Wings Crush Storm 87-63 Part 2

Additional thoughts, interviews, and discussion from Seattle's loss to the Wings

*Note - apologies for the delay. I got home after midnight last night after completing Part 1, and my home Internet was down. There was a massive outage that wasn’t restored until around 7:00 AM today.

The Seattle Storm lost their leader on the court (Diggins) before the game, and their will to compete during the game, in a disappointing 87-63 loss to the Dallas Wings. It was one of the more frustrating and predictable performances to watch, between the meltdown, the lack of adjustments, Arike getting scorching hot, the missed assignments on defense, and the poor closing of quarters. If you missed it, you can read the full game recap at this link.

In Part 2, I wrote about the importance of the Point Guard position, how Seattle’s backcourt is undersized, and talked about a player they are badly missing right now. I wrote more about Haley Jones and discussed my concerns from Coach Noelle Quinn’s post-game interview. Plus, I’ve included the post-game press conference video and audio interviews.

Importance of the Point Guard

We’ve seen what Storm basketball looks like without Sue Bird. We’ve seen what it looks like without Sue Bird and Jordin Canada (2023). Tuesday night was another reminder, as we saw what the Storm looked like without Skylar Diggins.

I had to double-check, but this was the first game Diggins has missed since joining the Storm in 2024. She played all 40 games last year and the first 23 games of this season. Her 63 consecutive game streak came to an end. And it truly showed how important she is to this team. They still might have lost the game. It’s possible. When Arike gets scorching hot, she’s really tough to stop. And now opponents have Paige Bueckers to worry about too. But one thing I can guarantee is that the game never would have gotten out of hand like it did had Skylar played. She wouldn’t have allowed that to happen.

It’s wild, albeit not surprising, how good leadership at the guard position impacts the game.

If the Storm are without their leader on the court for a longer period of time, things could turn very ugly. Diggins missed the game for personal reasons and was not with the team on Tuesday night. She was a late scratch as they announced she would be out less than an hour before tip-off. Hopefully, Skylar is OK and will return as soon as she is ready.

When looking over the roster, knowing that Skylar turns 35 soon and will be 36 during the second-half of next season, it leads me to believe that Seattle will have to prioritize point guard in the upcoming draft or Free Agency.

I am generally such a strong proponent of drafting the Best Player Available or the player with the highest potential. But if the Storm have a lottery pick from the Sparks and they have their choice between Olivia Miles, Azzi Fudd, and Flau’jae Johnson, they might need to take Miles even if they have Fudd or Johnson graded higher. That’s how important the point guard position is.

Of course, they can’t be stupid about it. I’m not suggesting they take Miles over Fudd if they have Olivia graded as a 70 and Azzi as a 90. But if it’s 85 to 80, the point guard should take priority.

However, Seattle’s front office must do their due diligence. It’s possible they could draft UCLA Point Guard Kiki Rice or another lead guard prospect (maybe International) with their second first round pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. And then still take BPA with their (potential) lottery pick.

They will definitely need to address their point guard issue next season because Diggins and Erica Wheeler are both in their mid-30s. And with respect to Nika Mühl, I don’t think she’s shown that she can be a top-end future starter in the WNBA up to this point.

Undersized

One thing that really stood out to me during this game is how undersized the Storm’s current backcourt group is. Erica Wheeler is listed at 5’7”, Zia Cooke at 5’9” (I’m not sure I believe that), Lexie Brown is 5’9”, Tiffany Mitchell is 5’9”, and Skylar Diggins is 5’9”.

It felt like the Wings were able to bully their way down low with some of their guards or wings. Haley Jones is 6’1”, Paige Bueckers is 6’0”, DiJonai Carrington is 5’11”, Aziaha James is 5’10”.

Outside of Gabby Williams (5’11”), the Storm’s guard defense was really poor without Skylar Diggins on the court. Obviously, Diggins is not tall, but she is strong (you’ve seen those muscles) and she’s feisty as hell.

This game also reminded me of how much the Storm miss Jordan Horston this season. Horston’s size at 6’2”, guard skills, rebounding, and athleticism are badly missed on this team. Her defense is sorely missed as well.

It is so unfortunate that she got hurt and tore her ACL shortly before the season. I feel so bad for her. And I had such high hopes for her third season in the WNBA after we saw so much growth from her in Year 2, especially increasing her offensive efficiency.

As the Storm rebuild their team in 2026, they should be looking for tall (6’0” plus) athletic guards like Horston who can score, defend, and rebound. Speaking of that…

Haley Jones

This is on the Storm’s front office, General Manager Talisa Rhea, or the Coaching Staff if they’re having final say on the roster makeup. Former 6th overall pick and 2021 Most Outstanding College Player, Haley Jones was waived by the Atlanta Dream on May 14th, right before the start of the season. She cleared waivers on May 16th. She was an unsigned unrestricted free agent between May 16th and May 31st. She was then signed by the Phoenix Mercury on June 1st.

On June 8th, she was waived by the Phoenix Mercury. Jones cleared waivers on June 10th. She was available to pick up again until the Dallas Wings signed her to a Hardship contract on June 17th. Haley was released on June 28th by the Wings, I believe once they got some of their players back from the Eurobasket tournament. Then on July 9th, she was re-signed by the Dallas Wings again. The point being, that she was available to be picked up multiple times this year if the Storm wanted to.

In her last two games, Jones has tallied 10 points on 46% shooting, six rebounds, six assists, and excellent defense (3 blocks, 2 steals) against the Storm. At 6’1” she blocked 6’4” Ezi Magbegor and 6’6” Dominique Malonga. She also forced Nneka Ogwumike into a missed shot near the rim. She had another strong performance of 12 points on 55% shooting, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals against the Las Vegas Aces.

You’re telling me that the Storm couldn’t use that? Especially, knowing that they would be without Jordan Horston all season long. What are we doing here?

Knowing what she accomplished at Stanford. And knowing that she’s only 24, it sometimes takes time for players to grow and adjust to the WNBA. They didn’t think to take a flyer on her?

Look, I get it. They were hamstrung a bit by the Katie Lou Sameulson injury and the fact that Lexie Brown had a guaranteed contract. But looking over Seattle’s bench as we sit today, how many players would you take over Haley Jones? Dominique Malonga, and anyone else…? There are players they could have cut to bring Jones in.

Sometimes I feel lately that the Storm are either too nice and still hang onto players who aren’t producing. Or they’re too slow to react to the Free Agency world when opportunities come up. The New York Liberty don’t have any problems getting rid of people if it means they can bring in someone better.

Laeticia Amihere is another player I felt they could have brought in after she was waived by Golden State. When she was waived by Atlanta in February, Golden State claimed her off of waivers, so there was nothing Seattle could do about that. But then she was waived by the Valkyries before the start of the season and was a UFA for nearly a month. With her, the timeline is a little tighter because they still had Li Yueru on the roster. But as a team that struggles to rebound, they could have used a 6’3” energy player like Amihere this season. There is no doubt about that.

“I Wish I knew”

As bad as giving up a 17-0 run in a game is, basketball is a game of runs. It’s how you respond to those moments that define you, your players, and your team. Despite giving up their double-digit lead during that time, Seattle was only down five points after a 17-0 run with almost the entire 2nd half to play. There is zero acceptable reason why they should have completely collapsed. They should not have lost all defensive discipline during their assignments. And frankly, Dallas isn’t a good enough defensive team to completely take them out of their game, and yet they did, and Seattle never adjusted or corrected it.

I spoke with Coach Noelle Quinn after the game about why she and the team weren’t able to get back on track after they gave up the 17-0 run between the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half.

Quinn had this to say: “It's just discipline and moments. Like, you know, we have an opportunity to go in a half and okay. And it's just, we, we relax on Arike. We are not sharp offensively, and then we give up easy baskets. I wish I knew, and I don't. And it's a lot of times, it's habit. You know, moving forward in this third quarter, and I'm speaking life. I'm not speaking negativity about my team. I want to speak positive. We will be more consistent. We will have less of these moments. And what it is, it is focus to me. That's probably not even the answer to it. I wish I knew. I don't know.”

Quinn was asked more about the full second-half collapse and why they couldn’t recover.

“It's… I wish I knew. These are questions that we have not answered all season. Within that time, when things aren't going your way there, you have to be proficient in something, whether it's defensively or efficient in offense, and we just were not in either of those things. We woke Arike up. A bad shot or not an efficient make, and a layup turns into threes for them, wide-open threes. And so I think those plays are like, they take the air out of you. They're deflating, and we just couldn't pump ourselves back up.” Quinn added.

I truly hate to write this because Noelle Quinn is a great person. She has been great with the media. Either because of her nature or because she was thrust into the Head Coaching position very early, she’s always been very open and straightforward with me and the rest of the Seattle media. Even when it might come to her own detriment. I greatly appreciate her honesty and the fact that she doesn’t give cookie-cutter BS responses that have no meaning.

I also have empathy for her as a coach myself. Even at the lower levels, coaches deal with a lot of pressure. And Quinn is right when she talks about the players having to want it, the players having to take ownership, because coaches aren’t out on the court. I have been in situations where I’m coaching in AAU tournaments and my team is losing by 40 or 50 points. And it sucks. It’s a helpless feeling because you’re telling your team how to correct mistakes, but the other team might just be significantly more talented, and there is nothing you can do during that game.

I’ve also been in situations where my team has lost its first four AAU tournament games at the beginning of the season, and have multiple parents calling for me to lose my job as the coach without giving any time for the team to learn, develop, and train. I remember one year, one of my teams started the season 1-7, but finished 17-11. Despite our horrible start, we finished 16-4 in our final 20 games because coaching and development take time.

It’s easy to call for a Coach’s job when things aren’t going right. But changing coaches isn’t always the correct call. Even if there are some rough patches along the way. It takes time to build and develop a team. It takes time to develop players. And it takes time to develop as a coach because all of us are constantly learning.

With that being said, answering a question about why the team collapsed and couldn’t recover by saying, “I wish I knew (the answer), and I don’t.” is pretty damning when we are five years into the Coach Noelle Quinn era of Seattle Storm basketball.

It’s frustrating to hear. Even more, it’s concerning that this keeps happening over the years and that she hasn’t been able to find the answers. The larger problem is that you would think having Coach Pokey Chatman there would be able to help in these moments. Chatman has over 30 years of Head Coaching experience. But she doesn’t have the answers either because if she did, this wouldn’t keep happening in Storm games.

I don’t know if they need to be harder on the players. I don’t know if they need a better roster. Obviously, they missed Skylar (a lot), but they’ve had these types of losses with her too.

Coach Quinn has done a lot of great things for the Storm. And she is a wonderful person. But 5 years into her Coaching stint there are still too many deer in the headlights moments. If this season ends with another first-round elimination, I think the Storm ownership group needs to have a serious discussion among themselves on whether they truly believe the team is headed in the right direction or if the entire organization needs a massive overhaul.

Post-Game Press Conference

If you prefer the audio versions, I’ve posted them below.

Player Interviews

Coach’s Quotes

Notes:
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Photo Credits: Seattle Storm/WNBA Photography

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