A Look Ahead at the 2025 Season

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WNBA Seattle Storm

A Look Ahead at the 2025 Season

May 17, 2025 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Seattle Storm News Release


SEATTLE - Nneka Ogwumike's shooting from anywhere. Skylar Diggins' passing from everywhere.

Ezi Magbegor's inside presence. Gabby Williams' outside flair.

All of those things - and a few more in 2024 - factored into the biggest single-season turnaround in Seattle Storm history.

Now, as the team prepares to open the 2025 schedule, 'turnaround' is no longer a topic of conversation.

Instead, it all about turning it up - a notch, two notches, -- several notches, actually ...

... and taking it to the next level.

"Hell yeah, I feel confident - did you see our roster?" guard Skylar Diggins asked with a big smile during the team's media day. "This is definitely the most talented roster I've been a part of in my 13 years, 11 on the floor. I'm really excited to get everyone here. Everyone is good, and the vibe is really good."

Diggins and the rest of the Storm will start to get a clearer idea of how all of this might play out beginning Saturday when they open the schedule at Phoenix against a Mercury team that for the first time in 21 years, will not have the now-retired Diana Taurasi on the roster. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. Pacific time.

That is the opener of a two-game road trip to begin the 44-game schedule. Next stop is Dallas and leading rookie Paige Bueckers on Monday at 5:00 p.m. PT. Then comes the home opener on Friday, May 23, against Phoenix at 7:00 pm PT inside Climate Pledge Arena.

Seattle is coming off a 25-15 campaign that returned the team to the WNBA playoffs after missing out in 2023 with an 11-29 record. But that postseason trip was a short one as the Las Vegas Aces swept the Storm in two games.

Never before had the record improved by that much year-over-year. Yet Diggins and her teammates left for the year feeling that more was possible.

That clearly is their biggest motivator heading into this summer: More is possible.

"What we like is that we have depth. In this league, outside of health, depth is what wins championships," Diggins said. "The great teams have it, and I think that's a luxury that we now have."

WHO'S THE GO-TO PLAYER? ANYONE - AND EVERYONE

This year's group has its own collection of All-Star and Olympic-caliber talent and experience whose first names speak volumes: Nneka. Skylar. Ezi. Gabby.

The aforementioned team identity doesn't revolve around any single one of them.

Every single one of that can-do quartet has proven that she can be the go-to player in any given situation at any given moment.

"We talk identity, we talk in basketball terms, we want to make sure we're locked in on both sides of the basketball - have a defensive presence, have some pace and flow to us offensively, play up-tempo," coach Noelle Quinn said during her media day session. "I've been getting a feel for my group - how they play together, how they lead one another, how they communicate."

Added Williams, "We're trying to beat teams because we are the better team collectively. I think that's our goal: not looking at whose team it is, but how can we be the best collective in the WNBA."

Last summer in her first year with the Storm after spending the first 12 of her career with the Los Angeles Sparks (Rookie of the Year in 2012, MVP in 2016), Ogwumike had team-leading averages of 16.7 points and 7.6 rebounds. Those points came from 51.1 percent accuracy from the field, 40.5 percent behind the arc, and 87.6 percent at the free throw line, making her the only player in the league to rank among the top 10 in all three. She also produced eight double-doubles, plus two more in the playoffs.

"For me, it's building off of last year," Ogwumike said. "I'm glad I'm able to come back and continue to make this my new home (after spending her first 11 seasons with Los Angeles). We have players here that I want to play with - Sky, Gabby, Ezi. We have a lot of returns, and we have a lot of new faces. For me, it's a reunion of sorts because a lot of players that we acquired in free agency, I've already played with.

"It's good to be reunited with old teammates in a new organization that has this championship legacy and quality about it. We want to continue to uphold that."

Diggins also made her Seattle debut in 2024 after taking the previous season off for the birth of her second child. She was right back at the top of her game - and people definitely noticed, as she was named the Comeback Player of the Year by the Associated Press.

Diggins averaged 15.1 points, 6.4 assists (No. 4 in the league), 2.6 rebounds, and 1.7 steals (tied for No. 5). If someone in a Storm uniform was open, Diggins found them, dishing a single-season team record 257 assists, one of which on Sept. 17 against Las Vegas was the 1,500th of her career. She even had a points-assists double-double against Atlanta on July 14 with 10 tallies and 12 helpers.

Magbegor is now regarded as one of the leading defensive players in the league. She is a three-time All-Defensive team member, and was a first-team selection in 2024, averaging 2.2 blocks per game along with 11.7 points and 8.0 rebounds. She had a team-record 82 blocks, with two or more in the first 13 games, the second-longest streak in WNBA history to start a season. She recorded eight doubles.

Williams saw action in 12 games, joining the Storm as a free agent after a silver-medal performance in the Paris Olympics. She scored in double digits in seven of the last eight games and averaged 10.3 points (a career-best), 4.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.7 steals. Overall, she hit 48.1 percent from the field (32.3 downtown), and over the last eight games of the regular season was at 56.3 overall and 40.9 behind the arc.

"I think being here from the get-go will just make everything easier for everyone. And most importantly, it will allow me to be more of a leader because I won't be the new one," Williams said. "It will allow me to be more involved and have more responsibility."

WELCOME BACK, ALYSHA

Ask Storm fans to pick their favorite player on this year's squad, and chances are it just might be one of those returners.

That's because veteran guard Alysha Clark is back in town after a four-year absence. She helped Seattle win its third (2018) and fourth (2020) championships, then signed with Washington as a free agent prior to the 2021 season.

The 5-foot-11 spark plug forward, who can make a significant impact whether starting or coming off the bench, missed the 2021 season with an injury, returned and started 29 games with the Mystics in 2022, then spent the past two seasons with Las Vegas. She was named the 2023 Sixth Player of the Year and helped the Aces win the title.

Clark has career averages of 6.9 points and 3.5 rebounds. Last season, she averaged 6.0 points and 3.6 rebounds in 40 games (18 starts) with Vegas.

"This is where everything started for me, so this feels like home," said Clark. "Being a part of different championship organizations, you understand how important culture is and the accountability factor, and I'm just making sure I'm bringing that day in and day out, and encouraging everyone and bringing my leadership, on the defensive side of the floor, as well, and kind of lending that piece to it."

BIENVENUE TO SEATTLE, DOMINIQUE

The Storm's offseason roster shuffle ultimately netted the No. 2 overall selection in the WNBA draft, and they used that pick on 6-foot-6 center Dominique Malonga.

A native of Cameroon, the 19-year-old Malonga has been playing professionally since 2021 when she joined France's ASVEL Feminin club. She played there for two seasons, was loaned to another French team (Tarbes Gespe Bigorre), then went back to ASVEL Feminin this past season. It turned out to be the best year of Malonga's career, as she averaged a double-double of 15.4 points and 10.3 rebounds.

She boosted those numbers even higher during this year's EuroCup, scoring at an 18.5 clip and pulling down an average of 11 rebounds per game. She made the All-EuroCup first team and was named the European Player of the Year for the tournament.

Malonga - who last October became the first French woman do dunk in an official game - had a Storm connection even before she got here. She and Gabby Williams were on the French team that took the silver medal in last summer's Paris Olympics.

ROUNDING OUT THE ROSTER

A group of veterans fill in the remaining spots on the roster. 5-foot-9 guard Lexie Brown, 5-7 guard Erica Wheeler, 5-9 guard Zia Cooke, and 6-7 center Li Yueru.

Brown, with seven years of experience, was part of Chicago's 2021 championship team. Last year in 16 games with Los Angeles, she averaged 8.1 points and 3.3 assists. Cooke spent both of her first two seasons in the league with the Sparks, and in 29 games of limited playing time last summer, she averaged 3.6 points.

Also moving north from L.A. is Yueru. She played in 38 of last season's 40 games, averaging 5.1 points and 3.7 rebounds. Wheeler played 38 games with Indiana in 2024, averaging 3.6 points.

PUT IT ON THE CALENDAR

After a two-game trip to Phoenix (May 17) and Dallas (May 19) to start the season, the Storm play five of their next six in Climate Pledge Arena, starting with the home opener on Friday, May 23, against Phoenix. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. The Las Vegas Aces are in town on Sunday, May 25, at 3:00 p.m. In fact, that will be first of two consecutive Sunday home contests against Vegas, which is back in town on June 1, also at 3:00 p.m.

That early-season homestand wraps up on Tuesday, June 3, when Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings are here for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off.

Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever come to Climate Pledge Arena twice: Tuesday, June 24, at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 3 at noon.

The WNBA's newest member, the Golden State Valkyries, come to Seattle for the first time on Wednesday, July 16 with a noon tip-off in the annual Kids' Day game.

The Storm's longest road trip is a late-season five-gamer from Aug. 19-28, with stops at Chicago, Dallas, Washington, Indiana, and Minnesota. That is followed by a four-game homestand from Aug. 30-Sept. 9 to close the regular season with visits from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Golden State.

Seattle will be part of the WNBA's first regular-season international game. On Friday, Aug. 15, the Storm and Atlanta Dream will meet at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, B.C. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. It will be one of Seattle's 22 road games, as Atlanta is the designated home team.

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