News and Notes from Day 1 of Storm Training Camp
The quest for the Storm's 5th WNBA Championship begins now!
Day 1 of training camp started for every WNBA team on Sunday, April 17th, including the Seattle Storm. The media was granted access to the final 30 minutes of practice and then some time afterward to speak with players and coaches.
While it was only the first day of training camp, I was able to observe some things worth writing about. I also got to interview Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd, and Coach Noelle Quinn. I’ve posted some of those interviews on my Twitter account already but I want to link them here throughout this story for those that only follow the newsletter.
Scrimmage Observations
The Storm practice and scrimmage with local male basketball players. I was able to watch three or four scrimmage sessions that the team breaks down into five-minute “quarters”. From what I saw, the teams were broken into separate groups. The first group (Group A) is your group of starters and top reserves. This group consisted of Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd, Stephanie Talbot, Jantel Lavender, Ezi Magbegor, Epiphanny Prince, and (very briefly) Kiki Harrigan. The second group was primarily the next wave of players including the rookie draft picks Elissa Cunane and Evina Westbrook, along with Harrigan. This group (Group B) also included Epiphanny Prince and if I recall correctly, Ezi got some playing time with them as well. And the final group (Group C) consisted of the undrafted rookies and other training camp invitees including Raina Perez, Paisley Harding, Lauren Manis, Jenna Giacone, and Kiki got some run with this group as well.
Another thing I should point out is that Breanna Stewart was a full go during the scrimmages. Back when I interviewed her in February, she was not yet able to run 5-on-5 fullcourt action. It can’t be overstated how important this is for the team’s success this season.
I believe Group A may have played in two separate five-minute sessions. The 2nd session was more of a mix of Group A/B, where Sue was playing with Prince and Harrigan.
No real surprise, Group A was by far the best team beating the men’s team by a few points. Overall, the team’s outside shooting wasn’t great (I’m sure that’ll come in due time), but they did do a good job of executing possessions and getting to the rim. Stewie connected on multiple baskets down low, including a nice offensive rebound put-back and another from a great pass delivered by Bird. Talbot also made a good screen and slip to the rim as she converted an easy layup from a Loyd assist.
The best play of all the scrimmages that I saw was a beautifully run pick-and-roll between Jewell Loyd and Jantel Lavender. Lavender set a solid screen that freed-up Jewell, as the defense moved to recover to guard Loyd, she found Lavender wide-open cutting to the basket for the easy bucket. It was picture-perfect in its execution.
I spoke with Loyd about that play along with other topics including the rookies, the new assistant coaches, and being without some of their key players to start training camp. You can watch her answers in the tweet below.
Another standout play was Bird getting a steal and converting a fastbreak layup, then getting another steal and I believe she connected on the midrange jumper a few seconds later.
Group B played a tough game against the male practice squad players but I believe they ended up losing by one point. The score was around 15-14 throughout that five-minute session. What stood out the most to me from this session was that Evina Westbrook ran the point the entire time as the primary ballhandler. While I wouldn’t say Westbrook did anything to really “WOW” me, I was still impressed that she was already running as the backup point guard on Day 1. Of course, it should be noted that Briann January that will likely play a lot of backup PG this year is not in training camp as she and Gabby Williams are still playing overseas in Europe. I did speak with Coach Quinn about Westbrook running the point and you can check out that interview here.
Westbrook did have one really nice play where she juked her defender at the top of the three-point line, went back left, and attacked the middle. She was able to get good dribble penetration and put up a floater but unfortunately, it rimmed out. The move/her ability to get by her defender and into the paint was definitely a bright spot for her and it drew some “Ooohhs” and cheers from her teammates that were watching from the out-of-bounds baseline.
Overall, Elissa Cunane had a little more success scoring, converting on a couple of baskets at or around the rim. Cunane definitely looked better and more comfortable on the offensive end of the court than when she was on defense. I believe she had trouble defending one of the male players and there was another time when she got out-hustled for a rebound and then the guy was able to get to the rim uncontested for a layup.
Group C really struggled against the men’s team especially early on during their session. At one point, I believe they were trailing 11-2. To their credit, they did battle back and went on a little run ultimately losing their game by three or four points. Paisley Harding definitely stood out the most from this group driving and cutting to the rim, getting some layups. She had the majority of her team’s points.
Missing in Action
One of the other big notables was regarding which players weren’t there for training camp. As mentioned above, Gabby Williams and Briann January are still playing overseas. As is Kennedy Burke. And just prior to the media joining the Storm’s practice on Sunday, Seattle’s PR team put out a press release talking about Mercedes Russell suffering a non-basketball-related injury that she got treatment for on April 11th. It is not clear if this treatment was an actual surgery/procedure or if that just meant working with the doctors on a recovery plan, physical therapy, etc.
I spoke to Coach Quinn regarding their absence from training camp as well as Russell’s injury which you can watch here.
The team’s (ideal) expectation is that Gabby Williams and Briann January will join the Storm prior to Seattle’s season opener against the Minnesota Lynx on May 6th. However, Kennedy Burke may not arrive until after the season’s first games have been played. It is also unclear if Russell will be ready to go for Game 1 or not. We will likely learn more in the first week of May if not before.
If some of these players aren’t ready to go to begin the season, it’ll be interesting to see if some other players make the initial roster out of camp, even if it may be for only a couple of weeks or even just a few days.
As things stand right now, the Storm are expected to only bring 11 players into the season as they won’t be able to afford to keep 12 players on the roster due to the salary cap.
Per Richard Cohen of Her Hoops Stats who breaks down all of the WNBA teams' salary cap sheets, the Storm would be able to afford to keep 12 players on the roster if they cut Epiphanny Prince and her current contract.
As he mentions in the tweet above, the team could even bring Prince back at a lower cost and that would allow them to have a full roster of 12 players. While I think it would be wonderful if the team could find a way to keep 12 players on their roster my current expectation is that it’s more likely they just go with 11.
The larger problem is the fact that the league’s salary cap didn’t go up nearly enough to correlate with the large increases in individual player salaries. Overall, player salaries have gone up 80% or higher than they were prior to the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement. However, the salary cap was only increased by about 30%. This is really unfortunate and has ultimately led to more and more WNBA teams only keeping 11 players on their final roster instead of 12.
When there’s talk about how hard it is to make a WNBA roster because only 144 players actually make it. That sadly should be adjusted because it’s a lot closer to just 132 players now that the salary cap no longer allows teams to pay for that 12th player.
I truly hope this gets corrected once they are able to update and change the Collective Bargaining Agreement again in a few years.
Sue Bird Interview
I was able to participate in a media scrum with Sue Bird after practice had concluded. I talked to her about Tom Brady’s retirement, how he changed his mind, and the difficulty of an aging athlete that is still playing at an elite level. Her response is in the video below.
I then spoke with Bird about the list of things that excite her as she enters her 21st WNBA season with the Storm. It’s really cool to see how much the city and fan support means to her.
Lastly, I got to speak with her about the “Bird and Taurasi Show” on ESPN and life after basketball.
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Awesome coverage. Do you think Paisley is going to get a shot to run with team B or A?