What I've learned from Seattle Storm training camp

My biggest takeaways prior to the WNBA's 25th season kicking off.

The 2021 Seattle Storm team will bring a new logo and a new look on the court this season. The defending WNBA Champions look to defend their title as they begin the season facing off against the Las Vegas Aces, the team they beat for their 4th WNBA title last October. Over the past couple of weeks, the team has gone through training camp to prepare for the start of the regular season.

This year will look a little different than the bubble season of 2020. The Storm return to Seattle (Everett) to play in front of their hometown fans again. Although COVID restrictions will still limit the amount of fans that will be able to attend the game at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, WA.

The team will also look considerably different as at least five of the team’s 12 players from a year ago are now gone. Natasha Howard and Sami Whitcomb were traded away to the New York Liberty. Alysha Clark opted to sign with the Washington Mystics instead of re-signing with Seattle. And Crystal Langhorne and Morgan Tuck both retired in the offseason.

Seattle made a number of moves in the offseason in order to reload this team with new talent. All in an effort to win the Storm’s third championship in the past four years.

With all that said, here are some things that have stood out to me during my interactions with the team and head coach during training camp.

Missing in Action

The most notable thing to me about this training camp is that it’s almost more about who hasn’t been in Seattle than who has.

Breanna Stewart, the 2020 Finals MVP, just joined the team for practice this week. Kennedy Burke, who was the Storm’s big acquisition on draft night just started practicing last week. Mercedes Russell and Epiphanny Prince are still overseas in Turkey.

Katie Lou Samuelson and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan were two of Seattle’s biggest acquisitions this offseason. And yet they still haven’t joined the team in training camp and we’re now less than a week away from the start of the regular season.

Katie Lou has been playing in Spain and the Euroleague where she has had an incredible season. Samuelson averaged over 15 PPG and 5 RPG while being named to the All Euroleague 1st Team honors. She helped lead her team to the Finals where they fell short to Breanna Stewart and UMMC Ekaterinburg of Russia. Stewart also won the Russian league championship; while Samuelson’s team, Perfumerias Avenida, won the Spanish league title.

While Samuelson’s time in the Euroleague is now over she still has other obligations that will keep her out of the Seattle Storm lineup during this season. Recently, Katie Lou was added to the USA Women’s 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Team. She will join three other players as they attempt to qualify for the Olympics during a tournament that takes place between May 26th-30th in Austria.

We finally received confirmation that Katie Lou will join the team Wednesday, May 12th and should be available to play when the season begins on Saturday against Las Vegas.

Kiki Herbert Harrigan’s situation has been less clear. While Harrigan’s overseas ended earlier than Samuelson’s, she was nowhere to be found when training camp began.

Coach Dan Hughes mentioned Harrigan has had an issue getting an appointment to approve her Visa for International travel to the United States.

This week, we learned Harrigan will finally join the Storm just a couple of days prior to their regular-season matchup against the Las Vegas Aces.

Herbert Harrigan has had a strong overseas season in Turkey playing for Bellona Kayseri Basketbol where she’s averaged 13.0 PPG and 6.8 RPG.

The assets the Storm acquired for trading Natasha Howard eventually landed them Katie Lou Samuelson and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan. Those players have yet to practice with the team as of this writing. Hopefully, they both will be able to get up to speed quickly as they each have the potential to really help Seattle this season.

Candice Dupree will have a large role

The very first time the Seattle media got to speak with Candice Dupree after the team signed the 15-year WNBA veteran, she talked about how some teams claimed they wanted her on their team during free agency, but that Seattle really made an effort to show they wanted her and paid her as such in the offseason.

Multiple times throughout training camp, Coach Dan Hughes spoke about how thankful he was to have Dupree on the team. And that her veteran leadership was really important, especially since they’ve been missing so many key players including Breanna Stewart throughout most of the camp.

Seattle’s coach also hinted very early on that Dupree would likely start for the Storm this season. Which either means the team is going to play small at the traditional Center spot with either the 6’2” Dupree starting at Center or 6’4” Breanna Stewart. Or that they might play very big with Stewart at 6’4” possibly playing the three spot (Small Forward), Dupree at Power Forward, and then either 6’6” Mercedes Russell or 6’4” Ezi Magbegor playing the five (Center).

Either way, there is a major role on this team that needs to be filled with Natasha Howard no longer on the team. And while Dupree and Howard certainly aren’t the same type of player, Candice will be able to fill in a lot of the scoring and rebounding that Howard provided the team over the past three seasons.

During her 15 seasons in the WNBA, Candice Dupree has a career average of 14.4 PPG and has never averaged below 11 points in any year. She’s also an efficient scorer, averaging 50% field goal shooting throughout her time in the league.

My expectation is that she’ll likely be one of Seattle’s Top 3 scorers this season alongside Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd.

Ezi’s ready to take the next step

I’ve mentioned it before but something that has stuck with me on draft night in 2019 was the Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo talking about Ezi Magbegor’s potential. She mentioned that had Ezi gone to college in the United States and played at a place like UConn for four years, she’d likely go number one overall in the WNBA Draft after her senior season. Instead, Ezi declared for the 2019 draft at just 19 years old. Magbegor stayed in Australia in 2019 and joined the team in 2020 where she averaged a modest 6.5 PPG and 2.5 RPG her rookie season. Ezi then went on to average 14.8 PPG and 8.6 RPG in the WNBL for the Melbourne Boomers in Australia in 2020.

Ezi has received praise during training camp interviews and played extremely well in the Storm’s first preseason game against the Phoenix Mercury this past weekend where she led the team in scoring and rebounding with 17 points and seven rebounds. She also added three steals and three blocked shots on the defensive side of the ball.

One of the reasons I feel Seattle was willing to trade away Natasha Howard was the emergence of Magbegor. Ezi is capable of doing a lot of the things that Natasha also brought to the team. She runs the floor well for transition baskets. She is athletic and has the ability to be a plus defender. Her offensive game is strong down low and she continues to develop her outside shot. Coach Hughes even talked about that and how Howard developed a three-pointer while playing in Seattle and he believes Ezi will be able to do the same to stretch the floor on offense.

Kennedy Burke’s role will be ….

In a surprise move on draft night, the Seattle Storm traded the rights to the player they selected 11th overall, Aaliyah Wilson, in order to acquire Kennedy Burke from the Indiana Fever. Burke is entering her 3rd season in the WNBA after playing at UCLA alongside Jordin Canada in college. Burke had strong moments during the Bubble season, including scoring a career-high 23 points against Seattle. She averaged 7.2 PPG during the season.

Burke is listed as a guard but Coach Dan Hughes consistently referred to her as a three (Small Forward). A point I made sure to get clarity on a couple of times throughout training camp discussions.

While Seattle’s coach was impressed with her offensive performances against the Storm last season, he truly envisions Burke taking on more of a defensive-minded role with Seattle.

Coach Hughes wants Burke to be able to defend some of the opposing team’s best perimeter players similar to what Alysha Clark was tasked with on a nightly basis. And while he confirmed that Burke could get an opportunity at the starting SF position, he also said he was fond of playing her alongside her college teammate Jordin Canada as part of a strong bench unit.

Not enough spots for everyone …. Expansion?

The most difficult part of covering the WNBA is knowing that there are so many talented players out there and there simply isn’t enough room for all of them. 144 spots are all that’s available if you want to play professional basketball in the United States. And with the new CBA forcing some teams to carry only 11 players on their roster it’s actually somewhere between 132-144.

Seattle is no different than the rest of the league. As final cuts are required to take place before the season starts, the Storm’s front office is going to have to crush the dreams of multiple players. Many of whom are extremely talented basketball players that deserve to make a final roster.

The reality of the situation is Seattle has five rookies in training camp and it’s possible none of them make the team. If you include the 2020 rookies (first-round pick) Kitija Laksa and (third-round pick) Haley Gorecki. To go along with Kiana Williams, N’dea Jones, and Natalie Kucowski, all of whom were selected during the 2021 WNBA Draft in April. The latter was cut on Tuesday afternoon.

Both Kitija Laksa and Haley Gorecki have been praised in training camp for their excellent shooting abilities. N’dea Jones has been called a rebounding machine and someone who hustles and gives tremendous effort out on the court. And Kiana Williams has also been praised for her shooting, her ability to score off the dribble, and her leadership qualities as a Point Guard.

They all bring something to the team. But ultimately, it might not be enough to actually make the final roster. All of these rookies are battling it out with a group of veterans for the final one-to-two spots on Seattle’s roster.

Then there’s the group of veterans who are all pushing to make the team. Stephanie Talbot is a WNBL MVP and has played in the WNBA for three seasons with the Phoenix Mercury and Minnesota Lynx. Tamera (Ty) Young was just cut by the team on Tuesday (May 11th). Young has played 12 seasons in the WNBA most recently with Las Vegas in 2019. She missed the cut in 2019 as well.

Percy Allen of the Seattle Times asked Ty Young if the league is ready to expand during media day a few days ago.

“I think we are. I think we should. You have the league with the teams, there’s just not enough space. You have good players, great players that get cut because there’s not enough room. I feel that if we had enough teams, we’d definitely have more players in this league and more depth. Being so limited, it’s really hard on the teams on which players they want to keep. And it’s hard for young players to live out their dreams because the spots are so limited.” Tamera Young discussed the need for expansion.

Kevin Pelton of ESPN talked to Coach Hughes about the training camp competition.

“This is one of the best camps I’ve ever been involved with in 20 years. People have made a strong case to be a part of us. And we’ll have to make some very hard choices. That’s what we try to do. Even if we can’t keep them, I want their experience to be worth their investment to us. We’ve had several players play pretty well and make a case for themselves. Those are the kind of hard decisions we hope a training camp brings.” Hughes said.

I dove further into that with Coach Dan Hughes on Tuesday when I asked him about how difficult it was to cut some of these players at the end of training camp.

“(These moments) are awful. As excited as I am about the season starting and adding players back into our mix. They’re never good days when I have to bring somebody in who has given us exactly as much as they could and I have to say ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ to them being on the roster. It’s hard. It’s something I’ve never gotten better at doing. A lot of times you’re cutting somebody you’d like to coach longer. I’ve never found an easy way to do it.” Coach Hughes lamented.

It’s really unfortunate to see so many amazing women, amazing athletes lose out on a dream because of how limited the rosters are. With that said, I do believe we’re going to see the WNBA expand by two teams likely within the next three years.

TV ratings are up. Interest in the league is up. The talent is definitely there. With the new Nike jerseys being so popular and more businesses expressing interest in teaming up with the league to sponsor like Google, there is a ton of positive momentum for the WNBA. And I do believe that will result in expansion teams coming sooner than later.

The Storm are still contenders

OK, so this one I knew prior to training camp. But it’s interesting to me to read a lot of other people’s thoughts during free agency. A lot of people were counting the Storm out because of the departures of Natasha Howard, Alysha Clark, and Sami Whitcomb. And there’s no doubt in my mind that the team will miss all three of those players. Some projected the Storm to finish around 6th or 7th (back in February).

But as the season begins, I’ll be surprised if the Storm don’t finish in the top four. Seattle has the best player in the league in Breanna Stewart. One of the best shooting guards in the league, Jewell Loyd. And championship leaders in veterans Sue Bird and Candice Dupree. One of the primary reasons for their success will be their depth.

In 2020, the team often commented about how deep they were. That they felt their bench players would be starters for a lot of other teams. I asked Jordin Canada about the depth of this team compared to last season’s.

”I think we still have a bench that can start. The people on our team now, they add a lot of value to our team. We’re strong, we’re lengthy, we can run. I don’t want to say we’re the same team (as 2020), but we still have that same ability that we brought last year. It’ll be really exciting to see how this season plays out because we’re very versatile like we were last year, but just in different ways.” Canada said.

As publications put out their WNBA Power Rankings before the season officially tips off on Friday, we’re seeing more and more places pick the Storm to finish in the Top 3.

Seattle will be tested early as they play the Las Vegas Aces twice to open the season and then travel to Minnesota to face the Lynx. Seattle swept both teams in the playoffs last season, but both teams reloaded with even more talent in the offseason and are likely to be the other top contenders for the WNBA crown this year.

Defense and rebounding appear to be Coach Hughes’ primary concern coming out of training camp. Losing Natasha Howard and Alysha Clark is going to weaken any team’s defense quite a bit. But Coach Hughes and Coach Kloppenburg will need to develop the new recruits into plus defenders to give the Storm their best chance to do something no team has done in nearly 20 years, winning back-to-back championships! No WNBA has done so since the 2001-2002 LA Sparks.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to the Seattle Storm for providing pictures for this article. And if you’re interested in the Seattle Storm and the WNBA please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my Substack this year. I greatly appreciate the support I’ve been getting since I converted over to Substack last year.