Seattle Storm Media Exit Interviews

The media spoke with Head Coach Quinn and players after the season.

Unfortunately, the Seattle Storm season came to an early end this past Tuesday in Las Vegas. The Aces defeated the Storm 83-76 in Game 2 of the WNBA Playoffs. On Wednesday, the Seattle media had the opportunity to interview Head Coach Noelle Quinn and the players. Every player on the roster was interviewed except for Mercedes Russell who did not appear. I did not hear any specific reason for this but it may have been mentioned offline in the media room between sessions. Unfortunately, due to the schedule, I had to cover these Exit Interviews online through Zoom instead of being there in person. Having a player or two occasionally skip Exit Interviews isn’t completely unheard of. Tina Charles was a no-show after the team lost in the semifinals to the Las Vegas Aces in 2022.

The team has now uploaded the full set of interviews, nearly two hours in total, to their YouTube channel which I’ve linked below for everyone to watch. In case you haven’t seen it yet and want to check it out.

Overall, it was a fairly successful season, but the team would have liked to make a better run through the playoffs. The Storm won 25 games, which was the third-most in franchise history. Due to the league now playing more games, it was technically the sixth-best season in franchise history from a win percentage standpoint (.625). That’s still not bad considering this was the 25th season in franchise history.

The Storm enter the off-season with multiple question marks. The team referenced the Aces’s championship chemistry together as an area they didn’t match up well against Las Vegas; as that core group of Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, and A’ja Wilson have played together since 2019. The first question is whether or not Seattle can bring back both Nneka Ogwumike and Gabby Williams. Both players will be Unrestricted Free Agents and will have the chance to sign with any team they want.

The next question is, if they manage to bring back Gabby and Nneka, is that enough? This group was very talented on paper but was still worse than New York, Las Vegas, Connecticut, and Minnesota. While I think the Aces and Liberty had more talent on their rosters. I’m not certain either Connecticut or Minnesota actually had better rosters. But they clearly played better as a team. Whether that’s chemistry together (the Sun have played together for years) or whether it was coaching (Who’s better than Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve?), for one reason or another, the Lynx and Sun were better than Seattle.

Considering Seattle traded away the 4th overall pick (Rickea Jackson) to bring on Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith, it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to blow things up after one season. Successful franchises don’t make rash decisions. The Chicago Sky just fired Teresa Weatherspoon after one season despite them fighting for a playoff spot in the final week of the season. The LA Sparks fired Curt Miller after two seasons, after bringing him in to rebuild the organization after Derek Fisher left it in shambles. Neither organization has been better than Seattle.

Seattle’s front office needs to review what worked. Identify the players that worked well with one another. Find the players they believe in and who believe in the team’s goals. And move forward adding supportive pieces around them (better three-point shooters for one).

Over the next month, we will have a new WNBA Champion crowned and then teams will learn the full details on the upcoming Golden State Valkyries Expansion Draft.

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