Napheesa Collier's coming free agency is "a Fi decision," Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said, using Collier's nickname. "And that is probably more than basketball." Collier is on a one-year deal. Reeve said both sides will be okay whatever she decides.
"I could sit up here and sandbag my ass off... But no, we take the opposite route." Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said she embraces high expectations rather than playing them down as the team chases a fifth championship.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said "everybody could see Napheesa Collier wasn't Napheesa Collier" after she returned from double ankle surgery without time with her team. Of Dorka Juhasz, hurt in April just before joining: "she just never found her footing with us."
"No one wanted to play at 270. No one." Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve called free agency under the new labor deal "a full-on money grab," and existing contracts can't be restructured. Her core can still win a title, she said: "They need more help though."
"You have to put the ball in the hole. You have to. And we were an impatient offense." Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said defense was not what sank her team in the series against New York. The offense was.
"Size that shoots 3s and can pass and can defend and rebound. That's what I'm looking for." Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, asked whether size is an offseason priority, pointed out that both of the team's biggest players were hurt this season.
"We have a player in Nia Coffey who had a great season. That's our starting point." Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve named Coffey as the base of the supporting cast around her core, and said Maya Caldwell gave the team "some really good things."
Kayla McBride said her season wasn't enough. Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve disagreed: "I don't know that she can be more than what she's been. Just keep doing what you're doing."
Olivia Miles had "a bit of a spiral" in the playoffs, and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve blamed herself for how she used Miles against New York's bigs: "We just couldn't get it reprogrammed" after Game 1. On the exit: "We didn't meet the moment. I look inward."
Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride were missing departed teammates in training camp, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve recalled, so she told Williams the focus was on who is here: "Remember, Court, you were real happy for everybody... Now stand in your shit, right?"
Cheryl Reeve said the Lynx roster may not be built for the playoffs. Kayla McBride agrees: "she's right. I think we won 80-some percent of our games in the regular season, and we don't have much to show for it." She said a late-season slide carried into the playoffs.