Alexander Shun

Web Editor Associate | @alexpshun 

Ask any coach of any professional sports team and they will tell you that winning games in their respective sport is never an easy task. Winning gets harder when you don’t have some of your team’s best players, and gets even harder still if players are constantly shuffling in and out of the lineup. With that said, the Minnesota Lynx should not have won the top seed in the Western Conference.

The Lynx have dealt with all of the above problems throughout the entirety of their 2015 season. It started with injuries.

Guard Monica Wright was injured throughout Training Camp, then it was center Asjha Jones that got bit by the injury bug. Perhaps the biggest loss was losing All-Star guard Seimone Augustus midway through the season due to a right knee injury. Augustus made it back later in the season only to suffer a sprained left foot on August 19 that would cause her to miss the remainder of the regular season. Finally, All-Star guard Lindsay Whalen would suffer the wrath of the injury bug, straining her right Achilles on August 30; the strain kept her sidelined for the rest of the regular season. That is a lot in itself to overcome, but then the pieces started moving.

Guard Anna Cruz joined the team after missing the first 10 games of the season because she was playing for her national team and it took some time to get Cruz acclimated. Guard Jennifer O’Neill was released shortly after the Lynx traded Wright to the Seattle Storm in exchange for former Lynx guard Renee Montgomery; a blockbuster trade followed that. Just days after the All-Star break, the Lynx acquired center Sylvia Fowles from the Chicago Sky in a three-team trade that sent their 2016 first-round pick, forward Reshanda Gray and center Damiris Dantas to the Atlanta Dream. Surely the Lynx were done making moves – not quite yet. The Lynx would bring back forward Shae Kelley (she was waived after Training Camp) and sign guard Kalana Greene before the roster moves were complete, giving the roster an almost full overhaul from their opening day lineup.

So many injuries and so many transactions, the Lynx probably shouldn’t have even made the playoffs, much less capture the top seed in the Western Conference. But the crazy thing is, they did, and they did so by having great depth and great leadership both on and off the court.

“Nobody gave us anything,” said Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve, speaking about her team’s ability to overcome the numerous regular season obstacles. “They should be really proud that through all of that, players stepped up.”

Reeve is right, many players did step up; however, it took some time for everyone to gain chemistry and get used to playing with one another, and that was best evidenced by a 6-6 record in the month of August.

“You hope that when you go through things like that that and you end up out of it, when you come through on the other side, that you’re even stronger,” said Reeve, speaking about the tough month of August and the little playing time that Minnesota’s projected starters have gotten together.

Many teams wouldn’t have come through stronger but rather would have watched their season and their playoff hopes crumble, but not this Minnesota Lynx team.

“Superstars are going to be superstars, but I think depth is always the key,” said Reeve. “We don’t get home-court advantage without Cruz and Renee filling in so well for Lindsay and Seimone, that just doesn’t happen.”

As Reeve says, guards Anna Cruz and Renee Montgomery have been instrumental in helping to steer this Lynx team through an injury-riddled and up-and-down season, while also personally attempting to get acclimated to a new system and gain chemistry with their new teammates.

“[Cruz and Montgomery] made big plays for us all season long and we wouldn’t be were we’re at right now without them,” said Lynx forward Maya Moore. “It has been great having them here helping us the way they have and we’re going to look for them to make even more plays for us down the stretch.”

While Cruz and Montgomery have been helping to lead the Lynx on the court, Whalen and Augustus have been maintaining strong leadership at practice, as well as off the court. The veteran guards have been guiding (some might even dare say coaching, at times) Cruz and Montgomery vocally through practices, helping them better understand the plays and where they need to be and when, while also displaying the always important non-vocal leadership of a strict work-ethic and competitive fire necessary for true greatness in this league.

The same way that Whalen and Augustus helped Cruz and Montgomery, Lynx forward and team captain Rebekkah Brunson helped center Sylvia Fowles.

Fowles came to the Lynx as a three-time All-Star and two-time Defensive Player of the Year, so there wasn’t much that needed to be improved, but rather learned; Brunson helped her with that, steering Fowles through certain plays or sets and helping to get her up to speed as quickly as possible; it worked.

At one stretch in the season, Fowles notched five consecutive double-doubles and helped to lead Minnesota as the season came to a close.

“Syl’ has been great,” said Reeve. “She’s really fitting in now and, more than anything, she’s a people-pleaser. She’s always trying to make everyone happy and she just wants to do things right and get things right and we’ve been helping her do that and it has shown on the court.”

Finally, we can’t forget about the incredible job that Maya Moore has done for this Lynx team all season long. While being one of the only constants on a team full of injuries and constant lineup shuffles, Moore has maintained the astounding production levels that brought her league-MVP honors last season, averaging 20.6 points on 42 percent shooting while adding 6.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

“There’s a reason she’s one of the best players in the game and I think if you look at this season and what she’s been able to do, with everything moving around her, you’ll be very impressed,” said Reeve.

This season has been great at times and tough at others, but one thing is certain, there are few teams in the league that could face all the obstacles that the Lynx did this regular season and still come out as one of the best in the league, and that is a point that Reeve made sure her players understood.

“We do talk about that,” said Reeve, referring to her team finishing just one-game shy of the best record in the league. “I think the thing this year has been having perspective of just that, that through all of that, there we were.”

The Lynx, though surely disappointed they didn’t snatch the best record in the league, are pleased with having achieved their goal of best in the West and, having made the playoffs, are now focused on staying there as long as possible.

“For us to be in this situation and have people step up and go through the changes and all that, to this point, there’s a lot to be proud of, but there’s more now for us for to aspire to.”