Fever Topple Storm 89-78 Part 2
Additional thoughts, discussion, and interviews from Seattle's loss to Indiana.
The Seattle Storm (1-3) fought hard, but couldn’t overcome the odds as they fell to the Indiana Fever (2-2) by a final score of 89-78. If you missed it, you can read the full game recap at the link below.
In Part 2, I wrote about how Awa Fam is finally on her way and what that could mean for the Storm. I discussed some positive signs from Grace VanSlooten and Seattle’s ability to get to the foul line. I’ve also included the post-game audio interviews for you to listen to.
Coming Soon … Awa Fam
Good news, everyone! Awa Fam’s overseas season has come to a riveting end as Valencia Basket won their fourth Liga Femenina Endesa (Spanish league) Championship in the final seconds of their game played early Sunday morning.
The team still hasn’t confirmed exactly when she’ll arrive in the United States and join the Storm, but I’d say there is a very high chance that she’ll make her WNBA debut during Seattle’s upcoming four-game homestand. The Storm will be in Seattle from 5/18 through 5/27. I don’t expect her to play in Wednesday’s game against the Connecticut Sun (5/20), but ideally will suit up for one of their games on 5/22 or 5/24. Hopefully, there won’t be any Work Visa issues like what they went through with Nika Mühl. Dominique Malonga never had those issues, so they should be good. I believe that was more related to Mühl having a school Visa to attend an American college and then needing a work Visa to play for the Storm.
Awa Fam’s arrival comes not a moment too soon, as the Storm are ultra-depleted by injuries to Ezi Magbegor, Katie Lou Samuelson, and Dominique Malonga. Malonga suffered a concussion during Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Tempo. Sadly, this was her second concussion in roughly the span of two months. She had one playing in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers on March 13th in a game against Colombia. Brain injuries are obviously no joke, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Malonga misses more than just this one game against the Indiana Fever. The two concussions in such a short amount of time are not ideal, and the team’s doctors should be extra cautious with her. As of this writing, the Storm still have 40 games remaining on their schedule. There is zero reason to rush her back before it is safe to do so.
If Malonga misses at least a couple of weeks, I think there is a high probability that they just throw Awa Fam straight into the fire. She may have a few days to relax at home after winning her championship before flying to the USA. Or a few days to rest while getting acclimated to a new country, and a new city in Seattle. But I think that once they activate her for game day, it could be go time from the jump.
The team could insert the third overall pick from the 2026 WNBA Draft straight into the starting lineup if they wanted to. She could play next to Stefanie Dolson at the four (power forward) if Malonga remains out with a concussion. If Dom comes back sooner than expected, they could pair the two young post players together and bring Dolson off the bench.
Dolson has played well, filling in for the injured Ezi Magbegor, and she is one of the team’s primary veteran leaders. There is a scenario where I could see them playing a three-big lineup with Dolson, Malonga, and Fam. In that scenario, they would likely bring Jordan Horston off the bench, as Jordan is still on a minutes restriction after coming back from a torn ACL.
I think expectations for Fam should remain in check for the 19-year-old. Similar to Dominique Malonga last season, she is probably going to have games where she’s scoring four points and grabs 3-4 rebounds. And then we might get another game where she’s scoring 10-15 points, showing off her tantalizing potential, and the reason why there was a debate that she could be drafted #1 overall. Reviewing her box scores from the Liga Femenina Endesa playoffs shows exactly that. She finished the championship game with 6 points and 4 rebounds. But in the final game of the semifinals, she produced 17 points and five rebounds. And another playoff game with 15 points and four rebounds.
Fam’s potential and development throughout the season is one of the larger storylines surrounding the team this season. That and pairing her with Dominique Malonga to become the youngest frontcourt duo in WNBA history. We’ve already seen some fun moments early on this season with Flau’jae Johnson. It won’t be long now, Storm fans, Awa Fam is coming soon!
Positive Signs from Grace
With Dominique Malonga out with a concussion, and Jade Melbourne inserted into the starting lineup, I thought Grace VanSlooten was the team’s best “big” off the bench, and the second-best reserve after Zia Cooke. VanSlooten didn’t have a breakout star-making performance or anything, but she was just very solid. She finished with five points, three assists, two rebounds, two steals, and two blocks. Her statline would have looked even better had she made a couple more of her free throws (1-4 FT).
With the aforementioned Awa Fam arriving soon, the Storm are going to have an interesting decision ahead of them. Especially after they signed Taylor Thierry to the team’s second developmental spot on the roster. Before they did that, I thought the most logical move would be to waive either Grace VanSlooten or Mackenzie Holmes and re-sign that player to a development contract. But that option seems to be out the window, at least for now.
I believe it would be possible for the team to release/waive one of their developmental players (Thierry or Taina Mair), release Holmes or VanSlooten, and then re-sign Holmes/VanSlooten to a development contract after they cleared waivers. However, there is no guarantee Seattle’s front office would want to do that. I’m not sure that would even make sense. Why would they have signed Thierry if they were just going to do that as soon as Awa Fam joined the team?
I initially thought that they might have signed Thierry because, to me, it looked like Mack had tweaked her knee in the Toronto Tempo game this past Wednesday. Holmes also only played five minutes in that contest. With Dominique Malonga out with a concussion and the possibility that Holmes had aggravated her knee, I thought the team might need to sign an extra body (similar to Hardship contracts in the past).
That was not the case. Mackenzie played 10 minutes against the Indiana Fever and looked fine. She finished with four points on 2-3 FG, two steals, and a rebound.
We’re still not sure exactly when Awa Fam will arrive in Seattle. And even then, she may not play right away. But as soon as she arrives, she will need to be activated to the main roster. At that point, the team will have 13 players. Just looking at the depth chart, it seems like the Storm will have to waive either Mackenzie Holmes or Grace VanSlooten. With maybe a very outside chance of them releasing Lexie Brown.
If it’s between Mack and Grace, then VanSlooten may have taken the edge as of late. Holmes played more minutes off the bench in the first two games. She played 11 minutes to VanSlooten’s 7 minutes against the Golden State Valkyries. Holmes played 23 minutes to VanSlooten’s 10 minutes against the Connecticut Sun. But since then, it’s been the opposite. Grace played 12 minutes against Toronto, while Holmes played 5 minutes. She played 18 minutes off the bench against Indiana compared to Mackenzie’s 10 minutes against the Fever.
Does that mean Grace is favored to stay on the main roster once Awa arrives? Or is it simply a new head coach playing around with lineups while dealing with multiple injuries and absences from her front court? It could also be purposeful to try to play both players evenly while having to evaluate for this upcoming decision. In totality, Mackenzie Holmes has played 49 minutes of in-game action through the first four games. Grace VanSlooten has played 47 minutes in the WNBA this year.
Free Throws Can Be an Equalizer
It’s still very early, but the Storm rank 6th in the WNBA at 26.0 Free Throw Attempts (FTA) per game. That’s nearly in the top 1/3rd of the league now that we have 15 franchises. This is one of the main bright spots I’ve seen out of the Storm through the first four games of the season. For reference, the Toronto Tempo lead the league at 29.3 FTA/game. Thanks to Brittney Sykes, who averages 11.0 FTA/game and ranks #1 in the WNBA.
Interestingly, Flau’jae Johnson ranks just outside the Top 10 in the entire league. She is 11th at 6.5 FTA/game. While Flau’jae has struggled with her efficiency through the first four games, knocking down just 11-43 FG (26%), her ability to get to the free throw line has been a major plus. It can be a great equalizer when the shots aren’t falling. And as a team, it can allow the Storm to stay competitive when they might be outmatched by the opposing team’s roster.
The positive sign from the Storm is that it isn’t just Flau’jae. Jade Melbourne ranks 17th in the WNBA at 5.8 FTA/game, and Dominique Malonga isn’t much behind her. Dom is ranked 21st at 5.0 FTA/game. Seattle has 3 players in the Top 21 at free throw rate. The Atlanta Dream are the only other team that has 3 players in the Top 20. Allisha Gray ranks 4th at 8.7 FTA, while Angel Reese and Rhyne Howard are both tied at 13th with 6.0 FTA/game.
Zia Cooke has also been strong in this area and did a great job on Sunday, getting to the line for six foul shots. I spoke to Cooke after the game about the team’s ability to draw contact from the opposing defenses.
Cooke responded, “Yeah, we got a very talented group, so I think getting downhill is definitely something that we’re super good at. We just gotta be able to get to that next level now, which is getting downhill, getting 2 feet, seeing the spray, seeing the kickouts, because I think that’s what can separate us from other teams, because we got 3 point shooters as well. So it’s just all about reading a game and taking what the defense has given us.”
I think Zia brings up a good point here with this quote. They are doing a great job of getting downhill. However, they do need to improve their ability to read defenses and find the open players. There have been multiple moments this season where I’ve seen players open coming off the pick-and-roll or cutting through the lane, and they aren’t receiving the pass for the easy score. The team needs to work on their court vision.
Of course, this is a lot easier for me to say when I’m watching the entire court from my TV screen and not worrying about defenders in my face. Ideally, this is something the team will improve upon as the season progresses, as they get more experience, more exposure, and build more chemistry between teammates.
Player Interviews
Coach’s Quotes
Notes:
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I totally agree with your assessment of keep/drop. I think as far as the developmental squad goes, it’s still quite early especially considering the abbreviated pre-season and they can only activate them for 12 games…so I can see why they might want to hold on to those 12 games as they are sooo thin at back court. I worry a bit that Jade is going to get hurt with her human lawn darting. I love the energy, but the bruises are adding up. In the case we lose her to injury or any G for that matter, then they can activate Mair/Thierry. But since they are looking long term, I think they are holding actual game time play for when we have more of a full healthy roster.
I'm so excited to see awa!