Seattle Storm Free Agency: Decisions on the 2021 roster

Who's coming back for 2022?

As we begin the 2022 season, the Seattle Storm have just five players under contract for this upcoming season. Katie Lou Samuelson is the only returning starter currently under contract. The three franchise cornerstone pieces: Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd, and Breanna Stewart are all unrestricted free agents. Meaning they can sign with any team of their choosing.

I’m confident in saying the Storm want to bring all three back. And they do have the cap space to pull that off. I’d like to assume part of the reason the team was willing to part with Natasha Howard and ultimately lost out on retaining Alysha Clark last year was that they had to keep an eye towards the future. The 2022 off-season in which Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart would both be unrestricted free agents.

Seattle’s front office will have the core designation tag (similar to the franchise tag in the NFL) that they can opt to use on Stewart or Loyd. The team used it on Natasha Howard last year but ultimately ended up trading her away for draft assets instead of signing her to a long term extension.

I am honestly fascinated to see who the team chooses to core between Loyd and Stewart. Many WNBA fans outside of Seattle are pushing for Jewell to leave the Storm. I’m not certain if that’s just jealousy from Seattle’s success or some misconstrued viewpoint that Jewell is not valued or is overlooked because of Breanna Stewart’s success.