The Lynx have brought one of their most challenging opponents onto their side.

On Monday the Lynx traded Alexis Jones for Odyssey Sims. Sims has a long history with the Minnesota Lynx. For the last two seasons she’s been going to battle against them as the fearless point guard and dogged defender leading the Los Angeles Sparks. Now, she is switching sides.

Coach Cheryl Reeve often talks about wanting the Lynx to not be fun to play against. As many on the Lynx roster will tell you, Sims is not fun to play against. She’s one of the best defenders in the league and she brings a passion to the game that energizes her teammates and forces her opposition to go full speed all the time.

Sims brings the Lynx a change of pace at point guard. She doesn’t bring the same kind of burst on the offensive end as Danielle Robinson does, but Sims is a fundamentally different kind of player, one that will help fill the hard-nosed void left by Lindsay Whalen. Both Robinson and Sims are good defenders but where Robinson is quick, Sims is strong. Robinson is more inclined to use her quick feet and hands to force steals where Sims is happy to bully them with her physicality. Having both guards on the roster will allow Reeve to pick and choose her matchups and create looks for opposing guards that will be a nightmare to deal with.

Sims will also help the Lynx on offense, where Reeve will try to help her get back to being the player that averaged double-digits her first three years in the league with the Tulsa Shock and Dallas Wings. The five-year veteran took a step back from a scoring perspective in 2017 and 2018 as the Sparks turned to other players to drive their offense, but Sims is capable of being a scorer. The Lynx will certainly ask her to do that. Reeve talked before the draft about trying to build a team made up of many different people who can score around Sylvia Fowles instead of just a few players who get most of the shots and Sims should fit into that system nicely.

Jones was never able to crack the Lynx’s rotation in a meaningful way and though she’s certainly had her share of good moments and is still very young, her skillset isn’t quite as needed on the team with the arrival of Lexie Brown and Cierra Dillard. Moving Jones made sense and in the Sparks the Lynx found a team that was both looking for shooting and had a player available who the Lynx were interested in acquiring.

Seeing Sims in a Minnesota uniform will be strange at first, but it won’t take the Lynx faithful long to get used to it. The same things that made Sims one of the players Lynx fans were always ready to cheer against will lead to her being beloved in Minnesota. Lynx fans love effort, they love passion and they love intensity. Sims brings those things every night.