Minnesota Lynx add toughness, versatility with veteran Myisha Hines-Allen

Hines-Allen fits what head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve wants to do on multiple levels. First and foremost, Hines-Allen instantly adds toughness and rebounding acumen to a team that needs both. The Lynx do have plenty of talent inside, with All-World power forward Napheesa Collier, and centers Alanna Smith and Dorka Juhász, but they can rarely claim to have a size advantage on most nights and are prone to getting pushed around by stronger, more physical teams. The Lynx allow the second-most offensive rebounds per game in the league at 9.2, and their 34.6 rebounds per game ranks seventh in the league.

Adding Hines-Allen into the mix should immediately bolster Minnesota’s physicality as well as their performance on the glass. Standing at 6’1, she won’t suddenly turn the Lynx into one of the taller teams in the league, but she has plenty of experience defending the league’s tallest and most talented post players, especially with Shakira Austin missing significant time for the Mystics this season and in seasons past when Elena Delle Donne was in and out of the lineup.

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Through seven seasons in Washington, Hines-Allen was called on for a wide range of skills for the Mystics, both as a starter and as a key player off the bench. She’s one of just two players in franchise history with more than 1,400 points, 900 rebounds and 300 assists in a Mystics uniform (Monique Currie is the other). The Next’s Mystics beat reporter and managing editor Jenn Hatfield wrote a feature during the 2022 season on just how important Hines-Allen’s versatility was in a “season of adjustments” for the Mystics. 

“She’s really had to adapt probably more than any other player on our team,” Mystics then-head coach and current general manager Mike Thibault said in the piece. “… I think she’s had a tough adjustment. I think as we’ve gone through the last three or four weeks, it’s gotten a little smoother for her. There’s more of a rhythm to what she’s doing. And she knows that we need her to be good every night.”

Hines-Allen helped the Mystics navigate the difficult waters of their 2022 season to get back to the playoffs. After the Seattle Storm eliminated Washington in the first round, Hines-Allen had to put off plans to join the 28-player USA training camp roster in September ahead of the Women’s World Cup. Instead, she had to get knee surgery to partially repair the patellar tendon in her left knee, which she originally injured in June of 2021 and that bothered her throughout the 2022 season. 

The timing of the injury disrupted her promising ascension. After earning Second-Team All-WNBA honors in 2020, Hines-Allen was tearing through 2021 and establishing herself as a nightly double-double threat when she strained her patellar tendon against the Atlanta Dream in the eighth game of the season. Hines-Allen missed about two months of time, mostly during 2021’s Olympic break, and returned to the court on Aug. 15, playing through lingering knee pain for the next 12 months. 

Hines-Allen’s physical toughness may have been on full display, battling through the pain night after night, but her 2023 season also showcased her mental toughness. The original prognosis of a three- to four-month recovery time proved to be well short of how long it actually took for Hines-Allen to get medically cleared to play. Her season debut was delayed until June and she didn’t eclipse the 20-minute mark in a game until late July.

Her best game of the 2023 season came when the lights were brightest. The Louisville alumnus opened the playoffs with a 21-point performance against the eventual Finals runners-up, the New York Liberty. Hines-Allen hit 9 of 13 shots from the field and pulled down eight boards. Our Jenn Hatfield wrote another great feature on Hines-Allen’s road from surgery to finding her “sweet spot in the playoffs.”

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This season has been another roller coaster for Hines-Allen, as it has been for the whole Mystics organization. Still, she’s been a stabilizing force whether she’s been a starter or come off the bench. As she did last season, Hines-Allen may be peaking at the right time again in 2024. Her first two double-doubles of the season have come in her last six games, the first an 11-point, 10-rebound performance against the Lynx at the Target Center on July 6.

“For everything she’s given us here, it’s a huge success story when you have a second-round pick contribute to a championship,” Mystics head coach Eric Thibault told the media before Washington’s home game against Seattle on Tuesday night. “And then have the type of season she did in the bubble that year. Not just individually, but I’ve got a real soft spot for everybody that went through that bubble experience with us together. …

“I’m glad she’s going to a good situation with a team that’s contending. We wish her well, obviously, and nothing but the best down the road. It’s tough for players and staff in terms of people [having] long relationships with her. It’s hard to separate the personal and the business sometimes.” 

Also a gifted passer, Hines-Allen is currently averaging a career-high 2.7 assists per game, which will fit in well with her new team that prides itself on leading the league in that statistic. She can also help with the Lynx’s other identity, three-point shooting, where she’s currently shooting at a 35.9% clip.

“She’s getting to go play for a playoff team right now and have a pretty good role,” Mike Thibault told the media prior to Tuesday night’s game. “I think she’s done a great job for us. She’s been a big part of what we’ve done in the seven years that she’s been in the league. She’s been part of a championship. She was second-team all-league in the bubble, and then she had some unfortunate injuries.”

Minnesota heads to Las Vegas for its first post-trade deadline game against the Aces on Wednesday night. The game tips off at 9:30 p.m. ET and will be nationally televised on ESPN.