When Napheesa Collier’s name was called at the 2019 WNBA draft, she stood up from her assigned table, gave a relaxed smile and hugged her loved ones before taking the stage and accepting her future with the Minnesota Lynx.

Some players of Collier’s skill level may have shown annoyance with dropping to sixth in the draft regardless of which team they fell to.

Not Collier.

Instead, Collier remained poised and ready to prove to the league she was more than just a solid player with a University of Connecticut background. She was the next Rookie of the Year.

April 10 marks the one-year anniversary since Collier was drafted by the Lynx, and although her year has been filled with endless accomplishments, it included initial challenges.

Collier averaged just 5.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and shot 37.5% from the field in the Lynx’s first two preseason games of the 2019 season.

However, thanks to Collier’s steadfast self-assuredness, her brief adjustment period didn’t last long.

“I really struggled the first two preseason games,” Collier said in a recent interview with Kyle Ratke. “And so, I kind of flipped that switch in my brain just saying, ‘I’m not going to revert back to that. I need to push through and I need to show what I’m capable of.’

“Once I pushed through that mentally, I think it was a way easier transition.”

That understatement doesn’t fully explain what we saw from Collier the night of her regular-season WNBA debut.

Collier played unafraid in the Lynx’s May 25 game against the Chicago Sky and showcased her arsenal of WNBA-ready physicality and intelligence. She recorded a game-high 27 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field, six rebounds, two steals, three blocks and dazzled from beyond the arc where she made three of her four attempted 3-pointers, topping sharpshooter Allie Quigley’s 2-for-5.

Spectators were casting their Rookie of the Year ballots after the Lynx’s 89-71 win, but Collier remained level-headed.

She returned to the locker room that night with a smile slightly bigger than the one she wore after the Lynx’s preseason games, shared that she’d never forget the atmosphere and intensity of the crowd but refused to get too high from one performance.

Her response to her unforgettable debut may have been a stronger indicator of what was to come for her rookie season than her 27-point game itself.

From there, Collier continued to build her Rookie of the Year resume until the award was undeniably hers. You know how the story goes.

She recorded her first of five double-doubles on July 14 in the Lynx’s game against Phoenix after contributing 14 points and 11 rebounds (along with three assists and two steals) in her team’s eight-point win.

Her multi-dimensional game would soon earn her an All-Star nod after Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson’s ankle injury kept her from starting in the premiere game. Collier was averaging 11.0 points (third among rookies), 5.9 rebounds (second), 1.0 blocks (second) and 1.0 steals (first) per game she was selected as the game’s replacement by WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

🌟 ALL-STAR FOR A REASON 🌟@PHEEsespieces's top plays of her rookie season so far 👇 pic.twitter.com/R40aB7P2Zi

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) July 22, 2019

Collier emerged as the Lynx’s leading scorer from the final week in July until the remainder of her first season after averaging 15.7 points per game on 54.1% shooting from the field — once again only building on her success, never letting it stunt her continual growth.

The Lynx fought through injuries throughout the 2019 season, and when their league-leading playoff streak was on the line, Collier provided her team with the reliability few others could supply.

When that single-elimination playoff game against the Seattle Storm arrived, Collier — who had a plethora of experience from championship runs at UConn to lean on — didn’t falter.

Collier capped her rookie season with a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double and scored 11 of her team’s 18 third-quarter points to give the Lynx some life when they needed it most.

Minnesota wasn’t able to produce the type of full-team effort needed to advance to the second round of playoffs, but Collier’s first postseason cemented the prediction her first WNBA game shaped: she was undoubtedly deserving of the 2019 Rookie of the Year Award.

Five days later, it was official. Five teams passed up the best player in the 2019 draft, but Collier didn’t express resentment for those teams as she took the stage and accepted her award. Instead, she complimented her draft class, said the ROY race was “a little too close” for her liking and shared her excitement for the future of the league.

The second-most underrated moment of Collier’s rookie season came when her humility shone through again as she walked off the stage, not expecting reporters to have questions for the league’s top rising star.

But my favorite memory of Collier’s 2019 season came after a rare performance in which she actually played like a rookie.

The Lynx dropped a 90-79 loss to the Storm on July 17 after Natasha Howard went off and scored a career-high 33 points against her former team. Collier, who was assigned to defend Howard for most of the game, was held to eight points on 3-for-11 shooting.

Collier returned to the Lynx locker room upset about the loss after the game, but at the following practice, Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said her rookie’s disappointment was overcome by a desire to improve her game.

“But I love her response,” Reeve said. “She’s in the gym the next day, we’re watching video with her, coaches are sitting down with her, and she moves on to the next thing. She has the perfect temperament for it; she’s got the right mindset. She’s not going to lose her confidence.”

Never high or too low, Collier is just reliable, which is why she was deemed the foundation of the Lynx’s future before her one-year draft night anniversary.

As Collier builds the Lynx’s future, she’ll be joined by the Lynx’s second-round 2019 draft pick, Jessica Shepard.

“@JShepard32 is a heck of a basketball player. She’s going to be a tremendous fit for our franchise.” –@LynxCoachReeve

Agreed, Coach. 👀 pic.twitter.com/akny47Llxq

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) April 12, 2019

Of course, Shepard’s one-year draft night anniversary isn’t as jubilant as Collier’s.

Shepard began her rookie season with the Lynx by impressing in the preseason as she averaged 6.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game and showed off her inept passing skills that had been underrated before the draft.

The Lynx’s second-round pick went on to serve as a solid second-unit player as she averaged 4.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists in the first six games of her WNBA career, but her rookie season came to an abrupt end when she tore her ACL in the Lynx’s June 8 game against the Los Angeles Sparks.

I can’t predict the future, and flat out saying that Shepard will return from her injury stronger than she was before would be unfair. But because she possesses the same resilience and level-headedness that Collier does, I believe the Lynx will continue to cherish their 2019 draft night decisions for many years to come.

“They’re both really, really good people,” Reeve said in May of 2019. “When we put the team together, we said, ‘Hey, if we’re not going to be in our championship era, we want really good people who are going to play really hard and let the chips fall where they might.’ That’s where you get a Phee and Jess.

“I would say Jess and Phee are perfect for what we’re going through right now — like, absolutely perfect.”