Great writeup, so many interesting happenings and observations. I'm liking what I hear about Muhl, Jade and Cedes. Interested in Vivians, I've heard a lot about her in the past; what do you think of her chances? Thanks Jeff.
Regarding Vivians. She probably has a leg up against some of the other non-guaranteed newcomers. But it will really depend on how they want to fill out the roster. I have a couple of different views when it comes to roster building. 1) I think you need a premiere post player in order to win a WNBA Championship and 2) Beyond that, the Point Guard is the most important position to have in basketball.
For the latter point, we saw how much Seattle struggled last season. Yes, a huge part of that was just losing Breanna Stewart who is an MVP-type player. But having Sue or a player that really can fully command the offense is super important to team success. Because of that, I think you push both Jade and Nika and if you feel good about both, you keep both on the roster.
From a roster building perspective, if they are good enough, it makes a ton of sense to keep both as Jade is a 3rd rounder on her 2nd year of a rookie scale contract and Nika Mühl would be on her first year of a rookie deal. Having inexpensive players that can fill in roles even if they are bench players is critical. And it gives the team a lot more future flexibility to sign Ezi to another big deal, to re-sign Nneka, and to maybe even bring Gabby Williams back in 2025.
I bring up all of that to say, if both Nika and Jade are on the final roster, it may mean that Victoria Vivians is not.
Here is one roster example that works:
PG: Skylar, Nika, Jade
SG: Jewell, Sami
SF: Jordan, Victoria
PF: Nneka, Dulcy
C: Ezi, Mercedes
In that scenario, you're keeping just 4 bigs on the roster and the rest are guards or wings. Now what's nice is that Jordan is 6'2" and Vivians is 6'1" so your Small Forwards wouldn't be small.
But what if they wanted to keep someone like Alaina Coates who is 6'4" has good size and muscle and is more offensively skilled than someone like Dulcy. Do they cut Vivians and keep Coates, and move Sami as the backup 3 with Nika as the backup PG and Jade the backup SG.
Or in that scenario, if they wanted to keep Coates and Vivians, now they would either have to cut Dulcy, Jade, or Nika. But those 3 players are on rookie-scale contracts with more cost-effective team control. So if you're making that move, it's more a move to win right now in 2024.
As of right now, I also think it's possible Kaela Davis is still in the running for that backup wing position. So in the parts where I mentioned Victoria Vivians, you could probably swap her name with Davis and the rest holds true.
Nice breakdown of 30 minutes of Storm practice, Jeff. I liked the commentary on the 5-minute scrimmages that they ran against the men. I also like hearing about all the players. I thought that Alaina Coates had about a 0.01% chance of making the team, but she could actually have a shot if she continues to impress. The same is true for Victoria Vivians although her odds are better than Alaina's as far as making the team. She probably has at least a 10% chance of making the roster. And if either one of those 2 make the roster then there will be no room for Joyner Holmes. And I don't think that Dulcy is a lock to make the cut. Alaina or Joyner could take her spot, although, as you point out, she is on her rookie contract, so other things being equal, it makes more sense economically to keep Dulcy.
So one of the other posts or maybe even Victoria Vivians would have to clearly outshine Dulcy to win a roster spot. I hope that you will get to watch the Storm again in the next week and provide an update. And I hope that you're feeling better and have a quick recovery.
I meant to also say that I think that the Storm have to keep 3 point guards, especially since Jade is more of a combo guard and Nika is the natural take-charge PG and more of a defensive wiz and a great distributor.
Great read Jeff. I think your first scenario is likely the closest to what we go with.
Rebounding was such a deficit for us last year. I’m curious. Did you see/hear anything about Dulcy in the offseason? Jade had a great season (as did Cedes) in Australia, Jordy (hopefully) healed. But I didn’t hear anything about Dulcy.
Thank you for this!...I feel better about Nikas chances!
-ShotByStout
Me too! I also love Melbourne so I hope to see them both on the team
Nice job, Jeff.
Great writeup, so many interesting happenings and observations. I'm liking what I hear about Muhl, Jade and Cedes. Interested in Vivians, I've heard a lot about her in the past; what do you think of her chances? Thanks Jeff.
Regarding Vivians. She probably has a leg up against some of the other non-guaranteed newcomers. But it will really depend on how they want to fill out the roster. I have a couple of different views when it comes to roster building. 1) I think you need a premiere post player in order to win a WNBA Championship and 2) Beyond that, the Point Guard is the most important position to have in basketball.
For the latter point, we saw how much Seattle struggled last season. Yes, a huge part of that was just losing Breanna Stewart who is an MVP-type player. But having Sue or a player that really can fully command the offense is super important to team success. Because of that, I think you push both Jade and Nika and if you feel good about both, you keep both on the roster.
From a roster building perspective, if they are good enough, it makes a ton of sense to keep both as Jade is a 3rd rounder on her 2nd year of a rookie scale contract and Nika Mühl would be on her first year of a rookie deal. Having inexpensive players that can fill in roles even if they are bench players is critical. And it gives the team a lot more future flexibility to sign Ezi to another big deal, to re-sign Nneka, and to maybe even bring Gabby Williams back in 2025.
I bring up all of that to say, if both Nika and Jade are on the final roster, it may mean that Victoria Vivians is not.
Here is one roster example that works:
PG: Skylar, Nika, Jade
SG: Jewell, Sami
SF: Jordan, Victoria
PF: Nneka, Dulcy
C: Ezi, Mercedes
In that scenario, you're keeping just 4 bigs on the roster and the rest are guards or wings. Now what's nice is that Jordan is 6'2" and Vivians is 6'1" so your Small Forwards wouldn't be small.
But what if they wanted to keep someone like Alaina Coates who is 6'4" has good size and muscle and is more offensively skilled than someone like Dulcy. Do they cut Vivians and keep Coates, and move Sami as the backup 3 with Nika as the backup PG and Jade the backup SG.
Or in that scenario, if they wanted to keep Coates and Vivians, now they would either have to cut Dulcy, Jade, or Nika. But those 3 players are on rookie-scale contracts with more cost-effective team control. So if you're making that move, it's more a move to win right now in 2024.
As of right now, I also think it's possible Kaela Davis is still in the running for that backup wing position. So in the parts where I mentioned Victoria Vivians, you could probably swap her name with Davis and the rest holds true.
Nice breakdown of 30 minutes of Storm practice, Jeff. I liked the commentary on the 5-minute scrimmages that they ran against the men. I also like hearing about all the players. I thought that Alaina Coates had about a 0.01% chance of making the team, but she could actually have a shot if she continues to impress. The same is true for Victoria Vivians although her odds are better than Alaina's as far as making the team. She probably has at least a 10% chance of making the roster. And if either one of those 2 make the roster then there will be no room for Joyner Holmes. And I don't think that Dulcy is a lock to make the cut. Alaina or Joyner could take her spot, although, as you point out, she is on her rookie contract, so other things being equal, it makes more sense economically to keep Dulcy.
So one of the other posts or maybe even Victoria Vivians would have to clearly outshine Dulcy to win a roster spot. I hope that you will get to watch the Storm again in the next week and provide an update. And I hope that you're feeling better and have a quick recovery.
I meant to also say that I think that the Storm have to keep 3 point guards, especially since Jade is more of a combo guard and Nika is the natural take-charge PG and more of a defensive wiz and a great distributor.
I sooooo agree with you on all of this.
Great read Jeff. I think your first scenario is likely the closest to what we go with.
Rebounding was such a deficit for us last year. I’m curious. Did you see/hear anything about Dulcy in the offseason? Jade had a great season (as did Cedes) in Australia, Jordy (hopefully) healed. But I didn’t hear anything about Dulcy.