Stewie Abandons Seattle, Now What?
The Storm's worst nightmare is now a reality.
On February 1st, 2023 it became official. Breanna Stewart would no longer be playing for the Seattle Storm. She is signing with the New York Liberty as an Unrestricted Free Agent. An announcement she made early Wednesday morning.
Stewart took a big free agency meeting with the New York Liberty owners Joe and Clara Tsai last year but ultimately decided to re-sign with the Storm. This wasn’t a shock as Sue Bird was returning for one final year. But ever since that day, the greater WNBA community believed that Stewie was headed back home to New York in 2023. It was only a matter of time.
“It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions for sure!” Stewart told Malika Andrews on SportCenter. “I decided to go to New York because I wanted to continue to be great. And I want to go to a place to help this league become better, to continue to raise the standard. I feel like ‘Why not go to the biggest market in all of sports? I’m really excited to go after their first championship!” Stewie added.
Stewart also discussed Charter Flights and talked about the Liberty owners being big supporters of that. Going to New York, the biggest market in the world, with wealthy billionaire owners supporting her were all keys to Stewart leaving Seattle.
The New York Liberty
“Super Teams are the new thing!” Stewart said excitedly during her SportsCenter Interview when Malika Andrews asked her about the Liberty’s roster and joining Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu.
As of this writing, there is still a chance Courtney Vandersloot joins Stewie in New York as well. Whether she does or not, the Liberty are certainly going to be title contenders with their Big 3 plus other quality players like Betnijah Laney, Stefanie Dolson, Kayla Thorton, and Marine Johannès.
After the Las Vegas Aces added Candace Parker and Alysha Clark to an already stacked roster that included A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young - it certainly feels like we’re headed to a WNBA Finals matchup between these two stacked rosters. So what about the rest of the WNBA? And …
Where Do the Storm Go From Here?
That’s the million dollar question now isn’t it? Realistically, there are two different paths they can take. A team doesn’t just lose arguably the best player in the entire league and easily move on. There is no way to sugar coat things, the team is going to be worse than they would be if Breanna Stewart had re-signed with the Storm.
The front office, Storm General Manager - Talisa Rhea, and the ownership group will have to decide what they want to do and which direction to take the franchise.
Build a Playoff Contender
The cupboards are pretty bare but that doesn’t mean Seattle can’t be a competitive team. Are they likely to challenge Las Vegas or New York for the title? No. But Jewell Loyd is still arguably a Top 10 player in the WNBA. Mercedes Russell is a quality Center. And Ezi Magbegor (who is a Reserved player and can only re-sign with Seattle) has All-Star potential and is only 23 years old.
Courtney Vandersloot is still a free agent (for now). If Seattle were to convince the Kent, WA native to come home they would be adding one of the league’s best point guards. With Sue Bird retiring, the team needs to add a strong point guard to lead the team and there is none better than Vandersloot of the available options.
You could certainly build a pretty competitive team with All-Star guards in Jewell Loyd and Vandersloot and a rising star in Ezi Magbegor. The team would be even more competitive if they were able to re-sign Tina Charles. Charles still proved that she is a dominant scorer and an excellent rebounder in this league when she joined Seattle in the middle of last season.
I wasn’t certain there would be room for Charles on the Storm’s roster if they were to re-sign Breanna Stewart and with a (hopefully) healthy Mercedes Russell. Especially, if they want to continue to develop Magbegor and get her starter’s minutes. However, with Stewie taking her talents to New York, there is definitely room to bring Tina Charles back. If she would be interested.
Unfortunately, it’s being reported that Nneka Ogwumike is re-signing with the LA Sparks so she is not an option for Seattle.
If Seattle wants to add another piece at the Forward position and decides not to re-sign Tina Charles (or she opts to play elsewhere), some other options would include Azura Stevens (Chicago) and Isabelle Harrison (Dallas). They could also make a run at Emma Meesseman, however I have a feeling she may opt to stay overseas instead of joining the WNBA this year.
The Storm will also need to figure out their starting Small Forward position. Gabby Williams may not return to the WNBA due to the prioritization rules and the fact that she makes significantly more money overseas. The team also lost Stephanie Talbot who is signing with the LA Sparks. I thought Talbot was an option to start for the Storm this season, especially if they had to pay extra money at other positions (if they were re-signing Stewie and adding Sloot).
Brittney Sykes was another option that could have filled that role but she has signed elsewhere inking a deal with the Washington Mystics. Alysha Clark could have been another option but she wanted to join a more serious contender and signed with the Aces.
There are still enough players available for the Storm to sign to make them a competitive playoff team. Chicago and Connecticut are taking steps back after losing critical pieces this off-season and won’t be nearly as competitive. If Seattle wants to build a contender they could add enough pieces to probably put themselves somewhere between the 4th-7th overall seed in the league. Would that be good enough to win a WNBA Championship against the league’s elite? No. But it could still make for a fun, competitive season that leads to a playoff berth and possibly advancing to the 2nd round of the playoffs.
What’s the other option?
Burn it to the Ground!
Plan B? What Plan B? If Seattle isn’t able to sign players like Courtney Vandersloot, Tina Charles, Azura Stevens, etc. then I can’t imagine they will be a very competitive team. Jewell and Ezi are both very talented players. But they will need a strong supporting cast if they want to be a playoff team. If they don’t get those additions we are looking at the Storm being one of the worst WNBA franchises this season. If that happens, I can’t imagine Jewell Loyd will want to stay with the franchise long-term if it’s going to be a lottery team for multiple seasons.
The Storm knew that Natasha Howard wanted to be traded after the 2020 season, so they cored her in order to get the most value possible. That resulted in a trade that led to Seattle receiving multiple draft picks including #1 overall. Which was then traded for additional players.
By opting not to put the Core tag on Breanna Stewart it appears that Seattle will lose the best player in the league for absolutely nothing which is extremely disappointing. If Jewell Loyd opts to leave in Free Agency in 2024 and they get nothing for her as well that would be a catastrophe. Franchise malpractice.
It can be difficult to get fair or equal value when a superstar wants out of town. But to get absolutely nothing in return is inexcusable.
If they believe Loyd will want out next they might as well trade her for as many draft assets or young talented players as possible and go into a full rebuild mode.
The 2024 WNBA Draft looks to be a good one. If they could secure two Top 5 picks for that draft it might allow Seattle’s rebuild to be a quick one. Just as the team did in 2015 and 2016 landing Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart they were able to go from being one of the worst teams in the league to a playoff team and eventually two-time WNBA champions. within a five-year window.
Next year, there are a handful of talented players that will be draft eligible including Caitlin Clark (Iowa), Paige Beuckers (UConn), Cameron Brink (Stanford), Angel Reese (LSU), and Hailey Van Lith (Louisville).
As I write this article, I thought back to last year’s press conference with Breanna Stewart after she signed the one-year deal. I wrote about what stood out the most from all three of their press conferences (Bird, Loyd, and Stewart). But from all of that, this stood out the most to me.
“Surprisingly, Rhea admitted to the media they didn’t have a Plan B if Stewart had signed with another WNBA team. That could be looked at from a couple of different viewpoints, A) The organization was so confident that Stewart would be back from the relationship they have with her it was never a legit concern. Or B) Not having a backup plan could be perceived as the organization not doing its due diligence when it comes to planning out the future.”
We now get to watch what happens next. To see how the franchise acts after losing the best player in the league. No matter what, it’s certainly going to be fascinating to see what comes next.
I'll never understand why we didn't core Stewie. Yes, it was thought that Jewell wanted to play in Chicago, but she would not have been as devastating a loss as is Stewie. Jewell can be very good, but she can also be very inconsistent. And losing Steff, too. She really came through for us when she got the chance to play more than bench minutes.