Seattle Storm prepare to recruit Nneka Ogwumike and Gabby Williams — again

Having been with the franchise since she was drafted No. 1 overall in 2015, guard Jewell Loyd remains under contract through 2025 after signing an extension near the end of the 2023 season. Australian center and Olympic bronze medalist Ezi Magbegor signed a one-year extension in June of this year and veteran point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith signed a two-year contract when joining Seattle in free agency.

All three contracts are protected and significant, with Magbegor, Diggins-Smith and Loyd set to make $186,000, $214,466 and $249,032 respectively. Guard Nika Mühl and forward Jordan Horston remain on unprotected rookie scale contracts and could very likely return in 2025. 

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Everyone else is an unrestricted free agent. This notably includes former MVP — and one of Seattle’s marquee offseason signings — Nneka Ogwumike and All-Defensive team caliber Olympic silver medalist Gabby Williams.

“They love it here and they’ve expressed that but at the end of the day they are free agents, and they can have the pick, any pick, honestly of a team,” Storm head coach Noelle Quinn told media during exit interviews. “So that’s why it was so important that their experience here was A1. I think they both expressed that they love being in Seattle, they love what Seattle is about and so hopefully that was enough.”

During exit interviews, neither made any commitment to returning but reflected positively on their experience.

“I think that, obviously, this last free agency was the most eventful one that I’ve had, and I’m glad that I was able to be a part of the Seattle family this year,” Ogwumike told media. “So, I’m going to approach [free agency] as openly as I can, knowing exactly where I had great success and knowing what I want to achieve individually and also collectively, with groups of people that I really do respect.”

“I really just need some time I think to sit on it and think about it,” Williams said of a potential return to Seattle. “We will obviously be having a lot of conversations. I am happy here and I’m happy that I came back and even if it wasn’t the result that we wanted I think it’s very obvious that it was the right decision for me to come back here … I just need time to soak everything in.”

After signing with Turkish team Fenerbahçe S.K. this will be the first season that Williams is not affected by prioritization and can play the full WNBA season because the Turkish league finishes ahead of the W’s tipoff. 

Williams displayed perhaps her best offensive performances in the WNBA late in the 2024 season after joining the Storm post-Olympics, and Seattle will hope she returns to build on that momentum. After an up-and-down start to her career in the WNBA, Williams feels Seattle is part of what has brought the best out of her.

The ‘French army knife‘ thinks that “ultimately, being here and being in this role in Seattle is who I’ve kind of always wanted to be. And okay, I’m 28 now, it’s taken me like six, seven years to finally have a franchise who has confidence in me in the position that I want to play but I’m happy to have had those other experiences because it’s allowed me to grow as a player.”

Williams later expanded, “it was really, really fun to play for Noelle and for our staff this season, and just seeing the confidence that they have in me has really allowed me to grow in this league and as a player.”

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Ogwumike also spoke very positively about about the coaching staff led by Quinn.

“Ultimately, really being in a new place but then also feeling very represented with the coaching staff, that’s something that I have not ever experienced, and they made me a better professional and a better player for it,” Ogwumike said. “Especially being coached by a Black woman who played in this league who is being positioned by mostly women owners.

“I think that that’s something that spoke to my ethos and I think it also speaks to the progress that I hope to see in myself and also as part of an organization.”

While Ogwumike rejected the idea of making demands to the organization she does think that there is always feedback to be shared and ways to reflect on successes and struggles. 

“I think that was really drew me here was the want to uphold integrity and to sustain success in a way that puts us in front,” Ogwumike said. “I’m someone who has always been a solution-oriented person … and I think that requires diversity of thought. I think that requires effective, constructive criticism. I think that requires levels of individual and collective accountability and I’m not afraid to talk about those things.”

Players like Diggins-Smith plan to contribute during free agency, with the point guard telling media she hopes to use her connections from time in the league to attract players and is already working on re-recruiting Ogwumike. The fourth-best assister in the WNBA in 2024 — with 6.4 helpers per game — plans to personally use the practice facility to improve in the offseason but also to sell players on Seattle, having so many times been without those resources throughout her over-a-decade long pro career.

Loyd is taking a slightly different approach to her conversations with players from Diggins-Smith, but it is the same way she approached free agency last year.

“I told Nneka this too when she was going through [free agency] … I’m gonna give you the truth, be honest with you … I’m not a politician. I’m not paid to recruit you,” Loyd told media. “You have a vision for the team … we aligned on so many things, and we saw a vision, and we believed in the players that were here and it’s the same thing.

“My job is to make sure everyone has all the facts, and you can do what you want with that.”

Averaging 16.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.9 steals per game, in 2024 Ogwumike nearly shot a remarkable 50/40/90 season. Shooting 51.1% from the field and 40.5% from three, it’s only an 87.6% free throw conversion rate that held her off the impressive feat.

“It’s not an oh, yeah, see you later. No, it’s like okay, how can we keep this team together, right? How can we evolve and elevate each other and have the same goals, right? … I don’t think it’s fully about basketball either, it’s like what do you want to do with your life and all these things.” Loyd said. “And if it matches up, let’s go. So my job is to get everybody — not just here but anyone, all our teammates — all the facts, let them marinate with that and they can decide.”

One of Seattle’s biggest issues in 2024 was a lack of chemistry caused, at least in part, by the newness of the team. If the Storm want to fix that going forward, it needs to put together a group that can grow together for more than just one season. Seattle’s bench players Mercedes Russell, Sami Whitcomb, Victoria Vivians and Joyner Holmes can all move on during free agency. This could potentially benefit the Storm if it can attract even better players, but it could also interfere with the development of strong chemistry that can build with more time together as a unit.

All of this potential change is clouded by another layer of uncertainty when considering the lack of clear rules for the upcoming expansion draft to accommodate the WNBA’s newest franchise, the Golden State Valkyries.

“The excitement is that [the] league is growing — I love that. New teams, more teams, more opportunities for players to come and play in the States … the concerning part is not knowing a lot of details about it right now,” Quinn said.

“I know we’ll probably get a little bit more details coming up soon — how to maneuver, how you protect, how you continue to build and grow off of a season like this, knowing that the team is not going to [look] the same,” Quinn continued. “Obviously there’s strategy around protection and all of those things that come with expansion and that could be concerning, just not knowing who is going to be where, and so we’ll see.”

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Uncertainty around the expansion draft is an issue far from unique to the Storm and will affect the whole league. For now, WNBA fans will have to wait to learn how their teams will be affected by the addition of Golden State in 2025 as the league’s 13^th franchise.

Now that their season is over, albeit much sooner than they had hoped, the Storm front office will redirect all focus to managing expansion and free agency.