What we learned (and didn’t) at the Seattle Storm’s Winter Warmup
Sunday late morning, I was one of a few hundred Seattle Storm season ticket holders who packed into the Don James Center at Husky Stadium for their annual Winter Warmup event. It was, I believe, the first chance fans got to hear from new head coach Dan Hughes before the upcoming season.
Hughes, along with team president/general manager Alisha Valavanis and owner Lisa Brummel answered questions from play-by-play man Dick Fain and then from fans.
Here are the highlights from my notes:
- Free agency in the WNBA begins on February 1. Valavanis and Hughes said that they’re looking at free agency (list) and the upcoming draft (the Storm have the #5 overall pick) to rebuild the team around the core of Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, and Jewell Loyd. The crowd applauded wildly when they said rebounding help is a priority.
- Hughes said that the culture around the Seattle Storm is one of the best in the WNBA and when the opportunity came up to be a part of it, he couldn’t pass it up.
- Ryan Webb and Gary Kloppenburg are being retained by Hughes and the Storm. Webb will be director of player development and Kloppenburg will oversee the defense. Former WNBA player Crystal Robinson is joining the team as an assistant coach.
- Hughes said that meeting with each each player once he accepted the job was important to him. He said he challenged second-year guard Sami Whitcomb to become a more all-around player, instead of a three-point specialist. Someone in the crowd yelled that she just won Defensive Player of the Year in Australia, which isn’t completely true. She finished second.
- Fain prefaced his question about the state of the WNBA to Brummel by saying that “how healthy is the WNBA?” is the question he probably gets asked most often. Brummel said she thought the WNBA is a healthy league because they have a good relationship with media partners like ESPN, and because teams that are for sale (like the New York Liberty) are being sold to active owners and not contracting and folding.
- It’s not a secret that the Storm will need to find a place to play for the next two seasons when Key Arena is set for a renovation. Brummel said that she expects it to be a money-losing venture but they’re committed to bending their budget and spending whatever it takes to weather the two seasons. She said the three most-likely temporary homes for the Storm are America Airlines Arena on the University of Washington campus, ShoWare Center in Kent, and Xfinity, err…Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett. UW was the most popular with attendees (including myself, for whom it is the only viable option mentioned), but Brummel cautioned that it’s a college arena with no air conditioning. We’ll see where the team calls home in the interim.
- One fan asked about what giveaways we can expect next year, and Valavanis said that there’s going to be a Sue Bird bobblehead given out. It was announced a little while ago on Twitter, but I can’t wait to put it on one of my shelves.
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