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Head coach Noelle Quinn laid those priorities out to media after drafting the 6’6 French center on April 15 and has stuck to them since Malonga’s arrival. Malonga told The Next on Saturday that she has felt the positive effects of this approach.
“It’s going very well here,” Malonga said. “I’m working a lot. I have a lot of people behind me just to help me growing here in this new country, everything is new for me here, and they are just so helpful here.
“It’s just, as she said, I have no pressure here. I’m just here to work, and I contribute to the team as much as I can. And I think that we find a good balance here, [between] me working and me performing on the court. So yeah, it’s just a great organization here to grow and to keep improving.”
Trying to take the pressure off Malonga does not, however, mean lower expectations. It is more so setting the right high expectations.
“The biggest thing that’s in front of my mind is the development,” Quinn said shortly before the team’s regular season opener. “We’re not asking her [on] day whatever-this-is to be who she’s going to be three years from now. So just the natural process of like what that means for her film study, her PD work, her weight room work, like all of those things matter.
“But I think she can contribute. I think she can help right now with just her game and how she is not trying to force something early, knowing that Li [Yueru] is playing at a high level and Nneka [Ogwumike] and Ezi [Magbegor] have very good chemistry.”
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Limited playing time
Malonga received a lot of deserved hype after being drafted, so some people naturally expected her to play medium to heavy minutes. That has not been the case to start the season. The Olympic silver medalist with France played 10 minutes in the team’s season-opening blowout loss in Phoenix, then just one minute in a tight game at Dallas and five in the home rematch against the Mercury. A season-high 12 minutes followed against Las Vegas, before 10 minutes in Minnesota and then nine against Atlanta.
There are a couple of factors that have combined to give Malonga less game time. First, she is a 19-year-old WNBA rookie, and the players ahead of her, typical starters Ezi Magbegor and Nneka Ogwumike, are some of the best in the world. Magbegor is an All-Star and Olympic bronze medalist with Australia. Ogwumike is a future Hall of Famer whose record is littered with accolades like WNBA MVP, multiple All-Star selections, and multiple All-WNBA team selections. Not only are they incredibly talented players, but they have developed a strong chemistry since becoming teammates at the beginning of 2024.
Another factor is that Malonga arrived to training camp a week late, after she finished competing in playoffs with her French league team and took a few needed days with her family before moving across the world. She is still getting acclimated to the system, the team and the WNBA.
Quinn is also very conscious of the player matchups that are presented each game. Some teams go small and quick. Other teams, like the Atlanta Dream on Friday, play big with 6’9 Brittney Griner and 6’3 Brionna Jones. While the Dream looked to score with their size in the first half, Malonga’s 7’1 wingspan came in and helped frustrate Griner, holding her to a 1-of-7 shooting performance and eventually limiting her minutes.
“It’s being mindful of where we want to put our players on the floor to be most successful,” Quinn said ahead of the loss to Atlanta. “But also we’re trying to win games, and there is a rhyme or reason to what we do as coaches, the way we study, the way we prepare, and we got to let the pros be the pros.”
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Quinn wants to find moments in the game where she thinks Malonga will find success. Twelve of those minutes came against the Las Vegas Aces on May 25 in Seattle, her season-high for minutes played in a game so far. Facing a large deficit, Aces head coach Becky Hammon subbed in fellow rookie Elizabeth Kitley (though drafted in 2024, she spent the whole year rehabbing a torn ACL) for a good chunk of time. Quinn said after the game that she thought that was a good matchup for Malonga.
“I thought Dom was excellent in her minutes,” Quinn said after the game. “Dom is going to have to grow within games without a lot of practice time, so if I can find those moments for her, I will.”
What we’ve seen so far
In those limited minutes, there have still been glimpses of what made Malonga such an exciting prospect in the first place. Malonga has shot an efficient 52.6% from the floor and shown how her versatility fits well within the Storm’s offensive system, which is predicated on “space and pace.” The young player has a soft touch on her shot, good offensive movement and strong hands around the rim.
“I think the first week and a half shows the versatility within the post area, because that’s her comfort right now,” Quinn said before Malonga’s first game appearance. “There are times where she is going to be on the perimeter and making plays in that four or five position, with the ability to get the rebound and push it up. Or just be spaced differently, to where she’s kind of attacking from different angles. So, her versatility is huge. She’s young and youthful, so running the floor, being an energizer.”
The French phenom has struggled a bit more on the defensive side, particularly with the classic rookie tendency of committing silly fouls, like fouling Minnesota’s Karlie Samuelson shortly after she released a three-point shot, resulting in a four-point play for the Lynx. Still, Quinn likes the fundamental abilities she is seeing in the “capable defender.”
“I thought the minutes that she was out there, we can see what she does,” Quinn said after defeating Phoenix in Seattle. “Running the floor, her ability to kind of close out and keep people in front and her rim protection, all those things.”
The team and Malonga expect her to continue to develop her defensive skillset. Malonga told media shortly after arriving in Seattle that she wanted to start with her focus on the defensive end before thinking about the offense.
“I really want to show that I could have a big impact on defense,” Malonga said. “People sometimes say that it can be my weakness, and I want to show that I can be a beast on both sides of the court.”
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Adjusting to the WNBA and USA
Like all rookies, Malonga has admitted some difficulty in adjusting to play in the most competitive league in the world. But she also faces the additional difficulty of being a 19-year-old, native French speaker suddenly moved across the world where everything is English. Though French national team teammate and Storm guard Gabby Williams has been able to help, Malonga said that has been the most difficult adjustment.
“Here, everything’s speaking so fast,” Malonga told The Next. “Even though I speak English for a long [time] now, when you [are] just in the middle of English 24/7, it’s different. And all the terminology on the court is different. So, I need to switch it quick.”
On the court, Malonga has noticed that the pace of the game is much quicker than European basketball. She has not let that deter her, though.
“Still, this is basketball at the end of the day, so it was kind of easy,” Malonga said. “And I’m just a person that can catch up quick[ly on] information. And I feel like everybody is so helpful here also for me to integrate well [into] the team.”
Veteran support
It isn’t only the coaching staff that is invested in Malonga’s development. Her teammates are, too, and they are there to support and push her.
“A franchise player like Dom, she’s going to shock the world because she has people that’re going to empower her to be that,” Storm guard Erica Wheeler told The Next before the first game of the season, Wheeler’s 10th playing in the WNBA. “We empower her in so many ways because she’s the No. 2 player. We don’t want her to be one of those No. 2 players that the world don’t know about them no more. So, I think she’s very blessed to have vets that she has, because we empower her, and we’re not going to let her settle for anything less than what we know that she can give.”
Despite being the youngest player in the WNBA this season, Wheeler has been impressed with Malonga’s work and attitude.
“She’s a kid that just wants to learn,” Wheeler said. “But I will say, for her to be 19, her brain, her IQ, is far beyond … 19. She came in training camp, and typically when you come late, you have to learn things all over. … We didn’t really have to stop much. We just show her it one time, and she [catches] on.”
Veteran point guard Skylar Diggins sees Malonga playing behind two all-time great post players and finding where she fits in while continuing her development.
“We’re going to continue to see her more and more and more as the year goes,” Diggins said after Malonga made her first game appearance in Seattle. “We love having her on this team, her spirit. She’ll be a star on this team for 20 years, and to see her in her development and be a part of the first one is very special. So, it’s been great having her in the locker room, and we’ll continue to see her develop as she gets more and more opportunity.”
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The Storm use an accountability buddy system to help facilitate team chemistry and integration of new or young players. Malonga is buddied up with Ogwumike and Chinese center Li Yueru.
“I really look up to them on and off the court,” Malonga told The Next. “They’re amazing people, and I love our little group.”
Malonga said she has been particularly able to lean on Ogwumike for help.
“She’s an amazing vet, she’s an amazing human being,” Malonga remarked. “She’s so helpful every day. You can talk to her [about] any type of subject on or off the court. She’s just so open. She’s that person on the court, also. So it’s just so easy to have that example in front of you when you just enter the league and just watch how she plays. Sometimes I don’t even have to ask, I just watch her.”
Ogwumike has gladly accepted the mentor role, as she has been pleasantly surprised by Malonga every day.
“She is a very smart person and a very smart player,” Ogwumike said after the May 25 victory over Vegas. “You can tell that she soaks everything in, and she wants to go out and do the right thing. But I think she also wants to go out and have fun. So we want to make it so for her. Going out there and doing what she does on defense, of course, understanding herself in space and being dominant in the paint.
“But I think every day is some level of improvement or some level of evolution, and you can tell that, at least I feel like, she’s watching us. And so, the onus is on us to also do things the right way, so she can be in a great position to succeed here.”
