Sylvia Fowles is back on the Minnesota Lynx court.

After a restful few months in Miami, where she recuperated after the intense WNBA season and rehabbed an injured elbow, Fowles returned to Minneapolis to hit the court and work out with teammates Danielle Robinson and Alexis Jones. Next month, Robinson and Jones will travel to Miami to train in Fowles’ hometown. That training is important, because Fowles is preparing for one of the biggest seasons of her career.

Last season Fowles bore the brunt of a lack of three-point firepower on a Lynx team that never seemed able to find its footing. She dealt with double and triple teams on a nightly basis and still managed to average a massive double-double with 17.7 points and 11.9 rebounds per game.

“The question was after 2017 is could you repeat that performance, and in some ways, she was even better,” said head coach Cheryl Reeve. “She was being not just double-teamed but triple-teamed. It was an all-out attack on Syl that anybody but Syl can shoot the ball for the Minnesota Lynx. That posed a lot of challenges for our team. We had a lot of players who were wide open that were unable to make enough shots to give Syl the space necessary. I thought Syl had a really strong season and was darn near just as good as she was in her MVP year.”

Now, with the Lynx transitioning out of their Lindsay Whalen-led championship era and into the next phase of their franchise, Fowles is going to have to lead the way again.

“Syl is a good passer, Syl is an unselfish player, Syl is the heart and soul of our defense,” said Reeve. “I’m going to see if we can’t get three years in a row of a really, really productive offensive player, a dominant defensive player. If Syl can give us those things again a third year in a row we’re going to have a chance to be a successful team again.”

Fowles getting a chance to work with Robinson this offseason will pay dividends, as the two of them will be running a huge part of the offense in 2019. Though they had begun to develop chemistry over the course of the 2018 season, with Robinson running point for the Lynx for the foreseeable future their ability to play off one another could define the Lynx’s season.

“Towards the end of the season me and D-Rob had a good thunder and lightning punch going,” said Fowles. “We brought the boom a couple of times.”

Their coach agrees.

“[Robinson] and Syl have a great connection, and that’s something we need,” said Reeve. “Syl’s got to be able to get the ball in different places. It’s not always going to be a cross screen for her on the block and then get triple-teamed. It’s got to be in pick and roll. Syl is one of the best at screening and getting out, being such a great target, and I thought her and Danielle had some pretty good synergy.”

One of the factors that will be extremely helpful to Fowles is Robinson’s speed. Fowles is one of the best centers in the league in the open court and getting the ball up quickly and finding Fowles down low early in the shot clock will be critical for Minnesota.

“It’s fun just to have another person out there on the floor that can actually run with me. It makes my life a whole lot easier,” said Fowles. “Sometimes you have to tell her to calm down a little bit, but she gets the job done. I have no complaints.”

With the growing relationship between Robinson and Fowles building what will be an exciting facet of their offense this season, the Lynx have no complaints either.