The Lynx embarrassed themselves

Well, so much for THAT season. 

For the 2nd year in a row, the Lynx had the best regular season record in the WNBA. And for the 2nd year in a row, that meant nothing. But this time, it was so much worse.

The 2026 Minnesota Lynx will be a team that takes its place among the all-time Minnesota sports chokers. Because they pulled off an embarrassment that will be hard to live down, or forget.

The Lynx struggled late in the season, but still were able to grab that #1 seed. And in a super competitive league, where it was haves and have nots, they drew the 8th seeded New York Liberty, one of the preseason favorites and of course the team that fraudulently "won" the title from us in 2024. 

It's not like the Lynx were guaranteed to win it all, and they were going to have to beat 3 good teams to do it.

But show up! My god!

The series was the first time in my now nearly 2 decades as a fan that I felt embarrassed to be a Lynx fan. All the other teams in town have done things that made me want to hang my head in shame. But not the Lynx. They were the shining light in this eternally cursed sports town. This series killed that. 

New York dominated both games. It wasn't even a competition. Only a late run in the first half of game 1 even gave some indication that the Lynx wanted to be there. Each game was a 16-point blowout. It was horrifying. Upsets can happen. Teams can fall short or disappoint. But god damn it, compete! The Lynx barely did. Look, maybe the Liberty were a sleeping giant and will go win a title. It still won't make this better.

The Lynx came into this season considered maybe a fringe playoff team, after losing so many players to free agency and the expansion draft. And we didn't know what Olivia Miles was. Some of us even thought the Lynx needed to draft Lauren Betts. 😏

I thought they did still have enough to hang around, and then once Napheesa Collier returned from injury, they would become a real threat. Maybe not even for a championship, but at least they could maybe pull an upset of their own. 

So when instead they spend basically the whole season atop the standings, allowing Collier even more time to rehab and then work her way back, it felt like all the stars were aligning perfectly. They peaked late in August at 31-7, and had just racked up wins over the Fever, Valkyries, and the Aces twice. 

They lost their last 2 before the FIBA break, but it didn't feel like a big deal. But afterward, their play stayed bad. Two ugly losses were sandwiched around an unimpressive win against bottom feeder Connecticut. Their final regular season game offered a lot of hope, as they crushed the Fever, who needed the win, even though the Lynx themselves had nothing to play for but pride having already wrapped up that #1 seed. 

And then the stunning washout against the Liberty. There is nothing good to be taken from this. Even if the Liberty go on and win a title, this series leaves an ugly stain on this franchise. Being the 1st 1 seed to lose to an 8 seed, being the 1st 1 seed to not even win a single playoff game...these ignominies don't happen to the Lynx.

I guess the Lynx have now  become just another Minnesota sports franchise. Don't look to them anymore to make us feel better about all our other failures. 

Look, 2024 happened. We all know the Lynx were the true champions. But that run also sticks out as a serious outlier in the post-Maya Moore Lynx history. Since they won their last title in 2017 (which, jebus, is already going to be 10 years ago next year), the Lynx have been quite bad in the postseason aside from the 2024 run.

This was also the 3rd time in 6 years the Lynx were huge disappointments in the playoffs. In 2021, they had the 3rd best record in the league but were handled in the 1 game playoff opener by Chicago (a .500 team who, tbf, did then go on to win the title). Last year, they got out of the 1st round, but never looked good and were gone quickly in the 2nd. Now this.

Look, even during the dynasty years, the Lynx had a couple of postseason letdowns. They never should have lost the 2012 finals. And the core was still there in 2018 when they went one and done. If justice had prevailed in 2024, it might be easier to shrug off what has happened the last 2 years.

But this is a franchise that feels like it is in need of something more than tweaks.

This offseason will not be nearly as chaotic as the last one. There's no new CBA throwing everybody into free agency. There is no expansion draft (those will return for the next couple of years after this). The Lynx probably could run it back if they wanted to. But to what end? Have another empty regular season? I no longer care if they have a good regular season. I won't believe in them.

Napheesa Collier is a free agent. She signed a much discussed 1 year deal before the season. We all love Phee. She is the franchise's biggest star since Moore. But the reality of the situation is that she is 30, had to have surgery on both her ankles, and the Lynx were a better team this year without her. Those have to be considered when she might want that max contract. Now, maybe another year removed from those injuries and with a full offseason and camp and all that she might return to her elite form. And even a diminished Collier can be hard to replace. It's a tough call.

The Lynx have the rest of their starting 5 under contract for 2027. Obviously Miles, who frankly might have just become worn out late in the year after playing a full college season and then right to the pros, figures to be the main building block going forward (although she has to let go of that gliding layup). 

Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams both had solid seasons (Kayla set the record for threes in a game), but they too are older, and McBride, in particular, takes a beating.

Natasha Howard was, I think, far more productive than expected (I certainly didn't think she'd be an all-star) but was useless in the playoffs. And she, too, is older. How long can you ride all these vets? 

The only other players signed for sure in 2027 are Nia Brodie (I still wanna say Coffey), who was terrific as a starter before Phee's return and was then good off the bench, and Ola Kosu, who doesn't really play much but showed some potential when she did.

Beyond that, obviously, I'm interested to see what happens with my beloved Dorka Juhasz, but I can admit the truth here. Dorka wasn't good this year. Like, at all. She had her own injury that cost her time, but she kicks ass over in Europe and in FIBA and then comes back here and is just not the same player. She even took a bit of a subtle swipe at Cheryl Reeve. But on a team that needed quality bigs, Dorka could have provided that and didn't. I don't know if she is back at all.

The rest of the bench is a bunch of Euros and projects. I dunno. It seemed like every other week, the Lynx were cycling through somebody new as a developmental player or random free agent pickup. Aari McDonald was playing big bench minutes against the Liberty and had only been signed a few weeks ago. I would think one of these other players were showing something (Antonia Delaere or Eliska Joklova), and then they wouldn't be out there. Reeve just rode the starting 5 all the time, and when most of them are older, and a WNBA season has never been longer, that's a losing tactic in the long run.

That falls on Reeve. Look, she is HOF. Nobody has won more games. She won a ton more the last 2 years. But she also is the one picking all the players, so any roster problems fall on her shoulders. And again, aside from 2024, this team hasn't done much of anything from a postseason standpoint since she has been in charge of personnel.

I am not saying fire Cheryl Reeve. But regardless of the sport, the game always passes by all the great coaches eventually. Nobody gets a lifetime contract. And when she so frequently says certain things in the postgame and those things don't translate on the court, it's not outrageous to start asking the question of "Is this working?" And if it isn't, well, they're YOUR players.

We've seen the Lynx rebuild things on the fly. It was just 3 years ago that they signed Williams, Alanna Smith, and Natisha Hiedeman, and a sub-.500 team abruptly flipped and came within a Cathy con job of a championship. It's not like it's "oh no the Lynx are doomed," but changes (BIG ones) have to be made if this franchise is ever going to get one for the thumb.