WNBA: With Nneka Ogwumike on board, are the Storm playoff-ready?

There are four WNBA teams that seem to be getting the most attention as title contenders, yet, based on record, there are five that are in a separate class from the league’s bottom seven teams.

I, for one, am most scared of the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces, winners of eight of their last nine. Their most impressive win during that stretch came on Sunday when they defeated the third-place Connecticut Sun by more than the final margin of 13 points indicates. A’ja Wilson treated an ecstatic home crowd at Michelob ULTRA to her 1,000th (1’000th) point of the season (a WNBA first) and delivered an emotional speech in the locker room afterward:

The vibes surrounding the Aces couldn’t be better right now, and we know they have the chemistry and intimidation factor needed to three-peat.

Then, there is of course the other team that was dubbed a “super team” entering 2023: the New York Liberty. The Liberty faced Vegas in the Finals last year and have avoided the periodic struggles that have put the Aces in fourth place this season. They are the best team in the league at 32-7, two games ahead of the Minnesota Lynx, and boast a star-studded roster featuring Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Courtney Vandersloot and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.

Meanwhile, the Lynx are Rebecca Lobo’s favorite to win it all. Napheesa Collier has taken another step forward this season, becoming the second-best player in the league (after Wilson), and her Lynx are even hotter than the Aces, winning 14 of their last 15 games.

The last of the four teams with heightened attention is the Sun. They got off to the best start of any team this season, winning their first nine games. It’s hard to count them out when Alyssa Thomas can make such a big impact on a game. She is historically an amazing playoff performer, who has taken the Sun to the Finals twice. With the addition of Marina Mabrey, and a solid increase in scoring from both DiJonai Carrington and Tyasha Harris to complement the “Big 3” of Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones, this really could be Connecticut’s year.

As I mentioned, the Aces are the scariest team in my mind, and I wouldn’t necessarily argue against the Liberty, Lynx and Sun being the next three scariest in some order. But the hype surrounding those four teams has left me wondering: How do head coach Noelle Quinn and the fifth-place Seattle Storm’s star trio of Jewell Loyd, Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith feel about all this?

Stewart left Seattle for New York after the 2022 season. Any team that surrounds her with talent is going to have a shot at the title, which is what she gave the Storm in 2018 and 2020 (years they won it all), as well as in 2022, a year in which they lost a heavyweight semifinal showdown to the eventual champion Aces. Stewart missed all of 2019 with a torn Achilles, and missed the playoffs in 2021 with a foot injury.

Stewart was arguably the most coveted free agent in WNBA history in 2023, and her decision to leave Seattle, coupled with Sue Bird’s retirement, left the Storm with low expectations that season. They finished 11-29, but Loyd, the remaining superstar who had been a huge part of the 2018 and 2020 championships, registered the then-second-best scoring average of all time (24.7 points per game) and finished seventh in MVP voting, proving that she could indeed be the “Batman” with Stewart gone.

Loyd was ranked seventh in Swish Appeal’s WNBA Hoopers Hierarchy on June 3. What’s impressive and notable is that Seattle added No. 9 (Ogwumike) and No. 11 (Diggins-Smith) in 2024 free agency, leading to a 2024 season in which they are no longer second-to-last, but rather 24-15 and a comfortable four games ahead of the sixth-place Indiana Fever.

Ogwumike’s and Diggins-Smith’s resumes speak for themselves. In the season in which she turned 26, Ogwumike was the regular-season MVP en route to the 2016 WNBA championship. She would go on to finish fourth in MVP voting in both 2017 and 2019. After a couple of down years in 2020 and 2021—and an Olympic roster snub that had the women’s basketball community up in arms—she has roared back with a vengeance, making the last three All-Star Games and finishing sixth in MVP voting last year. Clearly, she is still one of the best players in the game, averaging 16.7 points and 7.6 rebounds this season—good for second on the Storm in both categories. She is also second on the team in minutes per game (32.1), behind only Loyd, and is first in 3-point percentage (39.4) and steals per game (1.9). This is the fourth-most accurate 3-point season of her career and most prolific with 0.8 makes per contest. She shot an incredible 61.5 percent in her MVP season, albeit with only 16 makes. Now, she’s making nearly one a game.

Diggins-Smith, on the other hand, missed last season on maternity leave and, like Ogwumike, has lived up to her free agency hype. The last time we saw the now-33-year-old was in 2022 when she starred for the Phoenix Mercury, averaged 19.7 points per game and finished sixth in MVP voting. This year, her assist average has gone up to 6.4 per game, not only above her 2022 mark, but also above any season average in her career. Likewise, she is averaging a career-best 1.7 steals per outing. Her 3-point efficiency has been low (28.2 percent), but she’s averaging a solid 15.2 points per game. That’s the third-lowest mark of her career, but is understandable given the scoring that surrounds her in Loyd and Ogwumike.

Loyd has been out with a knee injury, but the Storm hope to have her back for the playoffs. Her shockingly low 3-point percentage (27.4 compared to her career clip of 34.8) is a concern, but both she and Diggins-Smith have the opportunity to clean that up in the playoffs. Both are capable. Loyd is sixth in the league with 19.7 points per game and 14th with 3.6 assists per game, solidifying the trio of her, Ogwumike and Diggins-Smith as a lethal “Big 3.”

Seattle won’t get by on the lofty name recognition of those three stars, but both Loyd and Ogwumike know what it takes to win a championship. To that point, Loyd is one of the best clutch performers in the WNBA and Ogwumike has been hailed by many as one of the best leaders. So … is a Storm championship this season really out of the question?

With so many other super teams out there, it will take great depth. That being said, I like Seattle’s nine-player rotation. Ezi Magbegor, a 2023 All-Star, gives the team a fourth star; the 6-foot-4 starting center is averaging 11.7 points and eight rebounds per contest. She’s also one of only two players with more than 15 games played and more than 1.6 blocks per game. Her 2.2 rejections per outing falls behind only Wilson (2.6).

Then there’s Gabby Williams, who nearly led an upset win over the most-talented roster in the world when she and the French national team fell to the United States by a toe on the line (hers) in the gold medal game at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Williams recorded 19 points and seven boards in that contest, leading France in both categories, while finishing behind only Wilson (21) in points and behind only Wilson (13) and Collier (11) in rebounds. Since entering WNBA action after the Olympic break, Williams is averaging a career-best 10.4 points per game. She’s also chipping in a solid 3.5 assists and a career-best 1.7 steals. Her athleticism and the courage she displayed in Paris are welcome in Seattle, where she played in 2022 and 2023. She could be a huge X-factor in the playoffs.

On the bench, the Storm have Jordan Horston, Sami Whitcomb, Mercedes Russell and Victoria Vivians. Horston is putting up similar numbers to what she produced during her solid 2023 rookie season. She also brings athleticism. Whitcomb and Russell are familiar Storm vets who were both part of the 2018 and 2020 championship teams. A 3-point specialist and 6-foot-6 center, respectively, they are both solid players, with Whitcomb having made a strong case for an All-Star nod in 2021 while a member of the Liberty in between Storm stints. Vivians rounds out the rotation and is another solid player, having averaged 9.8 points in 2022 with the Fever. No weak spots in that rotation.

As a team, Seattle has the lowest 3-point percentage in the league. A 2-for-9 effort in what was likely a first-round preview against the Aces Tuesday night led to their demise as Vegas countered with a 9-for-20 showing. Even Whitcomb (36.1 percent for her career) is shooting a career-low 28.9 percent. However, the Storm lead the league in steals and blocks per game, as well as free throw percentage.

They showed a lot of fight Tuesday night without Loyd and Magbegor (concussion protocol) in their final shot at keeping homecourt advantage a possibility in the first round. They came back from an 18-point deficit to take a one-point lead early in the fourth before the Aces closed it out like the champions they are.

The Aces were playing their hardest because they still have a shot at the No. 3 seed, which would mean avoiding a legit contender in Seattle in the first round.

Wilson (Aces), Stewart (Liberty), Collier (Lynx) and Thomas (Sun) comprise the top tier of WNBA players; there’s a drop off to a second tier when it comes to the best players in the WNBA. Fans and analysts alike probably are sensing that any one of those four players can put their team on their back and lead it to a championship, which is partly why those four teams are the talked about title favorites.

But if you’re the Storm, you should have a chip on your shoulder, saying, “Don’t sleep on us.”