Todd Barin

Web Editorial Associate

@Todd_Barin

The Lynx continued their offseason preparation for the 2016 WNBA season on Wednesday morning and seem to be steadily progressing in their first days of camp.

Minnesota has a lot of young players with a great deal of potential in camp this season, but with youth comes inexperience.

“I think there was about a minimum of five times today that I told myself, that self-talk like, ‘patience, patience,’” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said after the third day of training camp. “It’s the name of the game, it’s that balance of pushing, challenging, but having patience so they can maintain a level of confidence.”

Fortunately for the defending WNBA Champions, they have some veterans on the team who can lead by example.

“Jia’s (Perkins) reputation coming out of college and even as a pro is full of energy on the defensive end, Jia is really good at jumping passing lanes, putting in pressure situations, and then Jia has a really nice mid-range game,” Reeve said of Minnesota’s new guard. “Since then, Jia has matured into a very mature, polished and defensively is tremendous, a tremendous team defensive player, so not only can she do what she did as a young player, but she’s learned the concepts of how to assist everybody. Then offensively she has evolved with her 3-ball, she’s just a really good player.”

Perkins, along with Lindsay Whalen, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, will be relied on heavily this camp to teach the less experienced players at their respective positions.

“It’s been great, just trying to get out there and learn from these vets has been awesome,” Lynx 22nd overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft Bashaara Graves said. “They’re great players and to be here and a part of this team has been awesome.”

Graves was successful at the University of Tennessee because she used her 6’2 frame so efficiently.

“My rebounding ability is basically is what has gotten me here, so I’m going to use that to the best of my ability,” Graves said. “Also, my free-throws and getting to the line, I did that a lot in my college career and I want to continue to try and do that here.”

Although the 22-year-old forward was successful in college, she is quickly finding out that the WNBA game is a whole new world.

“It’s definitely a big difference, you have to get used to the style of play, the defensive style is a lot different from college, like the defensive 3-seconds, I’ve never had to deal with that,” Graves said. “So it’s difficult to adjust to that especially when you are used to staying there (in the paint) for a while on help-side defense.”