First Notes from Seattle Storm Training Camp

All 12 WNBA teams officially opened up training camp and practice on Sunday.

The first day of WNBA Training Camp opened up across the league on Sunday, April 28th. In Seattle, it was the Storm’s official practice in their brand-new Center for Basketball Performance facility. The gym was filled with several new faces that weren’t on the roster a year ago, eight to be exact. This group is more experienced but that doesn’t mean they were mistake free.

Jewell Loyd spoke about the first day of practice after it ended.

“A lot of teaching. We just want to make sure everyone knows what’s going on. Setting the foundation for the rest of the season. It’s a new season. We’re still learning each other. It’s different from last year. But it’s still a new team. We’re trying to figure out who we are and our identity.” Loyd said.

Per team/league rules, media are only allowed to watch around the final 30 minutes of practice. During that time the team usually runs scrimmages. Those can be against the male practice players or each other. On Sunday, they ran six separate five-minute sessions with five WNBA players against the male practice players.

Below are my quick notes from each session that took place.

Session 1:

The first group for the Storm consisted of mostly starters. It was Skylar Diggins-Smith, Jewell Loyd, Victoria Vivians, Nneka Ogwumike, and Mercedes Russell. Ezi Magbegor was the only player not at training camp on Sunday. I believe the team stated she would be joining the team on Monday or within the next couple of days.

While Ezi wasn’t with the team. Jordan Horston also didn’t participate in any of the full-court scrimmages. That explains why she wasn’t running with the “ones” in this first group. After practice was completely over, I spoke with Coach Noelle Quinn and she stated that Jordan had just slightly tweaked her ankle recently and they were just being extra cautious. She mentioned that Horston should be a full participant in practices within the next few days. And I should note that Horston was out taking shots after the official practice had concluded.

The male practice players were extra aggressive forcing multiple turnovers and steals during this opening session. They took advantage of some miscues by the first group.

Session 2:

The second group consisted of Jade Melbourne, Sami Whitcomb, Kaela Davis, Joyner Holmes, and Alaina Coates. Melbourne was the primary ball-handler during this session.

This group was also committing too many turnovers and Coach Noelle Quinn stopped the session to let the players know they needed to clean up their mistakes; and that they couldn’t be giving away opportunities to score.

One of the guys looked like he had a fast break layup but Alaina Coates did a good job of recovering and she rejected the shot. Shortly after that on another possession, Melbourne took a solid charge forcing the men’s group into a turnover. Late in the session, Coates was also able to score in the low post against her defender.

Session 3:

The first group of “starters” returned to the court (same players as Group 1). Victoria Vivians had a big block against the men during this run. Cedes had a beautiful crosscourt pass to Jewell Loyd for an open three-pointer that went through the net. Russell then got in a great position down low and finished an easy two. Mercedes even had an aggressive steal where she stepped ahead of her man to knock the ball away and hustled to gather up the ball. Russell looked fantastic during this round and was probably the most impressive any player looked during any of these five-minute scrimmages.

Session 4:

For Group 4, we had a brand new team of Nika Mühl, Jade Melbourne, Sami Whitcomb, Joyner Holmes, and Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu. It was the first time we got to see the Storm’s 2024 rookie (Mühl) in action. The first thing that stood out was that Mühl was exclusively running the point guard position while both she and Jade were on the court together. Jade ran the point earlier when Skylar and Nika weren’t on the court with her. Melbourne did run a nice pick and roll and found Dulcy down low but unfortunately, Mendjiadeu was not able to finish at the rim against the defense.

Overall, this group really struggled to score. I think Joyner Holmes might have been the only one to score a single basket during their five minutes.

Session 5:

This group consisted of Jewell, Joyner, Mercedes, Sami, and Kiana Williams. One thing that immediately stood out to me here was that Jewell Loyd ran point for the first two or three possessions with this group. I expected to see Kiana running point which she did eventually but Loyd handled the point guard position initially.

Joyner hit a three in this group. Mercedes had another nice feed to Joyner who wasn’t able to finish the up and under the rim layup. Jewell hit a three on a dribble hand-off from Kiana. Jewell made a nice feed to Mercedes, Cedes missed but Joyner cleaned up the glass with a putback layup. This group played quite well winning their session 8-2.

Session 6:

The final group consisted of Mühl, Melbourne, Vivians, Coates, and Quay Miller.

One thing that stood out was that it felt like when Nika was in and tasked with bringing up the ball, the male practice players were aggressive with a (pseudo) full-court press. At one point, I did see them throw a double team at her. Overall, I think Mühl handled the pressure well. I don’t recall her turning the ball over during those moments.

I do wonder if the coaches wanted to test Mühl’s ability to handle that full-court pressure and asked the male players to push her in that area. I recall many years ago, I think it may have been Blake Dietrick who had to play in a game and struggled to run the point and bring the ball up committing a couple of quick turnovers.

Nika had a good blow-by drive and finished with a scoop layup. Mühl fed the ball to Jade for a three, Jade missed, but showed great hustle. She got her own rebound and finished the floater in the lane. Another thing that stood out was that Nika was already barking orders to get her teammates in line.

Victoria Vivians took a charge to force a turnover by the men. Jade made a nice play with good dribble penetration down the baseline where she found Vivians cutting down the lane from the other side for the layup. As I looked down to type up that highlight, on the very next play Nika found Jade for a beautiful reverse layup. I didn’t see Mühl make the pass but I looked up to see Melbourne finish the reverse layup at the rim. Another media member stated that it was the best play of practice.

Both Mühl and Melbourne did seem to shine during this session and worked well together.

While it wasn’t an official next session, the team ran one last play. Finishing up practice with an end-of-game scenario where the next score wins. Coach Quinn brought back some of the starters, at least Jewell and Skylar. Diggins-Smith found Loyd coming off a screen for a three-ball. Loyd missed the shot but the ball went straight to Vivians who was right under the basket. Victoria quickly laid it back in to “win” the game. The entire team erupted in celebration.

Practice that’s open to the media ended here and the group came together to talk things out. They all huddled up around a large circle. I believe each player was talking about or complimenting one of their teammates which I found funny as that’s something I’ll have my middle school players do when I’ve coached youth basketball. Nneka Ogwumike finished things off with some words of wisdom.

I spoke with Coach Quinn after practice ended to get her overall thoughts on the first day.

“I thought there was great energy. We have a couple of pieces who are learning everything. And we have people who have been here and know, and a lot in between that. I thought the energy never faded through it all. We do have to get the rust off and learn each other a bit more. But I thought it was a good first day.” Quinn told me.

Training Camp Battles

Another thing that stands out to me is that this training camp should be very competitive. There is a lot of talent on this team and, unfortunately, the Storm will only be able to keep 11 players on their final roster.

We know the Storm have six guaranteed contracts with Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Nneka Ogwumike, Ezi Magbegor, Sami Whitcomb, and Mercedes Russell. All six of those players must be on the roster. That means there will be five opening spots for Jordan Horston, Jade Melbourne, Nika Mühl, Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu, Victoria Vivians, Kaela Davis, Alaina Coates, Joyner Holmes, Kiana Williams, and Quay Miller.

I believe Jordan Horston is a lock as I would think she is penciled in as the team’s starting Small Forward as long as she is healthy. Jade or Nika has to make the team as they need at least one backup point guard behind Skylar Diggins-Smith. I don’t believe it’s an either/or situation. Both may make the final roster. To do that, the team would likely have to be short one wing or post player.

Ezi, Nneka, and Mercedes are guaranteed post players on the team. There will be one or two additional post players to make the team from the group of Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu, Alaina Coates, Joyner Holmes, and Quay Miller.

Victoria Vivians and Kaela Davis are likely battling for the backup wing/Small Forward spot on the team. But it’s also not a guarantee either makes the team depending on how the top brass and coaches ultimately decide to put together the team. There is a scenario where they could keep an extra post player and just move Sami Whitcomb as the backup three while keeping Mühl and Melbourne both on the roster as backup guards.

Here are a few examples of potential final rosters for the Storm.

Example 1:
PG: Diggins-Smith, Mühl
SG: Loyd, Melbourne
SF: Horston, Whitcomb
PF: Ogwumike, Fankam Mendjiadeu
C: Magbegor, Russell, Coates

Example 2:
PG: Diggins-Smith, Mühl
SG: Loyd, Whitcomb, Melbourne
SF: Horston, Vivians
PF: Ogwumike, Fankam Mendjiadeu
C: Magbegor, Russell

Example 3:
PG: Diggins-Smith, Melbourne
SG: Loyd, Whitcomb
SF: Horston, Davis
PF: Ogwumike, Fankam Mendjiadeu, Holmes
C: Magbegor, Russell

Notes: I did my best to put together all the notes and basketball lineups that stood out to me during the 30 minutes of practice that I got to witness. Practice in total is a good two to three hours, and there is a ton that the media isn’t privy to.

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