WNBA: How the Lynx might improve their Finals-caliber roster for 2025

The Minnesota Lynx are coming off an impressive WNBA Finals run in 2024, coming up just short against the New York Liberty in five games. The Lynx weren’t a very popular pick heading into the season, but it was obvious early on how wrong those projections were, and they sustained that success by playing an unselfish brand of basketball characterized by crisp ball movement, top-tier team defense and a healthy dose of 3-point shooting.

Longtime Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve has won four WNBA championships with the franchise, and she was achingly close to a fifth in 2024. As disappointing as the result was for Reeve and Minnesota, it should give them confidence that they’re on the right path, and that one or two good moves in the 2025 free agency period would keep them in championship contention—or even make them favorites to win it all.

Facts and figures*

Players under contract (contract status; 2025 salary)

Bridget Carleton (unprotected; $125,000)
Napheesa Collier (unprotected; $214,284)
Dorka Juhász (unprotected; $73,258)
Kayla McBride (protected veteran; $205,000)
Diamond Miller (unprotected; $83,371)
Alissa Pili (unprotected; $74,909)
Alanna Smith (protected veteran; $150,000)
Courtney Williams (protected veteran; $180,000)

Free agent (type; 2024 salary)

Olivia Époupa (reserved; 64,789)
Natisha Hiedeman (unrestricted; $120,000 )
Myisha Hines-Allen (unrestricted; $180,200)
Jessica Shepard (contract expired)

Total salary of free agents: $364,989

Total team salary: $1,105,822

Cap space: $401,278

Unsigned draftees (2025 salary)

2025 WNBA Draft picks (2025 salary)

Round 1, No. 11 ($72,455)
Round 2, No. 15 ($69,267)
Round 2, No. 24 ($69,267)
Round 3, No. 37 ($66,079)

The Lynx need another guard to back up Courtney Williams

The Lynx enter free agency in the enviable position of being potential buyers right away. Simply put, Minnesota doesn’t have many players it needs to re-sign, giving the team the freedom to be aggressive in upgrading its roster without having to worry about taking care of its own business first.

Minnesota’s only immediate need on its depth chart is another guard. Courtney Williams was a revelation in her first year with the Lynx, proving that she can run a team as a nontraditional ball handler while remaining the big-shot scoring threat she became known as long before her time in Minnesota. But, she’ll need someone backing her up in 2025.

That could still be Natisha Hiedeman, whose contract is off Minnesota’s books after one season. Hiedeman signed with the Lynx for 2024 as a guard who can play with or without the basketball and reliably shoot the 3-pointer, theoretically making her a good fit in an offense that fielded shooters at every position and didn’t need any one player to dominate the ball. Hiedeman struggled to make a consistent impact, however, shooting a career-low on 3-pointers (28 percent) in 15.2 minutes played per game. Though she was a consistent part of Minnesota’s rotation and played all 40 games, the Lynx will probably look to replace Hiedeman in their backcourt for 2025.

Assuming Williams will remain the team’s starter at point guard, Minnesota has several options for a backup. It’s no secret that Reeve tends to favor veteran players, and with the Lynx trying to run it back, she may not advocate for a youngster in the backcourt; players like Erica Wheeler and Dana Evans, while not huge names, would bring the kind of stability Reeve is looking for. Odyssey Sims, who has already spent two separate stints in Minnesota and earned an All-Star bid playing for the Lynx in 2019, is also an option.

Then there’s Courtney Vandersloot, who will be an unrestricted free agent after two seasons in New York. Vandersloot’s name has been brought up by the Lynx before; she was rumored to be considering Minnesota in 2022 before re-signing in Chicago, and she met with the Lynx again in 2023 before ultimately choosing the Liberty. The two-time WNBA champion is now in the twilight of her storied career, but she believes she still has more to give, and the Lynx would still be able to offer her the kind of role she’s seeking.

Who can Minnesota sign to shore up its frontcourt depth?

There weren’t many areas of the game the Lynx didn’t excel in last season, but rebounding was definitely one of them. Minnesota ranked No. 10 in the WNBA in offensive rebounding rate (26.6 percent) and No. 11 in defensive rebounding rate (68.2 percent) in 2024—a far cry from the championship-winning Lynx teams of the 2010s that were regularly among the WNBA’s best on the boards.

Minnesota made a midseason trade for forward Myisha Hines-Allen to try to address this issue, but there were some matchups in which the Lynx couldn’t keep her on the floor. Most notably, the 6-foot-1 Hines-Allen was physically overmatched in the Finals by New York’s frontcourt of Jonquel Jones and Nyara Sabally. That’s not to say the Lynx won’t try to re-sign Hines-Allen, but they could also look for more size in free agency. Three-time All-Star Brionna Jones, who has spent her entire career playing in Connecticut but is no longer eligible to be cored by the Sun, is one of a few unrestricted free agent centers that would immediately upgrade Minnesota’s frontcourt. With a soft touch around the rim and undeniable physicality in the post, Jones is regularly among the league leaders in field goal percentage, and she’s also ranked in the WNBA’s top five in offensive rebounding rate four times, according to Basketball Reference.

The Lynx don’t necessarily need to hit a home run, though. The duo of Napheesa Collier and Alanna Smith, while undersized, is versatile on offense and disruptive on defense, with Collier earning WNBA Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2024 in recognition of her excellence. Unless the Lynx can make a star-level addition to their frontcourt, they might just want to continue with what worked so well last year and sign a player or two for depth. Someone like the 6-foot-6 Mercedes Russell would make sense if Minnesota wants a traditional center, or the team could bring back Jessica Shepard, who sat out the 2024 season due to international commitments but proved herself to be a solid rebounder with connective passing skills the prior year.

The Lynx are candidates to make a trade, even if it’s not a big one

The other way the Lynx could improve their roster for 2025 is, of course, to make a trade. Minnesota doesn’t exactly have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to trade assets, but it has a couple of pieces that could be used to facilitate a move should the opportunity arise.

Diamond Miller, who the Lynx drafted at No. 2 overall in 2023, is the most obvious of those assets. Miller showed plenty of athletic promise as a rookie, but she underwent a series of knee procedures shortly thereafter that limited her impact in 2024. Miller appeared in just 21 games and fell out of Minnesota’s rotation completely during the playoff run, as Reeve prioritized players who gave her team the best chance at winning a title. The Lynx coaching staff could still believe in Miller’s potential, but it would also be understandable if they decide to move on. She’d make an interesting reclamation project for another WNBA team not as firmly entrenched in win-now mode.

There’s also the No. 11 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, which doesn’t seem very valuable alone but may also not be of much use to the Lynx in their current state. Minnesota also has the No. 15 pick, so unless there’s a player who Reeve and the Lynx front office really like in that range, one or both of those picks could be used to sweeten a potential deal. The Lynx own pick swap rights with the Chicago Sky in 2026—which, for the moment, is looking like it will be beneficial to Minnesota—so they can be a little more aggressive in moving their current draft capital.

*Thanks to Her Hoop Stats for all roster information and salary numbers.