In the weeks before the WNBA trade deadline, Lynx coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve examined his list and realized that her club needed help.
Of course, the lynx was rolling, displaying the best record in the league and leading the pursuit of the seeder n ° 1. But Reeve looked further, towards a calendar demanding in three laps of the playoff series which featured, for the first time, a series of championships for the best of the seven. This would follow a regular season of 44 games, the longest in the history.
So Reeve, after giving up the second year striker Alissa Pili to create a salary ceiling room, asked two types of players. One was obvious, the other subtle.
The Evident: A post player to reduce the burden of Alanna Smith, the Australian current rugged in front in the position of the center. The subtle: a three -position defender to support Kayla McBride, Bridget Carleton and Courtney Williams, who recorded large minutes all season.
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Reeve never won a position. The lynx lost the free agent Emma Meesseman, the Belgian veteran 6-4 who signed with the New York Liberty, the League’s title champion and the Lynx’s main competition for the title. After initially managed this disappointment with Grace, Reeve could not resist a blow on Meesseman. “She made the wrong choice,” said Reeve to journalists on July 29, before her team’s first meeting with The Liberty.
Defender Reeve targeted, however, turned out to be a daring stroke at the championship: the elegant 5-11 goalkeeper Dijonai Carrington, a first all-defensive team and the most improved player in the league in 2024.
Three games in her mandate with the 27-5 lynx – all the victories – the energetic game of Carrington at the two ends more than justified the package that the lynx sent to Dallas for her: the former starter Diamond Miller; The Karlie Samuelson wing, for the season with a foot injury; And a second round choice in 2027. And the Lynx did without abandoning the choice of probable lottery in 2026 acquired in Chicago last spring.
“We had the impression that we could use a little more help because we did this race,” said dream. “Time will say how it all will work. But that was something we have looked like since the dead.
“If you stay exactly the same, it’s really difficult to accomplish and recover and overcome the bump. We wanted to keep the group together, but we felt like we needed a little more. You must get McBride, Courtney and BC [Carleton] Off the ground, regular season. You have to get them out of the ground, so each possession, there is not this wear and tear: “I have to do it with each game”. And in the playoffs, you need to give a different look.
Competitor “ Time ten ‘
Carrington gives the lynx something Miller tried to provide, but in the end, someone who could defend like crazy, then go out on the fast break.
Playing for Connecticut last season, Carrington made a lasting impression on Reeve in match 5 of the semi-finals at the Target Center. Even with the Lynx Commander at halftime, leading to 19 points, Carrington never let go. She scored her 17 points in the second half and added 12 rebounds and three interceptions during the defeat of 88-77.
“I really grew up in my fandom during this match,” said Reeve. “She is a competitor Times Ten.”
Adding Carrington: “I was obviously delighted that she likes it to me, but it’s just me, honestly.
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“The second half, it seemed to somehow that we drove a little, but it is never in my DNA. I will compete until the end, and I think that this kind of its kind, the fight that I have. It is not even something of the season.”
Reeve learned for the first time on Carrington last winter. Reeve did not know Carrington personally, so she spoke with Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, the former Carrington teammates in Connecticut, as well as Smith, who played three seasons with Carrington in Stanford. (Reeve still remains by a rule “without Knuckleheads”, instituted during the years of the dynasty, forever knowing someone who poisons the culture and chemistry of the team.)
Nothing developed right away; The Sun treated Carrington in Dallas in February as part of a four team trade. But with Dallas in difficulty this season, the director general Curt Miller sought to move it. Reeve and Miller know each other well, training with American basketball and against each other in WNBA. The last details met on the morning of August 3.
“The best professions are winner-win,” said Reeve, “and Curt and I believe that he is a winner.”
Reunion of the team in Seattle, Carrington came out of the bench to score 13 points, the most by a lynx reserve during its beginnings since 2008, when Chardé Houston put 21 and Candice Wiggins 15 during the opening of the season against Detroit. Carrington added four rebounds, two assists, two interceptions and a significant block.
The lynx needed more than everyone without a collar, the leader of the League and the favorite of the MVP who widen his right ankle three nights earlier in Las Vegas. Carrington did its part, pouring 10 points to the fourth quarter to seize the victory of 91-87. The district started with Carrington Sky-Ing to block a Lay-Up from Tiffany Mitchell on the left, then to form a 3-point pointer, triggering a race of 16-4 dedication.
“Without her,” said Hiedeman, “we don’t win this match.”
Lynx fans concluded, giving it a standing ovation on August 8 when she registered for the first time at the Target Center. Carrington sported a different look that night against Washington, changing the color of its long hair flowing from blonde to a light pink. It was a nod to the friends with pink hair Williams and Hiedeman, aka the Studbudz.
“I told them I’m the fembud with my pink hair,” said Carrington. “It’s not their same color, but we are locking for sure. I think they need a little blond in there or something, right?
McBride generally defends the top scorer of the other team, a task which sometimes requires sacrificing the offensive. During the 83-71 Sunday victory in Brooklyn, Carrington fulfilled part of this duty, checking the Sabrina Ionescu of freedom. With cooler legs, All-Star McBride hit four 3 points on its path to an 18-point top. Carrington collected 15 points, eight in the third quarter, while the Lynx beat a team of Liberty without Breanna Stewart (bone bone of the right knee) and two other players.
“By taking some of this charge, it helps a lot,” McBride told journalists at the post-match press conference on Sunday. “So I’m very, very grateful. I told Cheryl that it was like a luxury to have that.”
Championship window
There is a certain urgency to all of this. Most WNBA veterans have structured their contracts to be free agents without restriction after this season, when the collective negotiation agreement expires. Dorka Juhász, who is currently playing in Türkiye, and the Russian recruit Anastasiia Olariri Kosu is the only lynx signed for next season, according to the website of his Hoop statistics.
The lynx would undoubtedly use the “core” designation of the league to keep the necklace if Reeve thought that it could leave. Most lynx players love him here. But some, like Carrington, can accept better offers elsewhere. This could be their last field in a minnesota championship.
“I’m a winner, and it’s a winning organization,” said Carrington. “It is definitely a good feeling of being recognized by some people at the top. Obviously, I miss my teammates in Dallas. I built a great fraternity with them. But at the end of the day, it’s basketball, it’s about winning, and that’s what I’m here to do. ”
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