Opening day for the 2025 WNBA season is Friday, May 16. “This year the talent has never been greater,” stressed Shimmy Miller on America’s longest running women’s pro basketball league and perhaps the hardest in pro sports for players to make a team roster. “Players are just coming in more ready; rookies are coming in older with more experience.”
After leaving Minnesota as associate head coach under former coach Lindsay Whalen in 2023, Miller has successfully transitioned into broadcasting doing college and WNBA games. Now in her third season as Chicago Sky broadcaster, she offered her thoughts on the upcoming season.
“I got a chance to watch the Indiana Fever,” continued Miller, “and I really like them, I really, really do. They’re balanced; they’ve got toughness. They can shoot it. Stephanie [White, the first-year HC] is going to make sure that they guard, that they defend at a higher rate than they did last year.
“I will be curious to see how much better Seattle can be with the moves that they made in the off season,” said Miller. “I like Minnesota. I like New York, and I really like the trajectory of the Sky.”
Other teams that made significant changes include Los Angeles, who added Kelsey Plum; Brittany Griner and Brianna Jones joined Atlanta; and Dallas drafted Minnesotan Paige Bueckers.
Miller last week called the two Chicago-Minnesota preseason contests.
On the Sky, now coached by Tyler Marsh in his first year, “I really like that Tyler has brought in a defensive tenacity, and you could tell that what he’s trying to do is just disrupt your offense,” observed Miller. “Minnesota was having a hard time getting the flow of [their] offense.
“The biggest thing I’ve noticed about Chicago is they’re just a better team right now on both ends of the floor — the spacing and the pace offensively, the three-point [shooting], the perimeter threats and their defensive.”
Chicago surrounded their two “sophomore” talents — center Kamilla Cardoso and forward Angel Reese — with off-season additions Ariel Atkins, Kia Nurse, Rebecca Allen, and Courtney Vandersloot, and returning such veterans as Minnesotan Rachel Banham.
“Now it’s a lot harder to double Kamilla and Angel, but it also opens up driving lines,” explained Miller.
On the Sky’s 2024 two top draft picks, “Kamilla just looked a lot more confident in year two,” Miller said of Cardoso. “She wasn’t 100% last summer, and I think that going over to China was really good for her because it gave her confidence.”
On Reese, Miller pointed out that the second-year player greatly benefited from playing in the Unrivaled 3-on-3 league this winter. “She actually played against players that she is going to be playing against all summer,” noted the broadcaster. Reese also spent a lot of time working with WNBA legend Lisa Leslie “doing one-on-one stuff,” said Miller.
Some local media types are pushing the narrative that the Minnesota Lynx, who fell short in 2024, losing the championship to New York, that this season will be some kind of revenge tour. “It’s time for Minnesota to stop talking about last year,” warned Miller. “It’s 2025, but I do think that this is a team that can compete for a championship.”
All five starters from last season return for the Lynx — Naphessa Collier, Courtney Williams, Alanna Smith, Kayla McBride and Bridget Carlson. They added Karlie Samuelson and Jessica Sheppard and hope that Diamond Miller (third year) and Alissa Pili (second year) can join Natisha Hiedeman as reliable reserves.
Miller concluded that the Lynx “will be a totally different team when Jessica Sheppard is healthy because she’s so good. They’re just able to score so quickly. They’re really good at transitions just like they were last year. They’re good when they clamp down defensively.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.