Mike Vorel: Playoff series vs. Aces may decide future for Storm core, Noelle Quinn

Mike Vorel, The Seattle Times on Sep 13, 2025

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SEATTLE — There are six names and faces on the side of the Seattle Storm Center for Basketball Performance in Interbay, a not-so-subtle clue to the team’s current core. They are listed, one by one, on vertical banners that hang above 16th Avenue:

— SKYLAR DIGGINS

— NNEKA OGWUMIKE

— EZI MAGBEGOR

— ERICA WHEELER

— GABBY WILLIAMS

— DOMINIQUE MALONGA

The first five will be free agents when the Storm’s season ends.

That season is guaranteed at least two more games, after Seattle outlasted Golden State 74-73 on Tuesday night to secure a second consecutive postseason bid. On Sunday, the Storm will meet the second-seeded Aces for Game 1 of a best-of-three series in Las Vegas. They’ll return to Climate Pledge Arena for Game 2 on Tuesday, the Storm’s first home playoff game since 2022.

This could be the end of an era.

Or the beginning of a remarkable run.

It might need to be the latter for Storm coach Noelle Quinn to be back next year. Seattle’s starting five features four All-Stars — Ogwumike, Diggins, Williams and guard Brittney Sykes (who was acquired at the trade deadline) — but has inexplicably underperformed anyway. Since taking over in 2021, Quinn is 97-89 overall and just 3-6 in the playoffs, with a single series win.

Not all of this season’s inconsistency was in Quinn’s control. Seattle (23-21) has both the WNBA’s oldest roster and deteriorating depth, after expected contributors Jordan Horston and Katie Lou Samuelson suffered identically damning ACL injuries.

But that doesn’t explain the Storm’s inability to rebound, which Quinn noted Tuesday “has been our deficiency.” Despite a formidable frontcourt featuring Ogwumike, Magbegor and Malonga, Seattle’s 30.9 rebounds per game ranks last in the league.

It also doesn’t explain the Storm’s six consecutive losses in early August, or deflating defeats to cellar-dwellers Dallas, Connecticut and Washington.

Seattle’s roster is better than its results, and Quinn must be responsible for that reality.

But a reinvention could include more than the coaching staff. Just four Storm players — Malonga, Lexie Brown, Horston and Nika Mühl — are under contract next season, as much of the league hits the market to capitalize on a new collective bargaining agreement. With Ogwumike (35), Diggins (35), Wheeler (34) and Sykes (31) earning major minutes, the Storm’s front office must decide whether to invest in an increasingly veteran core.

So what has to happen for the Storm to stay the course? To double down on Quinn, Ogwumike, Diggins, etc.? To believe, for this coach and core, the best is yet to come?

An upset of the Aces, who swept Seattle in the first round last season, would certainly do the trick. While such an upset is always a tall task, the WNBA tweaked its playoff format to guarantee both teams host at least one game. Though that might not provide the seventh-seed Storm much solace, considering they went just 10-12 at Climate Pledge Arena.

Another sobering note: Las Vegas enters the playoffs on a 16-game winning streak.

But the Storm shouldn’t be shaken by the above. They’ve played more “clutch games” — where the score is within five points with five minutes left — than any team in the WNBA, going 15-15 on those occasions.

“We’ve been in a variety of different games — up, down and in between,” said Quinn, whose team went 2-2 against Las Vegas in the regular season. “I think we’ve shown that we can be down and fight. I think that’s part of what we do. We don’t say die. We’re resilient. We find ways to stay in games, get those possessions tightened up, whether it’s defensively or offensively.

“We have vets on our roster who have been through a lot of different games in this league, and we’re going to continue to rely on that. But to know that we are capable of playing fast, slow, physical, it is going to matter in the playoffs for sure.”

How much longer will those vets be on the roster? And how much longer will Quinn be leading the way?

The answers will be shaped by whatever happens next.

But the Storm’s standard needs to be their north star. On April 18, 2024, I sat on a bench built from the franchise’s former floor, in a room dubbed the “Hall of Champions,” as the Storm unveiled their practice facility.

“This is a championship floor,” Storm co-owner Lisa Brummel said. “We had the opportunity to win multiple championships on this floor and now we have the opportunity to make it a foundation for this building. Not many teams, men’s or women’s, get to do that. We have the privilege to be able to do that.”

They’ve had the privilege of raising banners, both in their arena and on the side of their building in Interbay. They didn’t do the former by compromising on the latter.

The question is whose names may be on those banners next.

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