The Seattle Storm had a mostly successful 2022 regular season, finishing 22-14 and earning the WNBA’s No. 4 overall playoff seed, but their postseason run didn’t go as hoped. Seattle lost in the semifinals in four games to the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces, and burning questions have been surrounding the future of the franchise ever since.
A major part of that, of course, is the end of the Sue Bird era. The face of the franchise for two decades, Bird’s recent retirement is something the Storm have known was coming, but that won’t make replacing her any easier.
Even more concerning for Seattle, though, is the free agency of 2018 WNBA MVP and two-time Finals MVP Breanna Stewart. An unrestricted free agent, Stewart may sign wherever she chooses, and you can bet several other teams will be moving heaven and earth in an effort to land her.
What makes this particularly noteworthy is that, for the most part, the Storm have been able to avoid this exact situation for a remarkably long time. Bird, Stewart and All-WNBA shooting guard Jewell Loyd have made up the team’s core since 2016, winning championships in 2018 and 2020 while making individual concessions here and there to give Seattle management a better opportunity at building consistently competitive rosters.
