No Cap Space WBB Team Previews: Seattle Storm
After a tumultuous yet successful 2024 season, the Storm retooled their roster slightly but added one of the highest upside players in the 2025 WNBA Draft and now have a championship ceiling.
Back in December when the WNBA released their schedule, the Chicago Sky decided to hop on a popular viral trend to make their announcement. For those not as terminally online, the trend was effectively to video someone running and simulate a police chase while adding in some humorous commentary.
In the Storm’s case, the Sky decided to say “suspect just has a lot going on right now”. And how right they were.
What looked to be the league’s next superteam on paper blew up in spectacular fashion at the end of the season with reports of substantial discord between Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins and head coach Noelle Quinn. That resulted in Loyd being traded to the Las Vegas Aces in a four team blockbuster that eventually netted Seattle the second pick in the WNBA Draft. That pick turned into 6’6 French sensation Dominique Malonga (who we profiled ahead of the draft) and now the Storm are back with a roster that’s as deep and talented as any in the league. Will that lead to a Finals trip?
2024 Lookback:
25-15 overall (4-1 Commissioner’s Cup)
Lost in playoff first round to Las Vegas, 2-0
2024 Leaders:
Jewell Loyd:19.7 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.6 APG
Nneka Ogwumike: 16.7 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.3 APG
Skylar Diggins: 15.1 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 6.4 APG
Who Left:
Jewell Loyd (Las Vegas Aces via trade)
Joyner Holmes (Dallas Wings via free agency)
Sami Whitcomb (Phoenix Mercury via free agency)
Mercedes Russell (Los Angeles Sparks via free agency)
Victoria Vivians (Adelitas de Chihuahua via free agency)
Who’s Back:
Skylar Diggins
Mackenzie Holes
Ezi Magbegor
Nneka Ogwumike
Jordan Horston (injured for season)
Nika Muhl (injured for season)
Gabby Williams
Draft Picks:
Dominique Malonga (Round 1, Pick 2)
Who’s New:
Li Yueru (Los Angeles Sparks via trade)
Alysha Clark (Las Vegas Aces via free agency)
Erica Wheeler (Indiana Fever via free agency)
Zia Cooke (Las Angeles Sparks via free agency)
Katie Lou Samuelson (Indiana Fever via free agency) — injured for season
2025 Strengths:
I don’t want to be hyperbolic but if this frontcourt in Seattle hits their ceiling at any point in the next three years, they’ll be the best post group in women’s basketball. Ezi Magbegor is already a favorite of serious WBB hoop heads and is likely to once again anchor the paint for the Storm. But then you factor in Nneka Ogwumike’s return and the presence of Malonga, who has the potential to be a force multiplier on both ends of the floor. With Li Yueru, who is listed at 6’7, also in the rotation, Noelle Quinn’s option in the front court are endless. You can run a lineup that has Ezi at the 5, Malonga at the 4 and Nneka on the wing to play big. You also can trot out Malonga and Yueru as their own tandem with Yueru operating as a rim protector and paint scorer and give Malonga the chance to be a floor spacer and scorer while providing a twin tower option defensively.
I’m curious to see how the backcourt will function without Jordan Horston, who really seemed to be making the leap before an ACL injury she sustained in the offseason. But there’s enough there that the Storm can make it work. Skylar Diggins is going to be the floor general and while Gabby Williams is listed as a forward she can play as a guard or wing. Erica Wheeler provides a bench scoring option while Alysha Clark is another rotational wing defender who slots well into the Williams role. Serena Sundell feels like the wild card here. If she can be the defensive stalwart that we knew her as at Kansas State, she might be able to be a good understudy to Horston.
2025 Weaknesses:
Given what happened last year, the biggest weakness I see is how to make all the pieces and personalities work. Whatever side you’re on in the Jewell vs. Seattle dispute, it’s pretty clear that everyone shoulders some degree of blame. If you take all the reporting, the picture becomes pretty clear. Diggins is someone that can grate on individuals that aren’t on her program. Loyd seemed to have expected that, among that big three, she would be the centerpiece and expected to be treated as such. Quinn didn’t seem to have a good answer for how to make the two coexist while Ogwumike just…kind of stayed out of it (which is also its own issue given her leadership bonafides). I hesitate to say that Jewell’s trade to Las Vegas is going to automatically fix everything. It will be somewhat revealing if it does but the biggest hurdle right now is how much this team vibes with each other.
In terms of roster construction, I don’t see a ton of holes. Losing Horston and Samuelson are both big hits given the former’s defense and the latter’s three point shooting. But it feels like they’ve got good supplementary pieces to at least weather the storms. Wheeler can have her flashes as long as she isn’t the primary ballhandler (which I don’t think she’d be in a second line backcourt) while Zia Cooke and Lexie Brown have plenty to prove to everyone from skeptics to scouts this season. The wings are strong with Williams as a starter and Clark as a seasoned vet and rotational piece. Their frontcourt is good enough to hang with the best. It all comes down to if the guards can just get them the ball.
2025 Outlook:
There’s an interesting trend among the “super teams” of the WNBA in recent years. It’s felt as though year one comes with a lot of fanfare and falls short of lofty expectations but then things start to gel and coalesce in year two. The New York Liberty are a good example of this (and the most recent) having made the 2024 Finals on the strength of talent, took some arrows about how they didn’t seem to vibe with each other, started a book club in the offseason and then won a title in 2025.
The lesson? Support your local public library.
Jokes (but also not jokes. Support your library!) aside, if everyone can be rowing the boat in the same direction then the Storm are legitimate title contenders. Even without Malonga, the frontcourt is extremely impressive, talented and deep. With the 6’6 rookie from France, they become potentially generational. Nneka is a great veteran presence and the type of introspective and smart mentor for a 19 year old that is already wise beyond her years. Ezi is a known commodity as an interior defender and has improved her offensive game as of late. Amazingly, she’s still just entering her prime at 25 years old. Li Yueru is also the same and showed good flashes with the Sparks last year.
If Diggins can be the backcourt and team leader they need her to be, I see no reason why this Storm team can’t be in the WNBA semifinals come the fall.