competition in the dust…and I have a sense that she wouldn’t toy with LVA fans the way Stewie did with us…and for the record I loathe LVA—-but A’ja is next level. Deserved 4x MVP——and I’m a big Phee fan. Stats don’t lie
I'm not sure I ever said Stewie was the best player still. I might have said she's still one of the best players. Or I could have said something like, she's still arguably the most talented player. Stewie's skillset is still probably the best in the league. She can literally do everything. Even though her three-point shooting has dropped a lot in recent seasons, I still think she's a more versatile player than A'ja Wilson due to her dribbling, outside shooting, ability to get to the rim, etc.
But yes, A'ja Wilson is clearly the best. A'ja is just so dominant and a much more physical force than Stewart is. I also agree that she deserved to earn her 4th MVP award. Especially after Collier ended up missing 25% of the season (11 games) due to her injuries. Meanwhile, A'ja led her team to a 16-game win streak and the #2 seed.
Fair point
Front office definitely shoulders a lot of culpability, along with Quinn.
Agreed